Surprisingly Good Lens!

[Mackinaw]

I went to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past weekend and, for a change, left my Leica at home and took along my old Canonet QL 1.7 (compact version) loaded with a roll of Neopan 400 film. Virtually every shot I took was at F1.7 or F2.0. While I've used this camera a lot over the years, most has been with B&W IR film with a lens setting of around F8. This was the first time I ever used this lens wide-open or close to it and was astonished how well it performs. The attached "Jaguar Gal" picture was at F1.7 while the "BMW Gals" was taken at F2.0. Beautiful bokeh, to my eyes, too.

Developed in Rodinal 1+ 50 for 12 1/2 minutes at 20C using Kodak style agitation.

As an aside, every shot on the 36 roll was of people and not of the cars.

Jim Bielecki

 

[JoeFriday]

yep.. those girls have bodacious bokehs 😀

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

I agree, the Canonet QL17 has quite a sweet lens on it. People tend to underestimate it, but it really can impress.

 

[ErnestoJL]

I had the "new" Canonet 1.9 (not the G III) and found the lens was superb. Today I have the "old type" 1.7 (bigger size and full set of speeds), and have no reasons to regret the change!

It´s nice to rediscover an old classic!

Ernesto

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Even the Canonet 28, which is the first rangefinder I ever got, has an exceptional lens. Mine is the newer version, though. Not sure how good the original is.