Canon G-III QL

ToddB · Jun 9, 2014

Hey guys,

visiting my grandmother, and gave me her vintage Canon G-III. Is this camera worth putting in a new foam on back door? How is the picture quality?

kb3lms · Jun 9, 2014

Yes and great.

Very nice little rangefinder. You will enjoy it.

Remember to say Thank You!

-- Jason

Xmas · Jun 9, 2014

Really nice camera excellent lens

Replace or remove battery.

You need to use one of zinc air or Shockety diode and silver cell options for accurate metering, unless it has been updated already.

Or use it in manual.

snapguy · Jun 9, 2014

plus

One of the very best vintage rangefinders with fixed lenses.

Hatchetman · Jun 9, 2014

the lens barrell on mine wobbles a bit. Anyone know if this effects image quality?

Xmas · Jun 9, 2014

You should not detect any problem but not had that camera apart may need grease on heliciod or screws tightened and locked. I'll need to check the repair manual.

TheToadMen · Jun 9, 2014

Beautiful camera, great lens, rangefinder and with a family history? Go for it!!
And use it to make some portraits of your grandmother with it!!
She'll like that and you will be happy you did several years from now.
I speak from experience, my grandmother passed away.

Hatchetman · Jun 9, 2014

Xmas said:
You should not detect any problem but not had that camera apart may need grease on heliciod or screws tightened and locked. I'll need to check the repair manual.

Thanks. I think I'll change the seals myself and leave the lens as is. You have to remove the "leather" to access the screws.

Ken Nadvornick · Jun 9, 2014

Wonderful camera. But they are reportedly very tightly toleranced. Word is, once disassembled they are a challenge to reassemble without the proper custom tooling and knowledge. Lots of stories of correctly working ones opened, only to then become donor parts cameras.

Here is a picture of mine with the front end disassembled and laid out. A professional technician did the work you see, not me...

Ken

elekm · Jun 9, 2014

It's a very tricky operation to remove the lens and reattach it.

And the foam is some really messy stuff. It will take a while to remove all of it.

However, the good news is that it will be worth the effort. Excellent camera overall. Nice build quality, a sharp and fast lens and a really nice viewfinder/rangefinder.

BetterSense · Jun 9, 2014

I have a QL17GIII and it's my most-used 35mm camera. My lens also wobbles slighly but I have ignored it and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I think this camera must have the worst feeling shutter release button of any camera I've used, and the winding is also cheap and springy feeling, but the pictures are great. I took the battery out of mine and just left it that way.

Peter Simpson · Jun 9, 2014

Jon Goodman has replacement seals for it and an SR44 will work well enough for testing. I second the suggestion to load it up with a roll of tri-x or FP5 and shoot some photos of the donor.

Oh, and my lens wobbles just a bit, too. Nothing to worry about. Keep away from the self timer though. They tend to jam.

Jeff Kubach · Jun 9, 2014

Great camera I wish I had one.

Jeff

Nathan Riehl · Jun 9, 2014

It's worth keeping. It's one of the most sought after fixed lens rangefinder cameras with it's fast lens and great optical quality. I wouldn't say it's ease of use is apparent. I couldn't figure out how to use it when I first held one, but I think the one I tried out might have been broken, haha.

Nikanon · Jun 9, 2014

Any camera post 1932 has great image quality really.

ToddB · Jun 9, 2014

Awesome!!!

Thanks guys.. It also came with exclusive flash on the strap a pouch. I thanked profusely. She is 92. I think with new light baffle, it will be something to hang onto.

Austintatious · Jun 10, 2014

Here is a link to Jons instructions for seal replacement. I have done one, it's not hard.

http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/seal/Canon_CanonetGIII.pdf

trythis · Jun 10, 2014

Only real problem you might have is if the battery corroded the light meter wire. If so, you have to open the camera body to replace it. Not especially easy.

sent from phone. excuse my typing.

Dave Wooten · Jun 10, 2014

In the apug gallery photos of the Apug convention held in Toronto are some photos I had taken with that model canon...see "fine wine", and several others including Les in the dark room. All existing light photos.

Chan Tran · Jun 10, 2014

trythis said:
Only real problem you might have is if the battery corroded the light meter wire. If so, you have to open the camera body to replace it. Not especially easy.

sent from phone. excuse my typing.

Mine doesn't have any problem but instead of buying compatible battery I simply use it in manual mode sans meter. Works great.

MattKing · Jun 10, 2014

Peter Simpson said:
Jon Goodman has replacement seals for it and an SR44 will work well enough for testing. I second the suggestion to load it up with a roll of tri-x or FP5 and shoot some photos of the donor.

Oh, and my lens wobbles just a bit, too. Nothing to worry about. Keep away from the self timer though. They tend to jam.

Jon also sells inexpensive adapters that permit using low cost hearing aid batteries in place of the 625 batteries originally used in these cameras.

ToddB · Jun 11, 2014

Battery.. I checked battery compartment, she took it out. It looks clean. Question.. Does the battery need to be in there for the shutter release button to work? I cocked it and pressed the button, It didn't trip shutter. Do I have a problem?

Hatchetman · Jun 11, 2014

ToddB said:
Battery.. I checked battery compartment, she took it out. It looks clean. Question.. Does the battery need to be in there for the shutter release button to work? I cocked it and pressed the button, It didn't trip shutter. Do I have a problem?

No, there is a trick when no battery (but I don't recall what it is). I'm sure someone will reply shortly but I wanted to ease your angst.

ToddB · Jun 11, 2014

I'm thinking that I have to load film into chamber to have the camera recognize it and then the shutter release button will activate. I hoping that's what's going on. I don't want load film, because the foam is completely gone.

Hatchetman · Jun 11, 2014

so if you manually set it to 1/100 f16, cock the shutter and then release, nothing happens?

Canon G-III QL

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