Help with a Canonet QL 19!!

[cookedart]

So I looked around at a few threads before cleaning my Canonet QL19 that had a lot of haze in the viewfinder. It worked perfect! However, after putting it all back together, I noticed the Vertical Alignment was off - that is, i could focus properly on the horizontal axis, but the vertical would never fully align. I popped it back open and started playing with the alignment screws but I think I messed up the finder royally...

First I noticed it was impossible for me to ever adjust it such that the vertical alignment would match.. at any focus distance.

Secondly, it got to the point where the framelines, patch, and meter showed up DIAGONALLY... they weren't lining up properly in the finder. I did this messing with both the vertical and horizontal set screws, as well as playing with the eccentric screw at the front that adjusts the frameline parrallax. I figured I bent the mirror in too far. I took the mirror out completely and bent it back.. this seems to fix the diagonal issue, but I don't even know if that was the problem.

Anyways, does anyone have any advice at this point? I'm sure sending it in would make more sense now.. but I'm assuming it might be totally borked.

 

[cookedart]

At this current point the rangefinder focuses far too close... meaning that I can never get it to line up horizontally.. vertically it looks close... and the focus travel seems to move a lot more on the lens than it does in the patch.

I'm open to any ideas!

 

[wakarimasen]

Try this link - it may help

http://photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00TopP

I had one of these and found the vertical alignment to be quite tricky to set up, so good luck!

 

[cookedart]

Thanks for the link..my rangefinder setup seems quite a bit different than this model though!

 

[diwolf]

Hi

It works exactly like on these pictures: http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson/index-30.html

I did it with my both GIII Canonets http://www.blog.still-dancing.com/2009/06/canonet-ql17-giii/

Kind regards, Dietmar

 

[cookedart]

I'm uploading some pictures... I've seen both the links but I'm still a little confused. First two pictures are of the specific model I'm dealing with.

Third picture is labelled... A = Vertical Adjustment, B = Horizontal Adjustment, C = prism that is moved while adjusting screw A.

The mirror between A and B is what Screw B moves.

 

[cookedart]

The first picture attached to this post shows a better view of screw B, which clearly pushes in the mirror it is attached to.

The second picture attached shows the camera from the front, with label E showing the third screw I found that adjusts things... this seems to move the framelines up and down (adjusts parallax).

 

[cookedart]

So at this point... Adjusting Screw A (vertical adjustment) seems to never quite fully align the rangefinder patch at any focal distance... adjusting it majorly clockwise or counter clockwise results in having the view inside the patch not move at all.

Adjusting Screw B (Horizontal Adjustment) only seems to make the view worse... it's not possible at this point to make the horizontal line up perfectly using this screw.

Adjusting Screw E (Elliptical Parallax) seems to not do anything to help the rangefinder patch..

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

 

[diwolf]

With screw "B" you fix the vertical alignment. Be careful with that!

On your last picture right next to the the letter "E", to the left, you see the metal frame. This frame can be moved horizontal, for horizontal alignment.

On my QL19GIII this frame was NOT moved with the screw "E". Watching from the other side there are screws at its bottom. Open them a bit and move the frame.

best regards, Dietmar

 

[cookedart]

With screw "B" you fix the vertical alignment. Be careful with that!

What do I have to be careful of? Bending the mirror too much?

On my QL19GIII this frame was NOT moved with the screw "E". Watching from the other side there are screws at its bottom. Open them a bit and move the frame.

The metal frame is moved diagonally by screw E, at least on my canonet.... I see the screws holding it in place on the reverse side though... what does moving this frame do?

 

[diwolf]

Careful of bending too much and if you do sth. wrong to get to the right starting point back again. So please count the amount of turns you do with the screwdriver to be able to undo properly! To be honest, I did try this on a third canonet and didnt get it back to normal...

On the two cams shown I adjusted horizontal with a tripod.

The most important to me was: do the framelines show me what I see on the negative? In my cases the framelines were too much to the left. So I adjusted/moved the metal frame to correct for that.

The metal frame = the lines when you see through the viewfinder.