Dear LF community,
I am very pleased to announce a camera system that has been two years in the making: The Mercury: the world's first universal camera. It is a fully modular, open system that can accept nearly any lens (view camera lenses, obviously, but also medium format system lenses for those of that persuasion). The back adapter can be swapped to shoot medium format (especially Graflok 23), large format (currently 4x5, but hopefully larger formats as well in the future). Modular front lens spacers, tubes, and helical focusing units allow many different sorts of lenses to be adapted. A modular focus scale and DOF scale system allows any lens to have these features, for handheld shooting (rangefinder or zone focusing). Focus scales are available in both feet and meters. The LF configuration utilizes a Graflok 45 back adapter, so it can accept any compatible 4x5 accessory, including Grafmatics, 6x12 roll film holders, Polaroid backs of all stripes, etc. We're also going to release a Belair Instax Wide Graflok back. I designed this to be the most versatile hand-held large format camera ever made, while still being compact, very light, and inexpensive. This is a camera that can travel with you, and accept most of your large format gear easily. Only a few truly light and portable large format cameras have ever been made, and they have all (to the best of my knowledge) been plagued by "special purpose" status: designed only for a single lens, a certain type of film holder, etc. The Mercury can be extended and adapted to do just about anything. I'm hoping to generate a large user community that will continue to innovate new uses and components for the system, so that it will grow far into the future.
I launched the Kickstarter today. The idea is to raise the capital necessary to create the molds we need for high-quality and high-volume main body parts. Small specialty parts will be 3D printed. This system is only made possible through a combination of the the two manufacturing processes.
This community is particularly important to me, and I welcome any and all thoughts that you may have. Please check out the Kickstarter campaign here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...iversal-camera
www.mercurycamera.com
Please consider backing. Thank you!
Regards,
Zach
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