The Beautiful Canter Beauty

      Why the Taiyodo Koki Camera company would name one of its cameras the Canter Beauty is a mystery to me. I always thought that horses canter. But the folks at Taiyodo did get it right when they selected "Beauty" for inclusion in the name of this sturdy little instrument, which is as carefully crafted as it is pleasant to use.
     Manufactured in 1957, the fixed lens Beauty was offered in two versions. One version featured a 2.8 lens; a second version sported a 1.9 lens. Both lenses use Lanthanum glass, which was discovered by Leitz Optical. I think this type of glass is used in Russian lenses as well. The Beauty features a ten-blade iris that is superior to the irises found in many other cameras.

     At just about five inches in width, it's one-half inch narrower than, say, a Barnack Leica. But it's

somewhat taller and therefore appears to be a bit squat. Viewed from above, the film advance lever on the right--which also cocks the shutter--contains a film counter and a film type indicator. The film counter resets itself after you open and close the back of the camera. As with most other cameras, the shutter release is just to the left of the lever. Adjacent to the release is a small gizmo that pops up and down as you cock and release the shutter.  What its purpose is I don't know.
    The combined viewfinder/rangefinder window is at its usual position on the left, as is the rewind knob. The rewind button is on the bottom plate of the unit.

    The Canter Beauty is a minimalist's delight. The shutter speed dial (blue) is positioned near the front of the lens barrel. The aperture is set using the dial marked with red. Yellow indicates the depth of field scale. Green marks the focusing ring. You can see the focusing knob, in the first photo (above).
   "But what about the part marked with a white bar," you ask. Well, I think it's supposed to be covered by a threaded ring that accepts filters.  Too bad the ring is missing on this little beauty.   But as one of the characters in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath said, "It don't hurt the runnin'." Luckily, as shown in the photo (left), the missing ring doesn't have a negative effect on the camera's ability to function perfectly.

     The only problem I had with this camera involved the focusing mechanism, which was extremely stiff and difficult to operate when I received it. That was nothing new, however, because I've had the same experience with other fixed lens cameras in my collection. That's why I always keep a can of lighter fluid (naptha) handy. In this case all it took was a few squirts of the fluid to fix the problem.

COMING SOON: the Royal 35-M