This website focuses on the 35mm cameras made by Taiyodo Koki and the Beauty Camera Company, but the former also made a number of other film-format models.
Sub-miniatures (1948 to early 1950s)
Taiyodo Koki's first cameras were sub-miniatures, known today as "Hit-types" (or "Bean" cameras in Japan). The post WWII Japanese citizens had very little disposable income, and materials were not abundant, so cameras using tiny films became popular. Hit-types were also exported to the US where demand grew rapidly, although many are speculated to have been bought (and I can absolutely believe this is true) as toys or for use as Christmas tree ornaments (according to Sugiyama), rather than serious cameras.
A typical Hit-type takes 14×14mm exposures on narrow paper-backed 17.5mm film. The design follows that of a contemporary 35mm viewfinder camera, with leatherette covered body and chrome-plated parts. Controls are usually very simple and limited: a film advance knob and ruby-window frame counter, a non-focusable lens with a fixed small aperture, and a single speed "everset shutter" (in which a single stroke of the shutter lever first tensions and then releases the shutter). Details of Taiyodo Koki models can be found by clicking the "Hit-types >" button.
6x6 Folders (1950 to mid 1950s)
Taiyodo Koki's second type of cameras were two 6x6cm folders (i.e. bellows cameras). The best source of information is probably Camera-Wiki: Beauty/Frank Six($) and Beauty Six($).
6x6 Twin Lens Reflexes (1950 to mid 1950s)
In the early to mid fifties, 6x6 TLR cameras with 80mm lenses became Taiyodo Koki's core product. Taiyodo Koki also rebadged their Beautyflexes for other companies to sell, including the Fodorflex(es), USC Auto Fifty($) Wardflex(es), SCL Photoflex(es), along with the rebrand the Gen-Flex. All these models and their derivatives have become highly collectable and command high prices, but there are few comprehensive sources of information that describe how each model differs from the next. The best Internet resources are Barry Toogood's "TLR Cameras Website($)", and an article to be found on "Dujingtou.com($)", which appears to be based on Barry Toogood's work (they both replicate a non-chronological flow and lack clarity in the same areas).
Whilst I have a number of TLRs in my collection (which extends beyond Beauties), I don't own a Beautyflex (or Beautcord). My knowledge comes from Internet research only, but I have attempted to fill-in the gaps in Barry Toogood's work, and clarify what the key features of TLR model were, and how each differed from those that went before and came after. A visual guide to each model can be found by clicking the buttons below.
6x6 Single Lens Reflexes (1954 to mid 1950s)
Taiyodo Koki made just two 6x6 SLRs; the Beauty Reflex I and II. For more information, once again, the best source is Camera-Wiki's Beauty Reflex($) page.
Other projects (1963)
I read on a Japanese photography Blog($), in an article about the closure of the "Camera Taiyodo" shop in Tokyo, that "in 1963 ... there are records that a 35mm camera with a radio was prototyped". Not such a wacky idea as you might first think; other manufactures actually made such things.
​
-
In 1948, the Automatic Radio Manufacturing Company of Boston made the "Tom Thumb Camera Radio($)"; an 828 pseudo-TLR combined with a valve radio.
-
The "Ramera($)" (a.k.a. Bell Karma) was a combination of a transistor radio and a 16mm camera (i.e. a camera in a radio, rather than a radio in a camera), made by Kowa in 1959–60.
-
The 1962 "Sonocon 16($)" was a sub-miniature made by Minolta, which incorporated a detachable slot-in transistor radio within the camera housing.
-
The 1964 GEC Transistor-matic Radio Camera($) (made by the British General Electric Company in collaboration with Kodak) was a transistor radio that housed a detachable Kodak Instamatic 100 camera and even had a compartment to store flash-bulbs.
-
Finally, the "Vivitar Radio 110($)"was a 1970s model that combined a compact camera with a built-in radio and flash.