How many megapixels for £78,000 ???

[jeremyrh]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2018/aug/01/cold-war-kgb-spy-cameras-sold-at-auction-in-pictures

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

What an amazing assortment. I would have thought they were all invented by the movie industry.

[jeremyrh]

Special edition "KGB" Leica - how cool is that? :-)

[NancyP]

My dad had a circa 1962 Minox sold in the USA. Its negative size was 8 mm x 11 mm, apparently either a custom stock or a modified 16 mm stock leaving the sound strip unused, packaged in drop-in cassettes. Slick little snapshot camera, the precursor to the phone camera, always in a pocket. He learned about Minox from a business colleague who was active in the Minox photography community, entering and occasionally winning Minox-sponsored photo competitions. You could only buy Minox film from the US Minox distributor and a very few specialty camera shops, and could only get film developed by the US Minox distributor.

[eronald]

My dad had a circa 1962 Minox sold in the USA. Its negative size was 8 mm x 11 mm, apparently either a custom stock or a modified 16 mm stock leaving the sound strip unused, packaged in drop-in cassettes. Slick little snapshot camera, the precursor to the phone camera, always in a pocket. He learned about Minox from a business colleague who was active in the Minox photography community, entering and occasionally winning Minox-sponsored photo competitions. You could only buy Minox film from the US Minox distributor and a very few specialty camera shops, and could only get film developed by the US Minox distributor.

It stands to reason that the main customers were bulk buyers of these cameras who did their own film loading and developing

One neat feature of the Minox was a measuring chain enabling accurate focus while copying documents. And copying documents happens to be one of the big uses of phone cameras.

Edmund

Edmund