MINOX 35ML PROGRAM - how does it work?

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I resurrected my 35ML. I have rarely used it in Program mode but looked at it more closely today. It seems to hold the aperture at 2.8 and vary the shutter speed. Just wondering if this is how it is supposed to work.
 
I found the manual on Butkus website and it is indeed how the Program mode works. The examples in the manual show Program mode and use of the 2.8 dof scale (marked with red arrows on the ML’s lens).
 
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The briefest reply to how Minox 35 shutters work is that they do not. In my experience, the delightfully small and perfomant camera had a habit of giving up its elctronics when most inconvenient. I had more than one bought new repaired by the importers when the
clever magnetic shutter expired. The lenses can be kept and will perform well without their square aperture which has to be neutered

p
 
Hmm. I had the original Minox 35 way back when, sold it, then bought the Minox 35GT a few months later, sold it, and much later bought the Minox 35GT-E somewhere about 1998. All three have worked well during the entire time I owned them; I've traveled with the 35GT-E as my only camera several times and it's never missed a shot.

It's on my desk now, just loaded up another roll of film a couple of days ago... 🙂

G
 
If I recall, at least on the faulty automatic only PL I had, it had separate aperture blades, but those only worked when you wanted to use a flash attached. Otherwise in program mode, it used the leaf shutter as the aperture.

I am guessing at least for the ML, in manual mode, the leaf shutter worked similar to an XA that has both the leaf shutter and separate aperture blades.

I have an MB that works (actually two because I bought a BGN one on KEH that also ended up working..), but it is only Aperture priority. It has been fairly reliable, with the three or so rolls of film I've run through it. I had more issues with the mercury battery powered models like the EL, GL, and PL.
 
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