Minox FAQ

Our Spy Film comes already loaded in a brand new, hand-assembled, light-tight cassette and coffin. All you need to do is pop the cassette into your camera and you are ready to go!

Yes - enthusiastically. Blue Moon Camera and Machine is dedicated to processing and printing Minox subminiature films, both black & white and color, for the very, very long term. Many of our staff carry and actively shoot Minox cameras, so it is certainly in our best interest to keep our work flow flowing. As with all of our lab processes, your work is handled in the same manner as our own.

Shooting with your Minox camera should not be a rarified or exotic experience. We keep the subminiature print pricing schedule in line with that of our standard 35mm processing and printing. To wit:

Black & White -- $10.50 to develop the film (by hand) and $0.95 per print
Color -- $9.00 to develop the film (by machine) and $0.95 per print
Slide -- $14.25 to develop the film (by machine)

As with most of our printing services, Blue Moon Camera is proud to offer completely optical, non-digital printing from Minox negatives. We feel that working with lenses and chemistry still provides the highest quality prints. Even our machine proofs fall into this category.

Unlike most of our services, the proofing of Minox film is limited to two options. Our standard print is the unique and compelling presentation print. Our exclusive proof looks like this:

This print has a perimeter of five inches by five inches and an image size of 2 1/4 inches by 3 1/4 inches.

Our latest print size is the only machine enlargement available and looks like this:

This print has a perimeter of 5 inches by 7 inches and an image size of 3 1/4 inches by 4 3/4 inches. These cost $1.25 per print if you have us print one of each at the time of development. Reprints of 5x7s follow the pricing of our other formats, starting at $2.00 per print.

While we strongly recommend a nice matte finish, we do offer a high-gloss paper surface, though those seeking the glossy paper should allow a bit more time for the return of their prints.

Black and white film is printed on color paper in a lovely, old-fashioned warm tone style which looks like this:

We can. While we believe that our optical prints offer the most appealing product from a Minox negative, we recognize the occasional need for a digital copy. We are using a high resolution, dedicated film scanner to digitize your Minox film. Given the extremely small size of Minox negatives, the resulting scans are somewhat limited. Our highest resolution scan is approximately 1365x1900 pixels, which is just big enough for a 5x7 inch print.

Our lab always strives to fulfill all orders within one week of receiving your film. If you will kindly allow two weeks for the film to travel door to door, you should be pleasantly surprised. Remember, we may ask for up to a full extra week when fulfilling glossy proofing, custom darkroom orders, or multi-part orders (e.g. printing + scanning of the same roll of film).

It is imperative that Minox cassettes are handled very delicately, as they are just that: delicate. Please do not expect successful shipping if you drop an exposed cassette in a regular envelope – they likely will be crushed at best, and be lost altogether at worst. The cassette, in its factory-provided “coffin,” should be bubble wrapped and shipped in a rigid container for maximum protection.

Return shipping: For most orders within the continental US, we utilize the USPS's Priority Mail service. This generally costs $11.00 for most orders, and is safe and (more importantly) trackable. This box (roughly 5x7 in size) will easily hold two or three completed rolls of processing, plus a couple of unexposed film cassettes should you need any fresh film. International customers or those with large orders should kindly inquire for an accurate shipping quote.

You’re not crazy – quite the contrary, your interest in Minox cameras and their usage goes a long way to proving how discriminating a photographic consumer you really are. The Minox cameras themselves, particularly those of the vintage variety, are the high watermark of twentieth century photographic industrial design. Incredibly sharp optics installed into an elegant and reliable camera that is easily carried (or hidden) anywhere make for one of our favorite cameras ever, past or present.

The best photographer in the world is powerless without a camera. The Minox system allows you to make sure that you never venture forth unarmed.