Foto-Quelle was founded in 1957 by the mail order company Quelle. Through catalogs, among other things, photographers could search for equipment and have the products conveniently delivered to their homes. At times, Foto-Quelle was one of the largest photo retailers in Europe and even worldwide.
In the offer one had all products, which one could wish for as a photographer. Of course, there was a large selection of cameras from all well-known manufacturers. Since, according to their own statement, it was not easy to get the products from the big brands at the beginning, they started to sell cameras and accessories under their own brand.
So they came up with the brand “Revue”. Products from various manufacturers were then sold under this own brand. The principle of the private or house brand can be found today in all areas of consumer life and is often a great financial success for the respective retailers, but at that time the great success was somewhat surprising.
With the great success, the assortment was then expanded more and more and new suppliers were found. The camera models were purchased from many different suppliers and sold worldwide and of course especially to Germany.
Suppliers of cameras included Minolta, Mamiya, Balda, Cosina and Agfa. Especially in the 1970s, many models were sourced from the GDR. For companies like Pentacon, production for Foto-Quelle / Revue and Photo Porst and export to West Germany was an important source of divises. The photo dealers of course profited by much lower purchase prices than they would have had to pay at some other manufacturers in the West.
The cost advantages were of course partly passed on to the customers. Thus, the Revue cameras were very interesting for photographers who did not have the biggest budget. Due to the high quantities produced, you can find most of the cameras today also very easily and mostly also for a very fair price.
Most Revue cameras are also available under the name of the manufacturer. Often, the only difference is the name on the camera body. Depending on the model, there were sometimes slight changes and modifications.
