The camera most commonly associated with the Minox name is the sub-miniature series using the 8×11 mm film format, first designed by Walter Zapp in 1936. The original model was first manufactured by VEF (Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika) in Riga, Latvia in 1938, and hence called the Riga Minox. After World War II, the Minox company, set up in West Germany, continued the production of these and various other 35 mm cameras, binoculars, etc.

History

The archetypal sub-miniature camera, the Minox, was invented by Walter Zapp in 1936. Zapp, a Baltic German, was born in 1905 in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire. The family moved to Reval (now called Tallinn, Estonia) where he first took a job as an engraver before finding a position with a photographer. He became friends with Nikolai 'Nixi' Nylander and Richard Jürgens, and it was through discussions with these friends that the idea of a camera that could always be carried came to him. Nixi Nylander also coined the name MINOX and drawn up the Minox mouse logo. Jürgens funded the original project but was not able to get support in Estonia for production. Jürgens contacted an English representative of the VEF electrotechnical manufacturing concern in Riga who then arranged a meeting where Zapp demonstrated the Minox prototype (UrMinox), with a set of enlargements made from Ur-Minox negative. Production began in Riga at VEF, running from 1937 until 1943. The Riga Minox has a stainless steel body, equipped with a parallax correcting viewfinder, a Cooke triplet type Minostgmat 15 mm/3.5 lens, dual blade lens front shutter, and telescoping film advance mechanism. Riga Minox measurement: 80 mm x 27 mm x 16 mm; weight: 130 g, the heaviest of all Minox 8x11 cameras, due to its steel body.

After World War II, production of aluminium body Minox II was resumed in 1948 at a new company, Minox GmbH, in Wetzlar, West Germany. The sales of Minox spy camera peaked in the 60s with the introduction of Minox B, Minox's best seller ever.

Minox was acquired by Leica in 1996, but a management buyout in August 2001 left Minox an independent company again.

Although primarily marketed as a luxury item, the Minox was also used as an espionage camera. Its close-focusing lens and small size made it perfect for covert uses such as surveillance or document copying. The Minox was used by both Axis and Allied intelligence agents during World War II. Later versions were used well into the 1980s. The Soviet spy John A. Walker Jr., whose actions against the US Navy cryptography programs represent some of the most compromising intelligence actions against the United States during the Cold War era, used a Minox C to photograph documents and ciphers. An 18 inch measuring chain was provided with most Minox cameras, which enabled easy 8x10 or 8.5x11 inch document copying. The espionage use of the Minox has been portrayed in Hollywood movies, and some Minox marketing efforts have played up the "spy camera" story.