Canonet 28 and Canolite D flash

Canonet 28 and Canolite D flash

I was rummaging a closest at my parents place and found an old rangefindercamera that my dad had bought when he was young. I found Canonet 28 rangefinder camera which Canon used to produce between 1971-1976. You can find more detailed information about the camera at Camerapedia. Canonet 28 seems not to be the favourite among vintage camera enthusiast but I find it kinda cool. 

The camera was in full working order. All I need to do was to replace the battery so that the automatic light meter would start working and buy a film. I decided to go for a black and white film to get more artistic effect to my photos. It is funny how expensive film is nowadays. A film roll with 36 shots costs 9,40€. You can get quite a big sd-card with that kind of price.

I am quite excited about trying to shoot with a film camera. You really do not know in advance if your shots are any good. I'm thinking about getting a note book where I would write down the values that I've use. I am really excited to see if my pictures turn out good.

I had a bit of a problem getting the flash working and it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. The problem with the Canolite D, at least in  my case, was the battery compartment was a bit too tight and battery cover was a bit broken (hence the piece of white tape on the flash). When I inserted the batteries in I pushed the battery all the way to the bottom and since the compartment squeezed the battery there was no contact to the lid of the battery compartment. So all I needed to do was not to push the batteries all the way to the bottom and use the lid to press the batteries in place. This enables all the connectors to have a proper connection and the flash work. I hope this helps some one with figuring out and fix their Canolite D.

*EDIT*

I was able to fix the battery compartment of my Canolite D flash unit. Here's an illustration of the situation:

Well there's your problem!

So the basic problem was quite simple. The other wall of the battery compartment had jumped out from the small groove that holds it in place. What I did was even more simple. I unscrewed the screws and pulled the components out (extremely gingerly) just a tiny bit. This gave me enough space to slide the plastic wall into place. Now the batteries slide into place without any trouble. Now I just need to figure out a way to fix the broken cover of the battery compartment.