CANON CANONET QL17

THE CAMERA:

The official Canon website "Museum" says this camera is from the first phase and was introduced in 1965. Some of the identifiers are, it has no hot shoe and the PC connector is on the front next to the lens. My camera that came to me from eBay is an exceptional sample having very little external wear, the shutter and meter works on all speeds and the Auto works. Everything works, only small problem was the focus was ever so slightly off in the rangefinder. At infinity it actually went just past being lined up in the viewfinder

When I took the top off to clean and adjust the rangefinder I noticed right away this camera is built much more sturdy and "professional" for lack of a better word, than the other models I've seen so far, except for maybe my Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, it runs a close second. It has glass not plastic windows on the top cover, the dust/light cover on the rangefinder is screwed down not glued down, it just has that look of quality about it inside and out

FIXES:

Aside from the difficult to remove retainer ring on the film advance lever, (yes I scratched it) it is the easiest camera I've dealt with so far. The top pops right off and no surprises and wires attached to the top to deal with or rotting foam light/dust seals. It looked very clean inside, no yellowing glue spots, oxidizing parts or what have you. I unscrewed the light/dust cover from the rangefinder housing and cleaned the glass optics with windex and Q-tips (don't touch the mirrored or colored glass with anything) then I played with the cool meter-in-viewfinder set-up.

(side note: It's amazing how ingenious we as a society were before LED's and digital readouts. Sure it's electrical but the meter itself is all mechanical in the viewfinder with a "Mousetrap Game" set up from the galvanometer needle to the needle you see in the viewfinder.)

I then adjusted the focus in the rangefinder, using the good guidance of Rick Oleson's page to see which screw to adjust. it was almost like just breathing on it, it was such a small adjustment. I will have to give it new light seals. I'm using some black cotton yarn in the door grooves, luckily the original 'velvet' light seals on the door hinge and clasp area ari still good, I would hate to mess around that quick load flap.

Here is a test photo shot with this camera

MANUAL: Canon Canonet QL17 owners manual (password = Pentax)

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