The founding Japanese company of Kuribayashi had made photographic equipment from 1907 and first used the "Petri" as a camera name in 1948, subsequently adopting this name for the entire enterprise in 1962 as the Petri Camera Company. As this was the name in force when this Petri Computer II was made, this is how we have indexed it.

Derived from the 1970 Petri Computer 35, the Petri Computer II introduced a fully automatic Seiko ESF shutter with stepless speeds from 2 seconds down to 1000th sec. and a fast Petri f/1.7 lens to compliment it. The lens is notable in that the focal length used is 40mm giving a significantly wider view, taking in roughly 27% more than the usual 50mm used for this format. The light sensor used is a photo resistor mounted in the lens barrel above the lens, specifically a CdS (Cadmium Sulphide) cell, frowned up in the 21st century for environmental reasons. Another throwback is the use of, now banned, mercury batteries originally HM-N 1.4v or RM-640 variants. The shutter will not function without batteries as it is electronically governed. All this rather hints at the Japanese take over of industry in this era. Leveraging post war drive and growth in knowledge of microcircuitry and electronics, Japanese industry was excelling in all quarters, photography being a notable example. Focus control is still manual and of the classic rangefinder type with a central portion of the viewfinder used for a superimposed image that becomes coincident when that part of the image is focussed. It's all very well made, the finishes applied are nicely done with some finesse. The camera is mixed construction but centres around a cast metal body, beautifully matt coated internally, with finely satin chromed top housing and base plate along with sundry injection moulded plastic components. Around 1974 the camera was renamed the Petri ES Auto but just three years later the Petri Camera Company was no more.

This particular camera was donated by George and Patricia Masterton in 2023. Currently inactive due to corrosion in the battery bay, but that looks to be reversible and then there's the battery issue, the Kodak KX640 is a direct replacement but hard to find, but we make this one function with an in-house adaptor and two LR44s.

View other rangefinder cameras in this collection.