One model of the legendary "spy" camera, this was foolishly acquired during a period of excess disposable income. Ye Olde Photographer never felt it lived up to his expectations, though he did certainly spend some time with it. It has a built-in selenium (self-powered) meter. The lens is a Complan 15 mm f3.5, with fixed aperture, but focusing down to 8 inches. There is no rangefinder, but the detachable carrying chain has beads at key intervals to use for measuring closeups! Think of this as a cellphone camera before there were cellphones. :)

The shutter goes from 1 - 1/1000 second, plus bulb and time. The film is in a tiny cartridge similar to the later 110 stuff, but much smaller. At one time 36 exposure loads were available in a number of standard films. There were also 50 exposure cartridges available in some emulsions. More recently, film has been available off and on, but it's pricey. This camera had not been used in decades. YOP found an unopened cartridge of Kodak Plus-X marked "Expires April 1970!"

Along the way YOP acquired a right angle finder that slips on the end, as well as a "binocular attachment" which he never got to do anything noteworthy. YOP also has a daylight load tank, repleat with a Minox thermometer that inserts in the center spindle.

We've added a few sample shots here from slides. YOP believes they were on Anscochrome, which he processed himself. Scanning these frames (slightly less than 8x11 mm) is taxing the limits of a cheap PrimeFilm3650u. The Anscochrome slides certainly have not improved in the forty years they've been floating around, they look a bit faded and toward the blue side. YOP did cheat and tweak a little with post-scan processing.

July 2008: OK, as threatened, YOP found one roll of B&W negatives from the late 1970s(?). While taxing our scanning abilities, we found four frames that might be worthy examples.

December 2008: Found the remaining stash of B&W negatives and scanned a few more.

February 2015: Woo-hoo! Blue Moon Camera & Machine is shipping film for Minox. As of March 2016, a few scans from the first roll of Ilford Delta 100 have been added. It appears there is a bit of scratching so perhaps some partial disassembly and cleaning is in order. (Given the cost, YOP certainly hopes the problem is not with the film or cartridges as received!)