Canon LTM Canon Canonet Ql17 G-111

Canon M39 M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
dostacos

dostacos

Dan
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Mar 26, 2005
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what battery do I need for this camera and is there anybody that does CLAs on them?

mine's foam is rather gummy
 
The battery depends if yours has had the conversion done to it.. Originally it took a mercury battery which has been since outlawed/discontinued. They are now being converted to run on a 1.5v alkaline battery. The conversion adjusts the meter for the new voltage. At Radio Shack it's a 1.5v alkaline "625" battery. Fits perfectly! The other guys will be able to tell you more about CLA's, etc.

Chris
 
Hey Dan,

Unfortunately QL17 GIII's need a Mercury 625 battery... Mine still has an old 625, so I haven't had to go down the path of getting it adjusted to the 1.5v alkaline batteries (is it necessary???) or tinker with hearing aid batteries... I'm sure there are people here on the forum who could point you towards the best option.

As for replacing the foam seals... There are plenty of web sites around that do a great job of describing how to do it yourself... Here is one such site with plenty of pictures!

http://homepage.mac.com/mattdenton/photo/cameras/light_seals/index.html

I hope that helps!!!

Peter
 
if you need a 625 mercury battery, they're pretty easy to get online.. I picked up a couple on the 'bay a few months back.. I think I paid $10 for a pair, including shipping
 
Yesterday I scraped my courage together and got the top cover off my QL17 GIII. I cleaned the interior glass surfaces of the viewfinder. It actually was very easy and took me about 20 minutes. It was well worth it. The viewfinder was so fogged that I rarely used the camera before. Now it has easily the brightest viewfinder of all (non-leica) cameras I own.
I immediatly repeated the procedure on my Revue SE, but the result was not as good. It seems there are still some reflections inside the viewfinder.
I can recommend the DIY approach for small problems on these old cheap cameras. (I allready replaced the lightseals last year). It's really not difficult, very cheap, and I have the satisfaction of having achieved the result myself.

Wim

PS. Our forummember Jon Goodman sells excellent lightseal kits.
 
I have the GIII and use the "wrong" battery. In my highly-precise test light box (a blank wall in the bathroom with the overhead and vanity lights on dimmers) it agrees perfectly with the lab standard (a Pentax K1000) at lower light levels. Using the also highly-precise sunny-16 test box the GIII overexposes about 1/2 stop when compared to the Pentax.

For the real world test, it gives what I consider normal density negatives and slides under both low-light and outdoor conditions. I recently shot a roll of Kodachrome, which is relatively unforgiving as far as exposure, and although I bracketed, the normally exposed ones were consistently the best.
 
I second the recommendation of Jon Goodman. You can find him on E-Nay as "Interslice". Has a nice kit that'll do more than a few cameras and is very helpful as well. With a little effort you can do it easily, take your time and follow the directions.
 
f/stopblues said:
The battery depends if yours has had the conversion done to it.. Originally it took a mercury battery which has been since outlawed/discontinued. They are now being converted to run on a 1.5v alkaline battery. The conversion adjusts the meter for the new voltage. At Radio Shack it's a 1.5v alkaline "625" battery. Fits perfectly! The other guys will be able to tell you more about CLA's, etc.

Chris
Click to expand...

who does the conversion? and would the WEIN batteries work?

I just bpught a light seal kit as mention elswhere in this thread
 
Wein cells would work without adjustment, as would the CRIS adapters.

I would recommend adjusting the meter to a Silver Oxide battery, rather than an Alkaline one, as the Silver Oxide battery holds a stable voltage. Harder to find in the 625 shape than Alkaline, but they are out there. Alkalines are just useless as meter batteries.

Any competent camera repair shop should be able to work on a Canonet. One of the world's most common cameras.
 
Okay I think I was confused.. I didn't realize there was a working difference between alkaline and silver oxide. I bought the 625 alkaline cause that's what I saw first. The meter seems to agree with my other meters. What's the scoop?

Chris
 
I need to figure out which batteries are used in my Canonet so I can decide whether or not to have the conversion done if it hasn't been done yet. Probably a good idea since Wein cells are hard to come by without mail ordering and silver oxide cells are easily obtained here.
 
I'm going to run a roll of TMax 400 through it again and see how the film looks developed in Diafine. If it looks good, I'm not going to worry about it. If I had to guess, I'd say that it was slightly overexposing the negatives.
 
So if I have a QL17 that's been "changed over", I need a silver oxide what? Is it still designated 625? What do I need to look for?

<gasps at the thought of all my exposures being off so far> :eek:
 
I'm confused...What are hearing aid batteries--silver oxide or zinc air?

Do people who use zinc air really drill holes in their battery covers? I suppose it's no big deal, but I don't think I can bring myself to do that...
 
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Zinc-air batteries are just that. A zinc paste as the electrolyte, reacting with oxygen from the air. In fact, that's the same electrolyte as in a mercury battery, the mercury was in the form of mercuric oxide, which broke down to release oxygen. Zinc-air batteries get their oxygen from the air.

The cool thing with zinc-air hearing aid batteries is that since they have the same electrolyte/electrochemical reaction, they have the same voltage as the mercuric oxide batteries, so no electrical adjustment is required.

However, they don't have the shelf life of mercuric oxide batteries, they get more oxygen than they need, and run "too fast". (They are also designed to handle pretty heavy current drain.)

You would not need to add any additional battery compartment ventilation on the Canonet QL17 G-III to use hearing aid batteries. It's not anywhere near air-tight.
 
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