The UniveX Minute-16 camera

Yesterday's visit to a local thrift store resulted in an interesting find and a purchase.  I spied a plastic bag with a blue box among a pile of cameras in a case at Treasure Mart.   Curious, I asked the clerk to retrieve it so that I could take a look.  The little box contained a minty Universal Minute-16 camera with all the documentation.  The price was $18!  Normally, I might have passed it over, but after seeing Mark Dalzell’s Tynar 16mm (discussed in FPP Episode 190), I figured it was worth a look.

What is the Minute-16?  Although it looks remarkably like a tiny movie camera, the Universal Minute-16 is actually a still camera that uses 16mm film in special cassettes to produce 11 x 14mm negatives.  Yes, a “spy camera”, which was a popular post-WWII niche camera.  While many people know of the German Minox spy camera, and the Mamiya -16 and Minolta-16, which are quality sub-mini cameras from Japan, the Minute-16 is not well-known, and certainly not up the the standards or complexity of the imported cameras.  Before I go on, let me say a few things about Universal Camera.

A Brief  History of Universal Camera

My brief history is extracted from my reading of the excellent book, The Univex Story by Cynthia A. Repinski.  ISBN # 0-931838-17-7, published in 1991 by Centennial Photo Service, 272 pp.

Universal Camera was started in 1932 in NYC, and was immediately successful with their first camera, the Univex  Model A.  Imagine trying to start up a camera company during the Depression!  The Univex Model A was a plastic-bodied tiny box camera that used a size 00 film made by Gevaert to produce 6 images of 1 ½ x 1 ⅛” per roll.  Certainly not an outstanding camera, but at 39 cents, Universal sold millions of them - 15 million, in fact.  The film spools had a v-shaped notch that meant Univex only supplied the film.  Sort of like the razor model of retailing.  While the Model A cameras were simple, the negative was large enough to produce acceptable prints, and at that price, it was the first camera for many young people.

UniveX Model A

After the Univex Model A, Universal designed and sold several different cameras that were more advanced than the Model A, as well as an 8mm movie camera and projector that were priced well below other manufacturers’ offerings.  In 1938, They released the UniveX Mercury Model CC camera.  The camera vaguely resembles a parking meter, and pre- WWII models used a proprietary Univex film load.   Post-war Mercury II cameras used 35mm and produced half-frame images.  From 1938-941, Universal produced a bunch of “candid” cameras, such as the UniveX Iris, UniveX Zenith, UniveX Corsair, and more cine cameras.

The war years were especially profitable for Univex as well as other US camera manufacturers, such as Argus.  Mostly, they were subcontractors to larger companies such as Bausch and Lomb, and produced optical instruments such as binoculars.  While the wars years were profitable, the post-war period saw Univex (as well as Argus and others, but not Kodak) struggle to a degree to provide quality cameras to a more demanding audience.

The Universal Mercury II

Universal’s best camera at the time was the Mercury II, which while odd-looking, was capable of producing good half-frame images on 35mm film.   The other cameras they produced were certainly not high-end.  The Buccaneer was a 35mm rangefinder camera that was supposed to compete with the Argus C3, but at $65, was pricey and not well known.  Universal also tried to capitalize on the interest of those using 120 roll film, and brought to market a series of cameras that were utilitarian and not especially popular - the Meteor, Roamer 63, Roamer I and II, and the Uniflex TLRs.  The Uniflex I and Uniflex II twin lens reflex cameras were actually pretty good, and used 120 film, like the popular (but much more expensive) Rolleiflex.  I had a Uniflex II about a decade ago, and while it worked pretty much as it should, the finish and feel of the camera was certainly not as good as the peer TLRs that came from Japan and Europe, nor as good as an American-made Ciroflex.

Universal Meteor 

Due to a series of unfortunate labor disputes in the late 1940s, Universal’s manufacturing was backlogged with orders, and then, to top it off, a lot of cameras were returned to be fixed.  The company’s reputation suffered greatly, and incurred large debts, loss of some key designers, and the losses mounted as retailers returned unsold merchandise.   For some reason, Universal decided to capitalize on the sub-miniature camera craze (at about the time it started to cool, no less).  They threw all of their capital (raised by selling off a lot of their inventory and parts of the other products) into producing the Universal Minute-16, a “spy camera” that looks like a tiny movie camera, and debuted in November 1949 at a price of $7.95.  A three-pack of the film was $1.00.  By 1952, Universal was bankrupt, and most of its assets were liquidated. However, a tiny remnant of the company reincorporated in Massachusetts and continued to produce the Minute-16 cameras, film, parts, and also do the film processing.  Finally, in 1964, the Universal Company was once again liquidated and all operations ceased.   One thing that had to be a factor in the demise of the Universal cameras - was their non-standard film loads which were made by no other manufacturer than Universal/Gevaert.  Serious photographers shunned the Universal products because of that, and since Kodak, Agfa, and other major film manufacturers didn’t make the Universal films, camera owners could not reap the benefit of the new emulsions from Rochester.  I suspect that a lot of the cameras sold had one or two rolls run through them and the owners put the cameras in the closet and moved onto something better.

Now, back to the Minute-16 (an in minute in size, not minute in time).  

Tiny camera!

First of all, the Minute-16 is tiny. It’s all-metal design gives it some heft.  There is a tripod socket on the bottom of the camera, and the flip up viewfinder is on the top. The shutter speed is 1/50th sec., and the original Minute-16 has three apertures f/6.3, f/11, and f/16.  The later version also has an f/8 setting.  There is no focus adjustment, as the fixed focus goes from 3 feet to infinity.  A lever on the right side is pushed down to advance the film. The shutter release is also on the right side - a simple metal button.   It’s very ingenious, really, and the patented 16mm cassette slips into the camera from the back.  As a tiny camera, the Minute-16 is theoretically pretty good.  There is a tripod socket on the bottom of the camera.   Compare this to the Tynar that Mark Dalzell talks about, and it’s obvious that the Tynar is a bad ripoff of the Minute-16, and even more of a box camera than it looks. The Minute-16 was sold singly, and with various accessories, including a box with every item available for it. I chuckle at the flash, which absolutely dwarfs the camera.

My goal is to find a cassette to load with some 16mm b&w film, just to see if I can get some images from it.  I know that the Minute-16 was plagued with reliability issues, especially regarding the film transport mechanism.  This one appears to be fully functional.  I’ll bet that the original owner ran only the one roll through it, and put it back into the box.  Such was the case for many Univex cameras.  So, if you have a cassette, let me know!