Canonet ql17 shutter

Hi everyone! I'm looking for some advice on a broken Canonet QL17 I'm trying to restore to working order. It initially seemed to have the same sticky shutter issues that these cameras often have: once I took the thing apart and got the front panel off, I got the aperture blades to open and the shutter to fire with a bit of alcohol. However, after reattaching the front panel, the shutter button still did nothing. It turns out that when I pull the advance lever, the mechanism that cocks the shutter isn't moving far enough over to actually cock the shutter reliably (it works maybe one time out of 20).

Any advice about where to go from here?

Here's the back of the front panel:


And here's the camera body:

No reply here? C'mon folks this is popular gear

Does the cocking lever in the body look as though it may have been bent by overenthusiastic person?If the lever has been slightly twisted away from the direction of travel that could be enough to not finish the cocking stroke.

Maybe/sorta kinda.

I've never taken a Canonet that far apart (although I probably should). That's probably one reason for few responses. I have looked at a similar issue on a Fujica G690, (which is designed to separate the lens from the body, so it's less work). The amount of travel to cock the lens is often just barely enough, and it is possible that it's simply slop that has built up over time or that one of the parts of the mechanism is just a little worn/bent. I would look at: whether the lens-shutter unit has rotated slightly in its mount to the front panel, if that's possible; and whether any of the levers look slightly out of shape or can be reshaped carefully to achieve the extra travel. Given that it works occasionally, you're probably looking for less than 1mm of extra movement.

I had a similar issue on another camera. You can try to a) shift the lens plate towards the left as much as the screw holes will allow; b) put shrink tape around the cocking lever to minimize the amount of play with the cocking fork.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

Actually, you bring up a good point, @reddesert. One strange thing I noticed when I first picked up the camera was that when it's set to long focal lengths, the focusing ring moves when I pull the advance lever! I'm guessing that this is not normal behavior (though someone who knows these cameras better than me should correct me if I'm wrong). Here are two images that show what happens with the focusing ring when the film advance/shutter cocking lever is pulled:




Also, the front of the lens assembly is ever so slightly loose with respect to the focusing ring and the front plate of the camera. If I turn the front of the lens and maintain pressure on it, I can almost reliably get the shutter to cock when the advance lever is pulled. (So I'm guessing someone badly reassembled the camera in the past?) I had been hoping to avoid taking apart the lens assembly more than I already have, but I don't really have anything to lose at this point... I suppose I'll try your suggestions first, @OAPOli, since they're easier, and if that doesn't work, I'll go down deeper into the lens.

Worst comes to worst, I've wasted some time on a funny project taking apart a camera. Best case scenario, I'll have a working camera for 20€!

scarwire said:

when it's set to long focal lengths, the focusing ring moves when I pull the advance lever!

Click to expand...

I've got a Canonet 28 and a Canonet QL17 G3 and this is definitely NOT normal behavior.

The focusing ring moving when the shutter is cocked is certainly not normal behavior. The lens isn't supposed to be slightly loose in the focusing mount, but that can happen with these fixed-lens RFs over time. If I had to guess, it might be more likely that the camera has been dropped and the front put slightly out of alignment, vs someone having disassembled and reassembled it. (Just because dropping is much more common.) Presumably, it depends on focus distance because the lens moves back/forward and only drags on the shutter cocking mechanism in some positions.