Minox III
Minox III, circa 1951, with a Gordy's Wrist Strap. Minox made two Model III (Called Model A in some countries) variants. The slightly later IIIS (which this is not) has a little socket on one end for a flash cable. The III models were a modernized version of the original made-in-Latvia 1937 Minox and among the smallest Minoxes ever made. In a way, their tiny film size (8 by 11 mm image area) and lenses, and very short focal length, were precursors of the later digital point-and-shoots, which in the less-expensive versions replace the film with similarly tiny imaging chips. The little Minoxes are famous as espionage cameras, used for decades by all sides, but that's not what they were designed to be. They were intended to be everyman's everyday pocket camera, but high production costs made them an expensive luxury item. The company promoted them by putting them in the hands of monarchs, presidents and movie stars. There are even gold-plated Minoxes. Today, old ones (in the normal aluminum shell like mine) are less expensive ... mostly because they've become paperweights, except among a few die-hard enthusiasts who either load and process their own film or love spending money. Production continued until 2008, surprisingly. Film and processing remain available today ... barely. It now costs about 50 USD to buy a roll and have it processed. Film grain is all that limits sharpness of the tiny negatives: The lenses are so small that it was feasible to make them with resolving power that far exceeds anything ever produced for Leicas and Nikons. There is no aperture adjustment on a submini Minox; all pictures are taken with a wide-open lens. (Just like my iPhone camera.) The short focal length (15mm) of the five-element f3.5 Complan optic means there always is lots of depth of field. The tiny viewfinder compensated for parallax: Whether you focused at infinity or at 8 inches, the viewfinder innards moved so that what you saw through it always was what you got on film. In later years, Minox made a line of very small 35mm cameras, a few of which remain in use. They were a lot like German cars: very well-designed and with very high performance (incredibly sharp lenses) ... but with unreliable electronics.
Minox III
Minox III, circa 1951, with a Gordy's Wrist Strap. Minox made two Model III (Called Model A in some countries) variants. The slightly later IIIS (which this is not) has a little socket on one end for a flash cable. The III models were a modernized version of the original made-in-Latvia 1937 Minox and among the smallest Minoxes ever made. In a way, their tiny film size (8 by 11 mm image area) and lenses, and very short focal length, were precursors of the later digital point-and-shoots, which in the less-expensive versions replace the film with similarly tiny imaging chips. The little Minoxes are famous as espionage cameras, used for decades by all sides, but that's not what they were designed to be. They were intended to be everyman's everyday pocket camera, but high production costs made them an expensive luxury item. The company promoted them by putting them in the hands of monarchs, presidents and movie stars. There are even gold-plated Minoxes. Today, old ones (in the normal aluminum shell like mine) are less expensive ... mostly because they've become paperweights, except among a few die-hard enthusiasts who either load and process their own film or love spending money. Production continued until 2008, surprisingly. Film and processing remain available today ... barely. It now costs about 50 USD to buy a roll and have it processed. Film grain is all that limits sharpness of the tiny negatives: The lenses are so small that it was feasible to make them with resolving power that far exceeds anything ever produced for Leicas and Nikons. There is no aperture adjustment on a submini Minox; all pictures are taken with a wide-open lens. (Just like my iPhone camera.) The short focal length (15mm) of the five-element f3.5 Complan optic means there always is lots of depth of field. The tiny viewfinder compensated for parallax: Whether you focused at infinity or at 8 inches, the viewfinder innards moved so that what you saw through it always was what you got on film. In later years, Minox made a line of very small 35mm cameras, a few of which remain in use. They were a lot like German cars: very well-designed and with very high performance (incredibly sharp lenses) ... but with unreliable electronics.