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The Minox, the archetypal sub-miniature camera, was invented by engineer Walter Zapp, in 1936. Production in Riga, Latvia at VEF ran from 1937/1938 until 1943. After WWII, production was re-started in Germany from 1948.
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. 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, 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 useable image area. The Minox enlarger holds the negative in this same curve.
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Minox 8x11 camera models
Riga (attempts to call this model I failed)
A (Europe there was no distinction made between the three A models)
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
TLX, titanium titanal eloxat coated
and special editions
LX Sterling - 925 sterling silver hallmarked
LX Selection - gold with black dials
LX Gold II - anniversary edition, all gold, with Walter Zapp's signature
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 Histortical 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.
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Other products
Minox has also produced a very compact plastic 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 MDC Collection 1993/1994
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.
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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.
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See also
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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
Gunther Kadlubek, Classic Camera Collection Verlag Rudole Hillebrand
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