Canonet QL17 GIII

June 4, 2009 in photography by Dietmar | 14 comments

After some years experience with several rangefinders (overview german [1] english [2]) of the 70s I tried at the end of last year the Canonet QL 17 GIII.

What a wonderful cam!  If you dont want to pay Leica prices but want to use a firstclass rangefinder and if you can live with a superb f1.7 40mm fixed lens, this is the cam you should own!

If you intend to buy this cam, there may be some things you have to do before photographing. Clean and replace light seals, adjust the viewfinder and if you just buy the cheapest “I found it in the attic of my deceased grandpa cam” without asking questions maybe even repair some things ;)

Some links: [1] [2] [3] (please register at the rangefinder forum if you want to see all pics)

Original batteries can still be bought on ebay, or you can easily insert a schottky diode for common silveroxide batteries yourself.

After purchase I cleaned my cams (yes, I own two) inside (yes, unscrew and open the cam) and outside and replaced the lightseals. On one cam, I had to horizontal calibrated the viewfinder with a tripod and one roll of film.

Yesterday I replaced the black leather. My cam for slides is now colored in pine green, the cam for b/w is colored in fine brown leather.

img_0104

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14 comments

  1. Gabi Zohar on June 4, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    :-)

    if i went bankruptcy someday and have to sell my leicas … you convinced me to give them a try :)

    cool rangefinders i have heard …

  2. Stefan on June 4, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    cool Dietmar, can I send you my MP to change the leather? the range finderforum looks very interesting, but reading there is pain for the eyes, with the black ground and the white letters..

  3. Luigi Caponetto on June 4, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    Dietmar!!
    that’s really good!
    about batteries: have you tried the zinc air?
    it exist in the wein cell form (expensive)
    http://www1.shopping.com/xPO-625-Camera-Battery-Zinc-Air-1-35-Volt

    and in the common hearing aid batteries you may easily find in pharmacies (I’ve bought them there in Italy)
    also have look here for an overview of different solutions:
    http://www.butkus.org/chinon/mercury_replacement_batteries.html

  4. Thomas Moritz on June 4, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    hahaha, Dietmar try to pimp my silver MP too

  5. Thomas Moritz on June 4, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    they look fine ;)

  6. Eva on June 5, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    Well, I do hope my M will survive me, if not I might consider the Canonet ;)

    Ehm, Dietmare, you have a digi?

  7. Dietmar on June 5, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    @eva. I have bought a digi. A cheap one, for ebay and such things like above etc.

    First, I took 20 pics of these two cams. All unsharp. Can someone tell me how these digicams focus???

    For this pic, I needed 50 pics…

    @Stefan. no. I wont touch a MP with my canonet fingers ;) Due to this post I already got three emails people asking me to repair their canonet … ;)) Changing the leather took me 15 minutes. Really easy job.

  8. Oliver on June 5, 2009 at 10:23 pm

    I would like to have the “green one”, Dietmar. Did you think about selling one of your canons?
    :-)

    If yes. Give me a call.

    All of you a nice weekend.

    Oliver

  9. Dietmar on June 5, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    Hi Luigi. Any post with more than 2 links must be approved due to spam. We get nearly 50 spam comments a day. Thanks to askimet we filter most in advance. I had no time to approve due to no Internet access today.

    About batteries: Once I bought 10 original px batteries in one pack cheap on ebay. They last forever ;) If I wouldnt have them, I would insert this diode between the wires. It costs just nothing. Hearing aid and winecells are too expensive for what you get, in my view. See the pdf I linked above.

  10. c.amelia on July 14, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Hi There,

    I just purchased a G-III off ebay recently and I am new to shooting with a rangefinder. I was wondering if you could tell me what you meant by “adjust the viewfinder” I am still getting used to how this camera works! I don’t currently have a working battery in the camera and I was wondering if that was affecting what I see through the viewfinder.

    Thanks so much, I hope my question isn’t totally amateur!

  11. Gabi Zohar on July 14, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    battery should affect only on the camera’s lightmeter, not on ‘what you see in the viewfinder’ nor on the focusing mechanism.
    didn’t tried this rangefinder exactly but that is how it usually works …

  12. Dietmar on July 14, 2009 at 9:14 pm

    Hi Amelia.

    You dont need a battery for this cam to work. This means you can use it manually, too. To start with it, I would recommend hearing aid batteries. If you like the cam you can either look on ebay for mercury cells, or buy a cheap schottky diode and attach it.

    When you watch through the viewfinder you see the frame. The rangefinder has paralaxe correction. Which means when you change focus, the frames change, too. If you take a pic at minimum distance nearly all you see in the frame is on the negative. But if you take a picture which is 10 meteres away, you see only ~80% of the pic in the frame. Same as with all other rangefinders.

    Now set the cam at minimum distance, 1-2 meters and test it. Put an object at top left of the frame and take a picture, put the object top right, bottom left&right and take pictures. Then check the negatives. Then you will see if and in which direction (left or right) the viewfinder/frames needs to be adjusted. You see where the frames are and what information really gets on your negative.

    Which means: under the top are some screws with which you can move some things/mirror and with which in the end the frames you see in the viewfinder move ;)

  13. c.raw on September 21, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    So a hearing aid battery will work in the camera?

  14. Dietmar on September 21, 2009 at 11:27 pm

    Of course. 1.35 volt hearing aid. You are on the safe side for 1-2 months.