bargain Canonet

[nikkortorokkor]

I'm not one who gets a lot of bargains - too impulsive and 'see, want, must have!' for that. But I managed to luck out on this one.


The vendor had not done a great sales pitch, billing it as 'good for parts'.

I bid NZ$2.00 and won the auction - the only bidder.

As it happened, I'd bid on a hole bunch of Paxette stuff from the same guy, & he shipped the whole lot postage free.

The Canonet turned out to be 100% functioning. The frame counter window is missing (the vendor had mentioned this) but I'm sure that I can rustle up a suitable replacement.

This is the 1971 New QL19 - less common because it was superseded almost immediately by the GIII version.

The lens is lower spec than that on the QL17, being a 5 element 4 group 1.9/45 versus a 6 element 5 group 1.7/40.

Still, not bad for 2 bucks.

[PeterW]

OooH, Michael, you wuz robbed! .

$2.00 New Zealand is about £0.80 GBP - less than the price of a cup of coffee. I've got the similar looking but 'cheapened for the masses' Canonet 28, no QL feature and a 5 element 4 group 40mm 2.8 lens. It takes nice pictures but there's a light leak from door seals that are more gooey mess than foam. Another of those round tuit jobs. Don't remember what I paid for it, but it was more than £0.80

PeterW

[nikkortorokkor]

Peter, I too have to get a round tuit before I use this Canonet. Someone has scraped the door seals off this sample, so the job is half done for me. It looks like the bottom seal should be wideish & mounted on the door rather than the chassis - like a Ricoh 500GX - while the top sits in the 'conventional' groove.

[PeterW]

Michael,

On my Canonet 28 all the foam seals are on the door. There isn't a groove on the camera body, so it must be a different casting from yours.

PeterW

[Rachel]

When I bought my Canonet 28 the previous owner had used window draught excluder rubber strip as seals. When I showed it to the local camera shop owner he said just take the stuff off and use it as it is. He was right. I never had any fogging when I ran a test film through. All the same I was a little unhappy doing this long term so I got the proper sealing foam strip from an eBay seller and applied that to the camera door.

[Randy]

Very nice! I like those little fixer-uppers! ;D

[craigh]

My QL17 has the foam seals on the door also.

Craig

[nikkortorokkor]

you are all right.

I see evidence of foam on top & bottom of the door.

I also have the tatty remains of a 'big' QL 17 (the 1965 iteration). Oddly enough, that has the seals (well - grey dust by now) on the chassis top & bottom.