Thanks to a sadly not very well-known crowdfunding campaign, university professor Zach Horton has finally secured enough funding to make the Mercury universal camera a reality in just a few months, a new concept that will allow many photography enthusiasts to work with a single body to which any type of lens can be attached.
But its creator isn't just referring to interchangeable lenses when he says Mercury is a universal camera ; any user will have the opportunity, for example, to work in any format, such as Instax, Polaroid, negatives, medium format, digital… from 35mm to 4 x 5″, or to mount any type of lens, regardless of its age. For this last point, there's a complete list on the project's official website.
Mercury, a universal body to work with any format, lens ...
To achieve this, a body has been developed that stands out, above all, for its modularity and the large number of interchangeable components available, including lens adapters and adapters for all types of film formats. To acquire all these components, a complete file will be provided containing everything you need to manufacture them yourself at home using a 3D printer.
On the project's official website, the professor and his two partners state that they are not seeking financial gain from this initiative , but rather to raise enough funds to cover the investment in tools such as the molds needed for the camera parts that must be injection molded, and to cover the production costs of the approximately 200 units that have been sold.