Petri 1.9 (c. 1958–early 1960s)

The Petri 1.9 is a 35mm leaf-shutter camera from Petri Camera Co. of Japan, made during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has a fixed Petri Orikkor 45mm f/1.9 lens - the "1.9" in the name is that fast maximum aperture. The shutter is a Seikosha leaf type with speeds up to 1/500th plus Bulb, and it has X-sync flash capability.

Documentation on this model is thinner than on some of Petri's later bodies. Sources disagree on one basic point. Some call the 1.9 a rangefinder camera. Others place it among Petri's viewfinder models, with separate windows for the viewfinder and rangefinder. The focusing mechanism is not fully documented in the surviving record. The camera has no built-in meter. Film transport appears to be by knob rather than lever, though this is not confirmed for the base 1.9 specifically.

The camera was also sold as the Petri 1.9b, a distinct follow-on model produced from 1962 to 1965. The 1.9b has the same Orikkor 45mm f/1.9 lens but a Seikosha-SLV shutter. It is better documented: it measures 132 × 75 × 50 mm, weighs 685 g, takes a 46 mm filter, and has a coincidence-type rangefinder with bright-frame viewfinder. No source reviewed says whether the base 1.9 shares those dimensions or that rangefinder type.

No original price, production numbers, or period reviews of the Petri 1.9 have surfaced in the archive. The only indexed mention is in High-Fidelity (March 1985, p.73), and it references a different Petri - recorder player Michala Petri - not this camera. Owner-submitted photographs of the camera exist on Petri enthusiast forums, but no detailed user assessments or repair notes have been preserved. If you own a 1.9 and can confirm the viewfinder arrangement or film advance, the record would benefit from your observations.

Audio-Collection (p.168) offers only tangential context. The period's hi-fi press, including Hi-Fi News, was going through editorial transition in the mid-1980s. No direct review of this camera appears in the audio publications indexed.