Petri

Kuribayashi, later Petri, was a Japanese camera maker.

History

Most sources say that the company was founded as Kuribayashi Seisakusho in 1907 by Kuribayashi Yōji (栗林庸二), manufacturing tripods and dark boxes. Its first camera was the Speed Reflex supposedly released in 1919. However a Petri catalogue dated August 1981 reportedly says that the company was founded in 1918 and that the Speed Reflex was introduced in 1922.

It became Gōshi-gaisha Kuribayashi Shashin Kikai Seisakusho (合資会社栗林写真機械製作所) in 1930. From 1929 to the war many cameras made by the company were called First and advertised as made by First Camera Works. These First cameras were mostly distributed by Minagawa Shōten. It is unclear whether First Camera Works was indeed a manufacturing company jointly owned by Kuribayashi and Minagawa or if it was an empty structure or just a name used for advertising.

The company changed status in 1949 and became K.K. Kuribayashi Shashin Kikai Seisakusho (㈱栗林写真機械製作所) in 1949. It used the brand names Karoron and Petri for 4.5×6 folders. Its first 35mm camera was released in 1954 and its first 35mm SLR in 1959. The company became Kuribayashi Shashin Kōgyō K.K. (栗林写真工業㈱) in 1956. In 1962, it took the name of its products and became Petri Camera K.K. (ペトリカメラ㈱). In 1968, it released the Petri Color 35, a very compact camera said to be inspired from the Rollei 35.

Petri Camera went bankrupt in 1977 or 1978. It was revived as Petri Kōgyō K.K. (ペトリ工業㈱) but it abandoned camera production some time thereafter. It seems that the company still exists (2007) and makes telescopes.

The company seems unrelated to the current Kuribayashi Seisakusho Co., Ltd. founded in 1944.

35mm film

Rangefinder, fixed lens

• Petri 2.8 Color Corrected Super
• Petri 7s
• Petri Computor 35

Viewfinder

• Petri Color 35

SLR

• Petri Flex
• Petri Penta
• Petri FT
• Petri FT II
• Petri FT EE

120 film

4.5×6 folder

• Semi First
• BB Semi First
• Baby Semi First
• Auto Semi First (rangefinder)

6×6 folder

• First Six

6×9 folder

• First Roll
• First Center

6×6 TLR

• First Reflex

127 film

• Eagle (4×6.5 folder)
• Speed Pocket (4×6.5 folder)

Plate film

• First Hand (6.5×9cm folder)
• First Etui (6.5×9cm folder)

Bibliography

• Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7.
• Baird, John R. Collectors guide to Kuribayashi-Petri Cameras. Grantsburg, WI (USA): Centennial Photo Service, 1991. ISBN 0-931838-16-9.
• Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard).

Links

In English:

• Petri user manuals at butkus.org's Orphan Cameras

In French:

• Petri page at Collection G. Even's site

In Japanese:

• Petri and the Petri Research Club at Uyūdō

Baird, p. 11, Lewis, p. 184 and this page of the Japan Memory website.

Baird, pp. 13 and 40–2. Lewis, p. 36.

See this page by Sumida Petri-dō.

Date: Baird, p. 15. Baird gives Shashin instead of Shashin Kikai.

Baird, p. 15, suggests that it was a jointly owned company. Other Japanese companies used names ending in "Camera Works" exist, but none of them seems to correspond to an actual company and they were probably fancy names only used for advertising purpose.

Transition visible between two advertisements dated 1949 reproduced in Kokusan kamera no rekishi, p. 178. Baird, p. 30, gives Shashin instead of Shashin Kikai by mistake.

Dates: Baird, p. 32.

See the chronology of the company's website.