Film Cameras: A brief history, and stellar images created with it

MINOX B | 1958-1972
Manufactured by Minox in Germany, this 9.5 mm film camera was the first subminiature camera with a built-in light meter that did not require batteries. For many years it was the world’s most famous and widely used camera for espionage photography right until the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. The close-focusing lens and small size of the camera made it perfect for covert uses such as surveillance or document copying. When West German authorities arrested East German double agent Heinze Felfe in 1961, they found a dozen Minox films in his briefcase. Soviet spy Christopher John Boyce also used a later version of the camera, the Minox B, to copy top secret documents detailing the US satellite reconnaissance programme. In 1972, the Watergate scandal was recorded on Minox, which led to resignation of US President Richard Nixon.