I recently added a new camera to my gear case – Canon’s Canonet QL-17 G-III. Whew, that was a mouthful! The ridiculously long name aside, this camera from 1972 has the ability to create some stunning images in the right hands.
The Canonet QL-17 G-III is a wonderful miniature 35mm rangefinder. You don’t focus through the lens like an SLR, you look through the viewfinder on the top right and line up two images until they’ve merged. There are various Canonet cameras, mine has a 40mm f1.7 lens. It’s pocketable and fast! It’s been referred to as the poor man’s Leica, and I back that statement after using it some. It doesn’t match the build or optical quality of a Leica, but for the cost there’s not much that comes close. It’s surprisingly well-built, the camera feels wonderful to hold. It also one-ups most Leicas by having a leaf shutter rather than a focal plane shutter. This means full flash sync up to 1/500 of a second, even with a wireless system such as a Pocketwizard.
Fast flash sync is important to outdoor strobist photographers since you knock down ambient and freeze motion better at 1/500 than the 1/200th-1/320th of a second common in most current DSLRs. Indoors it doesn’t matter since the strobe’s flash duration is often even faster than that, 1/1000 of a second or shorter.
This camera has awakened the street photographer hidden inside of me that I didn’t know existed. There’s another advantage to the leaf shutter – It’s a mirrorless system. On a SLR, when you take a photograph you hear a big slap and THEN the photo is taken. That’s the mirror moving so that the sensor/film can be exposed. This causes vibration throughout the camera (read: blur) and is quite noisy. When I take a photograph with the Canonet, no one knows it happened! The leaf shutter is so quiet that it normally can’t be heard by anyone but the photographer. The 1/focal length rule for shutter speed also can be modified, I can easily handhold a sharp photograph at 1/8th of a second or longer with this camera. Of course, this doesn’t keep people or objects in the shot from moving, but it’s a great ability to have!
As with all that is great, there are issues that prevent perfection. While the Canonet can sync at 1/500 of a second with lights, that’s as fast as the leaf shutter will allow. A non-buld exposure of longer than 1/4th of a second can’t be made on the Canonet, either. You could have issues outdoors in sunlight if you’re shooting fast film, you can also forget shooting outdoor sunlight at a large aperture without the use of a ND filter. I find it difficult sometimes to focus using the rangefinder, the little yellow patch can be hard to line up sometimes. The rangefinder brightening trick can help with that, though. This camera also takes a now-illegal mercury battery, alkaline replacements have different voltages and cause issues with the meter exposing correctly. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it tried to overexposure by 1-1.5 stops.
A blog post of mine would not be complete without photographs, so enjoy! I’ve only put two rolls of film through the camera so far, but I plan on making extensive use of this camera in all of my future work. I’m looking forward to shooting it with color film and strobes on a sunny day!
An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III
An Horse - Canonet QL-17 G-III
Never Shout Never - Canonet QL-17 G-III
Canonet QL-17 G-III
Got an email from Alternative Press back in February about doing a shoot with the Valdosta, GA group From First to Last. I accepted and proceeded to dive right into some of the craziest weeks of my life. The shoot went well, but I had multiple, large and well paying shoots all fall through at the same time that the engine in my Honda CR-V decided it wanted to completely stop working. I’m extremely grateful that the FFTL guys let me stay at their place for a while as my engine was slowly replaced by a local mechanic, there was no way I could afford a hotel.
Here are the tear sheets from the AP article, it’s actually my first feature article in three years of doing photo shoots for them. WHOA… has it really been three years? I’m getting old. Also, there was a last minute change that caused them to swap the two photos… the second photo was supposed to be the spread, I was pretty bummed over that change since I shot it all with a certain usage in mind.
From First to Last - Alternative Press Feature 2010
From First to Last - Alternative Press Feature 2010
90′s grunge band, anyone? (outtake):
From First to Last
I also did some setups for their new label, Rise Records. Here are a few select images from that (not all were used):
From First to Last
From First to Last
From First to Last
