Article: Document Copying and Close up Photography with Minox EC

MTC Photography · May 1, 1999

How to copy document or taking picture of close up objects with Minox EC.

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<blockquote><big>COPY & MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

WITH MINOX EC/ECX </big></blockquote>

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One great feature of Minox 8x11 camera is its close focusing capability.

At its closest distance of 8", the field size is about 3 7/8 x 5 3/8", adequate

for photograph of close up objects like flower, figurine etc.

Of course, one major application of Minox 8x11 camera is copying documents.

EC/ECX has a lens fix focused at 2 meter, its near limit of depth of field

is 1 meter, which is not good for close up photo.

Can Minox EC be used to copy document or to take picture of close up objects

?

Yes ! By using a closeup lens in front of the EC.

However, this is easily said than done.

Unlike SLR camera, with which you can attach a Proxar lens and

focus with the TTL viewfinder and

get exact focus. For example, attach a Proxar to Zeiss

Ikon Contaflex and take pictures of close up object

or copy document is a piece of cake.

With rangefinder camera which you can change the focus point, using

a close up lens is still simple all you have to

do is attach the close up (proxar) lens, focus the lens at infinity

then put the object at a distance from the proxar

equals to the focal length of the proxar.

For example, if you attach a 200m

Zeiss Proxar to a Zeiss Ikon Contessa, you focus

the lens of Contessa

at infinity, and put the object 20 cm from the Proxar lens

( not from the camera )

This focus at infinty method works here because

when the object is place at the exact focal point of Proxar, it

converts the light rays into parallel rays; and if the camera lens

is focus at infinity, it focuses the parallel rays

onto the film plane.

Since Minox EC/ECX is not focused at infinity,

that makes using Proxar not as simple.

You may put the object at a distance of

200mm from the Proxar, and you may argue that since EC/ECX

can take picture at infinity, so too it can take picture with a Proxar

lens attached.

Sure enough, you can, but for better result you must take into

account. the characteristics of EC/ECX lens

I shall describe a technique of using Proxar lens on Minox EC

for close up photography.

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ZEISS IKON PROXAR LENSES

Zeiss Ikon made a set of proxar lenses of Contaflex and Contessa 35mm cameras.

The Zeiss Ikon Proxar set consists of four 28.5mm snap on Proxar lenses of

f=20cm, f=30cm, f=50cm, and f=100 cm.

Attach one for these Proxar lens to the front of Minox EC and put the object

in front of the camera according to the following is the focusing distance

of EC +Proxar.

The object distances in the following table is measured from the front of

EC

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ZEISS IKON PROXAR FOCUSING DISTANCE TABLE FOR MINOX EC

Martin Tai ,May 1, 1999</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ff99"><big>ZEISS IKON PROXAR</big></td>

<td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffff66"><big>PROXAR f=200 mm</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffff66"><big>PROXAR f=300 mm</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffff66"><big>PROXAR f=500 mm</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffff66"><big>PROXAR f=1000 mm </big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffff66"><big>STACK 200+300 f=120 mm</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#ffff66"><big>STACK 200+500 f=143 mm</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ffff"><big>Distance(mm)</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ffff"><big>Magnification</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ff99"><big>11.0

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ffff"><big>Field Size /inch </big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ff99"><big> </big><big>5.1 x

</big><big> 7.1</big>

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<td valign="top" bgcolor="#99ffff"><big>Field size /cm </big>

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Lightest copying setup in the world !

A Minox EC plus one or two proxars in the pocket is very compact. As a matter

of fact, Minox EC plus a 500mm Zeiss Proxar weights only 55g,much less then

LX (88 g), or a Minox IIIs (65g)>

A Minox EC plus a Proxar is the lightest document copying device in the world

!

For EC users who wants to copy some document from library or taking

close up pictures, a Proxar lens set is a good alternative to buying a focusing

Minox.

Proxar lenses made by other manufacturers are equally useful for close up

photography with EC( The numbers in the above table will be different with

different makes of Proxars.

From the above table, the most useful proxar is 200mm and 500 mm

My ECCOPIER

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My EC-copier consists of a Minox EC and

a Zeiss Ikon 0.5mm Proxar lens

With 500mm Proxar, the field size is 8x11", that is a page of book

or document. I tested my ECCOPIER loaded

with Ilford PanF plus, rated at EI 64, and

test copy a randomly selected book. The book page

is about

8.5" x 11".

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The distance from 'ECCOPIER' to

book page is about 42 cm. Using my

Octoscop at 28x magnifcation

to check out this 'microfiche' made with my

ECCOPIER, every word ( 16 characters per inch ) is

clearly copied.

even at the four coners. The result is very good.

The field size from 200mm proxar is 3.5 x 4.8", slightly smaller

than the field size of Minox A/B/C/LX/TLX.

The 'microfiche' from ECCOPIER

with 0.2M Zeiss Proxar is also very good.

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STACKING PROXARS

Note in the column f=120mm is the combined focal length of two stacking proxars

of f=200mm and f=300mm; the field size for these two stacked proxar is about

2 x 3" it is the smallest field size one can get from these proxar sets.

It may be possible to stackup three proxars, but I think the picture quality

may not be as good.

2 x 3 field from Minox EC, that is already smaller than the field size of

Minox A/B/C/LX/TLX at their closest focusing distance.

Proxar lenses extend the range of EC from 10 cm to infinity.

Of course, these same proxar lens can be used on focusing Minox too, and

the "binocular adapter " is extremely useful as a "macro adapter ". But with

focusing Minoxes, it is a little bit more complex, due to the variable focusing

range of these cameras, for a given Proxar, the focusing distance changes

depending where the Minox lens is focused.

Proxar is not only useful when the Minox is focused at infinity or a few

meters, but also useful when the Minox camera is focused up close, for instance

at 8", one can get sharp macro picture of stamps.

Centering of Field

However, when using

the technique of document copying with Proxar on EC/ECX,

you cannot rely on the

viewfinder of the camera, because there is not parallax correction,

you must set up EC/ECX to align its lens with

the center of the object field.

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Copy right, martin tai

May 1 1999.

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MTC Photography · May 3, 1999

<h3> Where to get Zeiss Proxar set </h3>

I bought my Zeiss Ikon Proxar set from eBay last year for $20, including

a plastic case.(What is the current pricing, I have no idea ). The four Proxar lenses are coated. Very clean.

Initially it was meant for my Zeiss Ikon Contaflex SLR, but now I use

it more for my Minox EC and Minox C !

arnie___ · May 22, 1999

I have an EC and a set of 49mm close-up lenses (+1, +2, +4) that I use

with my SLR. Do you know what the equivalence is between the Proxars

and the close-ups? For example, might a +4 be the equivalent of a

200mm or 500mm Proxar? Assuming I could tape a lens in place, how

would you handle parallax error with the EC? Arnie

MTC Photography · May 22, 1999

Other close up lens can be use too. <ul><li>+1 = 100 cm

You can use the Proxar table as a guide; but you need to

test and adjust the distance yourself, because the distance of close up

lens to the front of EC is different from one make to another.

MTC Photography · February 22, 2001

<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020411142626/http://www.accessv.com/~martntai/public_html/manual/eccopy2.htm"><h3>Copying

with Minox EC + Close up lens </h3></a>

MTC Photography · February 22, 2001

Copying with EC + 0.2M proxar

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src="http://www3.sympatico.ca/mientronics/public_html/manual/ec200.jpg"

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MTC Photography · February 22, 2001

Minox EC + 0.5M proxar

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src="http://www3.sympatico.ca/mientronics/public_html/manual/ec500.jpg"

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MTC Photography · February 22, 2001

My EC Document copier <center>

<img

src="http://www3.sympatico.ca/mientronics/public_html/manual/ecopier.jpeg"></center>

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