The Miniature Camera Monthly

I have a book I first firstbfoind on tje shelves in a hotel in Argyll (I didn't steal it: I bought one later) called 'The manual of the miniature camera'. 'Miniature' turns out to mean 'not large format'. It too is fascinating.

Art: you might like this URL:
https://icatchshadows.com/listing-of-historic-photography-magazines-with-links-to-scanned-issues/

Chuck

I wish that was what I paid for the Rollei that I just got! :-)

A really fascinating look back Art. These old publications really put things into perspective for me plus how mind-bogglingly complicated the human mind can be when inventing things. Many of these cameras are me-too types but there are some really left field examples too. I have a few UK magazines from the 1950's and 60's that show a rather more limited range available, reflecting the times in Britain I guess, but still interesting to delve into occasionally.

Art,
Fascinating! Ray Bolger is lit by eight 2,000 watt lamps!! Lucky it didn't catch his clothes on fire!
The camera ads are cool. A Zeiss Ikonta B for $56. I have one that I shoot with often. Many other models in my collection. What are you going to do with those magazines? Seems a shame to discard them.

Fascinating stuff. There was a similar UK monthly publication entitled 'The Miniature Camera Magazine'. This was first issued in December 1936 and survived until about 1952.

Thanks again for an interesting Time travel !

Hello Art. Well you did it! I'm always looking for something unusual and when I spotted the Skyview Aerial camera in the 1939 advertisement (page 63), I had to learn more. You started a lot of fun for me as there was an auction listing for one of these and I bought it. Instead of plates, I rigged and adaptor for a Graflex 23 roll film back and I have been shooting away. I plan to tell the story in a future article on 35mmc and plan to use the ad you provided to show the start of the process. Thanks for putting me on the track. It is certainly one of my coolest cameras.

Art, your article brought something back to me straight away. It connected me with my memories of Modern Photography, the magazine that followed Minicam. As a child from about 11 onwards, and then as a teenager growing up in Argentina, I read and re-read Modern Photography and Popular Photography obsessively. I had to go to the only bookshop in my town that carried them. My mother, thinking about my English and noticing what she saw as an unusual interest in photography, thought what a way to make sure I kept reading in English (well beyond what my afternoon English language school required). There was no need to encourage me to read them, and my parents bought me back issues from the 1970s so I amassed quite a collection.

After reading your article, which I enjoyed very much, I went to check a few copies of Modern Photography that I still have at home here in London, and there it was again, that “35 Years Ago” section where Minicam would appear. That is how I first came across Minicam, through those pages in Modern Photography.

Talking about Modern, I remember those magazines for the endless pages of mail order listings, page after page of equipment, cameras, lenses, accessories. I do not even know whether Minicam had the same kind of thing in its time, but in Modern and Popular it felt like a world in itself. It was all very much of the pre-internet days. I used to pore over those listings, thinking carefully about which brand of camera I would one day end up with. I even decided, when I was 12 or 13, which “minicam” brand would be my choice in the future. As it happens, that brand is still my main system to this day. I have added two smaller format systems of different brands over the years, but I never really switched, I always stayed with that 35mm system (first film, then digital, then mirrorless) as my base. I find it a bit striking now to think of 35mm as “miniature”, because today "full fram" has been turned into some sort of reference point.

I remember the names of the writers in Modern as much as the cameras, among them Herbert Keppler, Bennett Sherman, Jason Schneider, and Julia Scully. Even when I did not fully understand everything in those articles, something stayed. I still find myself with a slight sense of déjà vu when I go into second-hand camera shops. I look along the shelves and recognise what feel like old friends, equipment I first met on those pages rather than in the hand.

Incidentally, another thing that comes to mind when looking through those old magazines is the way equipment was reviewed by Modern and also Popular Photography in the 1980s, which feels so different from reviews today. Perhaps under the guidance of writers like Herbert Keppler, there was often a kind of forensic disassembly to it. Cameras were taken apart and judged on their construction in detail, whether gears were metal or plastic, whether wiring and layout suggested careful design or an afterthought. It was about how something was built, not just how it performed.

Your piece brought back the feeling of walking into that bookshop in another country, another life, hoping a new issue had arrived. I know, your article is about Minicam, and I am talking about its successor, Modern, but in a way they are all part of the same thread.

All the best with the move!