Beauty Lite III
I thought we Americans invented the concept of "lite." You know, Miller Lite, Coors Lite, Bud Lite and all of that other watered-down swill uncaring
beer drinkers pour down their throats.
Beauty Camera Co. of Japan produced cameras for a very short time. About six years as far as I can figure. They were prolific however as they produced about
thirty different cameras. They made a handful of TLR's, a substantial number of rangefinders and a 120 SLR.
The Beauty Lites were actually "Beauty Lightomatics" although they don't seem to be
labeled as so.
The Beauty Lite III pictured above was purchased by Yamashori Takeashita in 1961. Takeashita was a Japanese American
spy who tried to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. He chose the Beauty Lite III because of its
quiet shutter.
Despite his efforts to hide behind V39962, Yamashori disappeared in April of 1961.
The Bikor -S is a six element lens which is pretty impressive for a Lite camera. The light meter still works on this Lite III. Or is it a lite meter ?
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The shutter is so quiet on the Lite III that it's inaudible if there's any background noise.
"Is the freakin' shutter working ?"
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