"The Minox is my life."

-- Walter Zapp

THE MODEL LX SERIES

D. Scott Young

The Model LX series, still being made today, has enjoyed the longest running production cycle of any subminiature camera Minox ever produced: 26 years, beginning from it's introduction in 1976 as Minox's flagship model until the present day. It is also the most technically advanced, and therefore, the most expensive production subminiature camera Minox has ever made: over 268 tiny glass, metal and plastic hand fitted and finished parts make up this elegant, precision photographic tool. The LX series is the ultimate technological refinement of Walter Zapp's basic premise of a tiny, precise, and fully functional camera that could be carried in any pocket or purse, always there, and always ready to capture our most precious moments on film.

In form and function, the LX series is very much a "classic" Minox camera, having the famous telescopic rapid film wind, the parallax correcting viewfinder, scale focusing down to 8", drop in and out film cassette loading, and other features that have established the Minox line so firmly among both casual photographers and enthusiasts. However, it is obvious that the designers at Minox put a lot of thought in to wringing out the best technical advances of the day to provide a meaningful set of improvements to their new model series.

Perhaps most obvious is the built in, fully coupled, SBC (Silicon Blue Cell) exposure meter. At the time they were introduced, SBC's provided the fastest, most accurate metering elements available, so fast they could actually control the exposure of automatic electronic flash units specially made for them. The SBC element of LX series cameras will automatically control flash exposure when used with expendable flash cubes on the FL-4 flash cube accessory. SBC elements respond faster and more accurately to changes in light than CdS metering elements, and they don't suffer from the infamous "memory" effect of other cells, i.e., the tendency to return somewhat slowly to accurate metering range when exposed to extremely bright light or very dark rooms for extended periods of time.

This fast, accurate meter is fully coupled to an electronic shutter mechanism (both powered by a PX-27 battery at the time, now powered by PX-27 substitutes as the original PX27 batteries are no longer made), automatically setting precise, and if needed, intermediate shutter speeds for any exposure situation. The electronic shutter can also provide the user manual (electronically controlled) selection of speeds from 1/30th of a second up to an unusually fast 1/2000th of a second (a first for Minox subminiature cameras). The new meter and shutter combination allowed the LX series to read and expose for lighting situations requiring extended shutter speeds of as long as 16 full seconds duration.

The exterior surface and control knobs have also been significantly redesigned: the LX series were the first (and, with the AX models, the only) Minox subminiature cameras to incorporate a standard tripod socket directly into the body shell. This was a major improvement in convenience, eliminating the need for bulky tripod mounting adapters (unless you wished to use an external cable release, in which case you did need to get the light weight, plastic cradle Minox makes available to LX owners for this purpose). The control knobs have also been modified with a knurled periphery as opposed to a central, dimpled section; the shutter release button is no longer a round one, but rather, an elongated, gently contoured button designed to easily fit your finger. The new location of the shutter button, intended to keep fingers from straying in front of the lens, also required a modification to new Copy Pod and Binocular Clamp accessories: the new models now have two cable release fittings to accommodate older Minox models and the newer LX; older models with one fitting will not allow you to use a cable release with the LX models. The older display needles of previous models were now replaced with three coloured LED elements: green, yellow and red, indicating good battery, underexposure or overexposure respectively (activated by pushing either up or down on a small lever mounted concentrically to the shutter speed dial).

A spring loaded, cassette eject assembly was mounted around the film advance spindle, which allow the film cassette to pop up slightly when the camera back was opened, making it easier to remove than previous models. From that point on, new Minox film cassettes were produced with a modification that included a slight cut out area molded into the cassettes to allow for this new mechanism while still ensuring a backwards compatibility with older models.

For this reason, the older brass film cassettes can not be used in LX series camera, only the older models. Finally, Minox thoughtfully included a translucent red bar that would swing into place across the viewfinder when the built in, 4X Neutral Density filtre is slid into place, as a reminder to the photographer that the filtre is engaged.

The LX series has been produced in a variety of special finishes over the years, being originally introduced in the now (for that time) standard brushed satin silver coloured finish and the matte black finish, both of which remained a standard offering until the introduction of the TLX in 1995, at which time the silver and black finished models were discontinued.

The first of several gold model special editions was introduced in 1988 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the original 1938 Riga Minox's introduction. Only 999 of these cameras were produced, a number cleverly decided upon by Minox as a reminder to their workers and the public at large that the precision, hand worked production of these special cameras could never guarantee nice, neat, production runs in round numbers. It is important to note that none of the "gold" model LX cameras is truly case from or plated with real gold in the traditional sense: because gold plating of the aluminum body shells is so difficult, Minox actually came up with their own special formulation to achieve this.

1,000 LX models were made up in platinum, as well as a very special edition made up in sterling silver, of which approximately 100 were made. A gold Walter Zapp signature commemorative model was released in celebration of Minox, GmbH's 50 year anniversary on 15 September 1995, while at the same time, the TLX was introduced as the flagship production model. The TLX is identical to the LX, the "T" designation signifying a titanium formulation finish; the camera is very nicely accented with black trim.

Since 1995 two other variations have been offered and are still available: the chromed CLX 60 year commemorative model that comes boxed with a video taped recording of the inventor telling his story of the Minox, and a black matte finished, gold accented Millenium Edition, specially issued for the year 2000.

More recently, a very special edition "Aviator's Set" featuring a black LX and matching, black finish aviator's watch from the 1940's period was offered in 2002, and was quickly sold out.