Minox DSC --- 8x11 style Digital Spy Camera

Finally Minox announced a new Minox 8x11 style digital camera:

 

<a href="http://www.minox.de/index.php?id=70&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=159&tx_ttnews[backPid]

=1607&cHash=62a4bd557e">Minox DSC </a>

I dearly hope they have the sense to stick to the excellent and timeless brushed aluminum Minox design and retain just enough

manual control to make it useable. Where do we order?

 

- Børre Ludvigsen

Børre, I don't think the Minox DSC is out on the market yet; probably after Photokina. I don't know how good it is

if it has only a 3MP sensor interpolated to 5MP like the Minox DCC Leica or Minox Rolleiflex, I will be disappointed.

If it uses CR2 lithium battery, that is a problem, from my experience with Rolleiflex minidigi,one battery lasts only

about 50 pictures

<p>I certainly hope they get it "right" the first time around. As my job is in multimedia development and research, I have had the

doubtful but undeniably exciting pleasure of riding the wave of digital camera development going through 15 cameras so far from the 1992 Canon

(RC-251) "ION" to the Leica M8. From the Fuji MX-2700 and on most of them were reasonably successful. These: <a

href="http://abdallah.hiof.no/20030307-cairo/">http://abdallah.hiof.no/20030307-cairo/</a> were taken with 2.1 Mpx Digital IXUS. Not

fantastic, but perfect for a Minox. </p>

 

<p> Now that there is a mass of "small" cameras on the market a digital "8x11" would certainly be welcome for high quality "candid" photography

again.</p>

 

<p>- Børre</p>

Hi all, I hope we may discover the DSC at Photokina . They have a spot in Köln.

the cartoon of their display set looks like it may just be some ugly ECX clone with a big red button... not much Minox mystique in that... I guess I don't have very high expectations...

 

my fear is that to be cool and Minox it will have to be expensive with mediocre digital guts... and if it is just cheap, it goes up against the smalles Canon digitals... and will probably lose... sadly, in the digital age, I think Minox just means a fashion statement... Japanese electronics shoe-horned into some Minox shell...

 

...though I did *almost* buy a Beansprout camera... so if the Minox is cheap and fun... what the hell?

More detailed photos of the Minox DSC at

http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/minox_digital_spy_camera/

 

Specifications very much like the latest Lecia M3 digital and the Rolleiflex f/2.8 which has a tiny and totally useless LCD screen.

 

The dial and shutter release look like they come from the production line of the abandon LX.

 

The flash looks like an old fashion version of the 8x11 flash unit and it seems it has the LCD display, not the camera - novel and very daring.

 

The bright silver surround of the ECX style camera and the very visible logo but in a brick and not even the well thought out shape of the EC. Is this fixed focus, or zone focusing like the DD1 and M3 toys?

 

At least the battery is rechargeable, and may be replaceable as a battery that small does not last long and I could easily see needing to carry a couple of spares before I could get to recharge them.

 

Although the camera is 27% of the volume of my 5Mp mobile phone when you add in the flash and monitor it is 60% and weighs 20 grams more. Compared to the 5Mp and 8Mp mobile cameras

 

The Carl Zeiss camera on the Nokia N95 is

 

* Sensor: CMOS, 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944)

* Carl Zeiss Optics: Tessar lens

* Focal length 5.6 mm

* Focus range 10 cm ~ infinity

* Macro focus distance 10-50 cm

* Shutter speed: Mechanical shutter: 1/1000~1/3 s

 

Which is more Minox 8x11 like than the Minox DSC seems to be:-

 

Poorer sensor only 3.2Mp hardware,

lacks built in flash (LED flash perhaps like the mobile phones)

lacks a 65mm screen, being 38mm (hard to think it is even that big)

no microphone (?) for video clips

may or may not work with Vista or Linux but the cards probably will in a standard card reader

 

gain

27% of the size when only carrying the camera but then no preview and no flash

Retro 70s style

 

The Minox DCC Leica M3 Plus has a f3.0 lens and 0.5m, 1m and infinity focusing. The DSC is perhaps an "older" technical design but does accept larger memory cards.

 

As a Minox collector and having got a Rollei f/2.8 I might buy one in 5 years, er 6 months, time when they are dumped on eBay.

 

As to appearance it looks very dated to 1978 more a Minox Classical digital version of the LX than a pocket candid camera for the 21st Century.

 

In the press release Minox say:-

 

"There is also a host of intelligent spy accessories on show. From the belt buckle camera to a filming pen - just about every-thing the future "private eye" might need for capturing undercover digital images."

 

Are these alternative cameras in a new range of digital toys from the former Minox 8x11 manufacturer? Or are they some crazy accessory for the DSC like a latter day KGB F21? I suppose for a candid use it is more certain that you are not given away by a flash if you can physically remove the flash unit.

 

But is the sensor good enough to match an f/2.5 AIII with ISO 400 or 800 film in low light.

 

Having predicted a DD1 reconfigured into an LX we seem to have a Rolleiflex F/2.8 digital in an ECX. No price, but as they wanted 400GBP ($800) for the Rollei in the local photographic shop the 200 EURO price (ref. http://www.chip.de/news/Minox-DSC-Spionkamera-fuer-digitale-Agenten_32749331.html) is cheaper than I expected as the 8x11flash and Classic flash unit where both 119EURO when last on the market.

 

As the details may be of a prototype the final production version may be more appealing in style, but the specifications remain.

Minox Photokina newsletter:

http://www.minox.de/fileadmin/downloads/presse/photokina_2008/Mnx_Newsletter_0908_en.pdf

Minox Photokina newsletter:

http://www.minox.de/fileadmin/downloads/presse/photokina_2008/Mnx_Newsletter_0908_en.pdf

<p>I bought a Minox DSC a couple of weeks ago as a tiny camera I can keep in a small bag. Now I was not expecting anything like the quality I get from my Leica M8 or my #2 camera, a Ricoh GX200, but I was expecting something akin to what I got from 3 MP cameras I had some 5 or so years ago e.g. Contax SL300R or indeed from Minox 8 x 11 film cameras I still have. The quality from the DSC is WORSE than my iPhone and that is saying something. It also has a charging fault, so it has gone back to Minox in Germany with a detailed list of its IQ failings. The picture is very soft, the noise levels even in bright sunlight are horrible, the white balance is bad in bright sunlight deteriorating to ghastly in lower light and the flash synchronization is awful, with the shutter remaining in its slowest speed, so you get a blurred image. I am guessing that Minox have transplanted a cheap mobile phone camera module into the DSC, looking at the size of the lens (about the same as an uncooked lentil). Unless it comes back drastically better, which I doubt, it was a total waste of money. A great pity, as the concept is excellent, it seems it is just the execution that is so poor. <br>

Wilson</p>

<p>A few minutes after I posted the above, the replacement arrived from Minox. This one has a broken shutter button. Quality control - what quality control? I have asked for a refund. I would like to get my postage back as well; the original courier charge out to my house in France, and 2 lots of postage back to Wetzlar but - fat chance!</p>

<p>Wilson</p>

I bought one of these, stupidly, while here in Japan. Not only is it really a POS, but the menu system is in Japanese and I haven't found a way to change the language, even though the manual (gladly in multiple languages including my own) says it can be done. The image quality if worse than a 5-year-old can draw. It is truly a horrible little camera. Oh well. Put it on a key chain and take pictures of stupid things, I guess.

Wilson, I find it interesting that two Leica M8 owners, a truly fine camera, thought it prudent to buy this stupid little machine. Does that say something about the two of us? HA HA!!! I say,

...oops. I say, let's just laugh at this non-sense and keep them as an expensive charm. Dumb little thing. If we think too hard, we're going to want to kick ourselves.

<p>Tony,<br>

I have managed to organize a refund on the DSC, as I have had two non-working ones now. I have treated myself instead, to a second hand, rather tatty appearing but mechanically superb condition M4. Richard Caplan, from whom I have bought it and is a wholly trustworthy dealer, says it has the sweetest sounding shutter on any M4 he has heard and unlike M4-2's and M4-P's, The M4 has brass gears rather than plastic, so they don't get a failed rewind.<br>

It is on its way out to me in France. I suspect it will be working long after the M8 has finally suffered its last electronic failure. I would go back to using one of my 8 x 11 Minoxes but the cost of a develop and print B&W is now over €65 and takes about 3 to 4 weeks. Picto in France will do me a beautiful quality B&W develop, 48 hour turn around and 10 megabyte/image scan of a 135/36 all for €32 or at 18 MB scans, €48.<br>

Wilson</p>

<p>I would consider a DSC if it has a focusing lens and genuine hardware 5mp.</p>

<p>I wonder why Minox cannot get it right. They have a long history in making small high quality cameras. Why do they bother to compete with cameraphones. They should make a proud successor to the 8x11 spy cameras. It was funny for me to read how Wilson got a refund for his DSC and then bought a M4. A few years back I decided to buy a new 35 Minox, expecting it to disappear from the market soon, but the camera I got was faulty and bad in so many ways that I returned it and got a new M6 instead from the same shop.</p>

<p>@Wilson,<br>

Maybe you should buy a Minox Daylight tank at Ebay and start developing at home.<br>

Also Minox enlargers pass on auction sites. I bought one for €50,-<br>

After that I bought a friends Nova vertical slot processor, another €50,-<br>

So for about €120,- I got a complete Minox lab.</p>

<p>Rob<br>

The Netherlands</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Alas, I had great expectation of DSC, but it failed me, its battery died only after 3 month.<br>

I don't even bother to send it back for warranty service, not worth the postage cost.</p>

<p>I had thought about finding a DSC just to carry when I want quick photos for the web. After reading the above, I'm glad I hadn't found one yet. I too, wonder why Minox would let such a seeming piece of junk out on the market. Thanks to all of you from keeping me from making a big mistake.</p>