So I have been working with one of my wife's grandpa's old cameras and I finally got up the courage to buy some film and test it out. I got the film developed the other day and was pleasantly surprised to find out that everything is fine. The camera works great and there are no light leaks in the shutter. Amazing for a camera that is 50 years old and hasn't been used for probably 30-40years.
When her grandpa died we found dozens of old cameras. He apparently was an avid photographer. Most of the cameras were damaged or defected in some way or other. I ended up selling them all to some company I found on the web. I kept the two most interesting. One was a German Rolliflex. It is in rough shape but I like the look of it. The other is my newly working camera. It is a camera called the Beauty Lite III. It seems to be somewhat of a rare camera. I can't really find much information about it online. I low it is a Japanese camera and it was made in the 60s. Other than that there isn't a lot of info out the. When i got the camera it was a bit dirty And some of the moving parts had seized up. I cleaned it all up and worked with everything to get the zoom and the film winder working again. I am happy to report that it works.
I have a couple big things coming up that I planned to photograph (a car show I'm organizing, a trip to San Diego, and later this year a trip to seatle/Alaska/Canada). I can't wait to use the beauty lite (although I will still use the good ole digital camera too).