Petri SLR Breech Mount Lens Question

[Joe Lopez]

Cleaning out the back room the other day, and I discovered a puzzle that I'd left for another day. I've got

Petri Flex V SLR with a breech mount. I've also got a 135mm f3.8 Petri breech mount lens [marked EE Auto] that

won't mount on this camera. [The lens has an a switch by the mount that allows you to toggle back and forth

between M and A, functions that I presume are for later Petris]. I know that some Petris used breech mount lenses

and that later Petris used M42 screw mount lenses. My question is whether there were two flavors of the breech

mount. I know that the camera is fine. Other Petri lenses that I no longer have would mount on it just fine.

This lens has a protruding non-moveable tab along the mount that prevents it from seating properly within the

camera's mount. This is distinct from the lever that controls the iris.

 

I used to have another Petri, a Petri Flex VI, and this lens wouldn't mount on it either. I've looked at the

instruction manual for the later Petri FTE on Mike Butkus's site (a later breech mount Petri with onboard meter

and some type of auto aperture EE function), and the illustration of the lens mount shown there lacks this little

tab that's present on my lens. Any ideas?

[User_1172872]

There were some breech lock Petri SLR's that had shutter priority auto exposure, using the "trapped needle" system. However, this is the first I have read anywhere of a possible incompatibility among the various breech lenses and cameras. To the contrary, in John Bairds book on Kuribayashi-Petri, he states that all breech lock lenses can be used on all breech lock cameras, although only the "EE" lenses will provide autoexposure on the "EE" cameras. Are you sure the non-moveable tab is non-moveable by design? I.e., is it possible the tab is just plain stuck from years of old grease?

[User_1172872]

P.S. The function of the M and A ring is to provide depth-of-field preview. If you set it to "M" the diaphram should close down to the set aperture, assuming the aperture is not on the EE setting.

[Joe Lopez]

Well, I'm no longer sure of much. The little tab that I've spoken of is immobile by design; it's part of the mount itself (part of the metal), not a part that's frozen from lack of use. At the same time, having played with the lens a bit more, I no longer think that tab is preventing the lens from engaging (it does seem to clear the camera body's lens mount to sit inside the camera [for what reason, I don't know]), but I'm not sure what is preventing the lens from mounting.

 

A few years ago, I had several Petri bodies. Another Petri Flex V, a Petri Flex VI, and a Petri FT. I was able to swap lenses among all of them. I picked up this 135mm f3.8 off eBay, and it wouldn't mount on any of the bodies, though it looks as if it should. It's not missing anything, and, frankly, that little tab is the only thing I can see that distinguishes it from other Petri lenses that I've had or seen. But it just won't work. Back then, I figured that it would certainly work on the later FT, but it didn't. And so it's sat on the shelf forgotten until I came across it and Petri Flex V earlier this week.

 

I'll try to post a picture of the lens's mount in a day or so. Maybe it might make sense to someone.

 

I remember, though, why I picked up the Petri Flex V. It's a cute camera. Their early SLRs had real style to them. The V is interesting. The shutter release is located on the body, to the right of the lens [as you hold it]. It had a top speed of 1/500, with a cloth, vertically travelling shutter. Electronic flash sync has its own marking on the shutter speed dial, somewhere between 1/30 and 1/60. LIke their rangefinders from the same era, it's got little name plate on the front announcing it as a "color corrected super." Later on, their cameras became fairly pedestrian, but in the early '60's at least, they had some interesting ideas about design. I really liked that cyclops-looking camera they came up with that had the round meter window built into the pentaprism.

[User_1172872]

Is the locater pin on the lens bent?

[Joe Lopez]

No, it sits properly within the corresponding slot in the mount. The problem is that the lens somehow [near that tab that I described above] doesn't sit flat enough within the camera's breech mount to allow the breech collar to turn over the flanges on the lens and thus hold the lens securely in place. I can tell that it's not sitting flush enough because the lens actually rocks a bit when it's in the mount, pivoting at that point. Which is where that little tab is located. Which does appear to clear the mount and sit inside the camera. And yet, the lens just doesn't sit flush enough there to allow the lens to mount. The lens doesn't appear to be damaged, bent, or squeezed out of round somehow. In fact, it's in near mint condition. But for the discoloration where the "passed" sticker once was, it is in mint condition.

 

I don't know. The only photo of a Petri lens mount that I've been able to find is the one in the FTE manual that I described above [a normal lens], and it doesn't have that tab. I no longer have other Petri lenses to compare this against, so I don't know if it's somehow unique to this lens or not. I don't think they had it. This lens wouldn't mount on any of the Petris that I had, which is why I still have it. I sold the others, but didn't know what to do with this lens because I thought it was some kind of incompatible variant of the basic Petri breech mount, and didn't belong with the other Petris I was selling.

 

I'll post a photo tomorrow of the lens mount. If nothing else, it might give comfort to someone else down the line who, having the same problem that I'm having, finds this posting.

[donnie_strickland]

Go to Rick Oleson's Lens Mount Guide, and scroll down to the picture of the Petri mount:

 

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-99.html

 

I don't know if it will be any help, but the picture is labeled with some mount info.

[Joe Lopez]

Thank you! That is helpful. And I don't see the little tab/nub that my lens has. And I don't remember this little tab on the other Petri breech mounts that I once owned.

 

Interestingly, too, the lens pictured also lacks a feature the FTE manual labels the "aperture control pin" [my 135mm lens has it, though it doesn't seem to do anything since it's got a fairly standard spring-driven lever that controls the iris].

 

Oh well. One more useless bit of photographic equipment around my house is hardly noticeable among all the rest of it.

 

Thanks to all who responded!

[Joe Lopez]

Below is an image of my Petri 135mm lens with the little "tab" that I've prattled on about circled. In the other photos of Petri mount lenses that I can find, this tab isn't present, and I don't remember it on other Petri breech mount lenses that I've had. It's actually part of the circular metal collar that runs around the inside of the lens mount [in other words, the whole thing -- including the tab -- is stamped out of the same sheet of metal]. The tab appears to prevent the lens from seating properly with the camera's breech mount.

 

<p><center><a href="/photo/7871217"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7871217-sm.jpg"></a>

[Joe Lopez]

Just as a basis of comparison, here's a photo [from the Petri FTE manual found on www.cameramanuals.com, used by permission of Mike Butkus, the site's owner] of a Petri normal lens from the same period oriented to show the lens mount. It's the same as the 135mm Petri that I've got, except that the tab isn't present.<div></div>

[Joe Lopez]

The online directory of camera manuals can be found at <a href="http://www.butkus.org/chinon/ ">Orphaned Cameras</a>

[m42dave]

<p>Greetings,<br /> I realize this is an older thread but wanted to add the following information in case is is helpful to anyone researching the topic of Petri EE lenses.<br /> <br /> The first Petri shutter-priority SLR to use EE lenses, the Petri FT EE, has two small levers behind the lens mount: one (at the lower right corner of the mirror) which pushed against the aperture control pin of the lens to set the proper aperture in EE mode, and one on the right side of the mirror box. This second lever, when pushed in by the aforementioned tab on back of the EE lens, adjusts the red exposure warning flag in the viewfinder to match the maximum aperture of the lens.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, this tab may prevent mounting on some earlier Petri SLRs. On the manual Petri FT II (which came out after the FT EE) there is a slot cutout behind the lens mount, presumably to accommodate this tab. The standard 55mm EE lens does not have a tab and should mount fine on the earlier breech-mount SLRs.<br /><br /><br /></p>

[m42dave]

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17906316-lg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17906307-lg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p>

[Joe Lopez]

Hard for me to verify much at this point. I no longer have any Petri lenses, and the only Petri camera I've got left is a 2.8

rangefinder. I did have at one point some later Petri EE SLR's and this lens wouldn't mount on them, but other Petri EE

lenses I had would.

 

I do still have a copy of Baird's Collector's Guide to Petri Cameras and would happily send it to anyone who wants it at no

charge.

[m42dave]

<p>Joseph, <br>

PM sent on the book offer.</p>

[Joe Lopez]

<p>The Baird Petri Collector's Guide is claimed.</p>