New kid on the block with canonet and a question

[the_other_dirk]

Hi all,

This forum's great! I found it a while ago and found myself checking the forum almost daily. wow. lots of good people with good advice here.

anyway, I've recently discovered rangefinders (in my defense, I'm just a young guy! I did know of Leica though). I'm especially fond of those neat compact cameras of the 70's. (although the russian RF forum is addictive and I'd like to get my hands on a FED, Zorki or Kiev...)

I bought a Canon GIII GL17 on the bay some time ago. I thought I'd scored a good deal until it arrived. Front lens scratched beyond belief, rangefinder misaligned (no big deal), light seals sticky (no big deal either), almost all plastic stuff cracked. and of course, no battery. Oh yes, the camera was just filthy (inside and outside). The only good thing (but an important one) was that the shutter was working, and sounded to be accurate.

I managed to solve all these problems but one. I replaced the light seals, I realigned the RF, I found a battery (the one in an old Canon FTb seemed to work) and fixed the battery connectors. I now have a working RF, even the lightmeter is quite accurate. I shot a few pics (don't have a scanner, sorry), and the exposures came all out good. The only thing I didn't fix was the front lens (see picture attached if I don't forget or screw up). It may be good to get soft focus effects or what not, but I like sharp pictures... I tried to get the front lens of, but the ring holding it moved only so far. Now it's stuck. I don't have a lensspanner, so I use two small screwdrivers. It's really tight and I just can't move it any more (now the front lens is able to move up and down and sideways -- even better than before! 🙄 ). Oh yeah, I read somewhere on this forum to use nail polish remover or something (acetone?) to get it unstuck. I did. It smelled nice but didn't work.

What do the wise men and women of this forum think I should do with this camera?
1. give up, buy another one
2. keep shooting with a loose scratched front lense, could be interesting
3. find a replacement front lense (where?) and change it out (with lensspanner)
or something else?

thanks,
dirk

 

[TPPhotog]

Hi Dirk,

Welcome to RFF and don't worry about only recently discovering RFs, I'm the same but I'm old so no excuse 😉 Be very careful though those little beasties are very addictive, I know I have my second one on the way already 😀

I've not got into the maintenance side of these yet so sorry I can't help you. There are many very friendly and experienced masters here that will be able to solve all your problems 🙂

That's the worst beat up glass I've seen in over 30 years of shooting 🙁

Tony

 

[peter_n]

Welcome to the forum Dirk! That looks really really bad! 🙁 I'm pretty sure that the lens can be swapped out - I think I read here that someone has done it but you'll need to wait until the real repair experts come online later on today.

I actually had the reverse of your experience - I recently bought a QL-17 because it had a UV filter on the front and the lens was pristine but the rest of the camera was crap - nothing seemed to work. It did cost $80 for a professional CLA but it has taken some smashing pics. I'll be interested to read if the repair guys here think your camera is salvageable - good luck! - but at least they're not too expensive and you can afford the occasional dud. 🙂

 

[James Burton]

I realigned the RF

OK, I'll bite. How did you do this? I am desperately interested in how to adjust the RF on a Canonet QL17 GIII.


James

 

[TPPhotog]

Hey thanks 😀 I always wondered what that cap on the back of the top plate was for 😕

 

[Pherdinand]

Hi Dirk, and welcome.
You SHOULD be able to switch the front lens element with a good one. However that's the most sensitive part of the lens so most folks are looking for that. Maybe you could buy a cheap busted canonet on the e-bay which does not work at all but has a good front lens. Sometimes we get lucky.

As to why it is stuck...Could it be that the filter ring is dented, so not round anymore? Also, you could try to use some thin oil or other lubricant (just a bit!) instead of acetone. I have found that solvents like acetone, ethanol etc dry everything out and if stg is stuck mechanically, it gets even more stuck. Acetone would work if there's some dirt in the way, or nail polish on screw-heads, etc
Also, since the lens front is busted anyway, you can try to force it a bit with those screwdrivers, and hope for the best. A non-metallic tool will be safer in these cases by the way.

 

[James Burton]

Horizontal adjustment is done through a hole under the thin covering on the hot shoe.

Vertical is done through the hole covered by the threaded cap on the back of the top plate.

For the GIII under-privileged I include some pictures.

Thanks GHM, most helpful


James

 

[the_other_dirk]

Thanks everyone for the kind welcome and the advice!

greyhoundman, my GIII QL17 doesn't have that access thingie on the hot shoe (see picture), I removed the entire top plate and then located the two screws to adjust the RF. There was an RFF member who had some pictures in his gallery on how to do this, but I can't find that gallery anymore.

I'll try to find a bust canonet on ebay or some place else with a good front lense. I just get a good feeling when holding this camera, so I don't want to give up on him yet! I'll also try Pherdinand's advice on how to get the front lense off. Just a question though: can I only use front lenses of other GIII Q17's or are non GIII 17's also OK? Or even 19's or 25's?

I also saw there's two rings, I've marked them on the picture as "inner ring" and "outer ring." which one should I try to get the front lense out? (I tried the inner ring before, this is the one that got stuck)

thanks again,
dirk

 

[the_other_dirk]

sorry greyhoundman, it's there all right, I just found out how to remove that thin covering. OK, much easier for the next time I need to perform some maintenance.(now let's see if I get this back in place... getting things back together is always the hard part for me).

You rule greyhoundman! Thanks for the tip