Photo Porst was a camera dealer from West Germany. The company was founded in Nuremberg and was at times one of the most important photo dealers in the Federal Republic. Under the name of “Porst” and “Carena“, several cameras from different manufacturers were sold. For example, the cameras for the private labels came from factories in the Soviet Union, GDR and the Far East.
One of the reasons for the introduction of cameras under the private labels was price fixing. Camera manufacturers set a fixed price for their models, which all retailers had to adhere to, as is still the case today with fixed book prices. Due to their sales volume, Photo Porst was able to negotiate discounts with the camera manufacturers for their purchases. However, due to the price fixing, they could not pass on these discounts to their customers in order to buy more market share.
What they did to get around this problem was actually quite simple. One went to the manufacturers of the cameras, selected camera models and let these produce. The difference was that the name Porst was used instead of the brand name of the manufacturer. Thus it concerned a new product, for which one could determine the price.
Today the trademark rights for Photo Porst are held by the RINGFOTO Group.
