Mercury (3-D printed)
Mercury Camera is an American company[1] started by Zach Horton of Pittsburgh, which offers a number of cameras, or components of cameras, originally made by 3-D printing. The first camera was announced in June 2016,[2] and is intended for medium-format sizes up to 6x9 on roll film. The product is highly modular, comprising a camera body, with a helical focus unit onto which a lens (not supplied by Mercury) can be mounted, and with a range of available back parts. The default back is a Graflok back to accept standard roll-film holders, but there are components available to adapt the body to an Instax Wide filmholder or a digital back. A number of frame- or tubular viewfinders are available, as is a ground-glass focusing screen.
The announcement makes clear that some accessory components would continue to be made by 3-D printing, but that the bodies would be injection-moulded, and a Kickstarter campaign was run to raise the money needed to buy the equipment for this.
There are also camera bodies dedicated to other formats:[3]
- 4x5-inch sheet film, or Polaroid
- 5x7-inch sheet film
- Instax Wide
- Mamiya Universal roll-film back
- MF Digital back[4]
- Digital-back stitching
Ground-glass screens are available for some of these cameras.
Only the most common of these products have an add-to-cart button at Mercury's site. As may be appropriate to an on-demand 3-D printing operation, some require the buyer to email their requirements. Mercury does not offer to supply lenses, and only offers a limited range of film holders.
Notes
- ↑ Mercury is apparently a small company, perhaps comprising one or two people.
- ↑ Introducing the Mercury, a blog post at Mercury Camera.
- ↑ Cameras at Mercury Camera.
- ↑ The digital-back options in particular seems an odd choice; against the usual price of a digital back, the price of a conventionally-made, high-quality camera to serve it is small.
Links
- Zach Horton's Flickr stream, including many photos of or taken with Mercury cameras.
