Canon Canonet 28 repair & common faults
Excellent coverageThe Canonet 28 is a fixed-lens 35mm rangefinder Canon built in the early 1970s as the simplified end of the Canonet range, running shutter-priority auto exposure only rather than the full manual control of its QL siblings. Its CdS meter and coupled leaf shutter decide almost everything about how it fails, since the same mechanism sets both exposure and the aperture blades.
Shutter-priority auto exposure only · leaf shutter with coupled diaphragm blades · CdS metering · mercury-cell powered meter · coupled rangefinder focusing
Common Canon Canonet 28 faults
Canon Canonet 28 meter won't respond
The 28's exposure system runs on a CdS cell feeding a needle-and-diaphragm coupling, and since the camera has no manual override, a dead meter means the aperture never sets itself and the shutter won't release properly either. Worth trying a fresh battery of the correct type first, seated the right way round, but on a camera this age the cell or its contacts are just as often the cause.
Canon Canonet 28 shutter sticking or firing slow
The leaf shutter uses five blades that double as the diaphragm, and decades-old lubricant migrating onto them is the classic reason a Canonet fires sluggish or hangs open, usually worse in cold weather. Firing it a few times on wind won't clear it once the oil has properly set in. It points to the shutter unit itself rather than anything at the front of the lens.
Canon Canonet 28 rangefinder patch faint or hard to see
Focusing goes through a half mirror and mirror pair inside the viewfinder housing, and that silvering degrades with age, leaving the rangefinder patch faint, yellowed or hard to align against the surrounding image. It is an optical fault inside the finder unit rather than anything at the front lens, and cleaning the eyepiece or front glass will not bring it back.
Canon Canonet 28 film advance lever stiff or not advancing
The wind lever drives a small gear train and feeding claw that advance the film and cock the shutter together, and old grease turning gritty in there is the usual reason the lever goes stiff, notchy or stops advancing a full frame. Worth confirming the rewind isn't accidentally left engaged first. Otherwise this points to the winding mechanism itself rather than the film path.
Canon Canonet 28 light leaks on developed film
Canon lined the body, back and lens throat with foam light shields rather than exposed metal joints, and that foam perishes to a sticky crumble after fifty-odd years, letting light fog the edges or whole frames of a roll. It is a consumable rather than a fault with the camera's mechanism, and it shows up no matter how carefully the back is loaded and closed.
Stuck on your Canon Canonet 28?
Describe the fault or drop in a photo. The technician reads the service data, marks up what it sees, and walks you through it. Pay as you go, no subscription.
Try it now ›Scatto is a reference tool for people who service film cameras. It explains mechanisms and quotes service data, but it cannot see your camera at the bench, so verify anything load-bearing before you act on it.