ERAC Mercury
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| Erac Mercury MK 1 Camera image by Charlie Kamerman (Image rights) |
see also other cameras called Merlin.
The ERAC Mercury I Supercamera was a pistol-shaped subminiature camera, which also seems to have been known as the ERAC Automatic Pistol Camera, the Coviland Steward ERAC, and the ERAC Merlin. It was made by (or for) the E.R.A.C. Selling Co. Ltd.[1] in England, c.1938, from Bakelite mouldings. It took 18x18mm frames[2].
The body was mainly a hollow pistol grip, with a rectangular body housing a Merlin camera, and a trigger operating both the shutter release and the film advance. The Merlin has a single speed shutter containing a fixed-focus f/16 lens. The design was awarded a patent in August 1931[3]
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| Erac Mercury Camera with Film image by Charlie Kamerman (Image rights) |
Notes
- ↑ McKeown p.266
- ↑ It says 20x20mm frames in various sources, but it seems doubtful, as the Merlin (subminiature) is listed as having 18x18mm frames on 20mm film.
- ↑ Auer, Michel, The Illustrated History of the Camera, from 1939 to the present, Fountain Press, 1975
