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INTERVIEW WITH THORSTEN KORTEMEIER

John Watson, Jr.
Vice President

Thorsten Kortemeier is the Geschaeftsfuehrer (or President) and majority owner in Minox GmbH. While conducting such interviews is not a common occurrence for him, he was anxious to have the chance to talk to MHS members.

MHS – We very much appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us. The new Digital M3 is a real watershed camera for Minox. What do you see as its place in Minox's offerings?

TK -- In the last two years the Minox Classic Camera line was quite successful for us. With it we inspired a lot of people outside of the traditional Minox 8x11 customer group to try the 8x11 system.

 

Usually, however, the first reaction of somebody who sees the camera for the first time is: “Is this digital?” This made us think that the public is much more open to a digital classic camera, so we decided to add a new product line in that range.

We will keep the 8x11 classic cameras in our program because we see there a different customer then for the digital version and we will introduce more 8x11 models in the future.

MHS -- Are you partnering with Sharan on this as with the other 8x11 Classic Cameras?

TK -- The Classic Camera concept was born by some friends from Japan (Asanuma – a wholesaler in Japan) and Minox during the Photokina of 1996.

Together with the support of Leica it was possible to develop the Classic Camera Leica IIIf. Because of the high labor costs here in Germany we decided to find a partner for the assembly in Japan.
Because Asanuma is a wholesaler in Japan and the distribution in the Japanese market is very complicated for foreign companies we decided that Asanuma would distribute the cameras exclusively in Japan. The version for the Japanese market was called Sharan.

When we made the decision to build the digital camera it was clear that we would have to manufacture this camera in the same countries where all the other Japanese companies produce their digital cameras. Otherwise we would never compete with their prices. So we assemble the DCC M3 in Hong Kong and, so, can offer it under the retail price of the 8x11 Classic Cameras.

The distribution in Japan will be through our Minox agency. For this reason it's not planed to offer a special Sharan version.

MHS -- The dimensions on the digital seem to vary from the other Classic Cameras. Is there a reason for this?

TK -- There will be many small digital cameras presented at Photokina this year. I guess the smallest will be the Fuji credit card size camera or the new Casio "Exilim." The disadvantage of these very small cameras is that they work with a special rechargeable battery inside, so if the battery is empty you have to find a power socket to recharge the battery.

During this time you can't take pictures.

Because of this we decided to use a standard lithium battery (CR2) so that if the battery ran out you just change it.

This allowed us to keep the design of the Classic Camera M3 and only increase the depth by approximately 2 mm.

MHS -- This being exclusively a Minox project, do you see other miniature digital cameras following? There have been rumors of a DLX floating around for some time.

TK -- We have at the moment four more digital camera concepts in preparation, a DLX as well.

Please understand that I can't mention more at the moment, but for a new DLX we need some more time because we think that potential customers have quite high expectations.

MHS -- Do you have any idea when we may see some of these new cameras coming to market?
TK -- The market launch of a DLX camera depends on the availability of the parts and components. At the moment we are in contact with several chip manufacturers, but it seems that we will have to wait a little bit longer than we had expected.
MHS -- With your recent camera offerings leaning so much towards digital, are you planning on updating either the GT or modern 8x11 film camera categories in the foreseeable future?

TK -- I believe that there will be a market for 35 mm and 8x11 mm cameras beside the digital market. Therefore we have several projects running.

MHS -- Since Leica still owns a large minority share in the company, how much does it contribute to development of new products?

TK -- We still have close contacts to Leica. We gain a lot of support for our R&D dept. and most of the parts of the 8x11 and 35 mm cameras are manufactured by Leica.

MHS -- It has been expressed that there have been many issues with parts availability and the availability of certain films. Do you have any comments in this regard?

TK -- Due to the independence of Minox the whole control of production of parts and spare parts comes back to Minox. We have had big difficulties finding manufacturers for many parts. Before 1995, most of them were produced by the old Minox itself.
Sometimes we need parts which have not been produced for more than 10 years. If you try then to reactivate the old tools and molds you find out that they don't work any longer and you have to modify them. This takes much time.

So I ask everybody for their patience and if there are serious problems contact Mrs. Claudia Glassl www.info@minox.com for further information.

MHS -- There have been a lot of rumors about the 8x11 accessories and which have been discontinued and why. The developing tank for one has come up, with the general answer being the equipment has broken and a new option is in the works. Another is the discontinuation of some of the old standby accessories such as the binocular clamp and copy stand. Where do these things stand? Might they have a place in an alternative form in the future?
TK -- It's true, the tool to make the old developing tank is broken.
Unfortunately it's uneconomical to develop and produce new tools for a product we sell around 100 times a year. We are in contact with Jobo in Germany and we will offer a solution for 8x11 film developing in the near future.

MHS -- What else can you tell the members of the MHS about the state and direction of the company?

TK -- Maybe more in the next memo?

MHS – Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. We look forward to Photokina and all the new products! It sounds as if Minox is in good hands.

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Established
April 20, 2001
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