Canon Canonet QL17 GIII Film Camera

Canonet QL17 GIII Camera

Canonet QL17 GIII

maker: Canon
format: film
lens: 40mm
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Sometimes called the Poor Girl’s Leica, this is a nice rangefinder camera. It’s not the quality of a Leica, but it operates on similar mechanics. The Canonet GIII QL17 was Canon’s best-selling camera for over 10 years, and is the world’s top selling rangefinder (with a built-in light meter) a record unlikely to be broken.

The QL stands for Quick Loading, a clever system that makes loading film fast and easy. The 17 refers to maximum aperture of the six-element, 40mm f/1.7 lens. It’s sharp and able to focus as close as 2.6 feet. The G means grade up and recognizes quality improvements over the earlier Canonet QL17. Finally, the III is for the third model of Canonets

Photos Taken with this Camera

Boy Spinning
Streetcar Driver
Mercanti Bike

Related Articles

Below is a list of articles in which this camera is discussed, or at least mentioned, on this site.

An Adventure in Gear Acquisition (mar 18, 2012)

When I started researching the two Zeiss ZM 85mm lenses—the expensive f/2 lens ($ 3,350) and the inexpensive f/4 lens ($ 875)—a few people sent me messages leading me instead to decide to buy the Leica Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 lens.

Almost Everything Must Go (may 19, 2012)

I have a crazy plan to sell almost all of my cameras and lenses and buy new ones. Looking through over 25,000 photos I took, I printed my fifty best for a small photo album. I discovered that I take better pictures with film and rangefinder cameras.

Vertical Use of Half Case (mar 3, 2012)

I bought a half case for my Leitz Minolta CL (i.e., Leica CL) camera—the bottom half of the camera is wrapped leather. I bought it from a small manufacturer in China. It’s a very nice, but I don’t use it in the way many people do.