Are Minox Cameras Still Made
No, information technology was non beloved at get-go sight. The first fourth dimension I saw the Minox EC I did non fall madly in love with this small piece of blackness plastic from the nineties. I was charmed so with my Minox B, a slick and jewerly-like bar of matte aluminum graced with knobs, chains, 007 movies charm, and virtually unchanged since my grandfather was loosing his teeth for the first time.
The Minox EC lacks that elegance, is plainly and elementary, non dissimilar the swarm of plastic-fantastic 35mm betoken and shoots from the same era. It'southward still a Minox though, and despite being made of plastic, feels like a quality product.
It's actually quite similar to the infamous Minox 35 series, another globe smallest camera (of its kind, and aye, I did compare side past side with Rollei 35 and XA). The family unit portrait clearly shows that the Minox EC can actually exist called the 35ths small brother: same pattern language in heed, same materials (Makrolon, if you are interested), and even easier to operate.
Unfold the Minox EC (this advances the film), etch your moving-picture show using surprisingly bright viewfinder including brilliant lines for the 50mm equivalent fifteen/5.six Minoxar lens, and shoot. The aperture and focus are fixed, and the shutter speed is automated from 1/500s to 8s. The just control option you have as well the framing, is to change your listen and non to accept a picture (for instance if a red led lights upwards to warn you lot of a tiresome shutter speed). It'south an ultimate signal and shoot!
The good the bad and the lens
That comes with the usual limitations, of course (backlit subjects, closeups, tiresome/fast motion…), but information technology's not always a bad affair, actually. Mind that the original Minox (A) was marketed every bit a simple camera where y'all don't take to worry about the discontinuity and only have one variable to control (shutter speed), and then the Minox EC is actually not an ugly duckling in the family. At least, I learned to capeesh that quite speedily once I started to utilize it after finally angling information technology out of the box where it came in together with my Minox B (yeah, my first Minox EC was a "lens cap" bought past chance with the B).
The biggest advantage of Minox EC over the older Minoxes is obviously the speed of operation (open and shoot, which allows to catch those fleeting moments). If that's still not quick enough, yous can also just close the photographic camera without loosing a frame (as it is on A and B).
Other advantages are, surprisingly, its size, weight, and robustness. Who could take thought that I'd find the B beefy and delicate past comparison. The Minox EC is by far the smallest and lightest photographic camera in the family and measures just 80mm long (compared to 97 for B, which is ~20% more).
I frequently wonder how did they manage to pack all that electronics, lens, flick, and the battery in! More than chiefly, still, that it weights half as much at 45g vs 92 including the battery. That's a bit more than than canister of 35mm film, and allows one to wear it on the neck without worrying too much nearly how information technology dangles effectually. Or put in jeans lighter pocket. Or in whatever pocket with keys, knives etc. Information technology volition get some scratches, but the black Makrolon will handle it!
Another large indicate in its favour is that information technology there's an electronic flash unit for information technology which shares the same diminutive size (the blackness box in the lower correct of the picture above). Well, it's still larger than the camera, but still is the smallest unit I've seen besides the ones included with the early Sony NEX cameras. Information technology takes single AAA battery is also fully automated! Considering that slow films with ISO less than 100 are typically used with Minoxes, it's hard to over-appreciate the possibility to snap-on a flash to take indoor pictures.
And, finally, the Minox EC lens. It's slower than in other Minoxes (f5.6 vs three.5 to allow hyperfocal shooting from 1m), and is said to be not and then sharp as the COMPLANs used in other models. I did not find it to exist the case, however. Not only for people pictures from 2-5m which is what this camera is made for, but also for landscapes.
I would say that in near cases, similarly to other Minoxes, you volition be limited by the format itself rather than the lens. It is slower, but did I mention there's a flash? The Minox EC lens even so has a big advantage over the lenses of A-B-C series. While I do regularly catch spectacular flares with my B (most likely from its built-in UV filter and shiny aluminium surrounding it), I'm all the same to come across the Minox EC flare. That'south probably a combination of more than modern coatings and the deeply recessed lens.
Anyways, I detect information technology to be the principal reason to adopt Minox EC over the B every time I go exterior on a sunny day. Luckily this is still possible in Deutschland, even if one nevertheless needs to stay away from other people for the moment.
So what practise yous get in the end?
Below are several pictures showing what it tin do. Non the best ones, but ones from existent life. Casual snaps: that'south what the Minox EC is designed for, after all.
Most frames are from a roll of Adox HR50 with Minox EC taken last weekend and almost ruined by my sloppy development. I finally got Minox daylight developing tank and that was the first time I tried to use it. Information technology's another genius invention of Walter Zapp which is hard to explain in a few words, then information technology's improve to see some Youtube videos of tank in action.
I slit and load my picture myself so it's missing the hole required to attach the moving picture to the spiral which pulls information technology out of the cassette once you close the tank. I did cut one with scissors, but not deep enough, so the film was not pulled out and remained in the cassette submerged in chemistry. I did non realise until I finished developing and fixing and opened the tank to launder the moving-picture show. I dared to repeat the process all over again, and surprisingly it worked!
The frames were adult and fixed twice, which is the beginning and kind of special for to me. Otherwise, the developer was Hour-DEV, and time 15 minutes with one agitation at seven min. The scanning was so washed using the cheap zoom dia-duplicator at 2.5x and my Sony A7.
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Source: https://www.35mmc.com/15/06/2020/minox-ec-review/
Posted by: moorehiment.blogspot.com
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