Clones, rebadges and rebrands

To be able to appeal to broader, different or even more specific segments of markets, photographic equipment manufacturers may clone, rebadge or rebrand equipment.

Cloned equipment is produced by a secondary maker under license from the original manufacturer. Cloned equipment may be duplicates of the originals, or may be developed further than the originals. An example of cloning is the Shanghai Seagull DF SLR series, based on Minolta's SR to X-series cameras and made under license from Minolta.

Rebadged equipment is produced by the original manufacturer, but the maker has changed the product or model name to be sold by another distributor. A prime example of rebadging is the Cosina rangefinder sold also as the Minolta Hi-matic 7sII, Konica Auto S3, Vivitar 35ES, Revue 400Se and so on.

Rebranded equipment is produced by the original manufacturer with different product or model names to be sold by the manufacturer in different markets. An instance is Nikon's Nikomat SLRs for the Japanese Domestic Market, rebranded as Nikkormats elsewhere. Minolta's Sr-T SLR series fully illustrated rebranding, where model names were rebranded differently for the Asian market, American Market and European Market.