My very neat flea market find.

[captainslack]

Went to the local flea market yesterday and stumbled on a box with three old cameras in it. One of them was this strange looking thing, a Mercury II, that I'd never heard of before. It's by far one of the weirdest looking cams I've ever seen!

It's half frame, scale focus, and has a circular shutter (hence the half-moon "hump" on top). Believe it or not, it actually has detachable lenses!! The company (Univex) made, I think, three other lenses, which are all quite difficult to find, I'm told. There's a depth of field scale on both sides of the hump and an exposure wheel on the back. The never-ready has a cutout for the exposure wheel, too.

As you can tell from the pics, it's in need of some serious restoration. I got the focus ring unstuck, but the shutter isn't working (or there's a trick to cocking it that I haven't discovered yet). I'm already planning on getting a blank sheet of leatherette from Camera Leather to replace what's on the body now. I'll post pics once it's completed. (Probably be six months from now, knowing me.)

Rick Olsen has a wonderful page on this camera and it's predecessor:

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-25.html

 

[je2a3]

Nice find captainslack! I frequent flea markets too in my spare time. This is what I stumbled upon during the summer. A leather retro gadget bag that contained a Kaligor finder with bright lines for 50mm and 90mm, some clamp on A36 filters and hood. Perfect companion pieces for my recently delivered Zorki 1d/I-22. I won't be surprised if there was an RF camera with lenses inside that bag that went on eb*y.

 

[Aardvark Aallen]

this is one that should go onto the camera coffee thread when it is functional. Very cool, very hip. Good luck

 

[Honu-Hugger]

Captain,
That is such a cool camera -- really a great find!!! Good luck with the restoration; we'll be looking for it next to a suitable cup 😉.

 

[OldNick]

I have a functional Universal Camera Corp. Mercury II, Model CX. The rotary shutter was derived from a motion picture camera design. The Tricor 35mm f/2.7 lens on my camera is very sharp. There is a version of this lens in LTM mount for sale at KevinCameras, but it is priced for collectors. See the example of this camera's image detail at the address below.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/Musings/Helicopter10

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Funky looking camera indeed...

 

[Sonnar Brian]

~15 years ago Pop Photo's Jason Schneider did a story on the 10 ugliest camera of all time. Don't feel bad, my original Leicaflex is also one of them.

 

[jaapv]

I wonder, it has two flash shoes. Did it originally have a detacheble rangefinder?

 

[captainslack]

I wonder, it has two flash shoes. Did it originally have a detacheble rangefinder?

That was one of the accessories Univex sold. This was also the first camera to feature a hot shoe flash!

OldNick: Have you had to open yours up? My shutter is jammed, but I'm almost afraid to mess with it. I'm sure next to no one knows how to work on these things.

 

[ZeissFan]

There was a rangefinder made specifically for the Mercury II. The rangefinder could be used horizontally, or it could be rotated 90 degrees.

 

[Skinny McGee]

From what i understand if you go looking for the Mercury... you have to make sure it is the CX because I think the CC does not take standard 35mm Cartidges... I think?

 

[captainslack]

From what i understand if you go looking for the Mercury... you have to make sure it is the CX because I think the CC does not take standard 35mm Cartidges... I think?

Correct. THe CC took a special cartridge made by a company in Belgium. It's all laid out in Rick Olsen's website, which I linked to in the original post.

 

[captainslack]

So, what color leather should I deck this baby out in? Believe it or not, that's black leatherette on it currently. I think the gray looks good, though, so I might get the gray leather from Camera Leather. Or maybe the red wine. Hmmm......

 

[Skinny McGee]

Hey man take that baby out and fire it off! I am really interested in seeing the results and at 72 frames you should have plenty to work with...... What mm is the lens?

i have bid on a couple of them on ebay before just to shoot one...

 

[captainslack]

Hey man take that baby out and fire it off! I am really interested in seeing the results and at 72 frames you should have plenty to work with...... What mm is the lens?

i have bid on a couple of them on ebay before just to shoot one...

I would if the shutter was working. 🙁

 

[captainslack]

After I removed the lens, I removed the three screws that hold the focusing ring in place. With those out, the plate just comes off. Used some Ronsonol to remove the old gunk and replaced it with new lube. Simple! 😀

Unfortunately, I never got the camera working. I think someone before me cannabalized it for parts. Seems something in the shutter is missing. 🙁 Oh, well. It makes a nice decoration in the living room.