C41
Kodak Gold 200
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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half-frame
The Feinmess Mec 16 is a 16mm subminiature camera produced around 1958 by Feinmess Dresden, a precision instrument manufacturer operating in East Germany. It is a compact, all-metal camera using a fixed lens and fixed focus, with no built-in meter and no battery requirement. What distinguishes the Mec 16 within the crowded 16mm subminiature market of the late 1950s is its shutter speed ceiling of approximately 1/500s, meaningfully higher than the 1/200s typical of comparable Japanese and West German competitors of the era. This faster top speed expanded the camera's usability in bright outdoor conditions. The Mec 16 was produced in small quantities and is today one of the less common German subminiatures outside of specialist collections.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 16mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Kodak UltraMax 400 is a versatile consumer-grade ISO 400 daylight-balanced color negative film with T-grain emulsion, delivering warm Kodak colors, fine-for-speed grain (PGI 46), and wide exposure latitude. Currently in production and available globally as a single-roll and multi-pack.
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Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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About this camera
A rare East German 16mm subminiature with a notably fast top shutter speed for its class.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 16mm cartridge (subminiature) |
| Mount | Fixed lens |
| Years | ~1958 - ~1963 |
| Lens | ~20mm f/2.8 |
| Shutter | ~1/25s - 1/500s + B, leaf |
| Flash sync | ~ |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual |
| Weight | ~85 g |
| Battery | None required |
Feinmess Dresden was a precision optics and instrument maker operating under the centrally planned economy of the German Democratic Republic. The company produced a range of technical instruments before and after World War II, and its entry into the consumer camera market with the Mec 16 reflected the broader East German photographic industry's attempt to compete in both domestic and export markets alongside more prominent brands such as Zeiss Jena and KW (Kamera Werkstatten).
The Mec 16 used a proprietary cartridge system incompatible with Minox or Minolta cassettes, as was standard practice in the fragmented 16mm subminiature market. Feinmess later produced the Mec 16 SB, a variant that added a selenium exposure meter without requiring a battery, following a design approach also taken by Minolta in the MG. Production of both models was limited, and the Mec 16 is among the rarer German subminiatures available in the secondary market.
The Mec 16 is primarily significant as a documentation of East German precision manufacturing applied to the subminiature format at a moment of peak interest in the category. Production volumes were modest, and the camera did not achieve the export penetration that Minox or the Minolta 16 family enjoyed. Within collections focused on German photographic history, the Mec 16 represents an underexplored branch of the East German optical industry that is often overshadowed by the better-known Zeiss and Ihagee lines.
The camera's relatively fast 1/500s shutter is a genuine technical distinction: most leaf-shutter subminiatures of 1958 topped out at 1/200s or 1/300s, making the Mec 16 unusual in its speed class for the period. Whether this reflected a specific lens or shutter supplier advantage at Feinmess is not clearly documented.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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