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Subminiature camera
The Minox EC is a subminiature photo camera introduced by
Minox GmbH in Germany in 1981. Although it accepts the same
8 x 11 mm film cartridges as the previous models,
it's design is completely different.
With a body made of plastic, it is often regarded as the poor-man's
spy camera. The Minox EC was followed by the Minox EXC
in the mid-1990's.
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The image on the right shows a typical Minox EC camera. The most obvious
difference with earlier models is the fact that the body is made of
durable plastic rather than aluminium. The outer shell of the camera has
to be removed completely when exchanging the film.
Another major difference with earlier cameras is the fact that the EC has
a fixed focus lens, ranging from 1 metre to inifinity.
This makes the camera less suitable for document photography.
The film speed is set with a milled thumb-wheel just before the red button.
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Although the camera is generally not regarded as a true spy camera
bacause of its fixed focus lens, it is in fact small enough to
be hidden in the palm of a hand, making it the ideal companion for
inconspicious photography.
It is much smaller than the Minox C,
the Minox LX
and even the Minox B;
about the same size as the earliest
Minox Riga
and the Minox A.
The rightmost image below shows the Minox EC aside the Minox A.
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The Minox EC came standard with a black metal chain that allowed the camera
to be attached to the clothing. As it has a fixed-focus lens, there are no
knots on the chain to measure distances.
Also supplied with the camera was a small plastic flash cube adapter.
It could be slotted on to one end of the camera by means of three contacts
and two spring-loaded locks. The images below show the Minox EC with its
flash adapter attached.
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The Minox LX has two compartments that can be opened.
One is the battery compartment at the right. It can be accessed by sliding
back part of the right side. The camera takes a standard PX-27 battery,
just like the other Minox subminiature cameras with built-in electronics.
In order to exchange the film, the outer shell of the body has to be removed
completely. First the camera is pulled out in the normal way. Then, when
pressing the small metal button to the left of the viewfinder, the outer
shell can be pulled off completely, revealing the film compartment.
When entering a new film, the user has to preset the exposure counter at the
bottom of the camera to either 15 or 36 exposures, depending on the type of
film used.
When shooting, the counter decreases each time the shutter release button is
pressed. It therefore always shows the number of exposures left.
When opening and closing the camera, the film will only be advanced to the
next position when a picture has actually been taken (i.e. when the red
button was pressed).
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Sunday, 04 May 2014 - 22:26 CET
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