Minox B open

Minox B closed

Minox B

The Minox B just has to be one of my favourite cameras of all.  It is best described as a "jewel".  It is so tiny and yet so capable -- it is an absolutely beautiful piece of engineering. The wonderful attention to detail is exemplified by the automatic pop out blanking plug for the hole where the carrying chain fits into the camera body. This springs into place perfectly when the carrying chain is unclipped from the camera body leaving a smooth, slightly curved alloy plug in place.  It is this attention to detail that signifies the approach that has been taken to the creation of this camera.  The camera is equipped with a manually selectable shutter with speeds ranging continuously, and steplessly, from half a second through to 1/1000th of a second and includes settings for both B and T.  The lens is a fixed aperture Complan 15 mm f3.5. Which produces exceptionally sharp negatives.  The camera is fitted with a very small selenium cell light meter which is extremely easy to use and gives remarkably accurate exposures. The lens is focusable from just eight inches to infinity.  The focus setting is directly connected to a parallax compensating bright line in the viewfinder so that even when photographing at eight inches correct framing is very straightforward. Because the lens is a fixed aperture it is always working at its fastest speed and there is no way in which you can stop the aperture down however, to help to deal with bright light on the camera has been fitted with a neutral density filter which simply slide into place.  This even automatically sets the appropriate correction for the light meter reading. There is also a green filter, which can be used for black and white photography and although it doesn't automatically correct the exposure reading from the light meter there is a small dot thoughtfully added to the light meter dial to make compensation quite straightforward.

It really is an absolutely splendid camera.

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