Photax III

First Made: 1947
Lens: Boyer Série VIII
Shutter speeds: 1/100, 1/25, T
Film: 620
Image size: 6x9
This camera has a button for the shutter release rather than the release that has an option for a cable release.  This model is supposed to be rare.





Another camera that I got because I liked the way it looked.  Also it was made in France and I did not have a French camera at the time.  My Photax III is one in a series of Photax camera made by M.I.O.M., a plastics products manufacturer. Like a lot of companies at the time they apparently decided to try to get in on the market for easy to use family type cameras.  And they appear to have succeeded.    The Photax line stayed in production from the late 1930's until the 1960's.

The Agfa Clack would likely be competition for the Photax line in Europe.  By my experience the Clack is the better picture taker.  Although I think the Photax is better looking.









The Photax III is almost entirely made of Bakelite and does seem like it may be fragile.  So far I haven't dropped it to find out.  It does not seem like it would survive some of the careless handling that a camera like the Clack would shake off. And for me at least that seeming fragility does inhibit my shooting with the Photax III. That along with the need to rewind 120 film onto the 620 spool has limited me to just a couple of rolls of film through the Photax III.  For the present I am keeping the Photax III just because I like to look at it.

Beacon Two-twenty five

The Beacon Two-twenty five was made by Whitehouse Products Inc in Brooklyn NY from 1950 to 1958. The one pictured here is one of the earlier models because it has two apertures and a bulb setting. These were removed in later models.

I did find a manual for the later model that said that the single aperture is f12.5.  So I would guess that the aperture on my version would be 12.5 for the larger and maybe f9.5 or f8 for the smaller.  The single shutter speed is 1/50.  The lens is a 70mm doublet.  It uses 620 film which is no longer made.  However if you have an empty 620 spool you can roll 120 film onto it and it will work fine.

So the Beacon Two-twenty-five is a very simple camera.  To me its main distinction is its wonderful molded bakelite body.  It is one of the few cameras that I found myself wanting just on the basis of appearance.  And I think its main value will continue to be that I enjoy looking at it.  The Beacon Two-twenty five I think is a little above average in its class in picture taking, however so far I haven't used it much for that purpose.  The Beacon Two-twenty five did do me the service of providing a name for this blog.  I am not good at naming things so when I had to type in a name I looked at this camera sitting on the shelf decided to use Beacon 225. And helpfully the Beacon Two-twenty five gave me the subject for the first post here.

Here are a few images in the Beacon Two-twenty five Gallery

Here are manuals for the Beacon Two-twenty five and the Beacon II:
http://www.butkus.org/chinon/beacon_ii/beacon_ii.htm

Found this after making the post.  It is an ad from the 1955 Photography Directory.