Canonet QL17 GIII

My Canonet is D.O.A

My Canonet is D.O.A

Man...I'm running out of luck on these Canonets. First the working one is sold for over US$100. Then the one I won, with 'working shutter' and 'thin layer of fungus on the front element' actually has fungus grown on every single lens element AND viewfinder! The viewfinder is next to useless being worse than that of Kodak disposable. The aperture setting ring is stuck, the battery chamber which was said to be "looking pretty clean" is full of green rust! The only thing that work on that sucker is the shutter!

This is definitely the worst deal I had over Ebay. Maybe I'm not meant to have a Canonet. Have to stick to my Voigtländer stuffs.

:(
 
Bummer Kris. Do contact the seller for a return for a full refund including shipping. If the seller doesn't want to do that, I would encourage you to reward the seller with the feedback deserved.

Good luck on getting a good one. They are apparently nice, but now expensive (since someone nameless :D praised them in another forum). You might want to consider one of the Yashicas, minoltas, konicas, etc, that are also good and certainly less expensive.
 
kris, if you like i could look for one here and then ship it to you.
there is a small camera shop here in town that had a few of them the last time i was there. i could run a short roll of colour film to be sure it works and then off to aussie land.
i think they were priced about 150 to 180 canadian.

let me know.

joe
 
I suggest exercising an extraordinary amount of patience. Cameras seem to come and go in spurts on e-Bay. I have paid too much in lean times only to find a few months later that there is a glut of the same model.

When I have waited, I picked up models like my Miranda F, Minolta Himatic 9, and Vivitar XC4 for not much more than the cost of lunch plus shipping.

It also seems that when collector/buyers are not feeding, it is easier to find a good buy. My QL17 New Model costs less than $30 just 2 months ago. All it required was a viewfinder cleaning.

The same happend when I bought a Retina IIIS a few weeks ago. I picked it up when the collectors were out hunting Easter eggs.

By the way, holidays (Memorial Day coming up) are good times for e-Bay shopping. Watch for auctions closing during the weekened or at in convenient times.

A lot of these cameras are from Estates, and there is a pretty steady source for these.

-Paul
 
I picked one up in very good condition for 40 bucks last week. Took it on my trip to Toronto even though it needs the light seals replaced. Will get film back tomorrow, but all appeared to be functional.

I got two cameras in the past couple of weeks which had things wrong with them (a Minolta Hi Matic and another QL17). In both cases the seller refunded my money.
 
Hey Joe, thanks for the offer. I surely am interested. It is pretty hard to get old RFs here Down Under. It has something to do with sparse population I guess.

I had Yashica GS and GSN a while ago when I wanted to see if I would like RF system (and yes RF is great!) but these Yashicas are huge! What really put me off was it use batter power like crazy and leave me with 1/500 when the battery is dry. I bought 4SR44 (V28PX) and it was sucked dry in 2-3 weeks.

I want something that's pocketable so even Canonet is a tad too big. Rollei 35 are perfectly sized but alas they aren't designed to take photos are they with advance lever on the left hand side?! Plus the exorbitant price of those little things!

I don't know much about old RFs (neither new ones) but basically I'm looking for something small, Canonet size or smaller. Mechanical shutter is a big plus. Av or Tv mode is nice but I can live with manual mode only. Leaf shutter is a must for quietness since it's the only thing I miss from my Bessa.

Cheers,
Kris
 
Hello All

What can I expect from the Canonet QL-17 GIII, at it's wider apertures (f/1.7, 2, 2.8, 4, etc)

Thanks
Russ
 
Modern Photography ran performance tests on this lens back in July, 1970. The camera was its predecessor, the Canonet QL17. Here are the results:

f/ CENTER SHARPNESS/EDGE SHARPNESS

1.7 Good/ Acceptable
2.0 Very Good Acceptable
2.8 Excellent/ Acceptable
4.0 Excellent/ Good
5.6 Excellent/ Excellent
8.0 Excellent/ Excellent
11. Excellent/ Excellent
16. Excellent/ Excellent
 
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