Canonet - exposure locking

[juggler]

For my Canonet GIII QL17, I just "discovered" that I can do an "exposure lock" before taking the picture in Auto mode...

Say I am want to meter the light from another area, I point my camera there and depress the shutter halfway to lock the suggested aperture. Then recompose and click. Just like some modern day electronic/digital cameras.

They already have that in the early 1970s .... cool! 🙂

Anyone knows if the Yashica Electro GSN has the same kind of feature? Where depressing the shutter button halfway holds the suggested shutter before we recompose and take the photo?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The early aperture preferred automatics were electronic, and did not have the equivalent of an exposure lock feature. I think the first with it was the Nikkormat EL. Rather than depleting a capacitor at a rate controlled by an electric-eye, the EL charged a capacitor when you pressed the button and then filled a second capacitor to match it. The exposure lock "locked" the 1st capacitor at its setting. (my words, remembering an old Modern Photo article)

The Canonet and other shutter-preferred automatics were mechanical, and used the "trap-needle" system. As you pressed the release down, a mechanism trapped the meter needle and then closed the aperture down to meet it. Pressing the release half way is trapping the needle.