The Beacon Two-twenty five
Made by Whitehouse Products, Inc.
Brooklyn, N.Y. USA
This is a genuine plastic fantastic camera,
much like many new cameras you can buy
today at your local Wal Mart. It's a point and
shoot, that's for sure. There are no controls
what so ever. No wrong button to push, no
shutter speed this or aperture that. Just push
the button. One thing this camera has over
all those other cameras at Wal Mart though, is STYLE baby!
It's drippin' with it.
Get one of these, a '56 Chevy two door and
head to the burger joint to hang out.
Oh yeah...Tune in Wolfman Jack on the radio.
The Beacon is a pop-out camera. See those
two flat spots to the right and left of the lens?
Pull them straight out and the lens comes out
and locks into place. To close it push in on
the two metal tabs beside the lens housing.
They say "press here to close". It works!
The shutter has a lock that won't let you take
a picture unless the lens is out. There is no
double exposure prevention though, so you
can get all artsy if you like.
Funny thing about this camera. When the
lens is in, you can look through the viewfinder
and see a proper image. When you pull it out
to take a picture though, it blocks about 25%
of the viewing image at the bottom of the frame.
Here on the back you can see the ruby
window for winding your (620) film. The
button on the side is to open the back. I
tried using cut down 120 roll film with this
but the length of the 120 spool still exceeds
the length of the film chamber, so I just
re-roll 120 onto 620 spools.
The shutter is slow, like most simple
cameras. Probably about 1/30. I don't
know the aperture, but my guess would be
about f11.
It has a tripod socket too!
It even comes with a never-ready case which
is even more never ready than most. It's like
trying to peel an orange while you're wearing mittens.
The lens is a doublet, so I guess it has twice as
much of whatever a singlet has (elements?).
Coated too, it says.
I shot a roll of Maco 100 (Efke) for the test drive. Developed in PC-TEA
and printed on Agfa RC paper.
These granaries are common here on the
prairie.
The farmers use them to store wheat (or other grains)
during harvest when the co-op granaries are full.
As in this photo, there is often a utility or tractor shed
near by. He's also got a little hay put up.
The farmers use them to store wheat (or other grains)
during harvest when the co-op granaries are full.
As in this photo, there is often a utility or tractor shed
near by. He's also got a little hay put up.
Another granary shot. There are six
of them lined up here. The thing that looks
like a pole sticking out of the ground to the
right of the granaries is an auger. It's a hollow
tube with a screw conveyor inside it. It works
kind of like a pump for grain. When grain needs
to be moved the auger transfers it from the granary
to a truck. I used to work for a company here
that made these and other ag implements.
Another common sight is barns. Everywhere.
This round top style is less common than the
peaked roof type, but there are still quite a few
of them. I love the classic look of these.
You may have noticed by now that these
aren't very sharp. I've kinda noticed
that too. Maybe it's the best this neat looking
camera can do. Maybe it's the photographer...
One of the older style all wood churches
here in town.
On most of these photos I cropped slightly
to get rid of some of the darkened corners.
This shot is uncropped and you can see
vignetting in the corners clearly.
Oh well, gives it an ol' timey look.
And here's the last place you wanna be.
Or maybe it's the last place you will be.
This is the old Fairview cemetery, and what
you see in the photo is just about it. Pretty
small, but you can still buy a plot here for
15 bucks (bring yer own hole). Small cemeteries
like this are sprinkled throughout the prairie.
Everyone of them is still maintained.
deansphotographica.com
deansofidaho.com
3-05
copyright 2005 Dean Williams