Earlier this year, I wrote an initial first impression review of the Konica C35 Automatic - a great little 35mm rangefinder that’s about as close to a point-and-shoot that you can get. While I’ve been happy with it and have been using it on and off a bit since my post in February, I have to admit another small rangefinder kind of fell into my lap and I’ve been shooting a lot with it instead of the C35. What camera is it, you may ask?

The Canon Canonette QL17 GIII is probably one of the most blogged, vlogged, and written about non-Leica rangefinder out there. Nearly every YouTube photo personality has praised it over the last few years, so much so that prices have certainly risen. The silver models are going for some decent money now, and the more rare all-black versions are even more.

So when the opportunity to pick up a black one that was in near mint condition for a song came knocking on my door, I couldn’t resist.

Below are a few shots of my black QL17, with the accessories that I often shoot with. Note that the flash unit did not come in matching black, but I took a silver one apart, sandblasted the case, and painted it black.

Because there is SO MUCH info out there about the QL17, I won’t go into a full in-depth review. Rather, I’ll just make some observations about what its like to use the camera, what I like about it, and maybe one thing that I don’t like.

First, using the camera is a complete joy. The viewfinder patch is bright, the lightmeter is accurate, and the lens is sharp, even at f/1.7. At first the lack of Aperture Priority mode seemed to be a bit odd to me, but once I got used to using it in its Shutter Priority “Auto” mode, it became fairly easy to use. I pretty much just use the lowest ISO film that I can get away with given the conditions, set the shutter speed to 1/60th, and let the camera pick the f-stop. It works great for run-and-gun style shooting, and I haven’t really felt like I miss Aperture Priority.

The Auto Load feature is very easy to use, and makes me wonder why more cameras of its time didn’t adopt it. For people who have phobias about not loading their film correctly, it does a great job of helping you load the film and then re-assuring you that its winding on and working properly.

It’s a little bigger than the Konica C35, but not as big and heavy as my Canon VT Rangefinder. It’s juuuuuuuust right.

I think my only fault with the camera is the battery drain. If you forget to put the cap back on, the battery gets drained by the meter in a few weeks at most. I shot with it on a trip, came home, and forgot to put the cap on. A few weeks later I went out and was confused why the meter wasn’t working. Surely the battery can’t be dead, right? Wrong. The good thing is that the QL17 can be shot in full manual mode as well, so if you have an external light meter, an app on your phone, or are just good at the Sunny 16 rule then you are good to go.

Below are a few images from various trips that I’ve taken it on, with several different film stocks. Click on the first one to view larger.

They say the best camera is the one that you have with you, and the QL17 is such an easy camera to grab, carry, and shoot with that maybe it is the best.

Thinking about buying a QL17? Have any questions? Please feel free to send me an email and I’d be happy to answer any questions.

As always, thanks for reading!

Jeremy