Walter Zapp wanted a simple thing: a quality camera he could hold in his fist. It had to be of the highest quality construction, it had to have an outstanding lens, it had to be easy to use, but most of all it had to be small. He started with a block of wood trimmed to fit his hand began to design from there.
| And that is the first Why of Minox - a camera you can have with you at all times; so small it will fit in your pocket, or in the smallest purse. A camera that can actually be concealed in your hand. |
|
The audacity of Zapp's vision is a story for another time, for this was the 1930's when the normal snapshot camera used 120 roll film. Granted, there was that new Leica with its "miniature" 35mm film, but Zapp wanted something even more portable, something easier to keep readily at hand.
For us it is enough to know that his genius produced the Minox. The inovations are almost endless: telescopic "push-pull" film advance; daylight loading film cartridges (35mm still had to be loaded into special cassettes), built in paralax corrected viewfinder, built in filters, shutter speeds of a genuine 1/1000th sec., focusing to 8" for macro shots.
And that is the second Why of Minox - it is a self contained system camera!
 |
Take a look at the image on the left. Go ahead and click on it for a larger version, I'll wait here. I took that one morning when out to get my newspaper. The sky virtually exploded into color and I could see it was going to last only for a minute or so. There was no time to go inside for the Nikon (which may or may not have had film anyway). Fortunately, I remembered I had my Minox III in my pocket and in 30 seconds had three exposures.
|
A Minox gives one the ability to capture an image at any time, in any place. The difference in having a camera at hand and one that is merely accessible is much larger than might be supposed. A camera at hand can get the flowers in bloom in a window box, children at play, an unusual play of light on an otherwise ordinary object, or even an accident scene. The unexpected becomes expected. A camera that is back in the car or in a desk drawer might be handy, but frequently it may as well be a hundred miles away.
| The familiar can turn unfamiliar, even abstract, at any time. Ripples on a sheet of water can catch the sun and suddenly become an arabesque of infinite complexity. Great art? Perhaps not, but I find the result to be satisfying, and it brings back a very pleasant memory of fifteen minutes watching the light and wind and current at play. |
|
There are many other reasons for using a Minox which I'll only mention and pass on. The budget minded can process an amazing number of Minox negatives if they slit their own film and process it themselves; a standard roll of 35mm film will give four rolls of 36 exposure Minox film. The extraordinary resolution of the lens gives amazing detail with high contrast films. The Minox is almost the ideal camera for candid photography - particularly when used with a right angle viewer. And it is still an outstanding document copier in situations where a regular photocopier cannot be used.
Why Minox? For all the reasons we take photographs.