C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Petri Flex V6 is a 35mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Petri Camera Co., Ltd. and introduced in 1965. It uses Petri's proprietary breech-lock lens mount -- sometimes called the C.C. Auto mount after the Color Corrected Auto lens series -- and a horizontal-travel rubberized cloth focal-plane shutter running from 1s to 1/1000s with X-sync at 1/60s. The camera features an external selenium exposure meter mounted on the front of the body; the meter is battery-free, deriving its power from ambient light, so the shutter mechanism operates fully without any power source.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
A mid-60s Petri SLR with horizontal cloth shutter and selenium meter -- the breech-lock generation at its most developed.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | Petri breech-lock (C.C. Auto) |
| Year introduced | 1965 |
| Shutter | Horizontal cloth focal-plane, 1s -- 1/1000s + B |
| Flash sync | 1/60s (X) |
| Meter | External selenium (battery-free) |
| Modes | Manual only |
| Battery | None required |
| Viewfinder | Pentaprism, split-prism + matte |
Petri's SLR line grew from the Petri Penta (1959), one of the earliest Japanese-made SLRs. The Flex series iterated on this platform through the early and mid-1960s. The Flex V introduced the breech-lock mount that would define Petri SLRs for over a decade; the Flex V6 refined that design with a cleaner body layout and updated metering presentation.
By the mid-1960s, the breech-lock mount was being overtaken by competitors' faster true-bayonet mounts, but Petri's system had the advantage of lens interchangeability within the Petri ecosystem and reasonable optical quality in the Color Corrected Auto lens line. The selenium meter on the V6, while requiring no battery, was already a concession to a passing technology -- TTL metering was gaining traction and would become standard by the late 1960s.
The Flex V6 was succeeded by the Flex 7, which added TTL metering and an expanded lens range. The Flex 7 is more commonly encountered today than the V6.
The Petri Flex V6 is historically significant as part of the wave of affordable Japanese SLRs that democratized 35mm photography in the 1960s. Cameras like the Flex V6, Mamiya Sekor, and Ricoh Singlex competed in the lower-middle tier of the market, offering SLR capability to photographers who could not afford Nikon or Canon professional bodies.
The selenium meter design is notable: it imposes no battery dependency at all, and a functioning selenium cell on a V6 in good condition will still produce usable meter readings today. This makes the V6 one of the easier 1960s SLRs to use without sourcing obsolete batteries.
The breech-lock mount is mechanically distinctive and somewhat misunderstood -- it is not the same as a screw mount, and the locking ring provides a positive registration that is comparably stable to a bayonet under normal conditions.
The Flex V6 uses the Petri breech-lock mount, often referred to as the C.C. Auto mount. Native lenses from Petri in this era include:
The breech-lock mount was also used by a small number of third-party lens manufacturers under OEM arrangements, but coverage is limited. Modern adaptation to other bodies using the Petri breech-lock mount requires a dedicated adapter; these exist but are uncommon.
Accessories include Petri-branded clip-on flash units, extension tubes for close-up work, and standard cable releases.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Petri Flex V6
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