How to repair Kodak Beau Brownie (also pix of it's insides)

WolverineX

Year and a half ago my grandmother gave me Kodak Beau Brownie camera that was for years in her cupboard.

due to it's age lens of the camera had dirt (or something) on inner side of the front lens:

at the time i didn't know how to open the camera and clean it, and because i got this from my grandmother i was hesitant to do anything, so i put a film to test how the dirt affects the photos, and today finally got around to shoot last frames so i could try to clean it. on one other forum i got a hint how to gain the access to the inside of the lens so that made me to finish that film.

as i couldn't find a real how-to manual on the web, i'll do it here so others can profit from my experience

to gain access to the inside of the camera where the lens and aperture mechanism is you need to remove the front metal plate...and that is done by removing 2 NAILS (yes NAILS! why nails? because the camera is made of wood inside) located on the sides of the camera

use the flat screwdriver to lift nails a bit then pliers to pull them out

now you can use flat screwdriver to lift up the front metal plate out of the camera. on that metal plate is main front lens and two little finder lenses and you can clean them now easy. i've used my contact lenses cleaning liquid to clean the dirt from the main lens and the little lenses.

while the camera is so exposed i took the opportunity to clean portrait and landscape finder lenses and mirrors (on the top left of the next pictures)

to clean inner main lens that is behind the aperture plates, first be sure the aperture metal strip ( wide strip on the top of the camera that has 3 holes of different sizes ) is set so that the biggest hole (widest aperture) is in front of the lens, the you have to pull out the thinner metal strip so it stops the aperture plates from spinning thus exposing the way to the inner lens (by the way this is the bulb settinng on this camera), now you can clean the inner lens with q-tip.

and that's all
all you have to do now is put the front metal plate back on the camera and put the nails back in their place and your Kodak Beau Brownie is cleaned and ready for use

hope this will help someone

Scheimpflug · Expire: 2011-11-18

WolverineX · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:25 pm Post subject:

after finally developing first film taken with this camera, one more info...this camera is 6X9 medium format

martyn_bannister · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 1151

Thanks for the info. I know it's a lot of effort to compile a procedure like this.

Can we see the pictures from this camera? Smile

WolverineX · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:52 pm Post subject:

i'll post some results from the next film i shoot, this one was a test of how dirt that was on the lens impacted the images, now the lens is clean so i'll test it again