Note: Comments relate to the Regent (I), since I have not worked on a Regent II.

GENERAL

• Because of the sleek design of the Regent, you may find that your experience in maintaining other Kodak folders is a little insufficient. All components fold up into or are enclosed within the body structure, often in novel ways.

BODY

• Regents have bodies are made of steel and aluminum. The body is covered in real Morocco leather. As a bookbinder familiar with similar leatherwork, I was amazed at how durable and permanently fixed the leather was on my Regent. The leather cover can be cleaned and dressed with a high-quality leather dressing. Black shoe polish can be used to retouch scuffed areas, but because both of these products contain oils and waxes, save leather dressing for the last step in maintenance and apply them very carefully so as to avoid mechanical and optical surfaces. The camera's general design is such that the leather areas are highlighted throughout with revealed painted metal edges. There are likely to be many bare metal spots due to wear. If you are skilled with a small brush, you can retouch these areas by carefully scraping away all loose paint, then repainting the bare spots with black model enamel. The metal cover for the ruby window sliders was originally painted black. Repainting this larger area with a brush is likely to produce an irregular coating, inconsistent with the original.

VIEWFINDER

• The Regent viewfinder is an unusual flipup design that assumes the silhouette of the body when closed. It is attached by four machine screws into the body. Both viewfinder lenses can be removed with a small slotted screw driver, by removing the holddown brackets attached through the sides of the viewfinder housing. Be sure to note the orientation of the objectives so you can reinstall them correctly. The paint on the viewfinder cover is likely to be worn and this can be renewed by removing it and with careful masking and spray painting skills. Note that to clean the rangefinder optics the viewfinder must be removed.

RANGEFINDER

• The rangefinder design is one of the great visual successes of the Regent. It is a separate system from the viewfinder and is tucked neatly in the contours of the top part of the body. Access to the rangefinder optics is gained by removing a panel with the camera back open. This panel is attached by two screws in the top of the film supply chamber and one small screw through the wall of the cutout in which the viewfinder sits. The mirrors of the superimposed rangefinder and the internal sides of viewing windows can be cleaned with this panel removed.

• (Note that to access the rangefinder linkage, you must remove the lens and collapse bellows).

• The rangefinder mechanism is attached to the focusing rack by a linkage inside the bellows compartment.   The focus knob on the baseboard is geared to the rack. At the back of the rack, the focus arm slides in a channel. The upright part of the arm has a pin that engages the arm of Cam A, in this drawing, which rotates on a shaft attached to one of the rangefinder mirrors. The return action of the focus arm is controlled by the focus return spring, which sometimes gets disoriented and then loses its influence over the focus arm. In its correct orientation, the return spring must exert a backward pressure on the focus arm assembly. Rangefinder adjustment is by the screws on the focus arm.

SHUTTER

• The shutter on Regents is a Compur. The entire shutter/lens assembly can be removed from the front standard by loosening the retaining ring inside the bellows. This exposes two screws through the back of the lens standard that hold the shutter shell in place. After removing the glass, you can flood-clean the shutter with naphtha.
  

LENS

• Lenses on Regents are either a f/4.5 Tessar or a f/3.5 or f/4.5 Xenar. Front and rear elements can be removed and cleaned with standard gentle cleaning with lens cleaning fluid and lens tissue.

FILM ADVANCE

• The single winding knob can be lifted to clean under it.

CASE

• Leather quality for German Kodak cases is high. Mine is of good quality cowhide. There was considerable green corrosion on the brass parts which I removed with naphtha. The leather can be treated as noted above for the Morocco leather camera cover, except of course using brown shoe polish to cover scuffs. The top often requires restitching which should be done with a heavy linen thread, if available.