Kickstarter: A universal camera, every format in one package?

A universal camera has launched on Kickstarter that claims you’ll be able to shoot in any format, use vintage lenses, film backs and shoot digital all in one modular, portable package.

Mercury, which claims to be the world’s first universal camera, has certainly made a splash on Kickstarter. With 24 days to go it has raised more than $17,000 from 100 backers and it’s well on its way to the $50,000 target.

3D printing has supplied all of the parts so far and helped with the prototyping stages of this hugely complex piece of kit. Cameras require absolute precision at every stage and it’s a testament to additive manufacturing that the company has managed to get this far on such a low budget. For the final production version, Mercury will continue to 3D print some parts and combine it with injection molding.

That’s what the Kickstarter is for, the expensive tooling required for the injection molds. Again it speaks volumes for 3D printing that it can make the whole camera in prototype form on a 3D printer, but needs additional funding when traditional manufacturing methods come into play.

A neat concept, but will it work?

As for the concept itself, it’s really a neat concept if it works properly. Photographers often pine for the old days of film, many have adapters and vintage lenses and some simply want to shoot in medium format. A modern digital medium format camera like a Hasselblad or Phase One costs tens of thousands of dollars, though, and is more suited to studio work.

So this kind of modular camera that can switch between Instax, Polaroid, medium format and digital would certainly appeal. In fact, the Mercury offers a truly unique experience. For people that love that Polaroid look, you can now achieve with a complete selection of lenses and manual controls.

It must be a master of all trades, not just a Jack

The creative possibilities are endless. The crucial point will be how well it achieves its goals. The Mercury will only appeal to keen photographers and professionals that love to shoot film in their spare time. So it will have to do every job exceptionally well and it cannot just be a Jack of all trades.

One thing it absolutely has in its favour is the lightweight finish. The pictured camera comes in Medium Format by default and traditional cameras in this format are generally huge, heavyweight options that really aren’t portable. The Mercury will need an adapter, but you can easily use it with Hasselblad V film or digital backs, Contax or Mamiya backs and more. It will be able to deal with sheet film, rolls or digital, which in that sense makes it a masterpiece.

Even the leaf shutter lenses that have made Hasselblad famous will work with the Mercury that has a totally modular ‘lens stack’ at the front. Vintage lenses change hands for anything from a few pennies to thousands of pounds on eBay and the classics from Zeiss, OM-Zuiko, Takumar, Nikon and Helios have pages and pages of forum tributes.

The chance to combine this great glass with a Hasselblad digital back, or Polaroid film, opens up a whole new world of creative possibilities that will have some keen photographers reaching for their wallet already. That comes despite a rather bizarre Kickstarter video that comes with a plot centred around stolen cameras and second-rate direction in photoshoots.

Watch it and see the Kickstarter offering here.

We’ll wait to pass judgement until keen photographers have put this through its paces, because it sounds almost too good to be true. The company has put a variety of sample shots on the Kickstarter page, but this just isn’t enough for a serious assessment.

We’ll let you know what happens when it comes.