GENERAL

• The Tourist is among the simplest of cameras to clean, so it is a good first project for thorough maintenance. The only moving parts are the simple film advance, the bellows support, the shutter and the focusing front cell. Cameras this age usually have foggy finders and lenses. A careful, but thorough cleaning is likely to make a dramatic difference in viewing and negative quality. Except in the internal operation of the shutter there is little that a careful novice can break in doing a general cleanup.

BODY

• Tourist bodies are made of steel and aluminum. The shroud is plastic. The fully removable back is cast aluminum. Most visible steel is chrome plated. The aluminum exposure calculator on the back sometimes gets corroded from contact with human faces. I haven't found a good way to remove this.

BELLOWS AND CAMERA INTERIOR

• Both the inside and outside of the bellows are likely to be dusty. You can clean the inside with a vacumn cleaner by carefully brushing the bellows surface with a small unused paintbrush, then just stick the vacumn wand with a plastic corner attachment into the bellows area to draw out the loose dust. I have a small vac brust that is just slightly larger than the wand diameter which combines these functions. You can clean the outside in the same way. This is also an effective way to clean up the inside of the camera. Tourists have no foam light seals.

VIEWFINDER

• The glass viewfinder of the Tourist is direct view and is larger on the f/4.5 models. This design was changed on the Tourist II which uses a mirror arrangement similar to that used in rangefinder cameras. Cleaning is the same except the mirrors are usually foggy also and should be cleaned. They can be safely cleaned with lens cleaner on a Q-tip. Be very careful with mirrors on which the silvering appears to be failing; you may remove some of the silvering along with the dirt.

• To access the finder, remove the plastic shroud by removing the winding knob and the supply spool spindle knob, spring, washers and threaded collar with a large slotted screwdriver or spanner. Remove the winding knob retaining screw and winding knob. Under the winding knob is a single countersunk machine screw that must be removed. It is not necessary to remove the winding shaft. Then lift up on the plastic shroud, which should come away cleanly.

• The Tourist II has a chrome plate attached with non-removable riveted collars that are on the supply spool end. Lifting up slightly on winding knob end of this plate will allow you to swing it at an angle from the plastic shroud, revealing the viewfinder optics.

• Carefully remove the black mirror retaining springs noting their orientation; the objectives can then be removed for cleaning. There are two objectives for the front finder window. Note their order and orientation.

RANGEFINDER

• n/a

LENS

• Anastons are three element lenses in three groups; Anastars have four elements in three groups. Both lenses have front cell focusing with the second lens element in a recessed sleeve. For reasons that aren't obvious to me, this sleeve was not made easily removable and you will need a 1 1/8 lens wrench to remove it. If the shutter is operating and dry, and you just need to clean the lens, you can do this with it in place. Set the shutter to B, open it, then carefully clean the rear of the second element through the open aperture.
• Do not try to flood clean either the blades or shutter mechanism without removing this center element, since you are likely to foul the inner glass surface and not be able to adequately clean it in position. If the shutter blades have oil contamination or if you need to flood clean the shutter, you must remove the center cell.
• Both Anastons and Anastars are hardcoated lenses which can be cleaned with standard gentle cleaning with lens cleaning fluid and lens tissue.
• The focusing front cell can be unscrewed by removing the stop post, which will either have a small end slot or will be a hex design. Note that you must properly mate threads on the lens and mount as outlined in lens maintenance.

SHUTTER

• Shutter Case Removal. To clean the shutter, remove the shutter case and lens. Unlike older folders where the shutter case is attached to the front standard by a threaded retaining ring that screws onto the back of the shutter case, Anastons and Anastars are retained by a kind of bayonet mount (see figure below) in which the ring tabs on the mounting collar attached to the shutter case engage corresponding raised slots on the standard. When the lens is correctly attached, a locking tab on the mounting collar engages a slot on the standard to prevent accidental rotation. This mechanism makes it very easy to remove the lens/shutter, once you understand how it works. Looking at the top of the shutter case, between the two hinged baseboard standards, you can just see the tab fitting into the slot in the standard. Slip a slotted screwdriver blade in behind the locking tab and the standard and press the tab forward until it clear the slot; then twist until the bayonet mount unseats.

• Unlike older folders in which the shutter/lens standard can be detached from the bellows, on the Tourist, it is riveted in place, so complete bellows replacement would probably also involve replacing the standard, which is also riveted to the baseboard.
• If your shutter blades have traces of oil, you can flood clean the blades with naptha, after removing the glass.
  

FILM ADVANCE

• The single winding knob can be removed to clean under it and to remove the shroud. The small knob on the right side of the camera is used to lock the film supply spool.

CASE

• Leather quality in Kodak cases seemed to become increasingly 'artificial' as years progressed. Most post-war cases are principally of composite leather. The Tourist cases appear to have a metal substrate for the bottom part. This composite leather wears well, though the stitching often comes loose. Unfortunately the stitch used to joint the top and bottom to the sides is a difficult one to replicate by hand. The leather will probably benefit from an application of high quality leather dressing.