Problem with Canonet GIII

Q

qaiade

Guest
I recieved my Canonet GIII 17 a few days ago. It had been working perfectly, until yesterday. I was playing around with it trying to get used to the feel of it, I noticed that the aperture ring was not moving as smoothly as it used to. Stupid me, I kept turning it and now its stuck in auto and it wont move at all. The shutter no longer fires either. The self timer is stuck in the on position. I dont know if this is important but the aperture blades move open when I use the advance lever and close into the indicated aperture when I press the shutter button. The focus and shutter rings work fine. How do I fix this? Can I fix this?
 
I'm just guessing here, but it sounds like old lubricants just gave out. I have removed the front elements and used either Ronsonol or isopropyl alchohol to free things up. This is a real DIY repair, and is not guarenteed to fix all things. If you do not feel comfortable with teh DIY approach, a $70 trip to Essex will fix things.

The aperture blades move into the open position when the advance lever is cocked, and close when the shutter release is pressed. If the aperture is out of range, ie below F1.7 or above F16, the shutter will not fire. So the needle must be in a valid range.

MY GUESS is that the self-timer is stuck, preventing the shutter from firing. Ronsonol fixed that problem with one of my QL17 GIII's.
 
Hi,
Just a thought. I had a similiar problem but solved it by gently applying pressure to the self timer until it was back at it's rest position. Camera works, selftimer doesn't but no intention of using it and I would rather leave ir that way than risking Ronsonol. I have had a couple of cases where it left spots on the inside of a lens.

Kim
 
I agree with Kim. I have had problems using the lighter fluid where the lens gets oil on it. I would say try to force the self timer all the way back (rocking it back and forth a bit to free it up). Then use steady pressure and it should work. I never had a problem with it being stuck in the Auto position, but these are probably related. Not worth the $70. Worst case scenarion, sell it for parts on ebay for $20 and get a new one for $50-$80.
 
Ok, I pushed the self timer lever back into the original position. The aperture blades no longer move when I use the advance lever. The aperture ring is still stuck and the shutter still does not fire. I have never fixed a camera but I bought this camera for $50 so it wouldnt be worth it to have it repaired professionally. Id be willing ti try removing the lens, but Im not sure how to go about that.
 
I fixed the stuck shutter and aperture blades! With hand sanitizer no less. Do I need to oil the blades to make the effect permanent? The aperture ring is still stuck.
 
Ive taken off the thing that has the lens properties on it, the metal ring,and the front element and I dont see the L. But miraculously the ring is moving again. Is there anything i can do to keep it moving?
 
Ok my problem has gone from bad to worse. For a while I thought I had fixed everything. The shutter was firing, the aperture ring was moving and I hadnt even need to competely take apart the lens. Then the cleaner dried and the blades locked up. So I put more in and it freed things up. I left some of it on the blades overnight and this morning there was a rustlike substance on them. So I cleaned it of but the shutter wont fire anymore. Somehow in the process of shaking out the excess cleaner and rapidly turning the rings, the aperture ring locked up again and the shutter speed ring wont go to Bulb and turniong it doesnt affect the meter. Also the aperture blades do not open when I turn the ring to a wider aperture, but it does stop down when I choose a smaller aperture. Is there anything I can possibly do about this or should I just sell the whole thing for parts?
 
Well, don't know about the rest but on my Canonets the aperture blades won't open unless the shutter is cocked, even though they stop down properly with either the shutter cocked or not...

Don't know about the rest though...
 
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