Taiyodo Koki & the Beauty Camera Company

Research - my journey

 

I feel it is important to begin by stressing that research must be combined with original thought. Without original thought, the replication of information discovered is reduced to copying. For example, if you read the opening lines at Camera-wiki, and learn that Taiyodo was a "distributor", this statement needs to be tested by asking and answering questions: what is a distributor, what did they distribute and who did they sell to, and where is the evidence supporting this statement? Questioning provides us with further lines of enquiry, and it is only when we spread our search for information wide and far, that we are doing proper research.

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Tips

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My top tip is - always keep a note of the Internet address of anything significant - especial when it has taken hours of searching to find. It is highly possible you will want to re-examine a source at a later date, and extremely likely that you will struggle to find obscure websites a second time. More than that, giving credit to a source gives that information more authority.

 

Observation

The best option for understanding the detail of any camera is a hands-on inspection, but this is often not possible. Simply looking at Internet images can reveal information: mainly the specification differences between models (lenses, shutters, features, aesthetics, etc). The best places to view cameras are:
1) WorthPoint.com($) - a record of sales data for antiques, vintage and collectable items, sourced from a diverse group of auction houses and online marketplaces (including eBay). Cameras are grouped under the category "Tools". This site is far better than auction sites because its content is cumulative, while auction sites provide a snapshot of current/recent activity. 
2) Yahoo Auctions Japan - an eBay alternative, but with much larger numbers of (home market) Japanese cameras listed - has been an excellent source of images (and therefore serial numbers), but sadly access to users in the EEA (European Economic Area) and the United Kingdom was withdrawn on 6th April 2022. However, Japanese auction listings can still be viewed via Jauce.com($).
3) Another good Japanese auction site is Mercari.com($).

4) eBay($) - no explanation required (other than look at items for sale and those recently sold).
5) Internet image searches - these never seem to be very fruitful, primarily because sets of images, rather than a single picture, are necessary to observe a camera from several angles.

Instruction Manuals
 

Mike Butkus($) appears to have a monopoly here. Manuals are sometimes good for technical data, although most were written from a user perspective and for a single variant within a range, rather than as a generic manual covering all model options.
I have a page on third-party books expected to contain information about Beauty cameras. The gist of my research is that I have found nothing illuminating.

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Advertising

1) The Internet Archive($) has proved very useful. Select "Books", and "All text" as you progress to the search page, and then set the search to "Text content" rather than "Metadata". The downside to this Archive is that its content is very USA focused (with a bit of India).
2) Google($) book search can find different results, but these also have a narrow geographic (USA) focus. Select the search option "More", then "Books". Before searching select the option "Full view" from the "Any view" menu, and then filter the results to look at books, magazines, and newspapers separately.

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Estimating production volumes

Two sets of data can be collected; serial numbers, and the number of unique cameras observed (i.e. the quantity of serial numbers noted).
The range of serial numbers provides a good indication of how many cameras were made (e.g. 1234 to 5678 = 4445 units). The start number can sometimes be extrapolated on the presumption that the sequence began with a logical number (e.g. 1000 rather than 1234, making 1000 to 5678 = 4678 units). However, there is no basis for extending the last number, since production can be stopped at any time.
When there is a range of types with consecutive serial numbering, unit volumes are a little less clear  (e.g. a range of 1000 to 9600, where type #1 spans 1000(a) to 4800(b), and type #2 spans 2200(c) to  9600(d)). A simple 50/50 apportionment of the overlapping numbers is a reasonable assumption.

type #1
(c - a) + ( b - c)/2 = number of units

[(2200 - 1000) = 1200] + [(4800 - 2200)/2 = 1300] = 2500

type #2

(d - b) + (b - c)/2 = number of units

[(9600 - 4800) = 4800] + [(4800 - 2200)/2 = 1300] = 6100

Check
2500 + 6100 = 8600 = 9600(d) - 1000(a)

All things being equal, the number of unique cameras observed should be proportional to the estimated number of units produced. Starting with the bigger numbers (because they are statistically more valid), say 12 unique examples of type #2 have been observed, that's an occurrence of about 1 in 500 (6100/12), so we can expect to have also observed approximately 5 examples of type #1 (5 x 500). I've named this the "survival rate".
Say, for example, the type#1 survival rate was lower than expected, this would suggests there may have been fewer units produced than calculated (the 50/50 split assumption was off). Conversely, if the type#1 survival rate was higher than expected, this suggests there may have been more units produced.
In other words, we can use the survival rate to inform subtle changes to the apportionment of overlapping serial numbers, remembering that our starting assumption was merely a middle-ground best guess.
I am not going to attempt to explain and illustrate the maths, because the calculations are dynamic (i.e. increasing one population reduces the other), but a simple spreadsheet can be used to better balance the figures. 
The survival rate value is specific to the set of data being examined (i.e. a ratio), but I have found older models have lower survival rates than newer ... which meets logical expectations.

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Forums

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I have attempted to seek information on Forums, but I don't recommend it. In my experience there are three common types of response.

1) The Copy & Paste - where someone simply reproduces the text from Camera-wiki (or the first website they find) in such a way that it looks like their own thoughts.

2) The Change of Subject - for example, "I don't know anything about Taiyodo, but my favourite camera is the Nikon F".

3) The Critic - where someone challenges the question in preference to answering it - for example, "you asked about the ASA setting procedure, but should we really be using the term ISO?"

Keep away from Forums! They are bad for your mental health.

Dedicated websites & Blogs

The only encyclopaedia-type website I recommend is Camera-wiki($) (that is to say, I actively discourage the use of alternatives). Camera-wiki is run by a group of dedicated enthusiasts, diligently maintained, and the vast majority of contributors take great care to validate the accuracy of the facts they publish. The information isn't always 100% accurate, but it's the best place to start to gather details.
Information from elsewhere has to be regarded with a little suspicion and tested to establish that the author really does have a unique depth of understanding. A lot of sound-bites get copied from elsewhere, and many personal websites merely paraphrase others. I have very happily included links to other "personal" Beauty web content that appears well informed, including a number of Japanese Blogs with good information ... which brings me to the next topic. But first - a bold statement: this (the one you are viewing) is the only website dedicated to Taiyodo Koki and Beauty 35mm cameras.

Language

There are several language barriers to overcome. The first is a problem with the name "Beauty", and the second is foreign languages.
1) I'll deal with this quickly, because it's a moan rather than a constructive comment, but the word "beauty" returns all sorts of unwanted search results: >95% of cameras found are those described as "a beauty", or "beautiful" rather than the make Beauty.
2) The most logical place to look for information on a Japanese camera is Japan. Thankfully, today's Browsers provide at-a-click translations. Some are excellent: others not so good. However, to search effectively for non-English sources, it's necessary to search in a different language, and use an alternative search engine. I've had a lot of success by using Yahoo Japan*, and searching with copy & paste Japanese characters, then viewing the results in English (e.g. 太陽堂光機㈱ for Taiyodo Optical Machinery (Co Ltd)), but any search engine will work. *As previously stated, access to users in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom was withdrawn by Yahoo Japan on 6th April 2022.
There's a further complication here, which took me a while to figure-out. In English-Japanese, the name Taiyodo is often replaced by other names. One common example is "Solar Hall" (or Sun Hall"), but the explanation is quite simple. The characters 太陽 alone translate as "Solar" (or "Sun"), while 堂 is "Hall". Another is "Sokoki", with lots of variations, such as Sokido, Sokidoh, and Solardo . I'm still trying to get my head around this one. 

3) I've been fortunate to find images of advertising material in Japanese. These can be run through an on-line "image text translator" such as Yandex($). The translations are sometimes very odd, and a better option is to use a separate extractor (image to text($) is good) and run the extracted text through a translator or two as they often produce slightly different suggestions. Japanese is a complex language for Westerners!

Technical issues

Sometimes a technical barrier prevents capture of worthy research. Obviously, if something is legitimately copyright protected, one has to respect that, but often it is more a case of technology getting in the way (e.g. slideshow image presentations preventing right-clicking). Here are a few methods to get around this obstacle (using Microsoft Edge).