Petri 7s sighting

[vidgamer]

I saw someone today with a Petri 7s and what appeared to be the wide angle adapter and viewfinder. Really decked-out, I thought. I actually have this camera and the auxiliary lenses, but I seldom use it because it is a bit big and clunky for my preferences, but it's a solid camera, I think. To be working well after so many years, it can't be built too poorly. Doesn't need batteries.

What did I do on my outing today? I took a small digital camera with the thought that there wouldn't be much photo opportunities, but maybe I should try harder to get the Petri out of the house....

 

[eyesglassy]

I just picked up a Petri 7s at a thrift store. It's very clean but the leaf shutter trips slowly. Didn't cost much so I thought I'd search here to see if there's an easy fix. A very cool camera. I also have a Petri Color 35 and love it. For years I thought it didn't work until I read here it's locked when the lens is screwed all the way in. They're both made very well.

 

[David_Manning]

I got one of these recently. The rangefinder patch is tiny, but it takes nice pictures.

 

[grapejohnson]

My grandfather has one of these. He bought it in Japan and used it while enlisted in the Korean War. I found it in his basement last summer and it seemed to still work quite well, although quite dirty. The meter was even working still.

 

[CRod]

I got a Petri 1.9 a couple of months ago and after the test roll the shutter gave out. So I sent it to a nice man named Derek Wong he CLA'd it and fixed the shutter, now it's as smooth as butter. Here's his blog and email hit him up.
http://dehk.wordpress.com/
deekster@gmail.com

 

[charjohncarter]

I love my Petri 7s, the meter is iffy, but mostly I use it with flash. It is great for outdoor fill flash and indoor auto-flash. At 1/500 you have much more leeway than with a FP shutter.

 

[vidgamer]

The meter on mine seems pretty good. I'd bet that it would last a long time as long as the selenium was not exposed to light most of the time (only when in use), but I dunno for sure.

I am not too sure about trying flash!

The Petri seems to be a completely overlooked (underrated?) brand, but given it's quirkiness, I'm not sure that it would be the first thing I would recommend either. Another point in its favor, I guess, is since it's under-appreciated, these things are available cheap. I assume that it should compare well enough with other similar 60's rangefinders, so I'm not too interested in getting another camera of that vintage. I like the styling on this one.

 

[charjohncarter]

The Petri seems to be a completely overlooked (underrated?) brand, but given it's quirkiness, I'm not sure that it would be the first thing I would recommend either.

I have had four of the these around 40mm rice cameras, and the lenses are all very good. This is fill flash with the Petri7s:

and I blew a section of this up and it was as sharp as anything I've ever shot: