Had this photograph for a while in my folders, and to be honest, I do not recall the place I’ve downloaded from, why or who’s the owner. Yes, I know, careless, but if the owner sees it here, let him rest assured I do not claim the copyright, and I thank him or her for the opportunity to see this.
I am not at all a mechanical person, and I take the photograph at its face: looks like a mechanical rig with which a Minox Riga camera is somehow calibrated, or repaired, or somehow improved or modified. Seems to be a factory machine and not a repair shop though, as far as I can see; the name of the photograph as I saved it reads “minox riga adjustment-diagnostic-calibration machine“, so probably this comes from the VEF factory in Riga, Latvia, and it was used for the production or repair or some sort of mechanical intervention on or of the Minox Riga cameras there.
Of course, if anyone knows what this tool/rig does or its purpose, please do share. I am always looking forward to be educated about things which are unknown to me.
Anyways, I am glad I can show this, mainly because it makes one realize that when Zapp started his cooperation with VEF, almost all the tools and machinery had to be made from scratch, so new and uncharted territory was this Minox thing. They had to imagine and build tools in order to build tools for making the Minox, and this is important. It’s important because it goes to show the extent of Zapp’s vision and determination to change things, and put a legendary camera in our hands.
Walter Zapp’s legacy is very much alive, some +80 yrs after he transformed the holzblock in the Minox Ur. We still enjoy and marvel at the jewel that is the Minox, we still are very active in discussing it, shooting with it, designing new contraptions with which to use the Minox camera in novel ways, still wondering on the model differences, and so forth. So, yes, I would say that Zapp’s legacy is still going strong, and the Minox is very much alive.
Thank you, Mr. Zapp !