Oh Goody! Another Camera That I want!

Wouldn't you just know it!

This, is a Canon, Canonet G-III QL 17 (say that 3 times fast!).

Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful

Introduced in 1972, this camera was somewhat of a marketing throwback for Canon. Canon, had been well into the Single Lens Reflex world for many years, and this camera is a fixed lens rangefinder. Yes, Canon did make rangefinders in the past, but most of the Japanese camera makers were moving away from rangefinders by the early 70’s. Still, Canon had success with this little beauty, selling 1.2 million, over the course of 10 years.

Esthetically, this camera ticks all the boxes for me. it’s a gorgeous design, well thought out, which is to say it has about 50 years of other people’s designs to build from, and it is one of Canon’s best built cameras. I say that as a near lifetime Canon user (I took this shot with my 5D MKIII), but I would not boggle at calling this a well-built camera regardless of the maker.

There were several Canonet’s over the years. The “QL”, comes from this being a “Quick Load” design. The G-III, is a reference to this being a “Grade-up” model. This camera was not the swankiest shooter in the Canon line-up, but it did have Shutter Priority and Automatic Exposure, as well as fully manual shooting. I have all of those options on my 5D, and they are pretty handy.

However…

Some aspects of the technology of that era have changed, and that has brought with it challenges for modern shooters using this camera. It has to do with the battery that ran the electronics. If you look at the 12 O’Clock position on the lens, you’ll see a clear plastic square; this is the light meter.

This Canonet, was spec’d to work with a PX625 mercury battery - they no longer make mercury batteries. Do they make an alkaline equivalent to the PX625? Yes. The modern PX625 battery has a different voltage, a different power output and it screws up the proper function of the light meter. There are apparently many fixes to this issue, but I would just prefer to take a selenium light meter with me and shoot manual. I did not know this before I began researching this camera. Life is a state of constant learning.

This is a sought after camera, so I am not certain if I will be able to afford this Canonet. I will certainly bid, and I might just need to bust my budget to get satisfy my soul.