Vintage Petri cameras

Vintage Petri cameras are cameras made by the Kuribayashi company. Founded in the early part of the 20th century, the Kuribayashi Camera Works were making cameras shortly after the end of WW1, adopting the Petri brand name around 1948, when a series of 35mm rangefinder cameras were introduced.  1959 saw the introduction of its SLR range.  The company was bought out by Cosina in 1978.

In general, the rangefinder models are considered nice machines, the SLRs less so (although the later Cosina ‘GX’ models are workmanlike).

Petri 2.8 ‘Color corrected super’

Date: c.1959
Country of origin: Japan
Rangefinder: Coupled
Meter: None
Shutter:  Leaf
Speeds: B 1 1/2 1/5 1/10 1/25 1/50 1/100 1/250 1/500
Lens: Orikkor 1:2.8 4.5cm.
Stops: 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22

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Petri Penta

Date: c.1959
Country of origin: Japan
Type: SLR
Meter: None
Shutter: Horizontal cloth focal-plane
Speeds: B, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500
Lens mount: M42
Standard lens: Orikkor 1:2 50mm
Stops: 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22

Petri’s first SLR (indeed the company wasn’t called Petri at this time – they were still called Kuribayashi), the original Petri Penta was replaced in early 1960 by the ‘improved’ Petri Flex, which used a proprietary breech / bayonet lens mount.

The inside of the lens cap contains some interesting tips: “Do not touch the flipping mirror”…