I found a camera which looks to be a Minox 35GL (Ser. No. 4007249) in all respects EXCEPT it does not have a thumb frame advance lever. It only has the friction wheel. Did Minox make some model of 35GL without the thumb lever, or is has this one been amputated somehow (or is it a fake?).

-- Fred Dashiell (dashiell@mediaone.net), April 28, 2000

Answers

Sound like the lever is missing. The film advance lever is actually a combination of lever and a wheel-- if the lever is missing, the wheel still works. And it works like an Olympus XA thumbwheel !

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), April 28, 2000.

The thumb lever broke off my GL. The part is a potmetal casting and is not particularly strong. Not wanting to pay to have it replaced (because strictly speaking it is not necessary), I ground off the stub. Now it looks like it was built as a thumbwheel-advance camera. Perhaps that happened to yours.

-- David Foy (dfoy@marketactics.com), April 28, 2000.

Good idea to just smooth off the stub. Mine is sharp and likely to cut my finger.

This must be a common problem. I hope Minox made it stronger in the more recent models.

-- Fred Dashiell (dashiell@mediaone.net), April 28, 2000.

I am wondering if Olympus XA also has similar film advance lever/wheel as Minox ?

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), May 01, 2000.

The all-metal thumb advance lever broke off my GL some years ago. Don Goldberg replaced it with a metal and plastic one from a later model. Works fine.

-- Ernest Murphy (ernestmurphy@mac.com), February 03, 2002.