Metering Issues

[dangitstim]

So I just got a QL17 GIII and I had a successful first roll of film., but now my camera seems to be on the fritz. The meter is responsive, but in a very odd way. For example, I have the ASA at 400 (which is what I shot my first roll with, when everything was working), the shutter speed at 1/500th, and I am in a room lit with two incandescent lamps. The meter is giving me an f/11 reading, which doesn't make any sense.

Even more disturbing is when I change focus the meter changes drastically even though my framing is the same. When I am at the minimum focusing distance I getting a reading off the charts, below f/16, and when I focus to infinity, the meter goes off the charts above f1.7. When I slowly change the focus from 2.6' to Infinity I can see the meter move slowly from one end of the spectrum to the other.

What's going on here. Does anyone else have this problem or know what the problem is? Thanks!

 

[Pompiere]

It sounds as if your camera is in the flash mode. That was a way to automate the flash instead of calculating the f stop when you were using flash bulbs or a strobe that only had one setting. You set a dial to the guide number of the flash, and the camera would change the f stop based on the focusing distance. I don't know about your camera, but on the Yashica GSN, there is a lightning bolt on one of the lens rings. On my Olympus ECR, flash mode is activated when you put a flash in the hotshoe.

 

[dangitstim]

The aperture is definitely set on the red "A" and not on any of the blue guide numbers. I did hook up my wireless flash trigger to the hot shoe and pc connection to just to see if the camera would trigger my flashes, but that is no longer connected to the camera. Do you think this messed with my camera somehow?

 

[Pompiere]

That could be the answer, that the contact got stuck when you had the flash mounted. My Canon A35F (essentially a Canonet with built in flash) does exactly the same thing with its meter when the flash is activated.

 

[payasam]

It's also possible that the internal linkages somehow interfere with one another.

 

[dangitstim]

Is there any way to fix this?