Store Brand Compendium

[xaprb]

Does anyone know about Kalt? I can’t find anything on the Internet. I occasionally see a Kalt lens or accessory such as hoods, filters, etc. The lenses I’ve seen are similar-looking to a lot of others, rather generic-looking and ordinary focal lengths such as 135mm f2.8’s. If you search the eBay lens category for Kalt there’s a number of examples (at time of posting) with photos of the boxes.

[D1N0]

[visualopsins]

Photo of "AICOSET-P 1:2.8 f=28mm No. xxxxx WIDEANGLE" by ebay seller allthenicestuff
Click here to see on Ebay

[xaprb]

I was interested in Admiral, and I see they have been discussed elsewhere on MFL:
http://forum.mflenses.com/admiral-lenses---an-inquiry-t74835.html

The outcome: not a store brand; but a distributor/importer brand, like Vivitar and Soligor etc. I’ll add that info to the running tally in the first post.

[xaprb]

Two others I’ve noticed lately: Zivnon and Fotomat.

Fotomat was a chain of American kiosks located mostly in shopping center parking lots. I think I have seen one of these converted into a drive-thru coffee shop! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotomat

Zivnon is a mystery to me, anyone know anything about this brand?

[calvin83]

[Doc Sharptail]

Another odd one, but probably not a store brand is Toshiba.
One of my recent lens purchases came with a Toshiba 1-A filter on it.
We have a Toshiba t.v. here, and I've seen their cam-corders before with Toshiba marked lenses.
The 52mm filter is a new one on me though- first I've seen of this branding.

-D.S.

[xaprb]

Does anyone know about DeJur?

[xaprb]

[xaprb]

[kansalliskala]

Expert is an electronics store chain in Europe
https://www.expert.ie/

Can not see the logo here but I have actually seen the logo on a c/y extension tube.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144636694443

[xaprb]

Thanks, I see also another listing for an Expert lens. You can see the branding on this one.

[D1N0]

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Expert

They had a lot of Tamron made lenses, rebrands from Chinon (who had a range made by Tamron)

[xaprb]

I’ve just come across some lenses and accessories (filters) of the Erno brand. From what I can see it seems to be mostly found in Germany. I see one 500mm f8 mirror lens that’s a generic rebranded Japanese that was also found as a bunch of other brands such as Quantaray et al; I’ve found one other thread here on MFL which identifies a lens as similar to a Korean-made Albinar: http://forum.mflenses.com/erno-lenses-t68193.html from this, I assume Erno was a similar rebrander/relabeler. However I’m not sure if it was a store brand per se, or simply a trade name for importing and distributing like Vivitar.

[guardian]

I collect the Vernon Edonar lenses.

Might be a store brand.

Unsure.

But nice lenses. Always try to to obtain the original test films which came with each lens. But they are a really tough get.

You can see, on Macca's 350mm thread, what my most recent acquisition looks like:



http://forum.mflenses.com/vernon-edonar-350mm-5-5-t68538,highlight,%2Bvernon+%2Bedonar+%2B350.html


You must scroll down to view his lens.

[xaprb]

Does anyone know about Optomax lenses? The suggestions I’ve found online are that it’s a UK store brand, but I didn’t see which store. The main link I found with discussion is http://forum.mflenses.com/what-about-optomax-lenses-t69588.html

[xaprb]

I’ve just realized that Walimex (Walimex Pro) is the house brand of Foto Walser in Germany. This is probably common knowledge if you’re in that region, but I’m in the US. Here’s the photo from an eBay listing that made me realize this:


#1

[D1N0]

Afaik Walimex is usually a rebranded Samyang lens.

[xaprb]

I just stumbled upon Nikura, a brand I have not heard of before. Google doesn’t know much about them. Anyone know whether they are/were a store brand and which store?

I found https://www.nikurajapan.com/ but it doesn’t seem certain this is the same company; the lenses I’m seeing are all from decades ago and mostly seem to be made in Korea. Perhaps Nikura is/was a Japanese rebrander/distributor, though, and sourcing lenses from Korea; that wouldn’t surprise me. In any event their product catalog doesn’t seem to include lenses anymore, just things like household appliances.

[D1N0]

[calvin83]

VINES CAMERAS
https://www.companysearchesmadesimple.com/company/uk/00578513/vines-cameras-hemel-hempstead-limited/


from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256289352819

Line up:
Vines 35mm F2.8 Retro-Lumax
Vines 35mm F3.5 Retro-Lumax
Vines 135mm F3.5 Tele-Lumax
Vines 135mm F4.5 Tele-Lumax
and more?

[philslizzy]

A store brand I sold in the 70s was Maxlo

Lomax had just two branches in Manchester and Macclesfield in the north of England. They were cheap, preset lenses, can't remember if they were fixed mount or what. We also sold binoculars with the same Maxlo branding.

I guess if a small company like that could sell own brand lenses, anyone could

[Doc Sharptail]

Yet another store brand filter.



I had forgotten about these guys~ and it's possible they are still in business. Tempted to call these "4th party" as likely most of these are yet another re-branding.

-D.S.