Minox spotting in Movies ?

Have you seen Minox in movie, TV or magazines ?

The first time I saw a Minox was in a german monthly magazine called

Kosmos, it was the october/60 issue. It was an announcement of the

Minox B showing a tourist in some italian city (Venice perhaps).

At my optician's recently, there was a BMW magazine, with a photo

contest there. One of the photographer teams was a man and woman, and

the portrait they had of themselves was them in the front seat of a

BMW, with him sighting back with a Minox -- probably a CLX.

 

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Jon

The past few months the History Channel on cable TV has been running

various shows about spies and spy technology. Of course Minox cameras

are often shown. The comments include those about the public's

perception that the camera is used only by spies. One of the shows told

of a Russian general who spied for the CIA. He had been furnished with

a Minox B (here the camera does a close up of a B rotating on a light

table so it ca be seen from all sides) and provided the CIA with 51

rolls of highly classified documents. At 50 per roll that amounts to

2550 pages!! He was arrested, tried and executed; part of the evidence

used agains him was the fact that he possessed a Minox camera

In the movie Grosse Pointe Blank, John Cusack uses one.

 

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Also see http://www.retroactive.com/sept98/minox.html -- at the

bottom, there's a list of movies that have used them.

 

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Sorry about the email address.

As the author of the article just mentioned (thanks!), I thought I'd

add another instance somebody recently mentioned to me:

 

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In Roman Holiday (1953), Gregory Peck (as a reporter) uses a Minox...

wrong! He holds it waist level, with his finger over the lens opening

(!), and looks down at it like a TLR...

 

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Of course, Grosse Pointe Blank got it wrong also: when it shows the

subjective view through the viewfinder (without the distinctive Minox

brightline) when John Cusack snaps a picture with his B, instead of

the distinctive "zzzzip" Minox shutter sound, it uses a typical SLR

mirror-up flash of blackness accompanied by the "zit-whrrr" of a

motorized film advance!

 

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Good thing only us fanatics notice such things...

In "Roman Holiday" that's Van Heflin using an Echo-8.

 

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al

Thanks re Roman Holiday, Al - I was obviously misinformed!

The first time I saw Minox 35mm camera on TV was Charlton Heston, the Oscar winning actor of Ben Hur, using a Minox 35mm camera taking snapshot.

In a Canadian made for TV movie titled "Doomsday Gun" about the life and works of

Canadian super gun designer Gerrad Bull, a spy hiding inside G. Bull's company

used a Minox spy camera to copy design information from computer terminal.

G. Bull was later murdered.

Stephen Rea uses a Minox in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear, snapping

pictures of a half-naked Sally Kellerman.

I just recently saw a great World War II submarine movie for the

zillionth time.It`s called "Up Periscope".The whole point of the

story is for the sub to get James Garner close to a Japanese island

so he can swim ashore and photograph a codebook with a Minox Riga.He

uses the camera properly,but no measuring chain!I guess he`s a really

a good judge of distance!The camera even sounds right.Check it out.

Flipping through the channels tonight, I ran across "Hotel" (1967).

Which has a reporter guy (I think) snapping shots in the hotel lobby

with a Minox B (I think). He was shooting pictures of a black couple

who were refused a room there. I'm not sure what the rest of the

movie is about.

James Stewart uses one to copy some police documents in "Call

Northside 777". This film also shows photochemical reproduction of

wire-service facsimile transmissions.

A Minox C (!) camera was shown in 1991 movie JFK.

Jan 28 4-5 EST TLC channel show: "The Spy Game", in which

Jerry Friedman re-enacted a spy carrying a suit case full of document to a publich wash room, closed the door

took out a secret document, holding it to the door, and copied it with a Minox camera.

Two cameras were featured, a Riga Minox, and Minox B.

In the TV series, "Stalag 13", Hogans Heroes used a Minox A

exclusively to photograph documents and secret weapons. Best of all,

it was usually done with one small candle and sometimes just a match.

Some of the enlargments were incredible. Uh Huh!!!

Movie: Charlie's Angels: Full Throtle<p>

 

One of the angel played by Cameron Diaz was holding silver color

Minox camera, probably a LX.

<p>In "What Planet Are You From?",FAA's operative John Goodman covertly photographs the alien who came to get laid on Earth...he's using what seems to be a Minox ECX with flash unit hooked on (he actually employs the flash).</p>

<p>In Goodman's large hands,the camera is almost invisible,but you can see very clearly the "hammer" type of the ECX flash unit.</p>

<p>Shall we have a Bond Film count of Minox. <br>

My opening bid is: Minox B - OHMSS. What was odd about it....?</p>

You can see a bunch of clips of Minox's in the movies on You Tube.

I find it really funny to watch these as the actors, in many cases, have no idea how the camera works. Such things as opening and closing the camera, then taking the picture, using the flash contact on top as the shutter button, holding the camera completely covering the lens (that one a lot!), and of course, never focusing, taking a light reading, etc. They are fun though - enjoy.