Canon G-III QL Cleaning / Maintenance

[mikechambers]

My wife just showed me a Canon G-III QL camera with a Canon 40mm 1.7 lens that she had bought a couple of months ago at a thrift store.

I have been saving up to get my first rangefinder (Voightlander Bessa R3A), and the Canon looks like it is in pretty good shape, so I was thinking I might play around with it.

Any suggestions on how to clean it? Or where I can send it to get a good cleaning / maintenance? If it doesn't cost too much, I would love to get it cleaned up, and shoot some rolls with it.

The main visible issue is that the seal on the inside of the camera is disintegrating.

Anything else interesting about this camera? I noticed it has a shutter priority mode, which I've never seen before.

Thanks for any info...

mike

 

[Brian Legge]

Seal replacement is actually pretty simple if you want to give doing it yourself a go. The simplest way to go about it is to purchase the appropriate light seal kit from Interslice on Ebay. He sells pre-cut kits with instructions, etc. He also sells converters to use modern batteries in cameras that take mercury ones.

If the Canonet seems in good condition other than the seals, you might want to give shooting it a shot before having any additional work done.

 

[oftheherd]

You might want to look at these two web sites if you feel adventuresome and handy: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90468

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90831

Also do a web search on the Canonet as there are other good sites for home repair.

If you are looking for a place to send it for repair, wait for others to chime in. There are several that get memtioned from time to time, such as Essex in NY.

 

[Frontman]

Cleaning these Canonets out is not difficult. The seals are usually quite rotten, but can be replaced easily enough. Simply scrape as much of the dried up foam as you can, and then clean out the glue/residue with lacquer thinner. You can get an Interslice kit, or you can simply buy adhesive backed foam material which is 1.5mm thick. Cut it to the proper size with a pair of scissors and stick it in.

Cleaning the rangefinder/viewfinder is also not difficult. You simply remove the chrome nut from above the winding lever with a pair of pliers (try not to scratch it). Lift off the winding lever, the black shutter button, and the large washer underneath. Then open the back door and stick a screwdriver in the film rewind fork and turn the rewind knob leftways to remove it. Then remove the 3 philips head screws which hold on the top cover.

The top cover will lift off with no wires attached. You can clean the inside of the glass on the top cover with Q-tips and lens cleaning fluid, then you can do the same to the front and rear elements of the viewfinder. Be careful not to touch the meter needle, it is fragile and bends easily.

If the lens has crud on the inside, it can be cleaned out, but you'll need a lens spanner to get to it. I usually find it easiest to remove the rear lens element with a small spanner, clean the inside of the glass, then set the shutter speed dial to "B", and hold the shutter button to keep the shutter open while cleaning the inside of the front element.

Have fun, and be careful to put each part and screw you remove on a clean table in the order you removed them. Use a blow bottle to keep the dust out of the lens when putting it back together.

 

[Kim Coxon]

As well as the links above, you may find the 2 repair manuals for the GIII on my site useful:

http://pentax-manuals.com/manuals/service/canonet_giii.pdf
http://pentax-manuals.com/manuals/service/g-111_17-4.pdf

Kim