Early period

 

Most sources say that the company was founded as Kuribayashi Seisakusho in 1907 by Kuribayashi Yōji, manufacturing tripods and dark boxes. Its first camera was the Speed Reflex, supposedly released in 1919. However, a Petri catalogue dated August 1981 reportedly says that the company was founded in 1918 and that the Speed Reflex was introduced in 1922.

 

The company became Gōshi-gaisha Kuribayashi Shashin Kikai Seisakusho in 1930. From 1929 to the war many cameras made by the company were called First and advertised as "made by First Camera Works". These First cameras were distributed by Minagawa Shōten, and it seems that "First Camera Works" was nothing more than a name and logo forged by Minagawa for advertising purpose. (The "First Camera Works" name and logo were used again after the war for the First Six and Firstflex cameras made by Tokiwa Seiki and again distributed by Minagawa.)

The Kuribayashi company had an address in Adachi (Tokyo) in 1943. It is said that this was only the second factory, the offices and main building being in Shitaya (Tokyo), and that this Shitaya building was destroyed by an aerial bombing in 1945.

 

The company changed status in 1949 and became K.K. Kuribayashi Shashin Kikai Seisakusho in 1949. At that time the headquarters were in Chiyoda (Tokyo), and the plant in the Adachi factory mentioned above. The company did not renew its cooperation with Minagawa (owner of the name "First"). It had to look for another brand name and finally settled on Karoron and Petri. Kuribayashi made a range of 4.5×6 folders under these names and a single 6×6 TLR model called Petriflex. Its first 35mm camera was released in 1954 and its first 35mm SLR in 1959. The company became Kuribayashi Shashin Kōgyō K.K. in 1956. In 1962, it took the name of its products and became Petri Camera K.K. In 1968, it released the Petri Color 35, a very compact camera said to be inspired by the Rollei 35. Along with its line of 35mm rangefinder and SLR cameras, Petri also sold movie cameras and binoculars.

The Fotochrome is usually identified as a Petri manufacture but in fact, there is little evidence for this. It's more likely that it was made by Copal as that company sued Harrison Fotochrome in the late sixties for payment for the manufacture of a camera in the mid-sixties. Fotochrome had refused to pay as the cameras were late (not timely) and mostly defective. There is no record of Fotochrome commissioning any other camera. Copal won the case in 1971 but by then, Fotochrome had filed for Chapter 11 protection.

 

Petri Camera went bankrupt in 1977 or 1978. It was revived as Petri Kōgyō K.K.  but it abandoned camera production some time thereafter. It seems that the company still exists (2009) and makes telescopes.

The company seems unrelated to the current Kuribayashi Seisakusho Co., Ltd. founded in 1944.