Kodak Tourist, f/4.5 105mm Anaston Lens Model (1948-1951)

The Kodak Tourist is a folding camera that was made in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY. It followed the Kodak Monitor and Vigilant models, and preceded the Kodak Tourist II. This model with a coated f/4.5 105 mm Kodak Anaston lens in a Kodak Flash Kodamatic shutter was made some time from 1948 to 1951. The camera normally makes eight 2-1/4" x 3-1/4" pictures on one roll of size 620 film; the back is removable and could be replaced with an adapter back that permitted the use of Kodak Bantam size 828 film for Kodachrome slides. Size 620 film was discontinued years ago. Today you would need to use 120 film respooled onto a 620 spool. Size 828 film also is long gone and all sizes of Kodachrome were discontinued in 2009. The Anaston lens is similar to the earlier Kodak Anastigmat lens used in the Vigilants and Monitors. It has four elements in three groups and is a front cell focuser - the lens is focused by turning the front lens cell to vary the internal spacing between lens elements. The lens focuses from 3.5 ft. to infinity. There is an accessory shoe on the top of the camera for a range finder to measure distances. Without a range finder the photographer relies on estimated distances and depth of field to get a sharp picture. The shutter runs from 1/10th to 1/200th of a second plus bulb and time and synchronizes with flash bulbs at 1/25th of a second. An exposure calculator for Kodak films popular at the time is provided on the camera back. You advance the film using the winding knob on the top of the camera and space the pictures on the film by looking through the little red window at the numbers printed on the backing paper. The list price in 1950 was $71, which is roughly $760 in depreciated 2018 dollars.

Front

Back

Folding cameras allowed a large negative in a compact - when folded - package. For many years, ever since the No. 2 Brownie camera of 1901, home snapshots were most commonly taken with cameras using size 120 or 620 roll film to produce negatives that could be contact printed to make 2-1/4" by 3-1/4" album size prints. Eventually film improved enough to make large prints from small negatives possible and 35 mm film became the most popular size.

[Update] This example turned out to have pinholes in the bellows, which is not uncommon as the rubberized fabric dries out with age. I will need to patch the holes with dabs of "liquid electrical tape" in order to use this camera to take pictures.