Canonet GL17 (GIII) Shutter/Repair

[B-9]

Hello!
Last night I met with a old friend, she had a large bag full of cameras she inherited from her late grandfather she wanted me to appraise (condition/value). After exchanging photos of the lot, I noticed a little Canone buried amongst a pile of Argus C3 rangefinders. Assuming it was the much less desired ql19 model I offered her 10$ and my services appraising the lot, for the unknown canonet.

Turns out I made a very good deal on a QL17 (GIII) with Canolite D flash, along with both manuals for camera and flash.

The lens appears to be in flawless condition, aperture is dry and the leaf shutter also shows no sign of oil or paint loss. With all the smoothness of the controls, the shutter doesn't appear to fire without a battery (or film)

Am I missing something? Am I mistaken thinking this camera will work in manual without a battery? Assuming it should work, where can I start to diagnose the problem? The shutter is in the closed position, self timer is activated, and the advance.winds freely for 3-4 strokes before requiring you open the back to reset the.mechanism.

I'm a capable DIYer, and at this price, I'm willing to explore inside
Can anyone push me in the right direction?

Tonight ill have a battery adapter to test the meter (old mercury
Cell converted to hold 675 zinc air) ill be sure to update if this makes any difference at all.

Thanks in advance!

 

[rjbuzzclick]

The aperture ring needs to be turned off of "A" for the camera to work in manual mode without batteries. The meter will not function in this setting even with a battery.

The 3-4 strokes winding is something that happens when you load a film to get past the leader. the winding will stop when you get to frame 1 on the counter and it will not let you wind until you fire the shutter. From then on it will only take one stroke to get to the next frame.

 

[alienmeatsack]

I recently lucked (or not so lucky) into a QL19 for a song and snapped it up. Sadly it had the sticky shutter problem common to the QL17 and QL19 cameras.

I've found quite a bit of info online about it, and many other repairs. If you are capable and have the right tools, there are all the documents and how to's you need online to fix or at least get inside to see if it's doable...

http://mattsclassiccameras.com/canonet_repair.html
http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/articles.html

I also found a semi-ok scan copy of the repair manual for the QL17, which I stuck on my Dropbox for my own repair since the 17 and 19 are similar.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r1mldgckeeu06ma/JPu8PPqag_

The repair manual should be more then enough to get your brain and hands worked up in a repairing frenzy for your camera. I hope you can get it working!

 

[B-9]

My biggest concern is scratching the glass with an improvised spanner wrench.
I assume going through the rear lens element is proly my best best. So far Ive seen both front and rear approach's and the rear seems alot more straightforward, but with the twist of being somewhat awkward and the potential accident.

Even with the Aperture set to 1.7-16 there is no response from the leaf shutter. Upon close inspection with a flashlight, I can vaguely see a residue trapped between the closed blades. This camera sat for a long time in a case that has all but fell off the camera. I did clean it and it appears If I can get to the shutter with some alcohol, it may just do the trick.

Im preparing a bit of a battery adapter right now to attempt to evoke a response from the meter.

Thanks for the links!

 

[rjbuzzclick]

If you just want to get to the shutter blades to try and get some naphtha on them, taking out the rear element may be the best. I've not had to dig into my beat-up QL17's shutter, but on other shutters that's the shorter route. There's just not a lot of room to work in there with the shutter still in the body. Sometimes a rubber stopper on the retaining ring of the rear element works better than a spanner. Rather than flush cleaning it (which may make the situation worse), I'd recommend just some naphtha on a q-tip swap to see if that frees the blades.

 

[Macpherson]

I just completed this on my Canonet. I ended up removing the front and rear elements, because as soon as I freed the shutter, the aperture blades started to stick. My front element came out in one piece, which helped, and the rear element was not as difficult as described. i was able to get my pointed spanner wrench in to loosen it, and then used bamboo skewers to finish unscrewing it (due to the limited working space).

I'm going to be running a roll a film through it this week to test. Good luck on yours!

 

[Ranchu]

I went through the front.

 

[kodapak126]

Abilene Camera Repair to the rescue

Abilene Camera Repair to the rescue

FYI Corey at Abilene Camera Repair can overhaul your G-III for about $155! He has lots of experience on this model so give them a try if you need help!