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The Minox, the archetypal sub-miniature camera, was invented by engineer Walter Zapp, in 1936 in Estonia. However, Zapp failed to find investors interested in producing it there, so production began in Riga, Latvia at VEF, which ran from 1937/1938 until 1943. After WWII, production was re-started in Germany from 1948. The company Minox GmbH is based in Wetzlar.

Although primarily marketed as a luxury item, the Minox was also used as an espionage camera. Its close-focusing lens and small size made it perfect for covert uses such as surveillance or document copying. The Minox was used by both Axis and Allied intelligence agents during World War II. Later versions were used well into the 1980s. The Soviet spy John A. Walker Jr., whose actions against the US Navy cryptography programs represent some of the most compromising intelligence actions against the United States during the Cold War era, used a Minox C to photograph documents and ciphers. An 18 inch measuring chain was provided with most Minox cameras, which enabled easy 8x10 or 8.5x11 inch document copying. The espionage use of the Minox has been memorialized by Hollywood movies, and some Minox marketing efforts have played up the "spy camera" story.

The Minox cameras use 8x11mm film in a small cartridge containing a strip of film 9.2mm wide, less than one-quarter the size of 35mm, capable of holding up to 50 frames. The fact that the camera holds the small negative in a "curved film plane" makes the sharpness of the tiny negative uniform to the very edge of the frame, resulting in more usable image area. The Minox enlarger holds the negative in this same curve.

Enlarge picture
Minox B camera with selenium light meter
Enlarge picture
Minox B subminiature "spy" camera, with incorrect measuring chain

Minox 8x11 camera models

  • Riga (attempts to call this model I failed)
  • A (Europe there was no distinction made between the three A models)
  • II
  • III
  • IIIs - flash synch
  • B - ultralight aluminium shell, selenium meter, produced from 1958 to 1972
  • C - introduced in 1969, electronic, used by spy John A. Walker, Jr.
  • BL - 1972 with cadmium sulphide meter (requiring a battery), no longer winds film with each open/close cycle
  • LX - electronic
  • EC
  • ECX, replacing EC
  • TLX, titanium titanal eloxat coated
  • CLX, chrome plated
and special editions
  • AX - similar to the A (all mechanical) but built using LX components
  • LX Sterling - 925 sterling silver hallmarked
  • LX Selection - gold with black dials
  • LX Gold II - anniversary edition, all gold, with Walter Zapp's signature
  • LX Platin - Limited edition platinum Minox LX
  • CLX - with Walter Zapp's signature
  • LX 2000 - brass black anodized with gold trim
  • Aviator - black anodized with luminous dials, logo and script limited edition of 300
  • EC - with Minox Historical Society logo limited edition of 100
  • EC - 1st German Minox club in blue with club logo limited edition of 111.
The earlier mechanical cameras are collector's items. Newer electronic versions, such as the Minox TLX, remain in production yet today, essentially unchanged in general features since the 1970s.


Minox BL

Minox EC

Minox TLX

Limited Edition Minox LX Platin


Other products

Minox has also produced a very compact Makrolon-bodied 35 mm camera series. These well made cameras feature a drawbridge style lens cover that can be lowered to reveal a high quality 35mm f/2.8 Minotar lens with glass elements. The camera offers aperture priority exposure, with the option of manual settings.
  • Minox EL, 1974
  • MINOX GL, 1979-1981
  • MINOX GT 1981-1991
  • MINOX GT-Golf 1984
  • MINOX GT-E 1988-1993
  • MINOX GSE 1991-1994
  • MINOX PL 1982-1983
  • MINOX ML 1985-1995
  • MINOX AL 1987-1988
  • MINOX AF 1988-1990
  • MINOX MB 1986-1999
  • MINOX MB Touring 1900
  • MINOX Goldknopf 1991-1993
  • MINOX MDC 1992-1995 This is the flag ship of Minox 35mm series. MDC differs from all other models by its anodized aluminium body; with two styles: a gold plated model and a titanium coated model. MDC has a mulitcoated Minoxar 35mm/2.8 lens.
  • MINOX MDC gold Collection 1993-1994
  • MINOX GT-X 1998-1999
  • MINOX GT-E(II) 1998-2001
  • MINOX GT-S 1998-2004
Also sold were 110 film cameras and Minox binoculars. Recently, Minox introduced a line of compact binoculars and a range of digital cameras and Classic cameras Minox Leica IIIf, Minox Leica M3, Minox Leica 1F, Minox Hasselblad SWC, Minox Contax I.

Sharan Megahouse of Japan extended the Minox range with 8x11 miniatures of the Rolleiflex TLR 2.8, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus Pen and Robot I.




Flagship Minox M.D.C with titanium coated anodized aluminium body

Minox 35 ML camera with German manual

Minox Leica M3 digital camera

Minox Rolleiflex mindigi 3MP digital camera


Company

After a management buyout in August 2001 and a reduction of Leica-held shares down to 49%, and finally completed in 2004, Minox is no longer a division of the Leica company.

See also

Books on Minox

  • Hubert E. Heckmann: MINOX Variations IN 8X11, Wittig Books, ISBN 3-88984-153-8
  • Morris Moses & John Wade: Spycamera THE MINOX Story, 2nd edition ISBN 1-874707-28-6
  • D. Scott Young, Minox: Marvel in Miniature, ISBN 1587210681
  • Gunther Kadlubek, Classic Camera Collection Verlag Rudole Hillebrand

External links

Subminiature photography is the practice of using unusually small cameras with unusually small film formats to make photographs. The exact boundary between cameras and formats that are "subminiature" and those that are merely "small" is the subject of debate among enthusiasts.
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Walter Zapp (Latvian: Valters Caps) (born September 4 1905 in Riga, Latvia; died July 17 2003 in Binningen near Basel, Switzerland) was the inventor of the subminiature camera (Minox).
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
1933 1934 1935 - 1936 - 1937 1938 1939

Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI
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State Party  Latvia
Type Cultural
Criteria i, ii
Reference 852
Region Europe and North America

Inscription History
Inscription 1997   (Unknown Session)
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Motto
"Tēvzemei un Brīvībai"   ( Latvian)
"For Fatherland and Freedom"
Anthem
Dievs, svētī Latviju!   (Latvian)
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VEF, acronym for Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika (State Electrotechnical Plant), is a manufacturer of electrical and electronic products in Latvia.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1910s  1920s  1930s  - 1940s -  1950s  1960s  1970s
1940 1941 1942 - 1943 - 1944 1945 1946

Year 1943 (MCMXLIII
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Allied powers:
 Soviet Union
 United States
 United Kingdom
 China
 France
...et al. Axis powers:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy
...et al.
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Anthem
"Das Lied der Deutschen" (third stanza)
also called "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit"
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1910s  1920s  1930s  - 1940s -  1950s  1960s  1970s
1945 1946 1947 - 1948 - 1949 1950 1951

Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII
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Wetzlar
The oldtown and the old Lahnbridge
Coat of arms Location

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Espionage (a word from Latin espionnage) or spying is a practice of obtaining information about an organization or a society that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information.
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Axis Powers, also interpreted as Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those countries opposed to the Allies during World War II.
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Allied powers:
 Soviet Union
 United States
 United Kingdom
 China
 France
...et al. Axis powers:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy
...et al.
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John Andrew Walker, Jr. (born July 28 1937) is a former Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist for the U.S. Navy, who sold his services as a spy to the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985, the height of the Cold War era.
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Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós "hidden," and the verb γράφω gráfo "write" or λεγειν legein
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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The Cold War was the period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s.
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135 (ISO 1007) is a film format for still photography, also widely referred to as "35 mm". Introduced in its modern form in 1934 it quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format.
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A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
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1955 1956 1957 - 1958 - 1959 1960 1961

Year 1958 (MCMLVIII
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
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1969 1970 1971 - 1972 - 1973 1974 1975

Year 1972 (MCMLXXII
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1966 1967 1968 - 1969 - 1970 1971 1972

Also:
*:1969 (number)
*:

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photoresistor or LDR is an electronic component whose resistance decreases with increasing incident light intensity. It can also be referred to as a light-dependent resistor (LDR), photoconductor, or photocell.
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Polycarbonates are a particular group of thermoplastic polymers. They are easily worked, moulded, and thermoformed; as such, these plastics are very widely used in the modern chemical industry.
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110 is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Kodak in 1972. 110 is a miniaturised version of Kodak's earlier, highly successful 126 format. The image is 13×17 millimetres, with one registration hole.
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Binocular telescopes, or binoculars, (also known as field glasses) are two identical or mirror-symmetrical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant
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Digital photography, as opposed to film photography, uses electronic devices to record and capture the image as binary data. As such, the images can be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted and archived using various kinds of digital technology, including personal
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A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.

Overview

Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company.
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Leica is the name of several cameras produced by a German company of the same name which started production in 1913. The company, formerly Ernst Leitz GmbH, is now three companies: Leica Camera AG, which produces cameras; Leica Geosystems AG which produces geodetic equipment; and
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