Petri Compact 17

In the 1960s, the ever-changing hobbyist photography market got a new trend to chew upon: the half-frame 35mm format on a 135 cartridge. Technology has evolved towards smaller film formats, from the early film available for amateur, the #120 format, to the #127, the smallest reasonable contact print, to the #135, #828, Rapid, Karat and Bolta. The winner, perhaps by the market size it covered, was Kodak, with the Nagel developed #135. Chemistry allowed for fine-grain film, advanced optics for improved glass and technology for miniaturization. Photoshops were widely available, paving the way for the next generation #126 and #110 formats, smaller than the 24x36mm on 35mm film.

While the 35mm half frame was offered in Europe since the mid-1930s, it first splashed with the trendy Olympus Pen dynasty of simple, cheap and reliable cameras. The first Pen came in 1959, with almost any decent camera maker offering its version of this format.

Petri entered this format in 1960 with four identical models bearing different names: Petri Junior, Petri Compct, Petri Half and Dejour Petri Compact. A year later came the Compact E, and another year brought the Petri 7 Half and the Petri Compact 17 / Petri 17.

With the Petri 17, Petri broke a legacy of making boring, lacklustre 35mm monoblock cameras bare of groundbreaking or frills. In this little camera, they hid a slew of awkward features, ordaining it to the class of ‘read the manual first’ models, yet it is still confusing.

At first look, before consulting the manual, it seems that some controls are missing. The manual is cryptic at best, and it took me quite some time to figure it out, which made me humble. There is hardly any online information, and the ‘collectors guide to Quribayashi – Petri cameras’ book offers just a background.

The camera is tiny and lightweight, on par with the famed Pen class. It falls nicely in the hand, but everything is against convention from here. Similar to other Petri cameras, it carries acclaim for having a “Green-O-Matic” viewfinder and “Circle-Eye” exposure meter, which was good for marketing; otherwise, it was meaningless. Made before the plastic era, it is all made of metal, nicely finished.

• The top has the rewind button, cold shoe, trigger and self-resetting frame counter window. The frame sequence is marked in minuscule fonts and is hardly legible. It seems as an introduction to the rest of the markings on this camera, all too small to be practical.
• One side has a serrated dial, marked ‘L’ for lock and ‘O’ for open. Use your thumb to turn and unlock the fully removable back. The other side has a similarly sized thumb nut to hold the lanyard, and when removed, it exposes the mounting thread.
• The bottom has a large, 32mm / 1.25″ dial, partly serrated, that is the winder. Turn it a quarter turn towards the arrow. It is unconventional; several other models by Kodak, AGFA, and Rollei used bottom winders, neither a dial as is found here.
• The back has only the viewer window, with a needle hovering at the top viewer. No markings, just a line.
• The front top features a clear viewer window, a frosted window for the paralax lines, and a small elongated slot next to it. The user manual refers to this slot as a ‘Signal Illumination Window’, but there is no further reference. I assume it is used to provide background light to the meter needle.
• The trouble begins with the lens assembly. From the center outwards:
  • The 2.8/28 lens is in the middle, with the shutter behind it and the aperture leaves at the back.
  • It is surrounded by the famed “Circlew-Eye” selenium meter lens.
  • At the bottom of the meter lens, a semi-dial shows the distance, marked in meters and feet, and the lettering ‘G’ for group and ‘S’ for scene, or so I assume. The manual also suggests ‘P’ for person, but I don’t see it here.
    Setting the distance is by turning the outer ring of the lens assembly.
  • The film speed in ASA and DIN is on the top of the lens barrel, closest to the body. The same dial has the shutter speed markings on the right. The dial is turned by a fin under the lens barrel. As with the rest of the settings, it takes good eyesight and good lighting to read the markings and a solid fingernail to set it.
  • On the left of the barrel are the aperture settings; here, the values stay put, and a miniature ‘V’ marker hovers next to it. To change it, use the fin on the outer dial if your fingernail is still intact.
• The camera is either shutter priority fully automatic or manual. It took me some time to figure out against what to set the shutter and the aperture values. There are stylized alrrows which take much imagination to relate to.
• See the images below for clarification.
• For auto, select the film speed, which also sets the shutter speed, and set the (miniature) aperture indicator all the way up, just past the 2.8 mark. This way, the meter will dictate the aperture opening.
• If over or under, the shutter will not fire.
• For manual use, set the speed and the aperture as desired.
• To allow for rewinding, press and hold the pin in the middle of the winder disk.