Minox Riga
The Minox Riga is perhaps the most noteworthy model in the entire line of Minox subminiature cameras.
Depending on how you want to count, the Riga was either the second or third model of Minox camera made by famed designer Walter Zapp. There was the first non-working proof of concept that Zapp carved from a wooden block. It was this wooden carving that proved to Zapp that the ergonomics of a camera that fit so nicely in the hand and could be easily slipped into a coat pocket were worthwhile concepts to chase. This led to the Ur-Minox, the first working prototype, that helped Zapp start a partnership with VEF-Riga in Riga, Latvia. Ultimately the Minox Riga would become the first production model of Minox camera, claimed to have become available on April 12, 1938.
The Riga was made from stainless steel, making it very robust and noticeably heavier than the later Minox A, B and C (which had aluminum bodies). The heft to a Riga is part of its allure, not to mention the crisp snip of its shutter (also modified in later model Minox cameras), no other model of Minox sounds like a Riga. The Riga has a guillotine shutter with speeds ranging from 1/2s to 1/1000, plus B and T. The lens is a 15mm f3.5 Minostigmat. The Riga uses standard Minox and Spy Film for Minox cassettes and produces an 8x11 frame size that would become the standard on all later Minox subminiature cameras.
It is said that when Walter Zapp fled Latvia to escape falling into Russian hands, he carried with him an Ur-Minox and an early Riga model in his pockets. It was with these cameras that he later used to prove his identity and start a new life in Germany, helping to found the Minox GmbH company that would build later models of the famed Minox camera.
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