Free Hand Copying of 8.5" x 11" documents 8.5x11" is the most common paper size for office documents. Its proportion is very close to that of a Minox picture
frame, 8x11mm.

You may copy a single page or multiple pages of letter size document without copy stand nor measuring chain.

Two observations makes copying letter size document simple:

1. The focal length of Minox 8x11 camera lens 15mm is about twice the length of short side of Minox frame- 8mm.
2. The two numbers 8 and 11 of an 8 by 11mm frame happen to be two adjacent aperture numbers in commonly used aperture series 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32 ... etc. Hence any two adjacent numbers of this aperture series will closely match the proportion of a Minox frame. For example 4x5.6", 5.6x8", 8x11", 11"x 16", 16x22" etc. In other words these are 'perfect Minox proportion'.

The first fact gives us a simple rule of thumb for setting the focusing dial of Minox when copying a document:

When copying a document or photo, if it fits the frame perfectly, the
the distance of the document to lens is about two times the field width.

• Copy half a page of 8.5x11" size document

align the Minox camera viewfinder's long side (11mm side ) to coincide with
the 8.5" side of paper. What is the length of short side ? Now we can use the second observation about aperture series
to help us: we know 5.6x8" is a 'perfect Minox proportion", now we have a long side of 8.5" so the corresponding short
side must be slightly more than 5.6"---- voila, 6" is a good guess. So you set the distance scale of Minox to 1'.
(This happens to be very close number !) Again, you can do this without neither a copy stand nor a measuring chain.

• Copying 8.5x11" document.

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Align the Minox ultra miniature camera viewfinder's short side with the 8.5" side of the document, according to the rule of thumb, the required setting for focusing dial is slightly less the 2x8,5" or 17"- so you set the distant dial three quarters between 1' and 1'6". If you have a metric camera, set the dial to 0.4m. All this can be done free hand, without the measuring chain nor copy stand.

• Copy two pages of 8.5 x 11" documents placed side by side. Dimension = 11x17".

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Align Minox viewfinder long side (11mm ) against the 17" side of the double pages, set focusing dial of Minox to
2', no measuring chain necessary. Out of range for copy stand . Why 2 ft ? Because from 'aperture series' we know
11x16" is a 'perfect Minox proportion' so 11x17" is not, and 12x17" should be close; use rule of thumb set focusing
scale to 2x12" = 2 ft.

• Copy four pages of 8.5x11" documents, placed 2x2. Dimension = 17x22".

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Align Minox viewfinder with 17" side of the four pages, set the focusing scale to 2x17" = 34" , or slightly less then 3'--Set Minox focusing scale 3/4 between 2' and 3'. Pronto ! You can do this free hand, not even with copy stand nor measuring chain, because both of these are out of range !

• Copy eight pages , arranged in 4 by 2, dimension 22 x 34". This is simply the quad of two pages of 8.5x11,

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Align viewfinder with long side, set focus dial at 4 ft.

Note: 6 pages dimension 22 x 25.5" is not close to Minox frame proportion.

Preservation of Proportion of Minox 8x11 Frames

All format preserves proportion when putting 4 or 16 pictures together.

But only frames with 1:1.4 proportion such as Minox 8x11mm frames, have the characteristic that 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 ...
frames, when properly arranged, all have the same 1:1.4 proportion.
I notice this using 5x7" paper for enlarging Minox negative. 5x7 paper has a proportion of 1:1.4 close matches that of Minox. Cut the 5x7" paper in half, it becomes 3.5 x 5", still closely matching Minox frame. Put two 5x7" to make 7x10" , still a 1: 1.4 frame, put four 5x7" into 10x 14" , it still preserves the right proportion.

This is not the case with other popular format, for example, no matter how you arrange two 6x6s, they will never have the same proportion as the original frame (1:1 ).
Even with 24x36mm frame, which has a proportion of 1:1.5(2:3), if you put two 4x6" print side by side, it makes a
6x8" the proportion changes to 3:4 instead of 2:3

Copy right Martin Tai Aug 1999

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2000