Petri E.Bn -- light meter help?

[mjs]

My better half came home from an auction yesterday with a spiffy looking Petri E.Bn rangefinder which looks to be in excellent condition. I haven't been able to find out much about it online and would like help understanding the light meter. There's a gigantic selenium cell on the front of the camera, looking like an enormous bug's eye, and a window on the top of the camera with a needle which swings back and forth and which I am assuming is the light meter. The window has a mark for the center of the needle's range but no other markings on or around it. I understand that the meter is uncoupled. How does one interpret the meter's movements?

Additionally, while everything seems to work the shutter button doesn't spring back up after depressing it; it sort of rises back up slowly over the course of a second or two, in a laid-back California it's-a-nice-day-don't-harsh-my-mellow sort of way. Is this normal or does it need a CLA? (I know, I know: a camera this old probably needs a CLA anyway. I'm likely too cheap to spring for it, though, unless the camera is otherwise fan-tastic!)

Thanks!

Mike

 

[Mike Wilde]

It is 'match needle metering' of a sort - line up the shutter speed and aperture setting for the scene, according to the film speed you are using.
You also need to set the film speed ring around the lens to match the film being used.

The meter should begin to center when you have the right shutter speed/aperure setting made.

I have a 7S, and there is no meter needle window visible on top, but it is buried up there, and visible though the view finder.

It is not like the action on my SRT101, where the meter is somewhere on the screen, and you set aperture and speed to match its location.

On this camera you are at the right shutter spped and aperture when the needle is in the middle. A few stops off and you are totally to one end of the scale or the other.

As to the slow shutter button, yes they do gum up. Mine occasionally gets to a state that the film advance winder never wants to stop and acknowledge that the shutter should be cocked, while it has definitelt advanced the film.

 

[mjs]

Hmm. I had understood that the meter was uncoupled; that is, didn't respond to camera settings. If it were coupled, though, that would explain the lack of markings. Thanks!

Mike

 

[mjs]

We've had network problems at work so this evening was the first opportunity I've had to take a detailed look at it. Camerapedia is wrong: the meter is coupled! The meter cell still works, too, although I don't yet know how accurate it is.

Mike