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I got the Canonet QL17 GIII I bought from America (eBay).
Description by the seller (over 1500 feedback at 100% positive):
"It is in working condition, very clean, No dings or dents. Looks good. Lenses appear nice and clean, shutter works just fine. Inside very clean. You also get the Canon Canolite D Flash. A nice vintage camera. Just add new battery."
Thing is:
1) The shutter is very sticky if you don't use it for a few hours. You have to take a couple of shots at high shutter speed to free it up (looks like the blades have a bit of oil on them).
2) It's anything but clean inside - lots of old foam gunk everywhere (although to be fair, I expected this and already ordered a foam kit)
3) The shutter speed ring isn't quited aligned properly. For example it has to point between 4 and 8 to get the 4 setting (same for other speeds). You can tell someone has tried to pry the lens off in the past. When looking from the inside, some of the metal around the lens has clearly been scraped quite badly.
4) Although the meter seems to be working OK, the scale in the viewfinder is almost impossible to see. The picture itself is nice and bright/sharp, but the exposure/aperture scale is very very faint and blurry. I can't tell if the needle is moving, because I can't see it!
5) The flash doesn't work! Tried a few sets of batteries and cleaned the contacts but there's still no function and no high pitched charging sound.
So, to the experts... What do you think? Am I expecting too much from an old camera? Should I just accept its flaws and work around them? Postage costs make it pointless to send back, really.
Description by the seller (over 1500 feedback at 100% positive):
"It is in working condition, very clean, No dings or dents. Looks good. Lenses appear nice and clean, shutter works just fine. Inside very clean. You also get the Canon Canolite D Flash. A nice vintage camera. Just add new battery."
Thing is:
1) The shutter is very sticky if you don't use it for a few hours. You have to take a couple of shots at high shutter speed to free it up (looks like the blades have a bit of oil on them).
2) It's anything but clean inside - lots of old foam gunk everywhere (although to be fair, I expected this and already ordered a foam kit)
3) The shutter speed ring isn't quited aligned properly. For example it has to point between 4 and 8 to get the 4 setting (same for other speeds). You can tell someone has tried to pry the lens off in the past. When looking from the inside, some of the metal around the lens has clearly been scraped quite badly.
4) Although the meter seems to be working OK, the scale in the viewfinder is almost impossible to see. The picture itself is nice and bright/sharp, but the exposure/aperture scale is very very faint and blurry. I can't tell if the needle is moving, because I can't see it!
5) The flash doesn't work! Tried a few sets of batteries and cleaned the contacts but there's still no function and no high pitched charging sound.
So, to the experts... What do you think? Am I expecting too much from an old camera? Should I just accept its flaws and work around them? Postage costs make it pointless to send back, really.
