I heartily agree that the Minox is a wonderful tool for sharpening your general photographic skills. It worked that way for me, for sure. But...
I don't shoot with my Minox IIIs or B anymore, I did 1995-2018 (and earlier, when I was a kid in the late 60s [*]). One of the reasons I quit is because it really does take a higher level of practice and skill to get impressive results from that tiny negative than shooting 35mm.
[* Yes, believe it or not, Minox film and processing was widely supported - easily found and inexpensive - back in the 60s! It was the peak of the system's popularity, no doubt hugely helped by the Cold War era's massive fascination with spies and espionage throughout the zeitgeist.]
I found that as time went by and I shot with it - and processed/printed the negs - less frequently, I became rusty. Rusty at holding it steady at slow speeds, rusty at estimating focus and exposure, rusty in slitting film/loading cassettes, rusty at precise developing, rusty at making the big enlargements that even a 4x5 print requires. And I didn't do so well in scanning those miniscule negatives when I stopped doing wet printing, either.
I have loved these cameras ever since I had my first one in 1967! The Minox is a remarkable feat of engineering and an incredibly capable camera, but I've found that there are some quite narrow tolerances between success and failure throughout the process of using them.
So, these days I'm a retired Minoxer, the smallest negs I'm dealing with are half-frame 35mm from my Pen F.
I don't shoot with my Minox IIIs or B anymore, I did 1995-2018 (and earlier, when I was a kid in the late 60s [*]). One of the reasons I quit is because it really does take a higher level of practice and skill to get impressive results from that tiny negative than shooting 35mm.
[* Yes, believe it or not, Minox film and processing was widely supported - easily found and inexpensive - back in the 60s! It was the peak of the system's popularity, no doubt hugely helped by the Cold War era's massive fascination with spies and espionage throughout the zeitgeist.]
I found that as time went by and I shot with it - and processed/printed the negs - less frequently, I became rusty. Rusty at holding it steady at slow speeds, rusty at estimating focus and exposure, rusty in slitting film/loading cassettes, rusty at precise developing, rusty at making the big enlargements that even a 4x5 print requires. And I didn't do so well in scanning those miniscule negatives when I stopped doing wet printing, either.
I have loved these cameras ever since I had my first one in 1967! The Minox is a remarkable feat of engineering and an incredibly capable camera, but I've found that there are some quite narrow tolerances between success and failure throughout the process of using them.
So, these days I'm a retired Minoxer, the smallest negs I'm dealing with are half-frame 35mm from my Pen F.
