135 Panoramic Back Conversion Kit
Mercury has produced a special modification of the Mamiya RB67 Pro, Pro-S, or Pro-SD medium format back to allow it to accept standard 135 (35mm) film cartridges. Unlike various hacking methods and “adapters” out there, this fully modifies the film gate for the 24×67 frame size, eliminating excess light bleed/ internal reflections. Even more importantly, it provides a stabilized path for the film, allowing the pressure plate to hold the edges (perforations) of the film flat. Unlike all existing adapters, then, the Mercury 135 Pano back will produce a professional image on a flat film plane. The image will be the full, ordinary height of a 135 frame and approximately 7cm wide. A typical 35mm 36 exposure cartridge will yield approximately 14-15 panoramic exposures in this back. This back is particularly valuable for panoramic aficionados, for the medium format use of uncommon films that only exist in 135 format, and for inexpensive shooting and local developing. Note that the back itself cannot rewind an exposed roll of film back into its cartridge. A changing bag or darkroom will be necessary for that. However, the back kit includes a small crank to make rewinding the cartridge very fast and easy in the dark.
We now have a matching ground glass back configuration for your converted back! Available in the webstore:
Instructions for both back conversion and use can be found on the Instructions page.
135 Full Frame
Mercury has produced a special conversion kit for the Mamiya RB67 Pro 645 medium format back to allow it to accept standard 135 (35mm) film cartridges. Unlike various hacking methods and “adapters” that have existed for years, this fully modifies the film gate for a 24×40mm frame size, eliminating excess light bleed/ internal reflections. Even more importantly, it provides a stabilized path for the film, allowing the pressure plate to hold the edges (perforations) of the film flat. The Mercury 135 Full Frame back will produce a professional image on a flat film plane. The image will be the full, ordinary height of a 135 frame and approximately 40mm wide, for a slightly elongated frame (i.e., slightly larger than Full Frame, for a more cinematic aspect ratio and increased resolution). A typical 35mm 36 exposure cartridge will yield approximately 25 extended-frame exposures in this back. This back is particularly useful to shoot rare films that only exist on 135, or to shoot the Mercury with 135 format lenses (i.e., Canon, Nikon, etc.). Note that the back itself cannot rewind an exposed roll of film back into its cartridge. A changing bag or darkroom will be necessary for that. However, the back kit includes a small crank to make rewinding the cartridge very fast and easy in the dark.
Special order item. Contact us.
127/46mm
Mercury has a similar conversion kit to enable the use of 127 film cartridges or 46mm film rolls, as were produced in the past for portrait cameras and can sometimes be found online. We have two versions of this kit: one for 46x46mm square images and one for 46×67 panoramic format.
Special order item. Contact us.
Instructions for both back conversion and use can be found on the Instructions page.