HOME | minoxgraphy

My Minox was build in 1955

distance scale

shutter speed dial

flash nipple

green/orange
filter slide

viewfinder

shutter
release

exposure
counter

lens window

(lens : 15 mm Complan f/3,5)

size and weight

82 x 27 x 15 mm -70g

The UR Minox 1936

My Minox

In 1936 in Riga, Latvia, Walter Zapp invented a subminiature camera.
His aim was to design a camera that was small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and yet was capable of taking high-quality photographs. The Minox camera is widely acknowledged by historians of photographic technologies as a brilliant innovation and a quantum leap in photographic technology.
The prototype from 1936 later became known as the Ur Minox.

From 1937 and up until 1942 the first Minox known as Riga was produced at the
Valsts Elektrotechniska Fabrika (VEF) in Riga. After World War II, Walter Zapp fled from the Russian occupying Latvia and founded the MINOX GmbH in Wetzlar in Germany 1945. Here the Minox model A II (Riga was I) was produced from 1948 to 1950. It was followed by the A III that was in production from 1951
to 1954. In 1954 it was followed by a special variant for the US market,the A IIIs, which had a flash-synchronization connector.

The A IIIs was produced until 1969.
Later came model B, C, Lx

HISTORY of
The Minox Camera

Minox Riga 1937-1942

Although the Minox camera was intended for regular photography, it soon became the world's most popular spy camera. During WWII, it was so popular that it was difficult for the various national intelligence agencies to obtain enough Minox cameras for their tasks.

For 50 years, the Minox was the essential spy camera. It could take 50 pictures without reloading, and its high resolution lens captured a remarkable amount of detail.

John Walker, a U.S. naval officer who ran a KGB spy ring in the 1970s, used a Minox camera to document American military secrets. After his arrest, Walker demonstrated for authorities how he used a Minox, along with a measuring chain to ensure that the camera was held a proper and uniform distance from the documents.

Concealed Minox Camera

Minox consealed in brush in 1960 by Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, or HVA
which was the foreign intelligence service of the former German Democratic Republic

Minox as a spy tool

Clip from the movie “O.S.S.” - 1946

O.S.S. is a 1946 war film starring Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald about the Office of Strategic Services, directed by Irving Pichel

The clip shows the use of the Minox camera as a spy tool .

The Minox ability to photograph as close as eight inches made it ideal for this kind of surreptitious photography, not to mention the Minox camera's ability to be concealed in the palm of a hand.

Minox in Movie

1940 Latvia

Atpūta nr.821 july 1940

1951 Germany

Original ad from print magazine

1959 USA

Ad for minox camera september 1959

Minox adds

Vintage Ads

Minox Accessories

Tripod

The Minox Tripod, introduced in 1951

Copy Stand

The dedicated Copy Stand was introduced in 1954 The position on the legs roughly correspond to DIN A6, A5 and A4 paper sizes

Microfilm Reader

Mikroplanfilm Suitcase Reader from 1983 - Made for the German military The negative used, was taken with the use of my copy stand.

Candid Photography

The Right Angle Viewfinder puts a mirror at 45 degrees behind the viewfinder so that the camera points to the right of the position that the photographer appears to be viewing.