petri racer?

Re: petri racer?

backalley photo said:
anyone know something about the petri racer?
joe
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Joe,

I have a Petri Racer. Heck, I've nearly got one of everything by now. It's a light-weight aluminum bodied camera (I think it's aluminum) with a 45mm 2.8 lens and a coupled rangefinder. The shutter release is on the front of the body, and it's touchy. It has a mechanical indicator on top to show when the camera is cocked and ready to fire, which is good, because of that touchy shutter release I mentioned.

It does not have a hot-shoe, but it has a standard PC connector on the body of the lens. ASA setting is on the lens body too, from 25 to 800 ASA. It has a nice viewfinder (mine is, anyway) with a bright rangefinder patch in the standard manner and a brightline frame - but it does not correct for parallax. It also has a match-needle meter viewable through the viewfinder, on the right hand side.

It takes the ubiquitous PX-25 mercury battery, but I put an alkaline in it and it seems to be about right with exposure anyway. It turns on when the camera is cocked. Don't leave the camera cocked - drains the battery.

Speeds are standard 1-500 plus B. Has a self-timer on the side, as usual.

It has a standard cable-release hole where the normal shutter release would be - weird!

I guess it's half-way decent. I used it to take the recent 'shadow' photo I posted of the 'Soldiers'.

Not a bad little knock-around camera. I would not put it in the same class as an Olympus RD/SP/RC or Canonet, etc, for mechanical construction, but the lens/shutter on mine seem pretty good.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
thanks bill!

i saw one on ebay canada and liked the look of it. i may put a bid on it and hope for little other interest.

joe
 
Joe,

Canada? That's a country or something, right?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

PS - Just kidding. I love Poutine.
 
Joe,

My wife and I spent her birthday last year in Vancouver - incredibly beautiful city! I eat poutine when I go to Montreal - also a lovely city, but definitely with a different 'flavor'.

I was in downtown Vancouver when Canada won the Olympic Gold last time. No rioting or anything, just some happy, friendly, drunks who went out on the streets, shouted a bit, and then all went home. So different from the US!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Bill Mattocks
On my Petri Racer, the meter is only activated as long as the film advance lever is slightly pressed forewards. It does not stay on when cocked. This works pretty much like on the Pentax MX, except this would stay on for a couple of minutes, and then turn off automatically. It's a funny camera. Does anybode have images done with this camera? How good is the lens?
Regards
Jens
 
Hi Jens. I put a film through my Petri Racer a couple of weeks ago. The photos were very sharp and contrasty. If you put a film through yours I'm sure you will not be disappointed. Mine is the 2.8 version.
 
Anyone know why this camera was named "Racer"? Does it have some sort of fast shooting or advancing? I read one reference that stated it was easy to change the aperture while shooting. Whoo hoo!!! Maybe the name was just a marketing ploy.

One webpage I found referenced the Racer as the first camera owned by photojournalist Nina Berman.
 
Image quality from these (and probably 7/7s as well) is greatly improved by giving the interior a more matte finish; the paint Petri used inside these cameras is ridiculously shiny. My own special 'brew' is 2 parts Liquitex Mars Black Soft Body Acrylic artist's paint, 1 part the same in Dioxazine Purple, mixed with the maximum amount of marble dust (available at better art-supply stores) that the paint mixture will hold and still be reasonably 'brushable'. Stippled-on with a very dry brush this will result in a much less reflective interior.
 
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