I picked up an old Canonet Q17 G111 rangefinder on ebay and shot my first roll of film through it this weekend. Years ago I owned a series of Leicas. I started out with a beat up M3 and 50mm lens then came across a super clean M2 so I bought that. I sold the M3 and picked up a 35mm lens for the M2. I have owned a lot of cameras over the years and that is the only camera I regret selling.It is taking me awhile to get used to the rangefinder “method” of shooting again but I think I am going to enjoy it. The camera is small enough to carry around and I’m quite impressed with the sharpness of the 40mm 1.7 lens. The shots posted below are from the first roll through the camera. I’m particularly fond of the shot of my wife Lisa, shot wide open on our deck. I think it has a really nice feel to it. I used Kodak BW400CN film for the first test (thanks to Leigh Hanlon for the gift). I also bought some Ilford xp2 and will compare the two. The nice thing is that I can get this film processed at any drugstore since it is C-41.
For a camera that is 40 years old it is in pretty good shape. I have to replace the film door seals, but the rest of the camera works fairly well.
