Remember the Minox "spy camera"? Well, now there's a digital version. Amazing it took them so long, actually, considering a digital sensor can have much higher resolution than film.
I was actually surprised to read that these cameras were actually used by real spies, it wasn't just a promotional gimmick. I don't get how a 8x11 negative with a 1950's film (grainy), in indoors light can pick up enough detail to copy "documents". That negative is the same size as as the Kodak Disc format, which went under because the picture quality was awful even in 4x5 inch prints. And that was with much better/later films.
"Measuring just 86x29x20mm (3.5”x1.25”x0.75”) ..."
ReplyDeleteNow that is a small camera.
Yup.
ReplyDeleteI have a digital camera, maybe four years old, which is credit card sized, and not much thicker either. Takes crap pictures, of course.
"with a 1950's film"
ReplyDeleteWho said spies used regular, commercially available film? ;-)
Exactly right, Bert. I've used a Minox C and produced images that were blown to 8½ x 11 inches. The high contrast film was designed to capture CONTENT of documents and recognizable features of people for identification. Many modern day Nikita's still use Minox's - the digital would be fun to test and compare to the film counterpart.
ReplyDeleteThe Minox was designed to capture INFORMATION, not pictures.
I wonder if the digital version is EMI shielded? There's some noise from the CPU and an RF detector could sense usage.
ReplyDeleteYou must be really paranoid to have such protection, and would probably have to keep your docs in a Faraday chamber just to detect anomalous RF signatures.
In the seventies I actually had a roll (1000m) of 35mm film made in Russia in 1954, ISO=10000, `low grain` - designed for aerial photography. 20 years after expiration it produced nice magnifications with tons of details. No shades of gray though: only black or white.
ReplyDeleteI believe this was not the fastest film in Russia, this was the fastest accessible film...