Minox Books Info

Minox the spy camera

Spycamera, by Morris Moses, in both 1st and 2nd editions is one of the best sources for the history of the camera and its development, while Heckmann's book is the best source for the technical history and detailed study of the Minox itself, though both overlap and are really complimentary. Moses' book, especially the second edition, has a few errors, One of which is a carryover from the first edition. The carryover is a photo on page 89 of a backwards printed black C model. It is a flopped negative and is repeated, on page 95, in the 2nd edition. A similar error appears in the final "Stop the Press" section of edition 2, page 223, where a Minox CLX is also printed from a reversed negative. These are publishing errors. More glaringly, the Second Edition has a serious factual error in confusing, as one, what are actually two different Minox models. It is even more bizarre because the first edition accurately described one of these and provided a photo.

This is the 1987 gold plated Minox Selection set (999 produced). The First Edition has an accurate description of it on page 95 and a color photo of it after page 84. In the 2nd edition, this photo no longer appears. It is replaced by color photos of a newer and much more exclusive camera called the LX Gold I, and its matching mate, the AX Gold II, both being issued in 1995 with 250 of each made. The Minox Selection is an aluminum alloy shelled, satin (or brush) finished, gold plated camera, with black dials. It weighs the same as a normal LX. The LX Gold I is a brilliantly polished gold plated brass shelled camera with checkered surface embossing (as is the AX Gold II) and is considerably heavier than a normal LX. The description of the Minox Selection LX camera appears in the same text section of the 1st edition, but now on page 101 in edition 2. In Chapter 15, a new 2nd edition section, on page 185, Moses, after already describing the Selection on page 101, then inexplicably describes the same Selection camera under the "LX Gold" heading, with no mention at all of the 1995 camera that actually IS the LX Gold I, and of which he now included several beautiful color photos. Did he not compare with the photos of the Selection set in his first edition? Moses seems not to realize he was mixing up two different cameras and describes them as one and the same. The actual model designations on the 1995 matched pair are LX Gold I and AX Gold II. and this designation appears on an engraved gold serial number plate in the usual LX oval serial number slot inside the film chamber. The backplates simply say LX or AX and have Walter Zapp's engraved signature on them.

The Selection (which probably is a better name in German than it is in English!) has its name and serial number engraved on the backplate in fractional fashion 1xx/999, to show it is a limited run, and a blank in the normal LX serial number slot. The LX Gold I and AX Gold II serial numbers read LX-I-1xx and AX-II-1xx, and this appears on an engraved gold plate in the usual LX/AX serial number slot inside the film chamber, but the limited run of 250 is not indicated on the cameras, only in the accompanying paperwork. As Moses was updating the book to specifically include these new additions, and had photos distinguishing each model, this is an incomprehensible error. Moses' coverage of the use of the Minox in espionage is, far from being dark, one of the best known uses of the camera. It cannot be denied that it was a workhorse of the Cold War, and while he describes many people who were caught, it wasn't the Minox that caught them. True, the Minoxes were used as evidence, but any camera would be so used if found in a spy's possession. It was forensics, not the simple possession of the Minox, that proved espionage in these cases. Interestingly, the spies caught and described were those spying against the US. The ones spying for the US are not mentioned. Moses' book still has not uncovered most of the Minox spy uses which remain classified. It is now known, however, that one of the top US spies in Moscow, a highly placed Soviet Army Colonel, Oleg Penkovsky (sp?), used a Minox A to photograph documentation of Soviet nuclear missiles being placed in Cuba, and got the film to US intelligence sources. It was not by accident that a U-2 spyplane overflew these Cuban sights and got aerial photos for President Kennedy. It was a Minox that sent it there, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis showdown. It is a shame that this came to light after Moses' 2nd Edition. Maybe the Third Edition will come along....

-- Michael J. Vorrasi (MVorr99@aol.com), February 23, 2000 (revised 3/23/00).

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