Yesterday's bargain

[John Farrell]

Yesterday, I visited a local second hand shop, and found, to my surprise, they had some photographic gear.

I bought a Beauty Lightomatic III, a rangefinder camera, with built in meter.



The rangefinder is clear, and the shutter works on all speeds except B. This is because the delayed action mechanism has been removed. The flash synchronisation has been locked on X, and the selector removed.

This camera has a distinct resemblance to the first model Canonet



They both have 45mm f1.9 lenses, the meter cells look very similar, and the outer diameter of the lens assembly is the same.

The Beauty has no auto mode, however. The Beauty's lens is a Biokor-S, reputedly made by Tomoika, who were Yashica's lens manufacturer.

[conan]

Nov 18, 2016 20:46:59 GMT -5 John Farrell said:

Yesterday, I visited a local second hand shop, and found, to my surprise, they had some photographic gear.

I bought a Beauty Lightomatic III, a rangefinder camera, with built in meter.



The rangefinder is clear, and the shutter works on all speeds except B. This is because the delayed action mechanism has been removed. The flash synchronisation has been locked on X, and the selector removed.

This camera has a distinct resemblance to the first model Canonet



They both have 45mm f1.9 lenses, the meter cells look very similar, and the outer diameter of the lens assembly is the same.

The Beauty has no auto mode, however. The Beauty's lens is a Biokor-S, reputedly made by Tomoika, who were Yashica's lens manufacturer.


John, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have a couple of these and to me they represent (along with some other makes) the beginning of the end of the 50s designs when German and Japanese cameras had at least some individuality and some basic styling and minor styling quirks. The Canonet represents the bland 60s when the viewfinder/rangefinders became boxes along the lines of the Argus C3 bricks – a soulless square block with a lens stuck on the front.


Unfortunately for Beauty and other smaller manufacturers and the German makers they became casualties of the ensuing marketing war between Canon, Minolta, Konica and others.