Alternative Minox Camera Cases
While the classic leather Minox camera cases are quite elegant and functional as designed, for the Minox III/s and B models the measuring chain goes through the case and cannot be easily removed. While the measuring chain is nice to have for close focusing it does take up extra pocket real estate, is somewhat difficult to deal with. I also find shooting a Minox with a dangling measuring chain and semi-hard leather case a suboptimum arrangement. For my Minox IIIs and B I prefer to use a wrist strap which the Minox cases will not accommodate so I need to use an alternative case if I want to protect my precious Minox cameras. A standard Gerber knife case fits both the Minox IIIs and the B absolutely perfectly, it is also padded and can be worn on a belt. I use these as a case when my camera is going to be used in harsher situations. The only downside is that the Gerber case adds quite a bit of volume to the bare camera. I made a leaner camera scratch cover out of the heavy black plastic bag used in Ilford photo paper packing. I simply used a soldering iron to melt seams for both sides of the scratch cover and cut them to size. I made one for both my IIIs and B and have been using these covers almost exclusively for the past year. They have the advantage that they add almost no volume to the camera when in your pocket and almost disappear when removed. They even look fairly nice (or at least they are very unnoticeable). For my Minox EC I do not use a case at all, just make sure that I never put my keys in the same pocket. For my Minox C I do use the factory "flip-flap" ever ready case, only I have removed the measuring chain.