This really cool looking 127 roll film camera, the Beacon
II, was manufactured by Whitehouse Products Inc. of Brooklyn, New York from
1947 through 1955. Made of Bakelite (a heavy plastic) the camera takes 16
photographs on each roll of 127 film through a 46mm, f11 lens and a 1/50 shutter
speed. It also has a “B” setting allowing for extended exposures.
The lens is coated and color corrected so it should do
equally well with either color or black & white film. I have thus far shot
only one roll and it was Rera Pan 100 black & white so I can’t say much
about its capabilities with color film but the black & white images
produced by the camera were fantastic.
My November 15th (2014) blog post shows one of my
favorite photographs from my first and only roll of film to date. Although the
camera is capable of taking 16 photographs I didn’t understand the way the two
red windows on the back of the camera work at first so I messed up and only got
9.
Here’s another from that roll.
Another oddity of this camera’s design is that the lens
section on the front to of the camera must be pulled out and locked into position
before the shutter will fire. When I
first got it I thought the shutter was broken because it would not fire. Once I
pulled the lens section out I realized it worked fine.
