West-Germany: Braun: 1958-1962:

A short epoch for a German:

Braun as a company was established around 1910 in Germany. (Some sources say 1906, other say 1915.) They started production of box cameras in 1948 and had some success with their Paxette rangefinder from 1954. Their only PP SLR, the Paxette Reflex, was introduced in 1958. Like many other producers in this period they experienced that the competition was too tough, and production ended in 1962. There are other cameras around carrying the Braun name, but they were produced by others. They are not on the Cosina list, so Chinon may have made them for some traders.
The Braun Kamerawerke produced slide projectors from 1955, and sold over 4 million till 1997. Since then the company has been reorganized and is now selling digital scanners and video cameras.

West-German company Braun came up with this Paxette Reflex in 1958. As most german brands they preferred a leaf shutter inside the lens. Most others delivered cameras with shutters in the camera, thus making it easier and less expensive to produce a variety of lenses. The number of leaf shutter lenses for these cameras was very limited, and the system died with the german brands. The Paxette Reflex was produced till 1962. Size: 129x95x43 mm (body). Weight: 675 gr. with lens. Sn. 18731.
The Steinheil Cassarit 50/2,8 lens. This was a fixed lens, coming with the less expensive editions of the camera. Sn. 1999390.
Light was measured through a selenium meter at the front, giving values in the black window to the right. By turning the dial until two arrows were matching, the correct shutter/aperture values were obtained. Note the winder arm on the back of the camera, not on the top as was usual. When winding, the very thin arm was led through a split between the metal top and the lower leatherette part.

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02.11 | 16:32

Thank you! I should have said around 500000. Also remember that sometimes a top plate was broken and had to replace it with a spare one numbered differently.

01.11 | 20:18

I think your SN indications for the S1 may be a little off. I just picked up a chrome one with SN 527384.

09.08 | 09:58

Hi,
I do not know that model code. Please check for model name.
Regards

08.08 | 20:58

Hi I have a Konica Minolta code 3739740 please advise if there are film strips available for this camera? I'd appreciate the help. Thank you