The Beautyflex 2.8 at a Canter

 

The Beautyflex 2.8 is a mid 1950's Japanese TLR and seems to have been the last in a series made by Taiyōdō Kōki. Early models had geared focusing, and our old friend Gene M had one of those - albeit rather briefly:

 

THE BEAUTY FLEX III c1950

 

My version has, as the name implies, F/2.8 lenses. I've seen it stated that it was the only 6x6 TLR with F/2.8 apart from the Rolleiflex. Not so, as followers of these pages may recall:

 

Fun with an Ultraflex

 

 

My example has FC Canter 80mm F/2.8 lenses – not sure whether 3 or 4 glass - and a Copal shutter with speeds of 1 to 1/300s. Both lenses have the large Rollei Bay 3 fittings. I was able to improvise a lens hood although I recently bought a genuine one. The focusing screen is one of the brightest and clearest I've used. It has a lovely leather case with a sort of cat flap in the base, so that it can be tripod mounted whilst in its case. Really useful!

 

I tried a scrap film and immediately realised that the winding sequence was too slow to initiate. It didn't start until somewhere between the second and third frame, when the mechanism seemed to operate correctly. But I thought that by closing the back as soon as the film was engaged in the spool, rather than winding on to the start marks, I might be able to get 12 shots out of it.

 

 

I took it to an area of Leicester's riverside where there have been big changes, and loaded a Fomapan 100 ISO film. Soon the problems began. The winder kept jamming before the next frame was in position and I had to keep pressing the button to free it, judging the next frame by the number in the counter. I managed to get 8 pictures out of it. Using classic cameras is rarely straightforward but at least I avoided dropping part of it in the river as poor old Gene did.

 

 

 

 

This tower on the left housed an accumulator, a massive weight which was raised by pumps in the building, to power the hydraulic systems, lifts, cranes etc of the Great Central Railway whose buildings and sidings once occupied much of the area. Much use was made of hydraulic power in those day. My dad showed me it working. Now it's just a retail store. I should add that these pictures were taken just before the big lockdown.

 

I was disappointed with the graininess of the Fomapan film. Thanks for looking as always.

Edited March 30, 2020 by John Seaman

Those results are really very good, John,and it's a fine-looking camera. I'm a little surprised by the amount of vignetting, though. I don't know if you're going to attempt to remedy the winder situation, but keep us posted if you do.

 

Beauty made some very fine cameras, not the least of them being the Lightomatic 35mm cameras. I have a couple and the Canter lenses are excellent, with some speculation that they were supplied by Tomioka. There's some background on these here:

 

Behold, another Beauty.

 

Thanks for a very interesting post.

On looking at the images again, I might be a little unfair about the vignetting, in that the phenomenon could be caused by your home-made lens hood!

Yes Rick. I've bought a genuine Rollei hood, when it arrives, and armed with a strategy for getting all 12 exposures, and with a better film, and when the lockdown ends, I'll try the camera again. I also bid on some Bay 3 filters but without sufficient conviction, sadly.