Petri Color Corrected Super

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A series of 35mm coupled rangefinder cameras made by Petri (still legally named Kuribayashi when the series started) carry a badge on the front right-hand side of the body including the phrase Color Corrected Super. There is a common design to all the cameras, and a progression in design through the series. Although it is not at all clear that Color Corrected Super was the model name of any of them, it is as good a collective name for the series as any.

Petri 35

The Petri 35 (this model name is clear from the user's manual[1], and 'Petri' 35 appears on the badge, together with 'color corrected super') was Kuribayashi's first 35mm rangefinder, in 1954. The camera has Petri's 45mm Orikkor lens, a coated Tessar type, and their Carperu shutter. It is likely that the specification improved with time: the manual describes an f/2.8 lens; McKeown states that some examples have an f/3.5.[2] Again, the manual states that the shutter gives speeds from 1 to 1/300 second, plus 'B'; McKeown gives the range of speeds as only 1/10 - 1/200 second. The advertisement reproduced below shows a camera according to the specification described by McKeown. The shutter described in the manual has X-synchronisation, with a PC socket and cold shoe; it is cocked automatically by the film advance, which is lever-wind (but the camera pictured below clearly has a cocking lever on the lens barrel). McKeown lists developments of the Petri 35, named the 35X (1955) and 35MX (1955-8); these suffixes presumably refer to improvements in the shutter (flash synchronisation), so may account for the variations noted. The coupled rangefinder is combined with the viewfinder, so the camera has two small rangefinder/viewfinder windows. For the company's first 35mm rangefinder, it is well-specified; very similar indeed to the Yamato Pax M2 or M3 of about the same time.


Petri Automate

The Petri Automate[3] was made from 1956; i.e. it was introduced alongside the Petri 35, as a superior version of it. It has an f/1.9 Orikkor, and the shutter now gives speeds from 1 to 1/500 second plus 'B', and has a self-timer. The top housing is slightly restyled; the glass of the rangefinder window is much larger, although behind it, the metal frame of the rangefinder spot itself is not significantly changed. The film rewind knob has been replaced with a folding crank.




The original 1957 version had small rangefinder windows, but in 1958 a larger green-tinted window to illuminate a parallax-corrected bright-line viewfinder was added. Petri offered a faster f/1.8 or f/1.9 lens option for both.

Notes

  1. User's manual at Mike Butkus' Orphan Cameras
  2. McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p579.
  3. Petri Automate at Range Finder; text in Japanese, with a few pictures.

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