Manufacturer vs. Brand

[Cafoar]

Hi,

I wonder about the distinction between brand and manufacturer. I know that it could be a complication to add such distinction in the database. It could be that my interpretation of those words as a non native English speaker differs from the proper definition. I see the manufacturer as the company that makes the product and the brand as the name with which the product is sold. For example, there is the camera Leitz (manufacturer) Leica (brand) C1 (model). Or the Tougodo (manufacturer) Meikai (brand) EL (model). The same manufacturer, Tougodo, has the brand Meisupi.

I have cameras manufactured by Argentinian company SIAF. They had a couple of big brands within the country, Gradosol, which I would assume it was their own, and Gevaert that at the time wasn't part of AGFA. These cameras appear as being AGFA and Belgian, while they were only produced and sold in Argentina. They had also smaller brands, with variations of the same cameras produced for third parties.

Another case is the Brand Fodor, which was a Dutch importer. Those cameras appear under the Brand name and not the manufacturer. Even in the case of the Fodor Novo 35, the only distinction I find (from looking at pictures available online) is the FODOR engraving at the front of the camera.

Having both would help in searches by interest.

Thanks for reading and giving your opinion.

[paul hofseth]

Sir,

I agree that manufacturers may be difficlult to find by non-collectors who merely wish to know the prices. Porst, Chinon and Cosina springs to mind while Kyocera might not be an obvious place to look for some Zeiss and Leitz products. Spectros is not in the base at all although they produced some Oude Delft optics. Prices of renamed cameras and optics might vary from the originals in unpredictable ways.

Adding several entrances to the data would entail quite a bit of database work , some possible errors and would need a disclaimer, but might prove helpful to punters.

p,

[Cafoar]

Thank you for your reply, Paul! Sorry for my late comeback.

Adding to the subject, I learned last week that the manufacturer of the Gevaert cameras in Argentina was S.I.A.F. At certain point (I don't remember the year), AGFA-Gevaert and S.I.A.F. split up. Until then, they were manufacturing the Rex Lujo, Rex Junior, Rex Junior Baby. AGFA-Gevaert continued with the Rex Lujo II with the brand name styled differently. S.I.A.F. kept the matrix for the Rex Lujo and produced the Gradosol Lujo and many more models. It would be great to see those relations, but I get it is a lot of work with bad cost-benefit relation.