Canon FL QT: Help with the light metering

I got this camera as a gift and am fairly new to SLR, though I've been interested in photography for quite some time.

In the manual it says that the lever in the view finder has to be in the circle. Sometimes I can get in the circle, others times I have to leave it just under or it will go so high up I risk overexposure.

Am I doing this right? Or is there something I should know? I would to figure this out because the book I bought requires to know the correct exposure before playing around with it.

Thank you

First, I think you must be referring to the FT-QL. I've never heard of the model you named. The QL just means quick loading. It means that the camera has a part that holds the film leader down when loading the camera, so you don't need to insert the leader into the takeup spool when loading the camera.

There are three things you can do to get the two needles to line up: 1) change film speed, 2) change shutter speed, 3) change f stop.

Oh yeah...and 4) change battery! The camera's proper battery is no longer made. If you want to use the light meter, I'd suggest adapting a 1.4V #675 hearing aid battery. They are dirt cheap and require no electronic changes to the camera. You have to use some sort of washer to get them to stay put in the battery compartment, as they are smaller than the original batteries. They have to be replaced a few times a year, but the good news is that they are cheap as dirt.

But I'd honestly suggest just using a hand held meter instead, due to the imperfections inherent in all in-camera light meters.

This camera requires stopping down to meter. It is basically a sister camera to the Pellix, with a normal mirror instead of a pellicle one. When FD came along, the FD equivalent of it was the FTb, though there are slight differences aside from the automatic aperture and full aperture metering of the FTb.

'Chasing the circle' with the needle might not be possible simply because the needle's position depends upon your ability to have a combination of ISO+shutter+aperture which meets the meter's expectation of 'proper exposure'...inability to put the needle into the circle might be due to the need to adjust one to three parameters to set a suitable combination. But read on...

Cameras of that era relied upon the absolutely consistent voltage output by the Mercury Oxide cell, which put out 1.35v until it suddenly dropped dead. In comparison, alkaline cells start about 1.5v and continuously decline as they are used, down to about 1.25v. Meters of that era might NOT be able to be compensated with ISO adjustment, because the amount of error in the meter reading could be not only dependent upon the voltage of the battery at the time, but also dependent upon the level of light being metered! So use of an improper battery might be the reason that you cannot center the needle in the circle.

There are some adapters on the market today which permit alkaline button cell to be used, with a voltage regulator built into the adapter so that constant voltage is provided to the camera. The MR-9 adapts current button cells to fit the Canon FT, which takes the PX625 form factor mercury cell. Dead Link Removed

Go to this site to download a PDF of the user manual of this camera. http://www.butkus.org/chinon/canon/canon_ft/canon_ft.htm

I stand corrected, it is a FT-QL.

I've only been using 400 ISO so far, would this have made a difference?

Would the adaptor or the hand held light meter be a better choice? I'm leaning towards the adaptor since I don't like carrying much stuff around.

Also, is it neccessary for it to be on the circle? Sometimes while shooting indoors they came out dark still.

Thanks