Minox B1958

History

Minox introduced the B as an incremental improvement on the A, responding to the growing availability of selenium-cell metering technology in small camera bodies. The Minox A's lack of any metering had required users to rely on pocket exposure guides or experience, a limitation that competing subminiature manufacturers - and the broader 35mm market - were beginning to address with integrated metering. The selenium cell added to the B was coupled to a display needle rather than directly to the shutter or aperture; the camera remained fully manual in operation, with the meter serving as a guide.

The Minox B's production overlapped with the A for a period, with the two models sold simultaneously. The B was in turn produced concurrently with the Minox C, introduced in 1969, which replaced the selenium cell with a CdS meter requiring a battery and offered automatic exposure coupling. The B's advantage over the C - at least for modern users - is its battery independence; a B in working order requires nothing beyond loaded film to operate, while a C with a dead or unavailable battery has limited shutter speed access.

Several external cosmetic variants of the B exist, including chrome and black versions, as well as export variants produced for specific markets.

Why It Matters

The Minox B is frequently regarded as the most practically usable of the classic Minox models for shooting purposes. It combines the fully mechanical reliability of the A with an exposure meter that, when the selenium cell is still functional, provides useful guidance without requiring any battery. Because Minox cassette film has remained available through specialty suppliers - most notably Minox GmbH itself, which continued to produce film for the format long after the cameras were discontinued - the B can be loaded and shot with commercially available film today.

The B was the Minox model most associated with the peak of the camera's Cold War reputation. By the late 1950s and through the 1960s, the Minox system had become widely documented as an intelligence tool, and the B's production period coincides with the years in which subminiature photography was most actively discussed in the press. The camera's integration of metering, however elementary, made it more practical in field conditions than the unassisted A.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Documented use by intelligence services of multiple Cold War-era nations, consistent with the broader Minox system.
• Collected and shot by the subminiature photography community; the Minox B is among the more commonly encountered Minox models in working condition due to its relatively long production run.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Minox B
• Wikipedia: Minox