G'Mornin' again, Jim!
When I was in my teens (lo, those many years ago) I did a fair amount of
spelunking, too, but never with a camera.
I found it interesting that you should refer people to the Camerapedia for more
on the Mercury II.
I am not a camera collector, I am a shooter. But over the years I have been
given four "oldies", and three of 'em have wound up in the Camerapedia.
An old (and damaged) Birnbaum Perforetta,
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Perforetta
A Debrie Sept:
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Debrie_Sept
and my dad's old 1950 Beauty Six (later sold as the Frank Six) folder, now
acknowledged, both in the Camerapedia and elsewhere, to be one of only two such
cameras surviving in the world. And certainly the only one with it's original
box and ever-ready case intact.
http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Frank_Six
Actually, my dad gave me the Beauty Six in the mid-80's. He told me that he'd
owned 6 cameras, but when I was 12, I had taken them all apart, to see what
made them "tick". The Beauty Six was the only one I'd managed to get back
together, in working order! Thus he felt, at that point, that I should have
it! It may not be my "go to" camera, but it is still my most treasured one.
David
> Hi David,
> When my sons were in their teens, and into exploring caves, I rigged the
> Mercury II with a cheap flash gun (bulbs), and they took it into the
> caves with them.
>
> It still works, though scanning the single-frame negatives is a real
> challenge. :-(
>
> Jim Nichols
> Tullahoma, TN USA
>
> On 7/2/2015 12:52 PM, David Young wrote:
>> Thanks, Jim, for that information! I have an old Mercury 1, and had always
>> wondered why it used the style of shutter that it did. Now, I know!;
>>
>> David.
>>
>>> Some of you might be able to recall, as I do, street photographers who
>>> snapped your photo on city sidewalks and then offered to sell you copies
>>> of the image. Their favorite camera was the Universal Mercury,
>>> introduced in 1938, or the Mercury II, introduced in 1945. A half-frame
>>> camera with a rotary cinema-type shutter, it produced 72 images on a
>>> 36-exposure roll of 35mm film. This was a very rugged camera with a
>>> cast aluminum body and an extremely sharp Tricor 35mm f/2.7 lens,
>>> requiring manual scale focusing with no rangefinder. When properly
>>> focused, the image detail was equivalent to much more expensive cameras
>>> of that era.
>>>
>>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Mercury+II+from+1945.jpg.html
>>>
>>> Comments welcomed, and appreciated.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jim Nichols
>>> Tullahoma, TN USA
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