Petri "Compact" half-frame camera

[seany65]

I just thought I'd post this here in case anyone ever wants any info on Petri "Compact" half-frame cameras:

I've just bought one of these:

It's a scale focus camera, so Guess or use an accessory rangefinder, and you'll notice it's got a Green "P", Orange "G" and Red "S" on the focusing ring. These are for "Portraits", "Groups" and "Scenes". They are gently click-stopped for ease of use for beginners. I've not got a manual for it, but the Manual for their "Compact E" (buit-in light meter) which has the same lens, shutter and aperture range, says the "P" is at 2.625ft/0.8m, the "G" is at 10ft/3m and the "S" is at 16ft/5m. All the other distances can be used. The speed ring is gently click-stopped and the aperture ring has slightly heavier click-stops, but can be left between stops. There are no strap lugs, but a wrist strap that screws into the tripod socket. It has a brightline frame in the finder with parallax correction marks. The green view isn't as hard to get used as you'd think, but I've not been out with it yet. The manual also says "When you set all three Red marks (f8, 1/60th, 16ft) in a line, you can enjoy your snapshooting of all the subjects (not within 2.28m/7.48ft)". The lens is a four-element design and the filter thread is 22.5mm. The thing sticking out of the side of the lens is the wind-on trigger.

They were also released as the Petri Junior, Petri Half and Dejure Petri Compact, ie this camera has at least 4 names and I'm not sure if they were using the method of different names for different markets strategy.

It's about the same dimensions and weight as a Ricoh 500GX with a rather smaller lens.

EDIT 1: The cold shoe does look a bit dirty, but part of it is because for some reason, they decided to have a rough surface to it, possibly to help the "accessory" to not slip off. It's best to set the f No., then the speed and then the focus as the rings are far too close together to adjust them in any other order without chagning the setting of at least one other ring.

Addendum to Edit 1: I've just tried two accessory rangefinders (a pohtopia and a Lomo Blik) in the accessory shoe and they are both pretty loose, probably need a bit of cardboard shoved underneath to tighte up the fit.

It is said that any distance halfway between a marked distance and the infinity mark, is twice as far from the camera as the marked distance ie. if the marked distance is 10ft, halfway between that and the infinity mark is 20ft. This probably a very rough guide. However, you'll notice on the pictured Petri, the "S" is meant to be at 16ft but it looks halfway between the "G" (10ft) and the infinity mark, so is this a mistake?

What happens between the guessed halfway point between 16ft and infinity, (in this case 32ft), and the infinity mark? is it 64ft? Is the next guessed point at 128ft? For how long does this go on for?

 

[p.giannakis]

Looks very pretty - looking forwards to some pictures.

 

[seany65]

Pretty? that's what I thought.

So long as you remember that I have no photo talent. I decided on a half-frame camera to get some grain in daylight pics without using delta 3200. I know that can be used at 1000asa but that's a bit too fast in daylight for most of my cameras. I'll be using kentmere pan 400 to start with. I'm hoping that sigma 22.5mm filters (which were for their 600mm mirror lens) have the correct pitch to their thread. For some reason though sigma didn't do a green filter, so I'll be having trouble getting one of them. Lens hoods look like they'll be difficult to get as well. I my have to buy 2 or 3 filters and smash the glass out and screw them together.

 

[zuiko85]

Filter size is 22.5mm? Wow, that is what my early Olympus Pen viewfinder cameras use. Didn’t know any other camera ever used them. Rare as hens teeth and poor selection forces me to use a 22.5 mm to series 5 drop in filters but that adapter covers the aperture scale on the Pen so you just have to count detents or know by sight what aperture you have set. But I do have both medium green and dark green filters for series 5 plus the usual yellow, orange and both a #25 and #29 red filters, plus several plus diopter close up lenses.

Watch out! You might get addicted to 35mm half frame like I did 50 years ago.

Edit; And yes! That is a gorgeous camera!

 

[Doug]

Very nice! I had the model that followed yours, the Petri Half-7 of 1962. May be built on the same chassis, but there were a lot of changes. Neat little camera. Purchased new in Turkey (IIRC it was ~$28 in the Base Exchange), unfortunately it was stolen in the Philippines...

 

[seany65]

zuiko: 22.5mm is what the manual for the "E" version says, but I'll find out soon as I've ordered a set of sigma 22.5mm filters, so even if the pitch is wrong I should find out if the thread size is correct. Annoyingly, there was an ebay seller in the US that had several 22.5mm filters in, 2 of which were skylight 1A's and BOTH were sold between me ordering the camera and getting it! I've seen a pic of a 22.5mm hoya lens hood, that was on "picclick uk" but the thumb leads to "hoya 52mm metal screw on lens caps", so it will have been on a long time ago. It does look like a good hood, but rather deep considering that the lens is already quite deep in the barrel,, so I don't know if it would be too deep.

I'm not sure I'll be getting addicted to half-frame as I already have too many cameras for the space I have.

Doug: Did you have a 42mm push on hood or 40.5mm screw in hood and did they block part of the viewfinder?

 

[seany65]

Just found out that the Fujica Drive camera also used 22.5mm filters, so perhaps that size was a little more common than I and zuiko85 thought?

I'm presuming though, that due to the lack of 22.5mm filters from that time, very few were sold as most buyers of half-frames were just "snappers", with quite a few of those cameras even being used without lens hoods.

Oooh, the ruddy Phillistines!

 

[Doug]

...Doug: Did you have a 42mm push on hood or 40.5mm screw in hood and did they block part of the viewfinder?

As I recall, there was no hood.

 

[seany65]

Doug, I thought I may have got mixed up with some other camera, but I've just had another look the half-7 manual on butkus, (I probably owe butkus $thousands) and at the bottom of the "Specs" list and it mentions a 42mm push on lens hood.

I wonder if that was the idea when the manual was printed, but they never made any for this camera? I have just looked on Picclick uk and there a plenty of hoods that weren't made by Petri but most look like they'd block a big bit of the finder. Although I've just seena kodak series VI 42mm that looks like the best bet.

 

[Doug]

Doug, I thought I may have got mixed up with some other camera, but I've just had another look the half-7 manual on butkus, (I probably owe butkus $thousands) and at the bottom of the "Specs" list and it mentions a 42mm push on lens hood...

Sorry, Sean; I just don't remember a hood though there might well have been one included. I expect there are plenty of other choices that will fit and not impose on the viewfinder.

 

[Rob-F]

Looks very pretty - looking forwards to some pictures.

Pretty? that's what I thought.

That was my immediate reaction as well. It thought it was pretty, and also fun! That tab on the aperture ring is a thoughtful touch on Petri's part. The lens is such a flat pancake, Petri must have realized it would be hard to grip the ring without a tab. The tab, I think could have been a little smaller though--it looks like it could double as a letter opener! Have fun with it! And yes, let's see some pictures.

 

[seany65]

Doug: No need to apologise if you didn't have a hood or remember having a hood, it's just that when you said you didn't recall a hood, I began thinking I may have got several cameras mixed up, so I double checked.

Rob: That ain't an aperture ring tab, that's the wind-on lever, or rather trigger in this case. It's in quite a good position if like me, you rest the camera on the heel of your hand below the thumb and your folded 2nd and 3rd fingers. The narrowness of the lens and control rings do make you set the f no., then speed then focus, 'cos any other order will reset the position of at least one ring you didn't want to adjust a 2nd time before taking the pic. But this isn't much worse than it is with my Ricoh 500GX, I just have to remember the order.

 

[seany65]

For anyone who's interested and can translate this "Repair manual page" for the Petri Half, aka Compact, aka Junior, aka Dejur Petri Compact (lol) from Japanese (I think), here's a link:

https://blog.goo.ne.jp/tomys800/e/a2157bd9a0ddec5a976515d348b1bc70

There's info about and pics of: The shutter, the viewfinder, the lens and other inner workings.

 

[seany65]

I've just received a set of Sigma 22.5mm filters (Yellow, Orange, Red, ND4) which were designed for their 600mm mirror lens and they fit perfectly onto the front of the Petri. I had wondered if they'd be a different pitch, with them being made 2 or 3 decades after the camera, by a different company, for the back of a lens that fits onto slrs.

So at least those filters were sorted easily enough. I just need Green, UV or Sky and maybe an ND2 now.

 

[seany65]

I've just been pootling about on "PicClick Uk" and seen a number of 22.5mm screw-on filters listed, some by B+W, some by Arnz Jena, some by Marumi and some by Olympus. The Olympus ones don't seem to have a thread on the front so perhaps a push-on lens hood is needed? Silly Olympus.

Anyway, these filters range from 1.5 (B+W sky?) all the way through nd2, colour correction filters (brown-ish, blue etc.), and the usual colour filters for mono, and infra-red! If I've understood the german writing on the box.

Unfortunately, some are in lots of 6 and 13, and so they are more expensive than I can justify, especially as most of them are red, yellow and orange, with various shades of light blue and brown, with "Blue-Violet"! Some are Green and Yellow-Green and there may be a UV or two.

These are listings from 128 days ago and older, upto several years, and most are rather expensive, but it does seem that there are Sky, ND2, Green and Yellow-Green out there occasionally as well as the Sigma sets.

 

[seany65]

Well, I've just finished my first roll, which is a kodak colorplus 24-shot film. I'll try and send it off for processing soon.

Slightly annoyingly, I thought I'd put in a 36-shot film, so I juts thought I was being a little more "free" about taking photos than I normally am, because I'd only used it to take about 6 photos on one previous occasion and now on the third use I was already on 55! Then a tiny bit later, after about 5 more shots I noticed the counter wasn't moving but the the winder seemed to be working, so I looked at the rewind knob as I wound on again and even though the wind trigger worked the rewind knob didn't turn. It turned out to be 24-shot film so the counter wasn't moving but the wind on trigger did seem to be working.

It's weird that the trigger did seem to be winding on and tensioning the shutter. Unfortunately the last who-knows-how-many-shots were probably all put onto the last frame.

Anyway I put another colorplus film in and it seems to be working as it should.

The rangefinder I was using did seem to be telling me the distances were longer than I'd estimate, but hopefully it will be right and I would've been wrong.

Anyone got any idea why this thread doesn't show up in my "Your Content" list?

 

[pggunn]

That is a beautiful camera! I hope you'll post your photos soon.

I just got a half frame, my first, delivered today myself. While researching, I read about the Petri compacts and it was on my list of prospects. It is one of the prettiest cameras I've ever seen, and from what I read, a great shooter and with a build quality to match. I couldn't find one, but another on my list, the Canon Demi EE17 was available. Just loaded it with a battery and film and plan on using it this weekend.

BTW, did it take you three years to finish your first roll? Or did I misread the date on your original post? It says "July 29, 2021" 🙂

 

[seany65]

Ha, no, it took me a year to get a film for it and three years to put the film in and start it and about 3 days to finish it. I generally start of with a set list of things to photograph as a sort of "test the camera and compare the results to those of other cameras", as well as to get used to a "new" camera because most of my cameras work slightly differently to the others.

Partly because of covid restrictions (which in the UK were most of the time confusing and each restriction and allowance often contradicted each other, as well as sometimes contradicting others of its own "class" - traditional British "muddling through").

Partly because I have other cameras to test/get used to and partly 'cos either the weather was too wet or too hot.

The problem with the petri Compact/Half/Junior and the compact E, is they have a fairly narrow shutter speed range of 1/15 - 1/250, whereas my Demi S goes 1/8 -1/500 which is the same as my Ricoh 500GX. I also find the lens rather cramped from front to back, there ain't much room for fingers.

 

[laservampire]

Fun little camera but I find the viewfinder is awful to use. I did NOT enjoy taking 72 photos with mine, but they came out okay despite the flare-prone lens.

Happy for the $50 I spent on mine, with original box and manual!

 

[seany65]

Hello and welcome to the forum laservampire.

I did wonder how it would be to use a green viewfinder while waiting for delivery, but it didn't bother me at all. I also don't find the trigger wind awkward or anything. In use it's pretty quick and I don't have to move the camera to wind the film on.