Hi Everyone, This is a great site! I was just given a Kodak Tourist camera with a Kodet lens and Kodon shutter. It is in great shape but does not appear to be of very high quality. The lens looks kind of like plastic. It has variable fstops from 12.5-32 and three shutter speeds, T, B, and I. Trouble is I don't know what speeds they actually are (or are supposed to be anyway). Does anyone know what these speeds are? I don't know how to estimate an exposure without having some idea of the shutter speed. Thanks for any help. Jerry

-- Jerry Cole (madcole@msn.net), May 22, 2002

Answers

Hi, Jerry, I can tell you what you need to know about your Tourist. I used to own a Tourist II that had the same features as your camera.

The "lens" you're speaking of is actually just a lens screen. The real lens is behind the shutter - open the back of your camera while the bellows is closed and you'll see it easily. While you may think that it is not of very good quality, I can tell you that the original construction of these cameras was quite good. Right now, however, your model is about 50 years old, so age may have something to do with it.

"T, B, I" means "Time, Bulb, Instantaneous" - each shutter speed has a different feature. Time means the shutter will open on the first click, and stay open until you click it a second time. Bulb means the shutter will stay open only as long as you hold the shutter button down. Instantaneous means, of course, that the shutter will cycle once for each click. Your Tourist's shutter speed is about 1/35 to 1/50.

If you want to know what kind of pictures your Tourist can take, click on this link to see my photo gallery: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view? p=999&gid=201145&uid=110895&members=1

If this link doesn't include the full line (ending with "&members=1"), copy the whole thing and paste it in your browser.

Good luck and have fun!

-- Pete Lutz (mariner8378@hotmail.com), May 24, 2002.