First images with the Mercury "Universal Camera"

Around this time last year I backed a project on Kickstarter for an interesting camera designed to be as "universal" as possible - the Mercury Camera.

This camera was designed with modularity in mind and with the appropriate hardware can shoot anything from 35mm to 4x5 film, as well as digital "medium format" backs.

I was interested in the camera first and foremost as a no-nonsense ultrawide lens camera. I talked to the creator and designer about whether lenses like my Schneider 38mm XL could be used on the camera - both on the 4x5 and medium format configurations (in actuality the 38mm doesn't quite cover 4x5 but is great for 6x12).

I received one of the first test units before general shipping happens (soon) and was able to give it a test spin this past week. I went out to Preacher's Rock again and shot a couple rolls of 6x9 with the 38mm XL.

The camera worked as intended and easily handled the 38mm XL. As basically a simple box it was easy to use and did not have the parallelism issues that have plagued me when using this lens on other cameras.

I am now testing and helping to calibrate the Mercury with a large number of lenses. This camera will be an excellent ultrawide camera to supplement my current cameras.

Here's a few images from that afternoon:

 

And finally here is one color shot, taken on Provia 100F: