Back in 1993 I was looking for a cheap, good 35mm compact and discovered a huge pile of these Petri's in a camera shop in Luton - all boxed up and absolutely mint, fresh from the factory. It turned out that the shop had bought them from a warehouse clearance - they'd literally been sat in this warehouse, all sealed up and good as new, for over a decade.
Anyway, I bought one, and it was - and still is - a really nice camera. Very compact, very durable, I used it regularly right up till about 2002 (when I got my first digital) and it never really let me down. The stepped foccusing with symbols you can see in the viewfinder makes it really easy to focus, it'll take a filter on the lens and still meter correctly, the shutter has a really nice feel to it - you just squeeze it for a gentle "snick" as the picture is taken - exposures are generally good and can be compensated using the film speed dial, the winding mechanism is nice and slick, it's all just very well designed. It even has a little test needle to tell you if the battery is ok (and here's something amazing - my camera still has the same mercury battery it came with, with apparently lots of life left).
To load the film you have to undo a little catch on the bottom plate, and pull the entire plate and back section down and away. Inside you'll find the little battery compartment that takes a single 1.3v cell - I know you can't get the exact one it was designed for anymore, but it's a pretty standard size and I'll bet there are a few alternatives. Worst case scenario, you might need to adjust the film speed dial to compensate for any overactive metering caused by a 1.5v battery.
In "EE" mode (selected by a switch on the lens barrell) the aperture is automatic and the shutter ranges automatically between 1/15th and 1/200th speeds, while in Flash mode it syncs at 1/30th and the aperture adjusts according to the focus distance.
What else can I tell you... the meter turns on as soon as you wind the film, and turns off once you fire the shutter, so don't leave it wound on for too long. I used to use a Cobra 210 flashgun with this and it worked well, but I can't honestly remember what I set the flashgun to (the Cobra had two auto settings and a manual, I think it may have been the manual). To test the battery you put the film speed dial to 100 and press the button on the side, the needle should drop down into the black somewhere and not stay in the white.
The viewfinder has a handy red flag that will appear whenever the lens is retracted, telling you that pictures can't be taken. It will also appear as you depress the shutter when the scene is too dark or too bright for an accurate exposure, although it won't stop you taking it if you want to. I think it also shows on the first few frames after you've loaded a new film, but I'm not sure now.
I checked mine over this morning, and although I've not put a film through it in about 7 years, I've no doubt at all that it would do the job again tomorrow, the aperture and shutter are still fine and adjusting themselves as they should. It's a great camera and if I had the time/money to mess about with film again I'd definitely be carrying it now.
So give it a try!
