Minox B (1958-1968)

Minox B

The Minox was advertised as a go anywhere pocket camera, but the small size and the ability to focus as close as 8 inches also made the camera famous as a spy camera. The Minox B was the most popular sub-miniature Minox. About 380,000 were made from 1958 to 1968 in West Germany. This little Minox B was made in 1964.

The camera has an aluminum body with a scale focusing f/3.5 15mm Complan lens and a shutter running from 1/1000 to 1/2 second plus B (bulb) and T (time). There is an unlabeled dot between 2 and B on the shutter speed dial, but that appears to set the shutter at 1/2, too. You open and close the camera using a sliding action that cocks the shutter and advances the film. The negative is a tiny 11 mm wide by 8 mm high.

The built-in selenium cell light meter can be set for film speeds from 25 to 400 ASA. The light meter is coupled to the shutter speed setting. For correct exposure you match the shutter speed to the meter reading by lining up the triangle on the scale with the needle on the meter. For exposure control a built-in neutral density filter with a 10x filter factor can slide over the lens. The camera automatically adjusts the light meter for this filter setting and allows you to take pictures in yt?bright sunlight with fast film. For exposure or contrast control with black and white film, a built-in green filter with a filter factor of 2 can slide over the lens. To set the shutter speed with the green filter in place you match the dot on the light meter scale to the needle.

Minox also made appropriately small accessories for the Minox camera, including a daylight film developing tank, a tripod adapter, a flash attachment, etc.

Blue Moon Camera and Machine, Portland, Oregon, still loads film into Minox cartridges. You can get Minox film directly from Blue Moon or from the Film Photography Project store and other retailers.

Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, Tennessee, in 2016.

Post-war Kodak Retina II (Type 011)

This Kodak Retina II was part of the revival of West German camera manufacturing from the devastation of the Second World War. Eastman Kodak Company had lost control of its German subsidiary, Kodak AG, because of the war and acted quickly to recover its investment after the war. The film factory was unavailable because it was in the Russian Zone. The camera factory was in the American Zone and therefore was in a better position to be restarted, although the plant had been converted to make fuzes for anti-aircraft projectiles and had damage from USAAF bombing raids. Production of new Retina cameras started in late 1945.

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Interior

My camera was made for the U S Army PX system in late 1947. It has a Kodak Ektar f/2 47 mm lens made by Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, New York. The lens has a serial number of EO7592, which indicates that the lens was made in 1946 (E = 4 and O = 6), and it has the circled "L" symbol that indicates it has anti-reflection coatings. Kodak had produced the same lens for the Kardon camera that was made by the Precision Instrument Co., New York, for the US Army Signal Corps. The shutter is a Deckel Compur Rapid shutter that is not synchronized for flash. It has a serial number 6166592, which indicates that the shutter was made in 1947. The body has a serial number of 114031. Shutter speeds run from 1 second to 1/500 second in the old shutter speed sequence of 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250 and 1/500, and the shutter has a B (bulb) setting. The shutter speeds run slow on my camera. I need to send it for service before I use it.

The camera has a knob wind and rewind. The shutter release plunger and the cable release socket are located on the body. You use a lever on the lens to cock the shutter because it is not cocked by winding the film. The exposure counter is manually reset to 1 and counts up. The top deck has an accessory shoe. I can slip a shoe mount light meter into mine. The rewind knob pulls up to make it a little easier to rewind the film. The rewind-advance selection lever is on the back of the camera.

The post-war Retina II resembles the pre-war Retina IIa, which was not sold in the USA.

Ansco Memo (1928)

The Ansco Memo was a single frame (what nowadays is called a half-frame) 35 mm camera made in Binghampton, New York. It was one of the first American-made 35 mm cameras.

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The body on my camera is wood with leather covering. Other versions of the Memo were polished wood and there was a Boy Scout version in khaki paint. The lens is a fixed focus f/6.3 Wollensak Velostigmat lens in a self-setting shutter. It wasn't marked with a focal length. Aperture settings were marked f/6.3, 8, 11 and 16. Shutter speeds were 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, B (bulb) and T (time). There wasn't any provision for a cable release. The film load was a strip of perforated 35 mm film, the same film used in a motion picture camera, in a metal container. The film would be threaded into an identical take-up container, and advanced by moving a slide on the back of the camera. The slide had two claws that engaged the perforations on the film, the same way film was advanced in a motion picture camera. This system was used in the later Agfa Memo in 1939. The exposure counter had to be manually reset after loading film and counted up to 50. It was actuated by the shutter, not by the film advance mechanism.

The Memo came in versions with a fixed focus f/6.3 lens, a focusing f/6.3 lens or a focusing f/3.5 lens. Ansco also sold a film strip projector, an enlarger and other gadgets for the Memo. Production ended during the Depression. The price of a Memo was about $25, or roughly $400 in today's depreciated dollars.

Universal Mercury II (1946-1952)

The Mercury II was a half-frame 35 mm camera with a unique rotary shutter. About 150,000 were made by Universal Camera Corporation from 1946 through 1952. The list price was $82.90 for the version with an f/2.7 lens.

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Film Chamber

There was a similar Mercury made before WWII. The pre-war Mercury used a proprietary film load made for Universal by Gevaert in Belgium. Film supplies for the original Mercury were interrupted by the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, and the post-war version was redesigned to use the standard 35 mm film cartridges that are readily available from many sources.

The camera body is made from an aluminum-magnesium alloy and has a black synthetic rubber trim. The film winding knob, the shutter speed knob and the advance-rewind switch are on the front. The shutter button, a cable release socket and the film rewind knob are on the top. The top of the camera also has an accessory shoe and a flash shoe. A matching extinction exposure meter and a flash attachment were available. A film reminder and a very complex exposure calculator are on the back. The shutter housing is decorated with depth of field tables. The bottom of the camera has a tripod socket and the button to unlatch the back. The Mercury did not have the advantage of compact size that the Japanese half-frame 35 mm cameras did, the body being nearly the same size as the full frame 35 mm Argus model 21 that came out about the same time.

The lens on my camera is a scale focusing Universal Tricor f/3.5, 35 mm focal length lens that focuses to 1'-9". The lens stops down to f/22. An f/2.0 and an f/2.7 lens also were available. A 1-1/16" push-on Series V filter adapter fits the lens on my camera.

Shutter speeds were 1/1000, 1/300, 1/200, 1/100, 1/60, 1/40, 1/30, 1/20, B (bulb) and T (time). The shutter is synchronized for flash. The shutter is a rotary shutter that works like the shutter on a Hollywood motion picture camera. It has a slit in a rotating disk that spins to let the slit sweep over the film when you press the shutter button. The slit is variable in width, and with the shutter rotating at a fixed speed the size of the slit determines the duration of the exposure. The parking meter hump on the top of the camera is a cover for the shutter. One of the selling points of the Mercury was that the Harvard observatory used a Universal Mercury shutter in a coronagraph because the shutter made more uniform exposures than the other shutters being made at the time. The camera makes a half frame (24 mm x 19 mm) instead of a full frame picture mostly because the shutter would have to be much larger for a full 24 mm by 36 mm picture, making the camera too big. A roll of film that would make 36 pictures in a regular 35 mm camera will make 65 pictures in a Mercury. Winding the shutter advances the film, preventing missed frames and accidental double exposures. It is not possible to make a deliberate double exposure,

The Mercury has a reverse galilean finder that is small and a little hard to use compared to viewfinders in more modern cameras.

The finish on my camera is showing its age, and the shutter speeds have dropped by about half due to age (for example the 1/1000 setting is closer to 1/500), although it will still take a picture. I'd wanted one of these for years, ever since seeing a picture of one, because they are just so odd looking.

Old Chevy

Kodak Signet 40 (1956-1959)

The cameras in the Signet lineup (the 35, 40, 30, 50 and 80) were Kodak's middle 35 mm cameras - nicer than the Kodak Pony, but not as fancy as the Kodak Retina. The Kodak Signet 40 was a less expensive version of the Kodak Signet 35. The 40 was made in Rochester, NY, from 1956 through 1959. The list price in 1956 was $65.00, which had the buying power of about 604 depreciated 2019 dollars.

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Exposure Guide

Exposure Counter and Film Reminder

Cocking Lever, Shutter Speed, Aperture, Distance Scale and Shutter Release

The camera body is plastic with metal fittings. The top has the film advance lever, the film reminder dial, the exposure counter and the rewind crank. The shutter release is on the front. The hinge for the back is on the left. The latch for the back is on the right and the "Kodalite" pin-and-screw fittings for flash are on the left. The rewind and shutter release levers are at the bottom of the back and front. The bottom has a tripod socket a little left of the center. There is a combined viewfinder and rangefinder like the one on the Signet 35.

The lens is a unit focusing, f/3.5-22, 46 mm Kodak Ektanon lens with three elements in three groups, in a Kodak Synchro 400 shutter, and focused as close as 2 feet. The lens has a retaining ring for Series V drop-in filters and attachments.

The shutter speeds on the Synchro 400 are 1/400, 1/200, 1/100, 1/50, 1/25, 1/10 and 1/5 second plus Bulb. It is a set-and-release shutter; advancing the film did not automatically cock the shutter. The shutter release is interlocked with the film advance to prevent double exposures or skipped frames. The release lever permits a deliberate double exposure or lets you try again if the flash bulb failed to go off. A socket for a cable release is provided. When you used a cable release, it bypasses the double exposure prevention system and to advance the film after making an exposure using the cable release you need to press the rewind lever and push the film advance lever once, then release the rewind lever and advance the film normally.


To load film you push down on the latch on the right side of the camera body and open the back. You push up on the rewind crank and drop the film cassette into the compartment on the left, then push down on the rewind crank so the fork engages the key inside the film cassette. You pull the film to the right and insert the leader into the take-up drum so the tooth on the drum catches a perforation on the film. Once the film is on the take-up drum you can close the back. About three pulls on the winding lever advances the film to the next frame, when cocking the shutter will allow you to press the shutter release. After you advance the film to the first frame, you set the exposure counter to the number of pictures on the roll. The exposure counter counts down to zero.

There is a film reminder dial on the right for Tri-X, Panatomic-X, Kodachrome (daylight or artificial light), Plus-X and Ektachrome (daylight or artificial light). The rewind crank has daylight exposure guides for Plus-X (ASA 125), Kodachrome (ASA 10) and Ektachrome (ASA 25) films.

To take a picture you push the lever about three times to advance the film, cock the shutter, check the shutter speed and aperture, focus with the rangefinder and make the exposure. When the roll is used up you press and hold the rewind lever at the lower back of the camera and rewind the film using the rewind crank.

This camera can take a sharp picture.

The Natchez Trace Bridge over Hwy 96, Franklin, Tennessee

Kodak Signet 50

The Kodak Signet 50 basically is the Kodak Signet 30 with a selenium cell exposure meter built in. It was sold from 1957 through 1960 and the original list price of $82.50 in 1957 dollars had the purchasing power of $767 in depreciated 2019 dollars. The succeeding Kodak Automatic 35 had a similar body.

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Exposure Meter

Aperture and Shutter Speed Rings

Exposure Value Ring (f/8 at 1/60 second equals EV 12)

The body was molded resin with metal parts. The film advance lever and the tripod socket are on the bottom. The exposure meter, an accessory shoe and the rewind knob are on the top. A slot for a film reminder card is on the back. Kodak provided for its 35 mm films reminder cards with exposure guides to fit the holder. The exposure counter and the shutter release are on the front. The cable release is on the die of the shutter. A pin-and-screw attachment for a "Kodalite" flasholder is on the side of the camera.

The lens is a three element, coated, f/2.8-22 44 mm Kodak Ektanar lens with front cell focusing. The lens focuses as close as 2.5 feet. The distance scale is marked for zone focusing (Scenes, Groups and Close-up) and distances in feet. The lens has thorium glass and is slightly radioactive. The shutter is a Kodak Synchro 250 shutter with speeds of 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125 and 1/250 second plus B (bulb). The shutter speed and aperture settings are interlocked and an EV scale is provided. A depth of field scale is provided.

The selenium cell exposure meter has film speed settings from ASA 10 to 400. The meter readout is in exposure values from 5 to 18. To set the camera to an exposure value you set the shutter speed, then push in the aperture ring and move the red exposure value index mark to the needed exposure value on the scale at the bottom of the lens. In addition to the meter reading you can use exposure values from the exposure guide on a Kodak film card. The card for a given Kodak film can be inserted in the holder on the back of the camera.

The viewfinder has bright frame lines with parallax correction marks for 3 feet and 5 feet distances. The word "wind" appears in the field of view to remind you to advance the film after taking a picture.

The film advance is by a lever on the bottom of the camera. The exposure counter, located on the front of the camera, resets to zero when the back of the camera is opened, and counts up. The rewind knob lifts for rewinding the film. The is a tiny rewind release on the front of the camera, near the exposure counter.

This is a nice, easy to use camera. The viewfinder is very good. The lens is adequate.

New Filters on Old Lenses

Cameras from the era when they actually made 35 mm cameras in the US commonly used drop-in filters, usually Series V (1-3/16" or 30 mm diameter) or Series VI (1-5/8" or 41 mm diameter) size, that fit either an adapter that was slipped on or threaded into the lens, or a retaining ring that was part of the lens. Series V or VI drop-in filters apparently are no longer made. Old filters, especially polarizers, are not always available in good condition. It is possible to use a threaded step-up ring instead of the original threaded insert to attach a modern screw-in filter in place of a drop-in filter. The retaining ring on a Series V adapter has a thread diameter of 1-5/16" (33.3 mm) and a Series VI has 1-3/4" (44.5 mm). A 33.5 mm to 52 mm step-up ring (lens to filter) can replace a Series V insert and a 44 mm to 52 mm step-up ring can replace a Series VI insert. The thread pitch and diameters don't exactly match, but both fit the adapters I have without jamming or being too loose, and let me use the modern 52 mm filters I already have with old cameras. One problem is that on some cameras the edge of the filter intrudes on the field of view of the viewfinder. You can find step rings from on-line sellers like Amazon or B&H Photo. You can find Series adapter rings on eBay.

Adapter ring, original insert and step-up ring

Adapter ring and step-up ring threaded together, ready for a modern filter