[Note: there have been several namesake cameras worldwide. This is an article of the Finnish 1950's brand].
Fotex is the only finnish camera brand ever known to exist. The cameras were cheap bakelite Boyer replicas made by the pioneering finnish plastics factory Sarvis in Tampere in the 1950's. It is said that the lenses were made by hand by some optics shop in Tampere.
The cameras are quite rare with probably only some hundreds ever made. The prototype Achromats are even more rare, with under one hundred prototype units made.
The price for Fotex cameras in finnish vintage camera shops is around 200€ (year 2010 status).
Fotex Achromat; the prototype[]
The initial model was the Fotex Achromat. The camera was a very straightforward Boyer copy with lots of shooting options for it's time. It was withdrawn because of license lawsuit fears before it was released for sales. The model had detailed instructions on the interior of the back cover. It's told that the Achromats were given to factory personnel when the prototype production was halted.
The Fotex[]
Sarvis ended up releasing a much simplified version called simply Fotex. The Finnish 1952 Olympics were an incentive to the production line, thought to bring camera sales up.
Fotexes were also given as prizes for the children who acted as subscriber acquirers for the magazine "Lasten maailma" ("The World of Children").
The Fotex was available both in 4x4 and 4x6,5 formats.