Leica M3 Minox???

[Avotius]

Ok, I got this teacher, he is really into "cheap" cameras, he even has a heineken beer can thing that folds out into a camera. Anyho, he showed me a picture of this thing that looked like a Leica M3 but says minox on it and with what looks like an out of porpotion lens. My teacher insists that the lens is a leica lens despite it saying minox because leica used to own minox. He also said something about being able to shoot both film and digital with it via a back. I have very little experience with minox except seeing one of those spy cameras in a shop some time back. What is the deal with the Leica clone? And is this an actual rangefinder or a guess and shoot?

 

[illuminatus]

Minox specializes in making miniature replicas of well known classic cameras and it used to be a subsidiary of Leica, but they had a different production facility and I don't think Minox had Leica lenses. Film versions all take 8x11 format which is a spy camera type that you see in James Bond movies. A few years ago, they introduced digital versions. These are fully operational rangefinder cameras. They are nicely built although not quite up the Leica standard. I don't think the digital back is available for these film cameras.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I've seen the Minox M3 digital marketed around... It's supposed to be a competent (i.e., decent) digital gizmo, with only the looks of a Leica. Basically, a conversation piece. One day I found one going for $125 and was very tempted to buy it... but nothing beats having a real Leica M3, so I took a pass.

 

[former member]

I think they are all fixed-focus lenses.

 

[mad_boy]

The digtal Minox M3 is not as nice as it seems at first glance.
It only looks like an m3 from the front.
It is much thicker and ugly black back.

Have a close look before you buy,

Mad_boy

 

[jaapv]

Minox did build a miniature (about 1/3 size) "Leica M3" more than ten or fifteen years ago. It was distributed (at least in most European countries) through the Leica importers (who mostly were Minox importers as well anyway) I did take a look at it at the time and it was a fairly crude model taking Minox-type film.As far as I recall,but I might be mistaken, the RF was not functional and it was basically a point and shoot. I can't imagine many of them were sold.