Canonet QL17 GIII only fires to frame 3

CitizenNouveau · Apr 25, 2017

Hey all!

Picked up a Canonet QL17 GIII the other day along with a few other cameras in a trade. The camera only shoots to frame 3 before it locks up, at which point the film advance won't, well, advance. Any ideas on how to fix the problem so I can start using this little guy?

zanxion72 · Apr 26, 2017

Does this happen with any roll? Does that roll have any damage across its sprocket holes at about frame 3?

John Koehrer · Apr 26, 2017

Is it in Auto or manual? In auto it won't trip if there's no battery or it's beyond the Auto range.
Manual is fully manual & it shouldn't stop at all.

CitizenNouveau · Apr 27, 2017

zanxion72 said:
Does this happen with any roll? Does that roll have any damage across its sprocket holes at about frame 3?

Haven't loaded film into the camera yet actually. Testing was done without a roll in by advancing the lever and depressing the shutter release.

CitizenNouveau · Apr 27, 2017

John Koehrer said:
Is it in Auto or manual? In auto it won't trip if there's no battery or it's beyond the Auto range.
Manual is fully manual & it shouldn't stop at all.

The camera is in manual and all shutter speeds sound/fire fairly accurately to my ears and eyes...

John Koehrer · Apr 27, 2017

I misstated something earlier. When you close the back, the thing should allow you to
advance the film to frame 1. From that point it should advance and it should trip.
From your reply it sounds like you understand what you're doing.

At this point anything I say would be a silly guess.
So here's one now!
There's a double exposure prevention device in the camera. usually a simple lever
that has to be moved out of the way for film to advance.
Here's the guess part:
The lever may be stuck because of old lube or possibly broken spring. It would be
under the top cover next to the wind stack.

CitizenNouveau · Apr 28, 2017

John Koehrer said:
There's a double exposure prevention device in the camera. usually a simple lever
that has to be moved out of the way for film to advance.
Here's the guess part:
The lever may be stuck because of old lube or possibly broken spring. It would be
under the top cover next to the wind stack.

Oh interesting! Any advice on how to remove the top cover and inspect to see if it's stuck?

I should also state that when the back film cover is open, winding the lever and depressing the shutter work with no issue... probably because the frame counter never makes it past "S" to get to frame 2 or 3.

CitizenNouveau · Apr 28, 2017

Thanks for the help, everyone! I looked up how to remove the top cover properly and found there was a little lever sliding over at frame 2/3 which was preventing advancing the lever. I just taped it down with some gaffer's tape and problem solved -- advances through the full S-36 range now! I suppose it's not fully "fixing" what's wrong with the camera, but it does solve the problem and allow me to load it up with film and start shooting. I even cleaned up the viewfinder and rangefinder windows while I had the top cover off and everything is nice and clear.

John, thanks for the guidance to show me where to start looking! This isn't my first GIII or Canonet, but I was stumped as to why it just wouldn't continue advancing since it wasn't frozen solid.

Time to load some film and see how it does!

John Koehrer · Apr 28, 2017

A makeshift fix, but what the hey; it worked.
As a word of caution, many tapes loosen up in heat because the adhesive melts.
It may happen next year or not at all.

Canonet QL17 GIII only fires to frame 3

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