Tiny camera was agent’s friend
WHEN it came to snatching secret documents, no self-respecting spy could be without the Minox Subminiature.
When secret agents are shown on the big screen searching for papers, they invariably capture the evidence with a Minox, just a little bigger than a matchbox.
Infamous Soviet spy John A Walker Junior used one to photograph hush-hush US Navy documents during what is now seen as “the most compromising intelligence action” against the States.
Before the war, Minox was based in Latvia before production was switched to Germany.
Another KGB favourite was the KMZ amateur movie camera, popular from the late 1950s to early ‘80s.
It’s a miniature clockwork spy camera disguised as an old-fashioned movie maker from the days before video. The adaptation, at first, seems pointless – those tailed by Soviet operatives would be even more wary of being caught on film reel.
But this invention has the camera hidden on its left side, meaning KGB operatives could stand innocently next to their target, the KMZ dangling below waist-level, while still taking pictures.
But the KGB didn’t have it all their own way. Between 1951 and 56, Japan’s Suzuki Optical Company produced the Echo 8, a camera disguised as a cigarette lighter.
And, as early as the First World War, the Allies had developed a camera that could be strapped to carrier pigeons.