The Cool Camera

In my last post there is a video of my teaching how to fix light seals on vintage cameras. Turns out I know what I am talking about as my Canonet QL17 GIII worked. I tested it out downtown Cuyahoga Falls over a couple of days with a roll of expired Fujicolor Press 400. The camera is designed to be shot in shutter priority mode and that is how I used it for the whole role(it does have a full manual override albeit without light metering). Even though the film is 17 years past the expiration date and I have no idea how it was stored so I still shot it at box speed. All the hallmarks of its age showed up - less contrast, color shifts, more grain etc - but hey - if I want perfect color and contrast I'll shoot my thousands of dollars worth of digital gear.

The camera's meter did a pretty good job. My goal with this camera is to be able to bring it on cycling trips because of its small size. I'm more of an SLR fan but I don't like bouncing them and their lenses around too much. I have a hard time adjusting to the focusing in rangefinders but maybe I will get quicker at it the more I use this. Also - the shutter is virtually silent so this could be a great street photography camera.

Being that I shoot a 35mm f/1.4 lens more than anything I didn't think this 40mm f/1.7 would be that big of an adjustment but it did feel quite different. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.


I have almost 3 boxes of this film so it will be cool to be able to experiment with different speeds.

No smoking - but here are the instructions on what to do after smoking.


Shooting a "new" camera is always interesting since you don't actually know if it is going to work. It is one of the reasons I shot the roll so close to my studio. You definitely don't want to shoot a once in a lifetime event - but you don't want to waste your time doing the most boring studio tests either.





Find me in this one...

Had my monochrome hat on for this photo.

Old things, old camera, old film.



There is almost entirely different color in the last two shots even the the scene is similar.

Oh, I think this is my favorite.

One thing I like about ISO 400 film - I still had time to get some images as the sun was setting. This camera(in shutter priority) actually locks the shutter release if there isn't enough light(or if there is too much).


I'm working on a video about my Canonet collection that will be posted by the end of the week. Again - you can follow my over on YouTube for that.