Oh no -- this time its the film advance on my Canonet QL 17GIII!!

[SayCheese]

Hi everyone,

agian i've problems with my beloved and heavily used Canonet. Everything works fine until a certain frame on each roll of film. When i'm well into the roll, maybe at exposure no. 20 or even futher, the advance lever gets stuck. When i try to advance by force, it gives a scratchy sound (presumebly by the mechanism scratching through the sprocket holes).

My Canonet has been repaired and CLA'd several times (light seals, battery compartment, stuck shutter blades) by a serviceman. The last repair job was done by myself: I had to bend the little linkage inside the wind mechanism (as described by rick oleson) since the wind lever failed to lock.
Maybe i did something wrong here?
Do you know whats wong with my Canonet this time? Any help is greatly apreciated.
Regards, SayCheese

 

[anjoca76]

I usually hate the sort of response I am about to offer, so please forgive me, but I can't help but think that with the cost of repairing the Canonet (again) you could just buy a new one in working order. Just my 2 cents...

 

[mooge]

check the QL spool: can it be turned independantly from the sprocket thing (can't remember the name now...)? it should be possible to turn the QL spool with your fingers, but it shouldn't be really loose either.

I had to fix something on my Canon FTb, and I accidentally jammed the QL spool and its driving shaft together; this caused the QL spool to pull more film than the sprocket thing would give it, and the camera winding got stiff and made those sprocket-popping noises and locked up at around frame 15. my fix for this was just to reposition the QL spool and its driving shaft, the driving shaft has some tabs that need to line up with slots in the spool for the spool to be able to rotate (somewhat) freely.

 

[FrankS]

That film take up spool has a slipping clutch action. Sounds like yours doesn't anymore. As the film winds on the diameter increases later in the roll and more film is being pulled than the sprocket drive allows.

 

[SayCheese]

Anjoca76: You're absolutely right about the price of another repair job in relationship to the price of the camera i paid.
Sad thing is, those cameras are rarely offered in good shooting condition over here: either they are overpriced collectors items or they are poorly maintained and unusable out of the box.
Thats the reason why I'm trying to repair the camera one more time. But...

Mooge & FrankS: Doesn't sound like an easy fix, right? Well, I guess i'll be shooting 20exp.-rolls from now on...
🙂
Regards, SayCheese