This is the Petri Penta v6 made by Kuribayashi of Japan between 1965 and 1970. This particular camera was earlier in the production run, indicated by the all-metal film advance lever.
In my experience, Petri cameras fall into the “cursed” camera category, along with Mirandas. They are, however, less diabolical in nature as they typically just don’t work. Unlike Mirandas, which fool you by working perfectly when testing, then find myriad ways of breaking in the course of shooting actual film.
So engrained is my distrust of Petris and Mirandas that when I was shooting the roll shown below, and the wind lever stopped moving, I assumed the camera had broken. Much to my chagrin, it had simply reached the end of the roll.
I really like the look of the Petri Penta v6. There are a lot of SLRs that follow similar design language, but there is something captivating about the small details, as with most other Petris.
One odd design choice is the breech-lock bayonet mount, which makes this camera different from most other Petri interchangeable lens cameras that used M42 screw mount.
| Make | Kuribayashi |
| Model | Petri Penta v6 |
| Year | 1965-1970 |
| Format | 35mm |
| Shutter | focal-plane |
| Speed | B, 1/2-1/500 |
| Lens | Petri |
| CC Auto f1.8 55mm | |
| Focus | 0.5-inf |
| Aperture | f1.8 – f16 |
| Light Meter | no |
| Focus System | SLR |
Sample images taken on Ilford Delta 100, stand developed for 30 minutes in HC-110, scanned on an Epson V700.
Overall, I am pleased with the images and look forward to running more film through this beauty. Though I find the look pleasing, the CC Auto’s tendancy to render soft images, particularly when wide open, is not suitable for all use cases.
