Kuribayashi Petri is not a camera maker I was familiar with. I think I came across a random YouTube video about one of their cameras and its owner was praising it. So I did what anyone in my position would do. I went to Ebay. I found one with a “Buy it Now” option for a mere $35.99 and bought it. My total was $38.69 after taxes. Shipping was free.

The Kuribayashi Petri 2.8 Color Corrected Super (a mouthful) is a fixed lens 35mm Rangefinder. The lens is an Orikkor 45mm f2.8. As best as I can determine, this camera was manufactured in Japan in the 50’s. Probably 1958.

When my copy was delivered, I gave it a quick inspection. I was upset to find the lens would be unusable in its state due to what looked like a fungus issue (although I’d never seen this issue in real life). The issue was inside the lens and nothing that could be corrected with an external cleaning.

I thanked him and apologized for being an a-hole.

I messaged the seller a rather curt message. He offered to refund my purchase price and told me to just keep the camera. He apologized for not disclosing the issue or better inspecting it before listing it for sale. I thanked him and apologized for being an a-hole.

I put the camera aside and actually forgot about it for a while. I eventually decided to try and clean it up and make it usable. I was able to partially disassemble the lens to get to the problem areas. Surprisingly, the lens innards cleaned up quite nicely. I reassembled it and was pleased to have a (hopefully) usable camera.

I recently loaded it up with some Kentemere 100 which I later developed in Diafine. I can’t say this is my favorite camera in my collection, but I’m happy with its performance and got some nice shots with it. I’ll definitely use it again.