minox-lens-style cameras

I had a Minox 35PL. It looked nice, but the shutter only worked on slow speeds. Maybe I will get luckier next time.
 
I have a Minox 35GT, which I had to send to DAG for repair. Something with the shutter, the details of which I have forgotten. Since he fixed it ($80), it's been working flawlessly. My favorite camera, ever.
 
haha..thanks for this thread. over the past week, i got myself a GSE and a GTE... i think i am going to have problems looking for a GSE battery, a px27. Would a minox convert to LR44 worth it ?

thanks
 
I am looking for a pair of Minox BL 13x56 BR. If interested, I have a few high quality clothing items to include in a partial trade (Filson Double Mackinaw, ASAT Elite Ultimate, etc.).
 
OlliL said:
The Balda CE35 was made by one of Minoxes engineers, who left the company
and created this camera,
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No - it is not even the other way around. The entire Minox 35 series was designed and made by Balda. Minox were their biggest re-branding customer and got "their" Balda designs exclusively, but Balda also made related cameras with modified looks under their own and for a variety of other brands, and sold old production lines (and rights to produce the cameras made on them) to China and the USSR.
 
Are you shure?

AFAIK Balda only produced parts for the Minox (the housing i.e.) and not the whole camera.

Nevertheless there was a very strong connection between both companies. ;)

And in the end it doesn't matter who copied from theother, when the outcome is something that good!
 
OlliL said:
AFAIK Balda only produced parts for the Minox (the housing i.e.) and not the whole camera.
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No, they were entirely made by Balda (that is, Will may have contributed the optics). If any, Braun (Frankfurt) might be said to have been at the roots of it. The whole history is complex - the inventor (Ernst Krull) had his own consultant company, had been working with Balda over Braun/Nizo Super 8 cameras and flashes, and was eventually hired by Minox as their design head. Krull supposedly had already been pregnant with that idea back in the preceding Braun days (but trade mark conflicts kept Braun from expanding into still cameras as there already was another camera maker, Braun Nürnberg), so he probably brought the camera with him, or was even hired for it. The Minox (and less so the Balda) certainly has a strong Braun look to it - and everybody involved came straight from the D.Rams team at Braun rather than having a longer association with Minox or Zapp.
 
sevo said:
...everybody involved came straight from the D.Rams team at Braun rather than having a longer association with Minox or Zapp.
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wow...great information! this thread is sure getting better...;)

BTW i believe Braun (THAT Dieter Ram related Braun) did make one camera, but i cannot find any info on the internet, anyone knows, or even better, has one?
 
I had the one w/ AE Lock. Is that the EL? It sure was a neat little thing, just didn't work. Can't see how you can use one of these w/o exposure lock on the other models.
 
As far as I know, none of the "classic" Minox 35s have exposure lock ("EL" is simply a name). This was only added with the ML line, which looks different.

You can indeed use them without exposure lock, and quite well, too. I used a Kiev 35 (exact copy of the EL) for years, with slide film. Proper exposure was never an issue, but the damn thing was a portable light leak.

The EL doesn't have the 2x backlight switch, though, so you're forced to fiddle with the ASA dial to compensate. For that reason, I would recommend at least a GL, but really you might as well go for the GT which also has a self timer.

Neat trick with all Minox 35s: Make sure you have the hotshoe cover. If it's lost, DAG sells them for a buck. When you slide it in the wrong way around, the camera goes to the fixed flash sync speed (which depends on the model), giving you full manual exposure control with the aperture ring.
 
batterytypehah! said:
Neat trick with all Minox 35s: Make sure you have the hotshoe cover. If it's lost, DAG sells them for a buck. When you slide it in the wrong way around, the camera goes to the fixed flash sync speed (which depends on the model), giving you full manual exposure control with the aperture ring.
Click to expand...

d_mn lost it years ago:eek:...thanks anyway.
 
Did you say minox-style-lens cameras ??
2Kiev35A.jpg

Both working. One of them had a frozen shutter and I had the privilege of having it repaired at the Arsenal factory in Kiev (a few yers ago, the factory is closed now). Small, pocketable, reliable (so far...).
Joao
 
Another neat trick with all Minox 35s:

If you've got a spare flash lying around, file off a bit of the front left of the flahses mount, same shape as the hot shoe cover so that it doesn't push the micro switch in the camera's mount. The camera will not go into its fixed 1/60th, but still strobe the flash at every shutter speed. This way you've got perfect daytime fill possibilities.
 
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