Original Canonet QL17

Forgive the idiotic question, but I have to ask. I just received a QL17 through an ebay transaction. The camera appears in very nice, very clean condition, but opening the back I see there is no film pressure plate, just four brass studs. Did this camera have one? I'm inclined to keep this camera and pick up one for parts, if needs be.

I'm actually quite surprised at the bulk of this thing, it's almost as big as an FTb, and almost as heavy. I also just received a later QL17 that is not a GIII, and it is much smaller. I had no idea there was such a difference!

Also, got any idea what I can use for batteries for these cameras? I'm not at all inclined to use zinc air batteries; I don't foresee using the Canonets often, and I wouldn't be at all happy about having to change batteries every time I want to use them.

Yes, you are missing the pressure plate. It hooks onto those four studs. One of the four mating slots on the plate is slightly different to get things started when putting it on.

Yes; the early Canonet Ql 17 was considerably larger than the GIII.

Here are all of your choices:

1) Pay about $10 each or more for some genuine mercury batteries from China. This may also be illegal, I'm not sure.

2) Use conventional 675 zinc-air cells with some sort of physical adapter to re-size the chamber. You will probably need a new one every 6-8 weeks. But they only cost about 60 cents each in quantity.

3) Use a Wein zinc-air cell. These will not last much longer than the conventional zinc-air cells, but at least you won't need any sort of physical adapter for the chamber. But, these will cost you around $7 a pop, and they won't last long

4) Use a conventional S76 or SR44 or S675 silver oxide cell, with some sort of physical adapter to make them fit in the chamber. The same #9 rubber O-rings that I use for the 675 zinc air hearing aid batteries will work. But the voltage is still wrong. You can manually calibrate your camera to see how far off the readings are, and adjust the ISO/ASA setting to compensate for this. Or, you can spend significant money (like $50-80) to have the camera re-calibrated for use with these cells directly/ One of the physical adapters, the CRIS adapter, claims to adjust the voltage of these batteries downward so that it will match the lower voltage of mercury cells. YMMV, but I've not found this method to give a low enough voltage to consistently give accurate exposure with cameras that are designed to use Mercury cells.

5) Use 625A Alkaline cells. But the voltage is still wrong. You can manually calibrate your camera to see how far off the readings are, and adjust the ISO/ASA setting to compensate for this. Or, you can spend significant money (like $50-80) to have the camera re-calibrated for use with these cells directly.

6) You can use no battery at all, and use either Sunny-16 or a hand held meter or meter from another camera to set your exposures.

I believe that this fully exhausts your options

And I am exhausted just reading them all. I'm inclined to use the silver oxide cells; with Tri-X film, I'm not sure how accurate the meter needs to be. I didn't know about the #9 o-ring though, thanks for that. I had a pair of FTb's converted for $65 each; I may go that route if I find I'm using the camera more than just occasionally.

BTW, I have a busted original Canonet QL17 that looks beautiful but the shutter won't fire - and I have no need for a QL17 parts body. You could have it for the cost of shipping it from San Diego (figure slightly over 2 pounds). PM me if you want it. And yes, the back has a pressure plate. You might wish to just install the back from this body onto yours. It might even work if you disassembled the lens shutter and cleaned the shutter blades with lighter fluid. I personally can't be bothered, as I prefer the Olympus 35 RC, the Konica Auto S-2, and the newer Canonet QL17 GIII.

dougjgreen said:

Here are all of your choices:

1) Pay about $10 each or more for some genuine mercury batteries from China. This may also be illegal, I'm not sure.

Click to expand...

Yes it is illegal both here and in the EU. If you want to poison the environment encourage their use.

dougjgreen said:

3) Use a Wein zinc-air cell. These will not last much longer than the conventional zinc-air cells, but at least you won't need any sort of physical adapter for the chamber. But, these will cost you around $7 a pop, and they won't last long

Click to expand...

Option 3A - The last time I used one, the Wein cell was the same battery as the hearing aid zinc air batteries, but with a spacer on it. You can buy one Wein zinc-air cell and when it dies, pull the spacer ring off of the battery and install it on a hearing aid battery as in option #2. It is a tight squeeze, but I have done this in the past and it worked perfectly. Beats continuing to buy the Wein cells for big bucks.

John Koehrer said:

Yes it is illegal both here and in the EU. If you want to poison the environment encourage their use.

Click to expand...

I didn't encourage their use. I simply included it in an exhaustive list of all of the solutions that exist and I pointed out that it was expensive and I thought that it might even be illegal. The solution I have encouraged and would encourage is the use of #675 zinc-air hearing aid batteries with a #9 rubber O-ring spacer in the chamber.