new used QLiii 1.7

ampguy

ampguy

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I'm moving up in the world. My first rangefinder arrived in the mail today, purchased at a great price from a fellow forum member.

Appears in great mech. shape. The Wein battery I ordered from B&H isn't here yet, so I found a weak PX675 zinc air (~ 1.4V) and stuck it in with some foil.

I then got out a camera whose exposure properties I'm familiar with, and played around comparing the meters around indoor and outdoor settings. The Canon was slightly off in *some* cases, but not all. In *some* cases, it appears I needed to change the ASA to a notch under 400 to match my reference unit, but in other cases they already matched. The aperture dial doesn't stop at specific values, it's smooth, so that is kind of funky. Also for "B", you have to engage some button, also funky.

It is so close, that I've narrowed it down to the differences in spot area of the reference, so I've decided to leave it be. Of course when I do put in the Wein 1.35V and/or future PX675's I'll have to re-do this test.

The camera is kind of what I expected, it's heavier than my Minolta Hi-Matic G viewfinder but about the same size. I'm very curious about how the lens is. I've looked at dozens or hundreds of photos from this camera on the web, and to be honest, not many were really stunning to me, which I'm thinking is possibly from a loss in the scanning process.

So of course, I will be the first one to produce stunning photos from this camera 😛
 
gotcha

gotcha

I'm all set with my first roll (see above post), but will use 625 alkalines after this roll, and save the wein for something else too.

Hey, if I roll the thing off of A, is the battery being used at all? If not, will save me from having to keep the lens covered all the time.

Thanks!!

greyhoundman said:
Wrong battery!!!!! I reset the meters for a 625 alkaline.
Click to expand...
 
yes, it's an excellent camera.. one of the best lenses you'll find for such a small package.. so let's see some of those stunning photos
 
greyhoundman said:
Wrong battery!!!!! I reset the meters for a 625 alkaline.
Click to expand...

Gman, may I ask how you calibrate or recalibrate these cameras? Do you do just an electrical adjustment, or do you do a mechanical adjustment as well?

Reason I'm asking is I'm about to actually try what I've been talking about for almost a year, and that is to recalibrate it so it will meter for 1600 film, in other words, intentionally mis-calibrate it for 50-1600 instead of 25-800. I'm planning to adjust the electrical adjustment for the "sunny 16" end of the scale and the mechanical one for the "available dark" end of the scale.

Also, what do you use as a "lab standard"? Lacking anything traceable to NBS 🙂 I'm planning to use the Pentax as a reference, which both of my rangefinders agree with within 1/2 stop.

Thanks. 🙂
 
meter readings

meter readings

When comparing a Canonet meter reading with any other camera, hope everybody remembers to compensate for the probable different focal length of each lens and/or the metering pattern (ie centre wighted, partial, spot, etc, etc) from your known good source....
 
Thanks, Gman (wow, that was fast) I take it that a Calculight is probably out of budget for adjusting a $50 camera. 🙂 🙂

airds said:
When comparing a Canonet meter reading with any other camera, hope everybody remembers to compensate for the probable different focal length of each lens and/or the metering pattern (ie centre wighted, partial, spot, etc, etc) from your known good source....
Click to expand...

What I've been using to test these things is the one totally blank (eggshell) wall of the bathroom, for low light. Both the overhead light and the vanity lights are on dimmers, so I can get a very good range of semi-neutral typical indoor light.

For the bright side it's really high-tech. 🙂 Out the bedroom window, which faces due east, in afternoon light. This is right on the edge of a far suburban development, so the color mix is mostly blue sky and green grass/trees/foliage. This is seldom a perfect "sunny 16", but often very close.

I do use the normal lens on the Pentax for this, and I do realize that the meters in the Canon and the Mamiya probably will not be as precise as the Pentax.
 
Thanks John

Thanks John

I like it so far very much. Have taken about a half dozen shots since mail time!!

servojohn said:
And I'll be very surprised if you don't like the quality of the lens. It is a nice little rangefinder.

Congratulations.

John
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Joe

Thanks Joe

Will know in a few days, don't have a scanner, but I might opt for a couple extra bucks for the drugstore to give me a copy on photocd (ugh) as well as prints for this first roll of mine.

JoeFriday said:
yes, it's an excellent camera.. one of the best lenses you'll find for such a small package.. so let's see some of those stunning photos
Click to expand...
 
hi

hi

I didn't mod the camera at all. What I wanted to do, after reading a lot about this unit was to know where to set offset the ASA for my particular power source so it matched a regulated camera I was familiar with.

As has been mentioned in posts below there are many considerations -- the spot coverage, same focal range, etc. to try to make the comparison.

In the end, with my particular battery, I have decided it is close enough the way I received it to not do any ASA offsets. G'man describes what he did in another post.

I've also read of folks using zener diodes to shunt off higher voltages than a meter wants to see, but I'm sure G'man did it the best way.

My reference unit is a Panasonic / Leica device, probably best not mentioned in these parts, but it is regulated. the battery can be 99.0% dead and it will meter properly, or not at all...


dmr said:
Gman, may I ask how you calibrate or recalibrate these cameras? Do you do just an electrical adjustment, or do you do a mechanical adjustment as well?

Reason I'm asking is I'm about to actually try what I've been talking about for almost a year, and that is to recalibrate it so it will meter for 1600 film, in other words, intentionally mis-calibrate it for 50-1600 instead of 25-800. I'm planning to adjust the electrical adjustment for the "sunny 16" end of the scale and the mechanical one for the "available dark" end of the scale.

Also, what do you use as a "lab standard"? Lacking anything traceable to NBS 🙂 I'm planning to use the Pentax as a reference, which both of my rangefinders agree with within 1/2 stop.

Thanks. 🙂
Click to expand...
 
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