Home

Please support mflenses.com if you need any graphic related work order it from us, click on above banner to order!
SearchSearch MemberlistMemberlist RegisterRegister ProfileProfile Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages Log inLog in

Classics To Use - Petri
Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Film SLR / TLR Cameras
View previous topic :: View next topic  


PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 2:47 pm    Post subject: Classics To Use - Petri Reply with quote












PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Beautiful machines !


PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Saw the Petri SLRs advertised often in AP from the late 1960s to the early-mid 1970s. They were quite useful cameras.

A 7x35 Petri porro prism binocular from the duty-free canteen of the war zone in South-east Asia was presented to me in 1967. To my schoolboy eyes the image was brilliant. As I grew older, I could no longer get infinity focus with my worsening eyesight; neither was there sufficient eye relief for glasses. By the time I bought CZJ, Pentax, Nikon and Swift binoculars, what the glasses could resolve my eyes could no longer see. So the Petris remained of some interest to me. Still around somewhere.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I found a TTL with a 55 / 1.8 ( M42 )in a boxful of assorted camera junk that I bought as a job lot from a charity shop, I didn't really know what to expect from it, but the camera is very nice and seems to be well made. The lens however was a revelation, and one of the best M42 50 to 58mm lenses I've got. It's right up there with Takumar's, Pancolar and my other oddball favorite, my Mamiya Sekor 55 / 1.8. The Petri lens is really that good.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Lloydy wrote:
I found a TTL with a 55 / 1.8 ( M42 )in a boxful of assorted camera junk that I bought as a job lot from a charity shop, I didn't really know what to expect from it, but the camera is very nice and seems to be well made. The lens however was a revelation, and one of the best M42 50 to 58mm lenses I've got. It's right up there with Takumar's, Pancolar and my other oddball favorite, my Mamiya Sekor 55 / 1.8. The Petri lens is really that good.


Groan

Just another mistake on my part, of which I have made so many. Back when buying my Petri lenses years ago (have a number of them) I made special effort to buy only those with the Petri breechlock mount. I carefully avoided the Petri m42 lenses, thinking they were inferior.

If not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

So now I'm stuck with all these lenses I've never been able to convert.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have the (now broken) Petri Racer w/ 45mm F1.8 and it made such nice images, but due to some problem with the rangefinder or lens unit distance, the images were mostly out of focus... But really smooth bokeh and no CA to be seen.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
This article is about as good an epitaph as Petri is likely to get.

I ditto the opinion on some, at least, of its lenses, as they had good taste from the beginning.
The initial lineup was all-Kyoei Acalls rebranded, and those have recently and finally gotten their due for their quality.

The later breechlock line, other than the 50mm's, seems to be a variety of rebranded types from third party makers. This is no surprise, bigger brands like Mamiya, Yashica, Ricoh did the same thing for a large part of their lineup at one time or another. But these third party lenses are in fact mostly quite decent, Tokinas for instance.

As for bodies - he has a point. Petri rangefinders also all seem to have a common weakness, in that the cocking linkage was not made to last. I have three of these of different models, bought very cheaply, and its the same thing on all of them. It a matter of poor materials (easily deformed brass bearing surfaces), or poor design of the materials they selected.


PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
luisalegria wrote:


As for bodies - he has a point. Petri rangefinders also all seem to have a common weakness, in that the cocking linkage was not made to last. I have three of these of different models, bought very cheaply, and its the same thing on all of them. It a matter of poor materials (easily deformed brass bearing surfaces), or poor design of the materials they selected.


Honestly the whole internal design of the rangefinder I have is just very basic and bodgy. It had 2 fine screw adjustments (I think one for reach and the other for close-focus compensation) that didn't actually achieve anything. I thought that rangefinders should be calibrated at infinity focus distance and then be pretty good across all distances, but no matter what I tried, it was only ever accurate over a small distance and went out of focus at other distances wherever it was adjusted to. At the end I thought it must be the lens that is not aligned properly to the film plane but just gave up when the mirror, which was glued to a soft metal post, fell off - and I couldn't see when the lens came into focus on the film plane without also seizing the focus ring.


PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 7:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ha.

I never even got around to trying to fix Petri rangefinder mechanisms as that would have had to follow after fixing the cocking linkages, as the thing would have had to be recalibrated after taking the whole front plate off.

All in all I cannot recommend the Petri cameras. Except maybe the Cosina made ones.

Now, I have these Petri Orikkor 45mm rangefinder lenses, standard double-gauss f/1.9's
Which are probably quite nice.
Maybe I can use them for something.


PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
guardian wrote:
Lloydy wrote:
I found a TTL with a 55 / 1.8 ( M42 )in a boxful of assorted camera junk that I bought as a job lot from a charity shop, I didn't really know what to expect from it, but the camera is very nice and seems to be well made. The lens however was a revelation, and one of the best M42 50 to 58mm lenses I've got. It's right up there with Takumar's, Pancolar and my other oddball favorite, my Mamiya Sekor 55 / 1.8. The Petri lens is really that good.


Groan

Just another mistake on my part, of which I have made so many. Back when buying my Petri lenses years ago (have a number of them) I made special effort to buy only those with the Petri breechlock mount. I carefully avoided the Petri m42 lenses, thinking they were inferior.

If not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

So now I'm stuck with all these lenses I've never been able to convert.


I'm really not sure who might have made this lens, it has no features that I can match with anything else I've got.

Post new topic   Reply to topic
Home   Film SLR / TLR Cameras
Page 1 of 1