Nikon, Braun, cosina, all the same to me...

[belgiumreporter]

What's in a name, to wich we call a camera by any other name would be as sweet? When searching after my lost pentaxes i came across this odd pair. They look very much a like and as far as i am concerned they are, as they are both cosina ct1 's in disguise. Although after some research on the web most people say the Braun Sr 2000 is Chinese made and not Japanese (like the cosina /nikon). So i was wondering did the Chinese make a copy of a copy or were they at some time licensed to make cosina clones badged with wathever name they could come up with? BTW this is the Braun with PK mount, they were also made with MD mount (and are these somehow related to those horrible centon minolta clones?). The nikon is a FE 10, i haven't go't an FM 10 nor am i willing to pay the silly asking prices for a piece of plastic nikon travesty.

[Stephen]

The Braun Reflex is a Chinese, as is Vivitar, Revue, and many others, the Pentax K mount and the shutter are the identifying items. My Vivitar works fine, the shutter is sound, the lens a Ricoh, Japanese made, the Ricoh body was the standard Chinese production, using the Cosina made chassis.
Basically if it is small, K Mount, from Nikon to Olympus et al., they are Chinese made, usually the Seagull works, using Cosina parts, licensed.
The various names were badge engineering to suit the distributors, like Porst, or importers like Vivitar.

Stephen.