Mike's Canonet Fix It Page
Disclaimer
I will not be held responsible for any damage that results
from you looking at or following these notes. If you don't feel comfortable
goofing around with this stuff or the possibility that you could damage
something on your camera, just don't do it.
Foam
I have used 2mm Foamies from Walmart (large department store) to replace
the foam on the backs of these cameras. I use a paper cutter to get
nice straight cuts that fit well.
Rangefinder
By taking off the top you can adjust the rangefinder mechanism. The
top comes off by taking out the three screws, the rewind knob and the wind
crank. The rewind knob comes off, if you turn it counter clockwise
while holding the film spool fork inside the camera. I use a wood
skewer to hold it so it is not marred. The top washer is a nut that
holds the wind crank on. It comes off by turning counter-clockwise. It's
hard to get a purchase on this without marring it. Check my tools sections
for ideas.
There is a recessed screw that you can see when looking down from the
top. I also had to adjust the mirror itself on the camera since that
was also out of whack. Adjust the rangefinder at infinity and it should
be pretty accurate at closer distances. Use a high contrast distant
object to tune it up on. A distant tree line in daytime or
the moon on a clear night works well. Do not touch the mirrors or
yellowish glass - they are easily damaged.
Meter
This can be adjusted by removing the bottom panel. Adjust the
variable resistor to match a known good meter in high brightness conditions.
The meter is more sensitive to adjustment in bright light than low
light. According to my testing, the design is calibrated to use mercury
batteries. Despite reports to the contrary, my bench testing shows
that the circuit is sensitive to voltage of different battery types.
See my SRT page for information on mercury replacement strategies.
I use an MR9 clone with a 357 type battery in my Canonets. Only problem
is that the battery check light doesn't work with this combination.
The reason is that the Shottkey Diode I have used in my MR9 clone can handle
less than 1 milliamp of current without excessive voltage drop. The
test curcuit uses a 20 milliamp lamp which results too much voltage drop
across the diode and the lamp will not light. There is no fix for the
battery test function and the diode battery replacement combination without
basically replacing the existing circuit with an one that uses a diode instead
of a regular lamp.
Winder Cranky/Jams
One camera I bought for $20 at a neighbors yard sale worked fine after
I tweaked the rangefinder and replaced the foam. Then part way through
the second film the wind function got very sticky. Turns out there
were tiny bits of sand that had snuck into the bottom of the camera. I
removed the bottom and used a wooden skewer to pick out the sand, which
fortunately liked to stick to the skewer, better than the camera.
The neighbor I bought the camera from was from a costal location
and no doubt had brought the camera along to the beach a few too many times.
These cameras are not well sealed from the elements.
Shutter/Lens Problems
Problems with the shutter, aperture, or anything in the lens assembly
are difficult, since removing the and disassembling the lens assembly is
difficult, especially without the special tools designed for the job.
For More Info
See my links page in the general repair section.
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