Canonet won't fire

R

RFOBD

Established
Local time
6:04 PM
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
108
View My Gallery
Hello,

I just got what I thought was a bargain on eBay. Well, at first it was a bargain! Everything worked perfectly when I received my Canonet QL17 GIII, but just recently the shutter stopped firing. I wind the film, focus, press the shutter, nothing! Not a click, nothing. I can then wind the film more and do the same thing. This happens on Auto (the meter and everything else was working before), manual at any shutter speed, etc.

Any suggestions?

I don't mind opening it up a bit to fix something, but don't want to go too far if I don't have to.

EDIT:
I found this thread which discusses the same problem, but many posts seem to be deleted, so I can't follow it too well.
 
Oh those will definitely provide good information. Thank you!

I think I know what I need to do, but I'm a bit confused on how I actually get the elements out of the lens. It seems pretty solid to me and I'm not sure how to attack it (gently of course).
 
RFOBD said:
Oh those will definitely provide good information. Thank you!
Click to expand...

You're very welcome. 🙂

I think I know what I need to do, but I'm a bit confused on how I actually get the elements out of the lens. It seems pretty solid to me and I'm not sure how to attack it (gently of course).
Click to expand...

The very front element comes out rather easily. You will need a lens spanner most definitely, however.

There are all kinds of disassembly instructions on the web at various places.

The middle lens group, which exposes the shutter blades, can be tricky and needed some minor "surgery" to get it out. One guy on the chat function of another photo board teases me about this to this day! 🙂

Another very good resource is the Classic Camera Repair Forum over at:

http://www.kyphoto.com/cgi-bin/forum/discus.cgi
 
I don't know internals of Canonet's shutter, though until now I have been able to unscrew front element by making grip using casual things....like round eraser (KAS2) or even daughter's rubber boot (Lynx5000). Cheaper and more fun 🙂
 
haha...I actually just (literally, I just walked over from finishing) repaired my Yashica GSN and unscrewed things using rubber gloves since I didn't have the proper tools.

I'm not sure it would be possibly with the Canonet, but I'd love to hear responses about this!
 
RFOBD said:
Would something like this be what I need?
Click to expand...

That's very close, but I might suggest that you get one with both pointed and flat-blade ends.

The one I have (no brand, no markings, may have even been somebody's machine shop job) has clip-in point blades and flat blades.

Now as for removing stuff using friction with rubber stuff. I'm not the expert, but if it works for you, it works for you. 🙂 🙂

The one thing that everybody SWORE I would be able to remove easily was the ring holding the film advance lever. I tried rubber jar openers and such and I could not get it to budge! I finally took the dremel and drilled two very small shallow holes in the ring for the spanner to grip. It did come off that way and does not look bad at all.
 
dmr said:
That's very close, but I might suggest that you get one with both pointed and flat-blade ends.

The one I have (no brand, no markings, may have even been somebody's machine shop job) has clip-in point blades and flat blades.

Now as for removing stuff using friction with rubber stuff. I'm not the expert, but if it works for you, it works for you. 🙂 🙂

The one thing that everybody SWORE I would be able to remove easily was the ring holding the film advance lever. I tried rubber jar openers and such and I could not get it to budge! I finally took the dremel and drilled two very small shallow holes in the ring for the spanner to grip. It did come off that way and does not look bad at all.
Click to expand...

Okay, great, I should be able to look into this more in a couple of days and hopefully I'll find something usable. I'll keep things updated in this thread.

I took the top plate apart last night and that part was a bit tight, but I managed to get it off after a couple minutes of twisting with a rubber glove. These things probably haven't been taken apart since they were made, so I'm sure things are bound to be a bit tight.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!
 
RFOBD said:
Hello,

I just got what I thought was a bargain on eBay. Well, at first it was a bargain! Everything worked perfectly when I received my Canonet QL17 GIII, but just recently the shutter stopped firing. I wind the film, focus, press the shutter, nothing! Not a click, nothing. I can then wind the film more and do the same thing. This happens on Auto (the meter and everything else was working before), manual at any shutter speed, etc.

Any suggestions?

I don't mind opening it up a bit to fix something, but don't want to go too far if I don't have to.

EDIT:
I found this thread which discusses the same problem, but many posts seem to be deleted, so I can't follow it too well.
Click to expand...

The biggest problem with Canonets in general is sticky shutters and this is probably what is wrong with yours. Lubricant migrates onto the blades, dries out, and eventually hardens to the consistency of tar, sticking it solid.
 
Kim Coxon: Thank you for the tip about the pliers. I will have to try that route instead. The cheapest spanner I could find was $15 and I could probably get a couple needle nose pliers and a metal file for that price.

FallisPhoto: Very interesting, this is what I've gathered from reading, but it seems funny that it was working perfectly for a couple days and then bang, it got stuck. Oh well, I need some practice repairing these cameras a bit anyway.
 
I have successfully gotten this far:

2618456321_3011ae470b.jpg


using these thin pliers:

2618456433_06762ca8b5.jpg


is this the element that I hear is hard to remove? I see two tiny notches in the ring around the lens, but I fear scratching the lens with the pliers. I don't have a dremel, so any suggestions that don't involve drilling would be most appreciated!

I really appreciate everyone's help and suggestions so far! I've surprised myself at how this is not as difficult as I had anticipated, but maybe this lens element will prove to be my demise...
 
RFOBD said:
FallisPhoto: Very interesting, this is what I've gathered from reading, but it seems funny that it was working perfectly for a couple days and then bang, it got stuck. Oh well, I need some practice repairing these cameras a bit anyway.
Click to expand...

It gets more and more sticky until it reaches a kind of "critical mass" when it finally sticks. It works up until then, although the shutter speeds often become erratic -- then again, sometimes they're not. The first sure sign something is wrong is when the very slowest speeds start getting way too slow. If you were not using your 1 second shutter speed, and so didn't notice it was now 2 or 3 seconds, you might not ever realize it was happening though.
 
Last edited:
RFOBD said:
I have successfully gotten this far:

2618456321_3011ae470b.jpg


using these thin pliers:

2618456433_06762ca8b5.jpg


is this the element that I hear is hard to remove? I see two tiny notches in the ring around the lens, but I fear scratching the lens with the pliers. I don't have a dremel, so any suggestions that don't involve drilling would be most appreciated!

I really appreciate everyone's help and suggestions so far! I've surprised myself at how this is not as difficult as I had anticipated, but maybe this lens element will prove to be my demise...
Click to expand...

What you've done so far is the easy part. The center element is also easy to remove. A lens wrench fits those notches and it turns right out. The one that's hard to remove is usually the rear element. Mostly that is because many standard lens wrenches won't fit in there (they're not long enough). The usual solution is to grind a tool from a putty knife.
 
Last edited:
You need to take the outer ring off first. You should then be able to remove the front element. If you are lucky, the middle group will come with it. (about a 1 in 3 chance). If not, you have 3 options to get the middle group out. A very soft bung will do it but there is a chance you could mark the lens. Jon Goodman favours driling 2 indents on the side of the mount and once you reassemble fill them with black paint. I made myself a special tool using a small brass bar and some harden steel wire. This is thin enough to go down the side of the lens.

The other route is to go in the back. In this case you may need to make a tool from an old paint scraper but it can be much easier to get in. I take all the elements out. I find I can unstick the blades much easier that way.

Kim
 
Okay.

I am a little confused about the outer ring you're talking about. Is it the thing labeled with numbers in blue (52 7 4) in my picture? If so, how do I go about removing that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom