"The Minox is my life."

-- Walter Zapp

Site Navigation

Home

Minox Historical Society

Current News

- Archives

History

- About the MHS
- The Minox Story
- The Spy Camera
- The Gentleman's Camera

Charter

Contacts

The MHS Store!

JOIN THE MHS!

Minox Encyclopedia

Minox Publications

Translate This Site!

D. SCOTT YOUNG
Secretary
Email: dscotty@minox.org
Homepage: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/youngds/

On the way to school I fished an old Argus C3 twin lens reflex camera out of an open trash bin because it looked so shiny and cool…shiny, cool things are highly attractive to 9 year old boys. Closer inspection revealed that the picture taking lens was shattered, providing a ready answer as to why it was in the trash bin to begin with. I smuggled the camera back home (I really didn’t want to explain why I’d been looking in a trash bin when I was supposed to have been walking to school) and pulled the few remaining slivers of glass out of the lens bezel.

Then, without a seconds thought, I sneaked into my older brothers bedroom, stole one of the eyepieces from his microscope and carefully squeezed the plastic barrel with a pair of pliers until it cracked and one of the lenses fell out. My moral sense was no more highly developed than my engineering sense was (both were rather dismal at that age), but someone must have been looking out for me as I was able to force the lens into the bezel and found it actually fit rather well.

Armed with my newly functioning Argus and a roll of film (I stole that too…), I embarked on an adventure in clandestine photography. For those of you who think that clandestine photography with an Argus TLR is something of an oxymoron, consider the inventiveness of a 9 year old who doesn’t dare get caught with the thing lest he have to explain where his brother’s microscope eyepiece went to…by the time I finally got my first Minox camera (I didn’t steal it…honestly…), clandestine photography was a walk in the park for me!

I don’t think I’ve ever been without a camera of one sort or another since that day, having gone through a variety of film formats and camera types, 35mm being my favourite for all purpose shooting. I spent the next 10 years in a darkroom happily processing and printing all the (primarily black & white) film I was shooting at the time, as well as reading every book on photography I could find. In between all that, I went to school…

I think I saw my first Minox when I was about 11 years old, a silver toned Model C hanging from a chain around the neck of one of the teachers at our school. Sadly, I don’t really remember her, but I’ve never forgotten that fascinating, shiny, cool little camera with the three knobs on top…and a sparkling, tack sharp black and white 5x7” print of a beach at sunset that she assured me had been taken by that very camera.

I bought my very first Minox after I’d been in the Army a few years, one of the (then) new EC models…I followed shortly thereafter with a black LX and full kit of accessories, and held on to the both of them for the remainder of my career.

By the time I retired from military service a few years ago, I’d owned quite a few Minox cameras, and shot hundreds of photos with them, getting progressively better over the years as both the commercially available films and my personal technique improved. The Army moved me far too often for me to seriously entertain the thought of setting up a darkroom, so my Minox film processing and printing experience has been limited to barely a dozen rolls over the years.

Throughout the more than 20 years I’ve been shooting Minox cameras, I’ve been operating in a Minox vacuum of sorts: I never personally knew anyone else who had one. When I resettled in America from Europe 3 years ago, I happily discovered the Internet based Sub Club and Sub Club user posting list and found myself in the midst of a group of subminiature camera enthusiasts for the first time in my life. From these great people’s friendship and enthusiasm have sprung the seeds of the Minox Historical Society, and I’ve been honoured to be one of the founding members.

Last year I called my brother and told him about the missing microscope eyepiece. He’s in Georgia and I’m in New Jersey and after all, it’s been 35 years now…