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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
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.
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