How good is the Minox 8x11 resolution?

[tjwspm]

It wouldn't leave me alone. My comparison of the Minox A, Mamiya Super 16, and Edixa 16 also focused on the lenses. Unfortunately, I had to work with estimated values for the resolution because no published values were available (except for my own for the Minox A).

Now I've taken the restoration of a Mamiya as an opportunity to measure its lens resolution and, of course, that of the Edixa as well. Since I used the same test procedure for all three cameras, the results can be easily compared.



The surprise: Minox does not fare best in practice. Here is my report:

Challengers to Minox A

Three of the 20th century’s most brilliant camera engineering minds tackled the same challenge: Minox A, Mamiya super 16, and Edixa 16.

moments-of-now.com

 

[StephenM]

I see you are using the simple Katz equation to calculate the system resolution. There is a more accurate variation that takes the reciprocals and raises them to a power - 1.2 if my memory serves.

Good work in any case, and you have my profound respect for it.

 

[FujiLove]

What a wonderful, fascinating and informative website. I’m really looking forward to having a read about those lovely little cameras.

 

[tjwspm]

I see you are using the simple Katz equation to calculate the system resolution. There is a more accurate variation that takes the reciprocals and raises them to a power - 1.2 if my memory serves.

Good work in any case, and you have my profound respect for it.

That's a very interesting point. I'll look into it. The exponent of 1.2 seems to take into account the fact that, in practice, the system resolution is slightly better than one would expect based on the simple formula. This is interesting because it would result in lower values for the purely optical resolution of the lenses.

 

[tjwspm]

What a wonderful, fascinating and informative website. I’m really looking forward to having a read about those lovely little cameras.

Thank you for your feedback.

 

[lindsay]

I also find it interesting, not only as an exercise in general, but because my mum had a Mamiya 16 many years ago which has sadly long since disappeared. It might have been fun to play with.