Canon LTM Canonet QL-III 17 - first impressions

Canon M39 M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
Gabriel M.A.

Gabriel M.A.

My Red Dot Glows For You
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I've been scanning the very first roll I've had developed, taken with this little jewel (ok, showing my bias already). I cannot be more pleased. I'm waiting to get some slides from my Yashica GX as well as from this QLIII too, and can't wait to compare them.

The weight is nice and solid, not too heavy, just right. The viewfinder is usable even in low light (currently I have a roll of HP5+ in it, and have been shooting mostly night shots with it, using a yellow filter that I bought from Joe, of "ask me about my P" fame). Some people have asked me where I got it from (eBay I tell them, as they look at me, shocked, even more so when I tell them for how many peanuts I got it for), apparently it's a looker.

Although I had to get a light seal kit to replace the ones that were falling apart in this camera (apparently, they were original), I must say that, for the money I paid, I'd gladly get two more.

The shutter is not as quiet as, say, a Leica M's or a Yashica Electro's, but it is quiet enough to not catch anybody's attention in a room with a little bit of chatter, and none outside.

I'll be uploading some of these and/or others to my gallery sometime this week. Please forgive the compositionally-challenged samples here, but this was my very first roll, and I just wanted to use this little baby. What I care about is, can I take good pictures with it? Heck, yeah, if I try...

(oh, and the film is Fuji X-tra 400; post-edit: forgot to say that all of these shots are shot with the lens wide open, at f/1.7)
 
earlier this year the GSN was the best bang for the buck.. these days it seems to be the GIII.. I know I like mine.. it sees more use than my Contax

great shots, btw.. that color really smacks you in the face.. but in a playful way
 
Thanks Joe. Your QL-III sees more use than the Contax? Mein lieber! I must confess that lately the QL-III and the Yashica have seen more use than the Leicas. I just dont want to look like a tourist group's guide, with lots of rangefinders hanging from my neck.

Oh, but the M6 will be seeing more use soon: a Canon 1.2 is on its way!! I think I'm a Canon guy more than I realized...
 
I really like this camera too! I got one a few months ago from a friend, but the VF was cracked. Brian S sent me a new top plate, so hopefully, I'll get to install that one instead. Anyway, one thing I wish the lens had is zone focusing marks corresponding to the aperture for the focus ring (but that would have added some length to the lens huh?) When I first got this camera, I was really confused with the diagonal distance mark for the focusing. I haven't gotten around to using it yet, I suspect some oxidation inside the battery chamber, but I managed to dig it out and clean it a bit with a contact cleaner.

Gabriel, beautiful pictures. Very vibrant colors!

I really love how the Canonet is lighter and more compact than the GSN. The GSN's lens are wonderful.

OT.... OKAY, I know this is a bit nuts, but is there any way to take the lens off of a broken GSN or QL-III 17 and convert it to another mount that's USABLE? Doesn't have to be for an RF, but if it was an LTM that would be great, but an universal SLR mount (m42) would be great too.
 
the colors are very vibrant
did you do some serious post processing with these shots

i love my QL17
but have yet to run thru some color neg with it
 
Hi Gabriel

interesting that I am using a Yashica Electro 35 GSN and a Canonet QL III 17these days. These are great 'don't worry about it' cameras that take photographs as good as most. I haul them around in a back pack on the back of my scooter and just pull one out and start shooting. Not a Leica but like I said 'no worries' ... Paul Hogan actually. I haven't shot any colour thru the Canonet. Seeing this , my next roll is colour. As usual tasty photography.

cheers, Jan

BTW your shots are in rotation "dans ma cuisine"
 
Hi Gabrielma

Did you shot those beautifull photos with the Canonet lightmeter or with a separate lightmeter?
I've never tried a color neg in my canonet but i'm going to try it for sure.

Luis
 
Hi guys. OK, let's see...

Maxim: no "postprocessing" except for a bit of contrast adjustment and white balance (almost always a must with color film); no color manipulation per se.

Jan: wussup! You should try color with both cameras, they're tasty!! I also started scanning a color roll from the Yashica -- very nice.

Luf: I used the camera's own light meter; I either adjust so that the needle falls in the aperture setting I want (1.7, 99% of the time), or I meter, then manually set shutter speed to compensate for a too-dark or too-bright scene (by turning aperture dial back to 1.7 and the shutter speed I want after my reading).
 
I can't believe you guys/gals have never shot color film through your Canonets!!! I'm convinced that lens was made for color film! It's easily got the best color rendition of any lens I have. Try it! You won't be disappointed.
 
Great pic! It mirrors my strong attachment to my month old GIII as well. What hardware / process did you use to scan the pictures?
 
Anandi: I use a DiMAGE Scan Dual IV, with the SilverFast Ai plugin in PhotoShop, 48-bit color mode. I've noticed that the negative profiles for the consumer Fuji films do not give me the results I want, so I just set a "generic" profile, and I use one frame that I know works with SilverFast's "autodetect" feature, and I get the right film response for Fuji Xtra. I then set a grey balance during scan time, if possible. I discard the embedded color profile when sent from SilverFast to Photoshop; then in PhotoShop I "convert" to WideGamut. Before posting to the Web, I convert to sRGB.

I leave the contrast adjustment for post-processing, but with SilverFast I find that I have to do very little of that, just enough depending on the size of the pic.
 
Wow, that's *so* much more involved than I've ever gotten with my scanning. Course, I just recently figured out how to adjust levels so I consider that an accomplishment. I scan my negs, use the little clone stamp thingy for dust spots, then go to levels and move the little bars back and forth til it looks right. Looks like I have some learning to do..
 
brians said:
OT.... OKAY, I know this is a bit nuts, but is there any way to take the lens off of a broken GSN or QL-III 17 and convert it to another mount that's USABLE? Doesn't have to be for an RF, but if it was an LTM that would be great, but an universal SLR mount (m42) would be great too.
Click to expand...

This has actually been done. I read about it a couple of years ago. I think the guy stuck it on a Leica too. I think it's the same guy who dev's his film in "urinenol" too.
 
gabrielma said:
(oh, and the film is Fuji X-tra 400; post-edit: forgot to say that all of these shots are shot with the lens wide open, at f/1.7)
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm ... if that second one was done with 400 film with the lens wide open, it had to be a very dark day and/or a very fast shutter speed. :) :) I occasionally find that for a bright outdoor shot with 400 film I have to manually set to 500 and f16 because the auto locks it out for being overexposed. :)
 
Well, Ripley's Buleeve It or Nut: it was. About 5-6pm, all reflected light from surrounding walls and buildings.
 
Hi All.

I look at your scan Gabriel and I'm amazed by the quality you got. I too have the minolta di IV and I'm far from this result.

I tried once silverfast but as a standalone demo version. When I saw the high price of it comparing to my scanner, I gave up.

As the other folks, my GIII only saw some B&W , and I used it only once. So you gave me desire to try it again !

But metering is not working on my GIII, and I guess it should be very hard to find a shop to repair it , comparing to the price of a GIII, a CLA must be very expensive too.

Laurent
 
laurentvenet said:
But metering is not working on my GIII, and I guess it should be very hard to find a shop to repair it , comparing to the price of a GIII, a CLA must be very expensive too.[/QUOTE

To tell the truth, I've gotten alot more enjoyment out of my Canonet since I dispensed with the batteries and started using a handheld meter.

The meter on my Canonet was a little wonky to begin with. Combine that with the known battery problems and I've found it much easier to meter with my Gossen and just fire away.
Click to expand...
 
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