The Canonet 19 G-III QL has characteristics very similar to the Canonet 17 G-III QL. As its name suggests, it has a lens with an aperture of 1.9. While not as good as the 17, this camera has many qualities that make it a good companion for reportage. For a rangefinder, it is compact. Shutter priority favors "quick" photos.

On the back of the camera, to the left of the viewfinder, is the battery tester.

This Canonet features the Quick Loading (QL) film loading system, specific to Canon cameras, found on compacts as well as almost all the brand's SLRs during the early 1970s (Pellix QL, FT QL, FTb QL, EX-EE QL). To reassure users who may doubt this loading system, there is a small window under the winding lever where an alternating pattern of red and white lines scrolls during winding. If the pattern does not move during winding, it means the film has not been loaded correctly and the camera needs to be reopened to properly load the film.

Quick Load is the name of Canon's simplified film loading system, offered during the 1960s and 1970s on many of the brand's models. This system is patented.

Patent No. 1 455 252 for France, granted on September 6, 1966. The original patent, in Japan, dates back to 1964.

The present invention relates to an easy film loading device for cameras of the type in which the film, whose advancement is ensured by a pinion or similar element, is automatically wound onto a spool by the friction provided by a set of friction elements on the spool during the loading of the camera. In traditional cameras, when reloading with a fresh film, the leading edge of the film is either manually placed into a slot in the spool or folded and held by hand in the said slot. Such a manual operation is not only tedious but also yields uncertain results. Additionally, there is a device where the winding shaft for the film in the loading chamber is covered with a rubber or similar friction layer and where a pressure mechanism is provided to press the film against the winding shaft to allow the advancing film to wind around the shaft. However, since the leading edge of the film must advance against the pressure mechanism, this results in a loose section forming at the leading edge of the film and an interruption in the winding. A similar device, where the winding shaft for receiving the film in the loading chamber is provided with a suitable number of projections instead of a rubber friction layer, with these projections complementing the perforations in the film, exhibited the same flaw, namely the absence of the desired, secure, and uninterrupted automatic winding due to the shifting of the perforation area of the film as it winds.

According to the present invention, a cylindrical loading chamber is equipped with a spool having a set of friction elements that rise and fall, designed to assist in film feeding when the film is advanced into the loading chamber by a feeding mechanism. As the film's leading edge moves forward, coils form from the outside and deposit inward along the chamber wall, with the friction elements arranged so that the configuration of the set of elements reduces its outer diameter as the number of winding coils increases.

It is also noted that the device according to the invention is equipped with a film guiding element designed to simplify, speed up, and ensure the safe loading of the camera with a film strip by locking it with the rear plate of the camera body for the opening and closing operation.

During loading, the film perforations are engaged by the pinion teeth and the film is checked in the correct position before fully closing the camera's rear plate. After the rear plate is fully closed, the film can be automatically wound onto the spool during the winding operation. Moreover, according to the invention, in addition to the actual winding operation using the friction elements, there are means to prevent interruptions in film advancement that could be caused by the corner of the film’s leading edge catching in a perforation of the subsequent film.

One of the objectives of this invention is to provide a device for easy loading of a camera with a film, featuring a simplified mechanism, stable operation, and extremely easy handling.

Other objectives of the invention are as follows:
- To provide a device of the aforementioned type that includes a film guiding element allowing, during the loading operation, to maintain the correct position of the film perforations engaged by the projections of complementary shape to the pinion until the rear plate of the camera is fully closed, so that after the complete closure of the device, the film automatically winds onto the spool during the winding operation.
- To provide a device with means capable of ensuring very regular, automatic, and twist-free layer-by-layer winding of the film’s leading edge onto the spool, with the film advancing in the loading chamber via a feeding mechanism such as pinions, and this advancement being the result of friction action by a set of friction elements provided on the spool.
- To provide a device of the aforementioned type that ensures winding of a length allowing more exposures than what is permitted by the "Kodak Instamatic" system and the "Agfa Rapid" system, for cameras of similar dimensions.