Univex Mercury II or Universal Mercury CX or Universal Mercury II

[elliottong]

I think it would be worth opening up and cleaning the inner surfaces.

I think it would be worth opening up and cleaning the inner surfaces.

Yes thanks Brian, I will....as it seems somebody has opened this up before seeing the charred grooves, any tips about determining whether the glass elements are correctly installed?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I do not have one anymore- sold long ago in the 90s. If the elements are reversed, the center will be sharp and everything else will distort as it gets further from center. Try doing a "camera obscura" type test and project the image onto paper.

I was sent a Rigid Summicron 5cm F2 years ago to work on. Three of the elements were in backwards. Somebody screwed up.

 

[neal3k]

My Mercury II was given to me and it has challenges. It has a sluggish shutter, focus is frozen on 15 feet, there are light leaks and the film advance is hit and miss and tears sprocket holes. But that didn't stop me from testing it with those limitations.

I took three photos before my first 20 exposure roll jammed. At least it gave me a baseline. Ilford FP4+ developed in Cinestill monobath:

Funky Camera Test 1 by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

Much more recently, I decided to try another short roll as I knew the sprockets would tear after a few exposures. I got much better results and this time I used Ilford HP5+ developed in FPPs HC-110. Here are two of the four successful shots:

Broken Mercury Test 4 by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

Broken Mercury Test 2 by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

 

[elliottong]

I do not have one anymore- sold long ago in the 90s. If the elements are reversed, the center will be sharp and everything else will distort as it gets further from center. Try doing a "camera obscura" type test and project the image onto paper.

I was sent a Rigid Summicron 5cm F2 years ago to work on. Three of the elements were in backwards. Somebody screwed up.

Then it doesn’t sound like the problem I am having with the lens….my pictures are blurry all across the whole plane, looks like a very off flange distance things don’t come into focus anywhere. But the lens is screwed all the way into the mount leaving no room or gap…bizarre. I am considering getting a Univex to L39 adapter ring that I saw on eBay that lets me mount a L39 lens to further test

 

[DanielD]

Managed to score this really clean example a week ago! I haven’t shot with it yet as I’m still doing research and learning the camera, but it’s as beautiful as it is bizarre, even next to my two FED 3As! I assume that, since the serial number starts with 9, that I have a “newer” copy? So, likely late 1940s, early 50s?

 

[mconnealy]

Thanks for the reminder to look again at my Mercury IIcx. It has been ten years since I last used it. Now, it seems the perfect answer to today's film prices. I used color almost exclusively with many rolls that went through the camera. I brushed a little lighter fluid on the shutter when I first got the camera and it worked perfectly ever after. The results are in my Mercury Flickr Folder.