About those Chinese companies copying big brands

All companies rip off other companies the Chinese are just a bit more obvious when doing so.
 
CraigDHD said:
At the risk of starting a pointless debate I saw this new broccolor trigger today https://www.ephotozine.com/article/new-rfs-2-2-triggers---strip-grid-from-broncolor-29953 and it has me scratching my head a bit.

You always heard about Chinese companies ripping off big western brand designs to save r&d costs in the past.
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Or is it the big mainstream companies ripping off people for the sake of a brand name when their manufacturing costs are the same as the third party makes?
 
Did I mention R & D without realising?
Oh, no....it appears I didn't.
Of course it costs, but some of the third party parts are in the market before the branded, suggesting they've carried out their own.
 
If i was Nikon i would be buying a few of the new Olympus cameras and having my technicians strip them down for a look.
 
I wonder if godox are actually making this for broncolor? As good as the x1 system is I'm not actually a huge fan of the x1-t for usability. Surprised broncolor would do what at least appears a rebadged version if it for double the price.
 
mikew said:
If i was Nikon i would be buying a few of the new Olympus cameras and having my technicians strip them down for a look.
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But you aren't and they won't. Nikon don't think like that. If you don't already, you should read Thom Hogan on Nikon.
 
rjbell said:
All companies rip off other companies the Chinese are just a bit more obvious when doing so.
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Yup. It's always happened. In the 80's I worked for a computer and peripheral manufacturer called Systime and some of their kit was a rip off of DEC kit. Sometimes Systime kit did the same as the DEC kit but looked different but at other times it was a more obvious copy. There was one incident in which a DEC guy berated a Systime guy with two boards, the Systime one being a mirror image of the DEC board. At least Systime didn't just make a direct copy :D

I think that part of the issue these days is that nothing is made fully in house and indeed with some companies nothing is made in house and it's possible to run around the suppliers and build an identical product.
 
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viv1969 said:
Or is it the big mainstream companies ripping off people for the sake of a brand name when their manufacturing costs are the same as the third party makes?
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It's not just manufacturing costs though as there'll be rooms full of people designing stuff, testing it and making sure that it complies with all of the required legal stuff. For example most people will have no idea how much time effort and money it takes to CE approve something. The rip off guys don't have these costs.

Just a little example. I bought a laptop ac adapter off Amazon. It worked ok but every time I plugged it in it killed my radio reception. There's no way on this earth that device passed CE approval as electromagnetic compatibility is a part of the testing. The Chinese maker obviously hadn't bothered with testing, he'd just printed out a CE label and stuck it on his piece of tat.

Cheap stuff is sometimes cheap for a reason and then there's the question of if it'll burn down your house with you and your family in it or not. It might be worth paying a few £ less and taking the chance that it wont though :D
 
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D500 battery grip:-

Nikon OEM £359:00
Meike 'clone' £50:00

Difference £309:00 ... that quite some R&D overhead! :)
 
I wonder how many of the above clicked the link.o_O

It shows (almost certainly) a Godox transmitter rebranded for Broncolor.

There's no way Bron have reverse engineered a Godox trigger, they've just bought in the tech from frankly the market leaders.

Which actually is the story here, hidden way back behind the headlines, Godox have gone from being a knockoff manufacturer, to a box shifter to the actual market leader, creating the best integrated set of kit available. No one else comes close to the range of products they've created.
 
A lot of Chinese cars are copies of European, Korean and Japanese cars. Just with a few aesthetic changes to make them look different. Their engineers were telling me that their departments have been geared up to copy more than to innovate. That is where their experience lies. But they are making genuine efforts to break away from the copy mentality now that these companies have more money. However it is difficult to get entire departments to move on from from their entrenched methods.

Many such cars are never exported though. So don't get European scrutiny.
 
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In electronics, China were known for copying designs about 10 years ago, but now they're designing their own.

The largest smart phone manufacturer last year was Xiaomi (the company that just brought out a Micro 4/3rds camera) which has a huge following in China and South-east Asia, if you look in Currys more than half the TV manufacturers use LCD panels and TV chipsets designed and made in China and Chinese brands like Hisense are starting to get market penetration.
 
gramps said:
D500 battery grip:-

Nikon OEM £359:00
Meike 'clone' £50:00

Difference £309:00 ... that quite some R&D overhead! :)
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Just buy a D5 it has got it built in. A saving of at least £50 :-) You know you want to.
 
woof woof said:
Just a little example. I bought a laptop ac adapter off Amazon. It worked ok but every time I plugged it in it killed my radio reception. There's no way on this earth that device passed CE approval as electromagnetic compatibility is a part of the testing. The Chinese maker obviously hadn't bothered with testing, he'd just printed out a CE label and stuck it on
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Don't forget a CE mark may not be a European conformity mark, China have their own 'CE' Mark that looks a little like the European mark but meant to mean China export. I doubt all consumers could tell the difference between the two.
 
rob-nikon said:
China have their own 'CE' Mark that looks a little like the European mark but meant to mean China export. I doubt all consumers could tell the difference between the two.
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Japan had the same thing back in the late 60's. Made in USA.

(Meaning made in in the city of Usa Japan)
 
Phil V said:
I wonder how many of the above clicked the link.o_O

It shows (almost certainly) a Godox transmitter rebranded for Broncolor.

There's no way Bron have reverse engineered a Godox trigger, they've just bought in the tech from frankly the market leaders.

Which actually is the story here, hidden way back behind the headlines, Godox have gone from being a knockoff manufacturer, to a box shifter to the actual market leader, creating the best integrated set of kit available. No one else comes close to the range of products they've created.
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I'm not familiar with Godox products but it's interesting you say they have gone full circle. I know a few companies in the engineering field where they rebadge another manufacturers product. In some ways it's win-win for the OEM as they sell a high number of products in one batch, and usually the end user works out they can buy the same product cheaper from the OEM. There are plenty of people out there that won't buy a cheaper product as its not a branded product so it's a way in for the smaller less known OEMs.

It sounds like we are not talking about the usually copying of products, there are a few third party products that are a blatant copy of a brand product and usually a lot cheaper too. The problem is what people are prepared to pay for a product and what they feel is it's worth.
 
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Nothing new with Chinese companies.... Few years ago they were trying to sell brand names handbags such as Louis Viutton, Prada.... Few weeks after I had looked at their website, it was announced on the front of their page, they were caught and fined $1 m !!!!

In fact, back in June they were trying to sell me a camera bag, which I've seen it before from brand companies. A month later, I couldn't find it in their website - in fact almost all of the 'copies' were removed!
 
bulldog5988 said:
Japan had the same thing back in the late 60's. Made in USA.

(Meaning made in in the city of Usa Japan)
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I think they did much the same thing with whisky, by renaming a town 'Scotland'. Mind you, Japanese distillers have been winning prestigious prizes for their 'Scotch' for a few years now...
 
GatoAzul1968 said:
Nothing new with Chinese companies.... Few years ago they were trying to sell brand names handbags such as Louis Viutton, Prada.... Few weeks after I had looked at their website, it was announced on the front of their page, they were caught and fined $1 m !!!!

In fact, back in June they were trying to sell me a camera bag, which I've seen it before from brand companies. A month later, I couldn't find it in their website - in fact almost all of the 'copies' were removed!
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Despite not knowing who "they" are, rest assured that company will be replaced by another, and another.... Ad infinitum.
 
rob-nikon said:
Don't forget a CE mark may not be a European conformity mark, China have their own 'CE' Mark that looks a little like the European mark but meant to mean China export. I doubt all consumers could tell the difference between the two.
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The Conformité Européenne mark has the C and E spaced so when they're completed as circles they merge on their circumference. The China Export one has the circles interlocking like a Venn diagram. The "proper" mark is also usually thicker than the China Export marking.

China Export VVV..........................................................................................Conformité Européenne VVV

DSCF4665.JPG
 
mikew said:
If i was Nikon i would be buying a few of the new Olympus cameras and having my technicians strip them down for a look.
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I was visiting a famous car manufacturer a few months back and they quite happily strip down competitors vehicles to see how they do things.
 
NeilA1975 said:
I was visiting a famous car manufacturer a few months back and they quite happily strip down competitors vehicles to see how they do things.
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Yes. I've done that. It is standard practice. It's important to have all the information at your disposal. Even if you are not going copy them.
 
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NeilA1975 said:
I was visiting a famous car manufacturer a few months back and they quite happily strip down competitors vehicles to see how they do things.
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ianp5a said:
Yes. I've done that. It is standard practice. It's important to have all the information at your disposal. Even if you are not going copy them.
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Yes but not being Chinese they wouldn't copy any ideas would they :ROFLMAO:
 
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