Kuribayashi Shashin Kikai Seisakusho and move to Chiyodo, Toyko. It wouldn’t be until 1949 when Kuribayashi would regroup and change names to K.K. There isn’t much information about what the company was doing around this time, but like most other Japanese optical companies, they were likely ordered by the Occupation Forces to begin producing items for commercial sale in an effort to rebuild Japan’s economy. The Karoron was a typical folding camera produced by Kuribayashi in the 1950s.ĭuring World War II, at least one of Kuribayashi’s offices in Tokyo was destroyed. For this reason, it can be incredibly difficult to identify an early Kuribayashi made product. One of the more common names used was First Camera Works which was sold by a third party called Minagawa Shōten. Many of Kuribayashi’s early products were sold by third parties under a variety of names. These cameras were very similar to designs by German companies such as Balda and Welta and often were sold without any identifying marks. In the 1930s, Kuribayashi made many folding roll film cameras such as the Semi First and First Six. It was a large format plate camera that could be custom ordered with a variety of lenses and shutters. The company would eventually make it’s first camera in the 1920s known as the Speed Graphic. Kuribayashi was founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1907 by Kuribayashi Yōji and made a variety of photographic equipment like tripods and dark boxes. +1 for perfect handling, ergonomics, and performance, the complete package This is an outstanding camera in every way and while it doesn’t do anything that more expensive rangefinders can do, I can’t find a single fault in it. Finally, the six element Orikkor lens delivers fantastic results that are as good as any other quality fixed lens rangefinder. The Green-O-Matic system isn’t any better than other tinted rangefinder windows, but works well. The camera is more compact than typical rangefinders of the day and incredibly well built with almost perfect ergonomics. The Petri 1.9 Color Corrected Super is an unassuming 35mm rangefinder from the late 1950s and early 60s built by a company not known to make cameras that hold up well today.
Manual (in Japanese): How these ratings work Viewfinder: Coincident Image Coupled Rangefinder w/ Auto Parallax Corrected Projected Frame Linesįlash Mount: Coldshoe and M and X Flash Sync Lens: 4.5cm f/1.9 Petri Orikkor coated 6-elements Later models like this one feature the company’s “Green-O-Matic” rangefinder which overlays a large green filter over the rangefinder and frame line window to increase contrast within the main viewfinder.
The basic operation and features of the entire series are very similar, however.
There are a huge number of variations in this series, with changes to the shutter, some with f/1.8, f/1.9, f/2, and f/2.8 lenses, and others with minor cosmetic differences. This camera is part of Kuribayashi’s long running series of 35mm rangefinders starting with the Petri 35, which were produced between 19. This is a Petri 1.9 Color Corrected Super, a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Kuribayashi Shashin Kōgyō K.K.