Category:Revue

Quelle (Germany) was a large European company with several department stores and a large mail-order-division. They were famous for selling "relabled" goods much cheaper than the "original". "Revue" is/was one of their brands, mainly used for photo/video/film:

• It looks like most "Revue"-Super8-cameras have been produced by Chinon. But at least the "K 7" is supposed to be made by Minolta. (There's still a small chance that others have been produced by Eumig, Bauer, Silma or Cosina, though.)
• The majority of "Revue"-Super8-projectors have been produced Eumig. However some models have been made by Chinon, Silma and Norris.
• The later "Revue"-Super8-filmstock was produced by Agfa, while "Revue Chrome"-films until approx. 1978 where polyester-based (and hence most likely either made by Ferrania/3M or Fuji).
• Many of the "Revue"-Super8-movies have been produced by Piccolo, others have been done by Ullstein, ... . A short history of the "Revue"-Super8-movies (German)
• ...

Unfortunately Quelle has stopped supporting Super8 via its mail-order-division in the 1980s/1990s. Hence it's very likely that all department stores have also stopped selling Kodak-Super8-filmstock, ... since approx. 2000. They were still selling "Revue"-tripods, ..., though... until 2009 when Quelle filed insolvency. In November 2009 "Foto Quelle" and its brands (incl. "Revue") got sold to ORWO Net GmbH. The archive of "Foto Quelle" got integrated into the Kameramuseum Kurt Tauber in January 2010.

The main arguments for selling the "Revue"-items cheaper than the "original" ones have been buying larger quantities (and hence getting rebates from the producers) and offering other terms of warranties. Nevertheless it's still very difficult to say whether the "Revue"-products are exactly the same as their "Chinon"/"Eumig"/...-counterparts:

• The model-numbers have been changed in most cases.
• In most cases the lenses have been -at least- relabeled. Since you won't find any hint whether the lenses' coatings are as good as the "Chinon"/"Eumig"/...--ones, there's no proof whether the lenses are the same or of minor quality.
• Some of the projectors definitely do have weaker optics with reduced translucence and/or reduced zoom-range. Hence it might happen that the same applies to some of the cameras.
• The manuals have been replaced.
• Sometimes even the microphones or other accessories (bags, remote releases, eye-pieces, ...) differ.
• It might happen that some "Revue"-versions have been sold later than their "original" counterparts. Of course this doesn't matter any more, since all of these cameras and projectors are out of production since the early 1980s.

The final question for the actual Super8-second-hand-market: Will the "Revue"-items be as good as the "original" ones? Yes, except for some projectors which definitely had weaker optics. Nevertheless you'll notice that the "Revue"-models mainly reflect Chinon's/Eumig's/... low-cost or mid-range product-lines. Hence you'll mainly find "work horses" and no real "flagships" in this section.

Revue in the camera-wiki.org