A walk in the park with Minox LX and APX 100

[Minox]

Recently, taking the air with an LX and some APX 100.

 

[bernard_L]

The quality is hard to believe !

 

[Minox]

 

[htmlguru4242]

Very nice shots!

And the optical quality of the Minox lenses never ceases to blow me away ... with a frame area that's, what, about 10% of the area of 35mm?

The only thing that's kept me from buying one is the price / availability of pre-made film. Do you slit and load your own film?

 

[Trask]

Very nice -- I'm a big fan of APX-100. What developer, tank, time, temperature to get these results? I've got to start Minox-ing more...

 

[Minox]

Very nice shots!

And the optical quality of the Minox lenses never ceases to blow me away ... with a frame area that's, what, about 10% of the area of 35mm?

The only thing that's kept me from buying one is the price / availability of pre-made film. Do you slit and load your own film?

Cut, load and process my own film, yes. Been doing this since the mid 90's. There's an article I've written for 35MMC online magazine, where I do mention costs and such. You may peruse it here: https://www.35mmc.com/19/04/2023/so-you-want-to-get-into-minox-photography-by-julian-tanse/

 

[Minox]

Very nice -- I'm a big fan of APX-100. What developer, tank, time, temperature to get these results? I've got to start Minox-ing more...

Thank you. This roll was processed in Rodinal 1+50 @ 12' / 20*C, Jobo 1510 tank with a 8x11 Jobo dev reel.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have gotten out of the habit of taking my Tessina out for exercise and it just sits on the shelf crying, "You don't love me any more!" So sad.

 

[Minox]

I have gotten out of the habit of taking my Tessina out for exercise and it just sits on the shelf crying, "You don't love me any more!" So sad.

Take her for a stroll, that'll cheer her up

 

[G1DRP]

I’ve owned two LX’s and both had soft lenses. I’ve recently bought a scrap LX chassis, so that I can use it to sort mine out.

 

[xkaes]

..the optical quality of the Minox lenses never ceases to blow me away ... with a frame area that's, what, about 10% of the area of 35mm?

The only thing that's kept me from buying one is the price / availability of pre-made film. Do you slit and load your own film?

That's right, 88mm2 vs 864mm2 for 35mm. But with a fine grained film, you're all set. I use Agfapan 25 mostly -- or Ilford Delta 400.

The Minox cassettes are very easy to reload.

 

[qqphot]

i've stumbled across a Minox B and an LX. The B is as expected - speeds are good, meter is a lost cause, like most old selenium cell meters.

But the LX is perplexing. Manually set speeds are accurate. Automatic speeds are off by 2 2/3 stops (too slow), quite consistently. Power is from a precision bench supply at 5.6v, but voltage variations don't seem to matter, which is nice to see. Results are the same with the battery I'm using in my 35GT (which is very accurate.)

The 2 2/3 stop discrepancy is suspiciously close to the value of the ND filter, but it's not in place.

Am I just confused or something?

 

[jbrubaker]

What makes you think the auto exposure is off? Have you tested the LX with film? Is there some dirt on the small meter window? I have 3 of these (Minox LX) and have always found that the auto shutter either works or fails completely. I have had them serviced by Don Goldberg (aka DAG camera) who has replaced a couple of shutter assemblies for me.

 

[qqphot]

What makes you think the auto exposure is off? Have you tested the LX with film? Is there some dirt on the small meter window? I have 3 of these (Minox LX) and have always found that the auto shutter either works or fails completely. I have had them serviced by Don Goldberg (aka DAG camera) who has replaced a couple of shutter assemblies for me.

The film is extremely overexposed. Setting the ASA to just under 400 when using 50 speed film gives good exposures.

You can hear the electric shutter's opening and closing clicks, and measuring them with an oscilloscope confirms the timing.

 

[qqphot]

It's pretty decent when rating film at 50 and setting the ASA to 400, at any rate.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

i've stumbled across a Minox B and an LX. The B is as expected - speeds are good, meter is a lost cause, like most old selenium cell meters.

But the LX is perplexing. Manually set speeds are accurate. Automatic speeds are off by 2 2/3 stops (too slow), quite consistently. Power is from a precision bench supply at 5.6v, but voltage variations don't seem to matter, which is nice to see. Results are the same with the battery I'm using in my 35GT (which is very accurate.)

The 2 2/3 stop discrepancy is suspiciously close to the value of the ND filter, but it's not in place.

Am I just confused or something?

It has been a while since I cracked open an LX but the others have a thingamajig that changes the circuit down on the end past the sliding ND. Perhaps yours is stuck in place like the ND is engaged? Should be easy to check it. Just a few screws and voila. I have an angled screwdriver to get out the wierdo star screw in the film chamber. That is the only wrench in the works so to speak.

Now that I'm trying to remember maybe that contact is just dirty.

For me the LX is just too good! I like the Complan lens in the earlier cameras for black and white.

 

[qqphot]

It has been a while since I cracked open an LX but the others have a thingamajig that changes the circuit down on the end past the sliding ND. Perhaps yours is stuck in place like the ND is engaged? Should be easy to check it. Just a few screws and voila. I have an angled screwdriver to get out the wierdo star screw in the film chamber. That is the only wrench in the works so to speak.

Now that I'm trying to remember maybe that contact is just dirty.

For me the LX is just too good! I like the Complan lens in the earlier cameras for black and white.

Ah cool, that's certainly something to check into. But I thought the LX does ND compensation by sliding an actual piece of filter in front of the meter cell as well as the lens - it definitely does shift something over the cell when I move the ND filter into place.

Regardless, I bet there's more to investigate in there.

The LX is nice, the operation is a lot like the 35GT, and they can even use the same batteries. I did notice the B negatives (on delta 100) seem a bit sharper at least at distance.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Ah cool, that's certainly something to check into. But I thought the LX does ND compensation by sliding an actual piece of filter in front of the meter cell as well as the lens - it definitely does shift something over the cell when I move the ND filter into place.

Regardless, I bet there's more to investigate in there.

The LX is nice, the operation is a lot like the 35GT, and they can even use the same batteries. I did notice the B negatives (on delta 100) seem a bit sharper at least at distance.

You are right. I think I was thinking about the B. It has been a while since I had a Minox apart.