Braun
Braun (Carl Braun Camerawerk) of Nuremberg, Germany, was originally founded in 1906 as an optical and industrial production house. In 1948, the company began producing box film cameras, in rollfilm and 35mm format. Its best known model was the Paxette series of 35mm rangefinder cameras. Most of the company's cameras were consumer-level models, though the company did briefly produce several more advanced 35mm rangefinder designs as well as an interesting 35mm SLR with leaf shutter and interchangeable lenses, the AMC/Paxette Reflex.
In 1954, the company began producing slide projectors, a mainstay of its business for the next forty years.
Braun ceased making cameras in the 1960s, in part because of high labor costs and a resultant inability to compete in the consumer level camera market. The company began to focus on its established line of slide and optical projectors, selling more than four million units by 1997. In 2000 the company became insolvent.
