My Experience With Petri Cameras

With their first camera being introduced in 1919, the Kuribayashi Seisakusho Camera Company was an early entry into the camera manufacturing competition. After a handful of name changes the name they eventually settled on was Petri, their most popular camera line at the time. This was most likely for better brand recognition along with a stronger introduction to the west. Early Petri cameras are of stellar quality but as time went on the materials used got cheaper and the reliability suffered. They continued making cameras up until 1977 when they filed for bankruptcy, but in the 1980s they were bought out by the UK company Dixons Group. Interestingly enough they are still around today, known as Petri Kogyo, but they are out of the camera market entirely, focusing on optics and telescopes mainly.

The not so well known competitor

To start off there is a fair bit of conflicting information about Petri online, but I’ll do my best to relay what I’ve learned. Most people I talk to about cameras have no idea that the Petri brand even exists. They are a bit of an odd company looking back today, or possibly even back then. Petri made a few questionable decisions when it came to their cameras, but they definitely make for interesting discussions today and alternatives to other cameras of the era. Petri went through quite a lot of name changes through the years; most of those early cameras were only sold in Japan, but later were released overseas. Once re-branded Petri in 1962 they established a foothold in America and became a competitor but sadly not for very long.

There is a surprising amount of Petri camera models for how not well known they are, the most popular being the Petri 7s and its various iterations. The Petri 7s only recently became a ‘cult classic’ in the last couple of years due to its simple lightweight design, reliability, and dirt cheap price. In my opinion, the Petri 7s is an ok camera, but far from Petri’s best work. The earlier Petri models have a lot more going for them in terms of options and are much more interesting. Considering how many iterations there are of the Petri 7, I imagine it was quite the success for them back in the day.

the introduction to Petri Cameras

The first time I heard about Petri was through a YouTube video with someone discussing their favorite rangefinders. With me being a rangefinder fanatic, I had to give one a try. Much to my surprise, there were hundreds online, and at very reasonable prices. Rangefinders tend to exhibit higher prices than any other type of camera, so to get a working model for 20 dollars seemed like a hot deal. I purchased one that day, along with the external lens kit and decided to take a look into the company. It was a short search but it led me down the path of acquiring more Petri cameras for the collection.

Other then the Petri 7, no one really gives Petri much attention and that’s really a shame. I have a couple of Petri cameras today, and I can say that they are some interesting cameras, but the quality really takes a dip toward the 1970s. Most of the early SLR Petri cameras are temperamental, and I went through two before I got my Petri FT working. The early SLRs used a very odd single camshaft system, located under the bottom plate of the camera. This cam does all the work from moving the mirror to tripping the shutter, but it was not a reliable system over time. Every broken Petri SLR I’ve worked on had worn down springs and worn parts. It’s very interesting and unique, but this cam takes a lot of torque and wears fast. To go along with that, whatever grease they used in the cameras did not agree with time either, and this applies to ALL Petri cameras. It may just be my luck but most Petri cameras I’ve worked with had hardened grease and slow shutters. It’s a bit of a pain, but far from the horror that is Agfa grease.

Once you get a working Petri camera in your arsenal, you realize it has a different kind of feel than any other big camera name from the time. Petri seemed to always be one step behind the competition, and that eventually led to their demise. They relied on tried and true, tested technology in their cameras; there was very little experimentation on their part. I wouldn’t say it was lazy, but I would say more or less playing it safe. With that mentality, you are going to get left behind. That’s exactly what happened when they could not keep up to all the electronics of the 1970s, and had to shutter their doors soon after. One example of this is that Petri had their own proprietary lens mount, but they also offered an M42 mount option on the same camera. This doesn’t seem too bad until they decided to drop the proprietary mount all together in favor of the M42. Once again this doesn’t seem like too bad of a choice until you see when they made this decision. The M42 mount had a long lifespan, gaining popularity in the late 1930s until it died out in the 1970s. That’s exactly when they dropped their own mount in favor of the M42, right when it was not garnering much support anymore. A Petri SLR from the 1970s was a cheaper alternative but more or less resembled a camera from the 1960s, and had little to nothing to have it stand out from the competition. This eventually led to their demise in 1977 when they filed for bankruptcy. They continued making a handful of cameras up through the early 1980s under another company, but nothing really garnered much attention and they eventually got out of the market all together.

The FInal verdict

I do have a lot of criticisms for Petri, most of which is warranted, but that doesn’t sully my love for their cameras. Sure they have a lot of problems and sure you have a million other options to choose from, but Petri cameras have a feeling I really can’t explain well enough. Through the handful of Petri cameras I have used… I really like them. Each one feels like separate moments in the companies history, and each camera has a unique feel that is distinctly Petri. They were the underdog that produced some very interesting and unique cameras throughout their history, and they should really be getting more attention. I would say give a Petri camera a try, there are a multitude of them for sale online for very reasonable prices.