Petri Color 35!

Picked up a Petri Color 35 in good working condition for 35 bucks. I purchased it from a person who thought it was some kind of Pentax point and shoot camera. I have always wanted one, and hadn't even laid eyes on one of these babies prior to this moment, can't wait to put a roll through it and see what it can do.

Here's one I took of our cat Sherman, in a contemplative mood staring out our kitchen windsow. I know it's a little underexposed, I was working by guesswork with an old Praktica bayonet mount camera that has a wanky lightmeter. I believe that shot was taken using some expired ASA 200 colour film that I bought for 10 cents a roll at a discount department store.

Fountain In Park

Here's one I took at a park last year. The camera I used was a Pentax SP500, a design that I believe that was released around 1969 or 1970. By todays standards it's a pretty primitive design, stopped down metering and all. The meter requires a now unavailable mercury batteries, however I have been using hearing aid batteries that seem to work just fine. The best thing about the Pentax design is their incredible lens quality. In my humble opinion this 40 year old lens has better characteristics that my 2 year old Nikon slr. As per normal I used Kodak or Fuji 200 speed film, I can't remember which.

Sad Angel

This is a shot I took several years ago on a late autumn day with a Braun Super Paxette Automatic III rangefinder. This was a time when I was developing my own film and doing old fashioned enlarging on a rickety old Russian enlarger that I picked up for a song. When I purchased a new and smaller home a few years back I decided I just didn't have the space for my enlarging gear, and dumped it all. I pine for those days now. Anyone out there with a nice enlarger that they want to part with cheap just drop me a line and we can do business.

Petri FT 500

I made trip to one of my favorite thrift stores today and found a little gem of the photographic nature. My find was a Petri FT 500 slr, circa 1976. This was in the waning days of the Petri company, they went out of business between somewhere between 1977, and 1981, although some sites claim the company is still in business making telescopes. I must say that cosmetically the camera is in great condition, almost new. I put a new button cell in it, but I can't get the meter to fire up, I'm suspecting that a wire to the battery chamber may be corroded. In comparison to the Petri Flex V that I own, which was manufactured in the early 1960's I would say that the quality has gone down significantly, but then again alot of cameras did seem to go down in quality from the 60's to the 70's. When I get a chance I am going to pop the bottom cap off and see if I can repair the offending wire. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this low end slr includes a depth of field button that most lower end slrs don't.

The camera shown here is the Ft 1000, that had a higher top speed, 1/1000 as opposed to 1/500, and also a self timer, that mine lacks.

Winter stairs

This image is one I took this past February with a Petri 2.8 Super Colour Corrected rangefinder camera. It was shot using 200 ASA film during a snowfall, the location was the base of a stairway at a 200 plus year old burial ground.

First Post

Hi;
I'm just getting back into the blogging game, and I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Kevin, I live on the east coast of Canada, and my hobby is collecting and using vintage camera equipment. I shoot with gear going back to the 1930's and as recent as the 1980's. Although I primarily shoot with Russian/Ukranian rangefinders, I also use a number of vintage slr's as well. This blog wil be used to showcase some of my favorite cameras, and to exhibit a few photos taken with each one.
Regards for now.
Kevin