Rare 1950s BeautyFlex TLR camera - Repair and Restore
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- I believe this is BeautyFlex IV (early version?) Twin Lens Reflex camera. I got this from a local flea market with a cheap price because it was broken. I tried my best to restore this camera. Hope you get some useful information from my video. Enjoy watching!
Please subscribe and help me restore more of the vintage camera. Thanks...
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Amazing Background music by William King
pixabay.com/us...
#analog #mediumformat #film #TLR #vintage #restoration #camera
I’ve watched hundreds of these and this is the best by far. Just brilliant.
This photographer has tears of joy seeing this being restored.
There's a guy who'll custom cut front surface mirrors, I've replaced several mirrors in old TLRs and SLRs. The silvering on pre-war German mirrors will literally dissolve if sprayed with glass cleaner, so I've learned it's better to replace than attempt to clean.
Też się o tym przekonałem.
Whatever they do it's always nice to watch professionals at work. Amazing!
OMG this is just crazy. Speechless....
The music is wonderful❤❤❤❤
Отличная работа, полностью разобрать и собрать не всякий может.
To think there are so many parts in the old cameras. A work of art. You're not offering courses on camera restoration by any chance.
Kogoś niech wyszkoli bo za chwilę nie będzie miał kto naprawiać.
Hey there. Great restoration. I can't wait to see another TLR restoration, especially czechoslovakian Flexaret. It would be a great help because I want to get one of these and do full CLA by myself.
My guy! This is a truly gorgeous restoration. Loved it and will be looking forward to do not miss another video like this.
I love this so much!!! I have a similar Yashika, hoping to restore it one day following your example
Great Job! you shoulf offer this as a service. Very professinal. great skills !
Wonderful restoration!
You are SO diligent.... Amazing to say the least!!
I have been waiting to do restorations of analog cameras like this for years. I really hope you will do restoration like this on some Minolta TLR cameras.
Fantastic work. I love this kind of stuff!
The Beauty camera also made the Wardflex camera. It was a rebrand of the Beauty for the US market sold by Montgomery Wards.
There was a rumor at the time that it was named for Ward Cleaver from the tv show Leave it to Beaver, but that was false.
I have a Wardflex in close to mint condt. Not a bad shooter.
1st class restoration, thankyou.
Very nice work!!
Holy hell my ears exploded from that first ultrasonic cleaner clip. Also, how accurate did you get the shutter speeds? And that bent pin in the shutter. That may have been bent intentionally to change the engagement with the main cam.
Sorry for the bad audio. This one come with shutter speed guide plate which help a lot. There will be margin of error in shutter speed but will not get complete different shutter speed. (eg 1/200 sound like 1s shutter)
Beautiful.
Der Mensch an sich ist schon ein geiles Genie, schade das ein Großteil der Genialität auf Kriegsgerät verschwendet wird. LG, Alfred
Magnifique !!
Beautyflex is a camera of the 1950s, made in a number of models with slightly differing features and lenses over the years. They are very simple, ordinary examples of classic, inexpensive Japanese TLR of that era: simple designs made out of sheet metal folded to shape; usually simple triplet lenses, not very well corrected; not high precision construction. The Beautiflex was one of those models which were rebranded under other names, usually as shop brands sold in stores like Sears and Montgomery Word. A better quality example of the type would be the earlier TLRs made by Ricoh, which share the less common focus coordination had by gearing the viewing and taking lenses so they rotate together in helicord mounts, rather than more common and expensive method of fixed both lenses to the front panel and focusing by moving the panel. Apparently, Beautiflex holds some collective value, as they are ebay listed in the $200-250 range, well above its value as a functional camera.
I have an old Rolleicord from my father which is almost brand new. I very much cherish this timeless piece of photographic history.
Wonderful! I really have learnt a lot! May I ask what rust remover you used?
Incredible work, no part of what you do that I could do! 😂
Fascinating. Question - do any of the many moving parts require lubricants/grease? Also any lens coatings are removed by the polish process. May still render great tho!
Yes, lens coatings are removed by polishing it. Diamond compound is just for removing damage coating but it will not remove any lens scratch. There is great tutorials online about "optical pitch lapping", which is the correct way for removing scratches and polishing...although it is more time consuming.
This is amazing ! Do you know if this kind of cameras were build with some form of automation or was it all fully built "by hand"?
All these TLRs, like watches of that era were hand assembled. There was no automation then for this kind of work.
I have Mamiyaflex Junior that has broken focus screen and uses the same screws with the very thin slot , what screwdriver are you using
I am using 2.5 mm and 1.8 or 2.0 mm flat precision screw driver most of the time. Just good quality one will do the job. I have Vessel screwdriver for really small screws and they are great!
So my biggest question is: How do you put it together or how do you know where all the parts go? Do you have a printed layout or video in front of you? Or is it just learning by doing?
Also, what purpose does the yellow cable have?
ps: 17:19 was extremely loud
Sry for bad audio. I couldn't find repair manual for this one so I did with blind repair based on experience. TLRs are pretty much like range finder. Yellow cable for flash sync I think.
🤔 What’s that fragrance???….”steamer trunk”? ….I can smell it from here. Ever notice that a lot of old cameras have a similar odor. …like old books all smell similar.
Another mechanical engineering masterpiece.
Your skill level hurts my brain 🧠
what did you use to polish the optics? was it really okay to freehand it like that? might change the shape of the curvature
It is 80000 grid diamond paste used to polish mirror like finish in jewelry
This appears to be more of a nice cosmetic refurbishment. This is a 1950s vintage camera so any applied lens coatings would have been removed by the polishing. It’s all academic anyway as the front standard was bent out of alignment (with some repair), and a collimator needed to realign the focusing.
I love these knockoffs. They can be so much rarer
Congrats, you got rid of the lens surface treatment.
Better then watching corn.
Beauty😃
hi, What kind of lubricant do you use for glass and mechanisms before disassembling them ?
Any good low viscosity rush removing oil will do the job. The one I used is WD40 like variant with good penetration into grooves. Leave the oil for few hours before removing rusty , jammed parts.
I have a similar one
💪👏
Be novel if they made a quality digital version
This one has no viewing mirror parallax correction
Camera repair and brain surgery: Two birds of a feather...
send it to me :)
The music is unnecessary
This can not be real...
stupid looking gloves
Очень тонкая робота ,это не каждому удасца произвести такие манипуляции ,розобрать воз ожно и ртзобралбы но собрать и после всего штоб и работал коректно апарат ,таких ,мец алистов не так и много ,ну ичень мелкие в нтики пружинки ,особенно шторки диафрагмы ,лепестки обектива ,затвор ,втт я смотрел как вы ремонтиревали апарат там еще и электроника присудстувала ,уважаю таких ребят которые способные на такую очень тонкую роботу ,я в своей жизни розбирал только наручные часы механические ,собиралс двуж одни менял аятник ,анкеиное колесо ,я тогда из тоненькой фольги изготовил миниа юрный самолетик и прекрепил на секундной , стрелке а на цыферблате нарисовол полушарие земного шара и вот самолетик по кругу облетал пол земного шара ,это я тогда был юным иуки правельные были ,и зиение не подводило ,а сейчас смотрю как ребята делают невироятные вещи и радуюсь што есть достойные ребята што занимаются такими вещами реставри рывают старые вещи ,как говорила моя бабушка люди не знают и неопознают прошлое они не будут знать и будущего ,а это важно
У меня аналогичный фотоапарат был пртизводства ссср и назывался он "ЛЮБИТЕЛЬ -2"широкопленочный и еще што мне запомнилось в этого апарата пленку мтжно было обрабатывсть прикрасном освищении ,и частью фото увиличителя ,для фото печати испол зывался сам фото апарат ,не отчетливо все помню мне тогда било лет8 или 9 ,этот апарат мне передался от моего отца ,както он ушол на второй план ,не всегда пленки ожно было купить и еще пленка имела 12 кадров а блее современном 36 кадров ибыло на то виемя в любом даже в сел ских магазинах любой чуствительности зернистости,а широкой такого выбора небыло ,я тогда был зеленый юный ,только с возростом начал понимать што нужно было сберечь как реликвию ,и вообще чернобелое фото не может ,ровнятся с цветным ,глубина резкости передача