Convergence

Zach Horton

Category: Making (page 1 of 3)

Domes 2022 Update: Infrastructure

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this site (which I blame on the coronavirus blues), but it’s time to kick off a series of updates! I started this site years ago and named it Convergence because I intended it to be an unholy attempt to mix together different strands of my work and life that I wanted to bring together, experimentally, in the hopes that new connections, directions, insights, and dreams might emerge at the intersections. In 2022 I feel particularly invigorated to further explore this project. Plus, I know that many of you are interested in updates! So here goes…

The Domes project has been most consistently presented on this site because it represents, for me, a deep convergence of a number of my loves, including ecology, scale, family, form, dwelling, energy, systems thinking, and creativity. Let’s start out, then, with a short video of drone footage taken in January by Jon Watts. This is a candid snapshot of progress on the site that I’ll describe below:

In the past couple of years the Domes project has entered an exciting final phase. We completed the interior in 2020 and I began to focus on getting all of its interconnected systems up and running, as well as applying all I’ve learned in the previous five years to re-design some of its infrastructure. This lead to the design of a third structure, an above-ground utility hub and garage. We decided to locate this behind the domes proper, where we could dig up and re-configure our primary electrical and hydronic runs to better integrate the various components of the project’s infrastructure. I wanted to eliminate lingering underground water pressure issues that caused water to find its way into the domes (which are, after all, under ground) during heavy rains. These were issues that no one predicted before the build, and it is in fact counter-intuitive that sealed conduits would become flowing water pipes during heavy rains. But that’s exactly what happened (and in fact always happens in all conduits). Above-ground buildings are rarely affected by this because there isn’t enough water pressure in the underground conduits to push water high enough to empty into the structures. Plus, urban infrastructure has shorter runs and thus less of an opportunity to build up hydrostatic pressure. In the domes, however, long underground conduits and high hydrostatic pressure after rains easily push water up through conduits.

The opportunity to build a utility hub as a separate building allowed me to de-couple the domes from these long utility runs, eliminating the problem and creating an access point for new utility tie-ins, such as firefighting equipment, rainwater cachement, and off-grid battery banks. When digging new utility trenches, I also installed a deep “sump well” in the hillside that allows us to actually see far underground (visually or via sensors) to gather data about conditions underground. Here our friend Neal is helping me install the well:

The new building has a radiant floor that will be connected to a “heat dump” loop of our primary solar thermal heating system. This will transform its foundation into a massive heat sink to automatically handle excess thermal energy generated by the system. It can also be used, however, to provide on-demand thermal energy to the new building if/when desired. The electronic and hydronic interconnections between the domes, this new hub, and our outdoor utilities kiosk are extensive, and go far beyond the usual connections between detached buildings. This is because I’ve designed the entire site to be a single cybernetic system embedded in its natural surroundings rather than the autonomous islands that standard buildings are designed to be. Rather than the standard model of delivering utilities to autonomous buildings, here information, water, heat, and power are all shared in a multi-directional network.

I designed the foundation of the new utility hub with the necessary infrastructure, including underground plumbing and a large hexagonal pad, for a 5,000 gallon water tank. The roof is designed to collect rainwater and store it in the tank, then draw on that water for firefighting and emergency water needs. This new addition to our hydronic system is also designed to accept the input of other sources of water, such as a potential second well, in the future.

Beyond its main functionality as a utility hub, the new building will also serve as a garage so that we’ll be able to permanently house a vehicle on-site. And finally we’ll have a place to store our ladders! When the center of your ceiling is 15 feet high, changing lightbulbs can be quite a challenge! The building will also serve as a mini workshop to help keep the domes themselves less cluttered.

We considered a number of different building materials, and ultimately decided on steel as the most viable choice. We immediately ruled out wood as entirely inappropriate for the land’s fire ecology. Cinderblock or other masonry was both expensive and too monolithic, aesthetically, for our purposes. Metal is fireproof and economical; we hope we will be happy with the choice!

The pandemic has caused massive global shortages of steel, and the fabrication of our building has been delayed. However, we decided to move ahead with our foundation and are incredibly happy with how it turned out! And now all of our underground water problems have been fixed!

After we switched on our initial solar thermal system in late 2020 we were amazed: whenever there was sun it generated nearly unlimited thermal energy and used only only 60 watts (the amount of an old incandescent light bulb) of electricity to power a small pump. Compare this to the enormous amount of electricity it takes to heat up water (which is our backup system for long period of no sun). Even though we harness a great deal of electricity from the sun via the solar PV array I built in 2017, our solar thermal array feels far more magical. We decided pretty quickly to upgrade it with a second array of thermal collectors. My sister, Jess, and mom, Ann, and our friend Yves dug the forms for the new array on top of the second dome last year, and we poured them with the foundation. I then assembled the array with our friend Michael. Unfortunately, a sensor failure prevented me from bringing the full solar thermal system back online. When I next visit the site and have time, I’ll get it all running again, and our solar thermal capacity should be double. That’s a big deal, as this thermal system supplies heat to the domes (via radiant flooring), generates all of our hot water, and will, as I mentioned, be able to pipe excess heat to the new building.

We’ve also worked quite a bit on the interior of the domes, doing finish electrical, furnishing, and begun staying there. Those details will be covered in a future post!

We’ve also begun to turn our attention to landscaping. Two years ago we began to put temporary cages around new oak tree sprouts to protect them from grazing deer. Many have survived, but growing into a large tree is a long process! Meanwhile, Jess has been collecting stones from the land and has been experimenting with some masonry to help transition the front of the domes smoothly into the natural grasses of the land (which we hope to mow/cut far less in the future). She has also worked laboriously to create a paving stone pathway from the front patio to the kiosk and new garage in the back:

Next steps include further landscaping, connecting the many sensors and actuators in the domes together into the master “brain” that will allow the buildings to sense and respond to their environment, and of course, building the utility garage. As always, we welcome anyone who wants to join us on the land, especially this coming summer!

Summer 2017 Dome Building Plan

It’s that time of year again: time to get outside and build something!  And that something is, for my sister Jess and I, The Domes.  Yes, the same as last year.  This June, new friends and old are invited to join us in our little utopian project to construct a dwelling and community that preserves our core values for and in an increasingly dark future.  Energy self-sufficiency, space for creative thought and practice, communal work and gathering, re-integration with larger ecosystems, thinking and building for larger timescales… the project continues!  Join us during the month of June to help waterproof the domes and cover them with earth.  We’ll also be working on the electrical system, installing an array of solar panels, and stuccoing the front wall.  It will be exciting to finish the exterior!

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For more information about the Domes, see our updated project page.

Closure: Shotcreting the Domes

In the past three weeks our domes underwent a transformation from wire cage to metallic spaceship made of foam to one thick, continuous concrete wall. 115merge-1280x427_1 115merge-1280x427 The process was complex, the heat soared into the 100s, some work days lasted from daybreak until we stumbled back to the main house in the dark, and mistakes were made with serious consequences. Yet, for me, this was the most fun and rewarding stage of the project- especially the crazy three days when an extraordinary team taught us how to shotcrete (a special concrete blend that is shot from a giant nozzle; also a verb!).  Our last and longest visitor of the summer, Dan Steinhilber, brought the energy, hilarity, and high spirits we needed to push through the last steps of this first season of dome-building- we couldn’t have done it without him. Like all initiates, Dan cut his teeth on the neverending rebar- this time for the difficult passageway between the domes. 70 (1280x853) The next challenge was to convince rectangular sheets of foam to become dome-like. The foam creates a surface for the shotcrete, and will eventually be peeled off to leave only a concrete shell (then it will be repurposed as an insulating layer before we backfill around the entire structure with dirt). We developed techniques to measure, cut, and fit two overlapping layers of foam to every square (round?) inch of the structure.  The edges had to fit into the I-beams. It was hard to believe, at this initial stage, that our jagged cuts would ever form the slopes we desired. 60 (1280x853) The outer foam layer was covered in mylar to keep the shotcrete from sticking. This created a temporary spectacle that must have freaked out our nature-loving neighbors. Danny Pardini, our electrician who lives a mile up the road, was certain we would get a call from NAASA. We at least impressed our regular site visitors: a woodpecker, a chipmunk,  a wild turkey hen, and a sweet pair of geriatric pups. 72 (1280x853) 61edit (1280x853) 62 (1280x853) Our initial efforts at foaming left plenty of gaps. By the time we reached the second dome, these were negligible or had disappeared entirely. 76edit (1280x853) 67 (1280x853) The foam gave us a first imperfect glimpse of how our finished walls might someday look. 75edit (1280x853) 96edit After the foam panels were placed we used wood lath and wire to form the curves and tie it into the rebar grid. The hallway between the domes was especially difficult because the curves were tighter and there were many different planes meeting. IMG_0091 (1280x853) 115edit 80 (1280x853) 86edit (853x1280) We placed small squares of 1″ foam between the sheets and the rebar to create space for the shotcrete to fill. As we worked long past happy hour stabbing toothpicks to hold each one in place, we longingly nicknamed the indigestible- or more likely, toxic- chunks “cheese.” “Pass the cheese,” “its wire and cheese hour,” “you’re a cheese whiz,” and countless other stupid phrases ensued. 79edit Metal tape partially sealed the seams (but nothing wanted to stick to mylar in the hot sun and dust). My perfectionism was constantly jeopardized; I would learn in time that Dan was right to say “we are going for the gesture.” Still, at dawn on shotcrete day, the domes looked amazing. 98 (1280x853) 110edit While Dan and I were busy foaming, Zach was solving hundreds of other problems, from putting in a large portion of our electrical system, to sawing off front wall brace boards with buried screw heads, to plumbing waterlines and setting in drain pipes. While our electrician (Danny Pardini) and plumber (Tom Davis) have provided valuable advice and labor on our project, we are determined to learn and complete as much of the building process as possible- missteps included. Zach’s electrical wire sculpture: 93edit (853x1280) Still life with mistakes: still_life_with_mistakes Our tiny crew of three struggled to keep up with the flow of work especially these past weeks. We hugely appreciate that our parents have jumped in to spot ladders, wield an occasional crowbar, and generously provide delicious meals and a well-stocked tool shed- not to mention the stunning land on which we build and a share of the capital to make this project move. Here is our dad, Robert, helping out: 92edit (828x1280)   91 (1280x853) And my amazing mom, Ann: 89edit (1280x853) 97 (1280x853) 94edit (1280x853) Finally, SHOTCRETE arrived, in the expert hands of Oscar Duckworth the nozzleman. We had a very difficult time finding the right person to take on our project; the construction industry is completely saturated in California this summer and many places were only willing to take on our rural, highly unusual project for a large profit- if they could fit us into their schedule at all. (A big thanks to Phil at Delta Gunite for matching us with Oscar!) Chemist, educator, concrete sharp shooter, and blueberry farmer, Oscar is the kind of dynamic person we love to encounter on this project: someone who labors because he loves the process, wants to take on crazy challenges, and cares about the relationships he forms. He also understood our desire to be intensely involved and put us to work- hard. The finishing guys he brought on board, Dominic and Elliot Petrella with Ken Zari, were also passionate about shaping mud. This commitment to the craft especially mattered when the shit hit the fan- or more precisely, when the fan fixture crashed to the floor along with a good portion of the ceiling. We’ll get to that. A subluxation is a dysfunction in a joint or motion segment wherein the alignment, range of motion and physiological function are altered even though the connection between joint surfaces remains intact. lowest price viagra http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/fox/ The physicians buy cipla cialis suggest ED patients some safety guidelines to get the most affordable service provider in the market. Any man who is facing erectile dysfunction might fail to lowest cost cialis face proper erections whenever he is making love and a condition wherein he fails to make proper erections. But if your buy cialis online more feelings of anxiety are absolutely harmless. 114 (1280x853) Shotcrete has to be built up slowly in layers due to the weight of the material. Our final walls are four inches thick at the top, eight at the base. 99 (1280x853) In addition to the domes, we shot three fourteen-inch thick retaining walls to be flush with the front walls, all of which will later receive a stucco finish. The retaining wall forms were built and placed by the crew at Ron’s Quality Construction, with Damien Jones at the helm. 102edit (1280x853) 124edit (1280x853) 127 (1280x853) 120edit   126 (1280x853) The force of the concrete shooting from the hose is incredible. We watched Oscar bend his whole body into the task of controlling it- and then suddenly he thrust it into my hands and shouted over the roar of machinery, “its just like frosting a cake!” Zach and Dan each took a turn, too. 130edit (1280x853) 131edit (1280x853) 133edit As the layers rose, Oscar climbed aboard the 85-foot boom we rented, with Zach driving and running an air hose to blow loose rocks from the concrete mix. Dominic followed to smooth the surface with a trowel. 134edit (1280x853) IMG_0197 (1280x853) 152 (1280x853) Things were going really well on the second and supposedly final day. Dome 2 was encased in solid concrete. Oscar prevented cracking from the 106 degree heat by ordering chemical and fiber additives to slow the curing of the mixture. The last truck of the day, filled with 8 yards, had just pulled in. Oscar and Zach were up placing a layer of shotcrete on the very last uncovered section of Dome 1, when something went terribly wrong. I happened to capture the moment on camera, though I didn’t realize it until Oscar turned toward those of us watching from the ground and made a sharp cut in the air with his hand. 137edit (1280x853) As I ran to the front of the domes, I saw our boxes of tools and hardware covered in a thick layer of shotcrete rubble. The tube of my dad’s faithful shopvac was just peeking out from the pile (this photo was taken after the cleanup began). Then I saw the gaping hole in the roof. It was actually sort of beautiful, and we each spent a second wondering if we should have put in a stained glass window (nope, it would be buried in earth). Most likely a single wire tie broke, and because we did not reinforce the area adequately, the whole section failed. 139 (1280x853) 138edit We had to turn the concrete truck back to the plant and begin reckoning. Oscar and his crew stuck by us, cancelling personal and professional plans to stay on the extra day and help us get it right. Dominic busted ragged chunks of material off the rebar grid. It took us until dark to cut, fit, and massively reinforce new foam. Somehow, Dan had the energy to grill sweet corn and brats for the concrete-covered crew when we finally limped to the main house. It was an expensive and exhausting mishap, but far less so due to the uplifting attitude and ethics of our friends. 140edit 141edit (1280x853) We were ready for the concrete truck by 6 am on Day 3. It was a beautiful morning. The crew was unfazed. The only hole remaining was Dan, who was missed by all as he caught his flight home to DC. By the time he boarded at 11 am, the domes were covered and smooth. All that remained was cleanup and regular watering down of the slow-curing concrete.  Although some steps remain before Zach and I can return to teaching on the east coast – putting in the windows, adding some weatherproofing layers, and massive site cleanup- the shotcrete gave us a sense of closure for this first season of dome-building. 144 (1280x853) 149 (1280x853) 147 (1280x853) 154edit (1280x853) 150 (1280x853)              

Raising the Bones: A Dome Building Update

R31edit (1280x853)

Building these domes- like building anything- involves constant coordination and creative problem solving. Every material (and human laborer) has unique properties that bend, fit, or revolt before our efforts. For example, how do we raise 18 200-lb curved steel beams that kick like stubborn mules to the 17-foot apex of the domes and bolt them in to form the basic support for our structure?  (The answer: Zach learned to drive an articulated boom, we invented a pulley system using an ancient rope from my dad’s shed, and four sets of muscles guided each into place.)  When physics,  respect, and careful oversight converge, our project slowly grows skyward. At this stage, we have built front walls out of insulated concrete forms (“ICF block”), filled them with a concrete core, created a massive rebar mesh surrounding the steel beams that has become the skeleton of our domes, and begun to lay electrical circuits.

Each friend-visitor to our site has shaped this process in distinct ways. Bryan, a traveling nurse and filmmaker, transformed ladders into stilts and danced at the top of our domes. Dan, an artist based in Washington, D.C. who is accustomed to working with diverse materials (he once made a giant Cheeto out of insulating expansion foam), is a rebar whisperer- everything he touches seems to move into place. Jenevive brought an art historian’s visualization skills to the construction site, Jeremy the sure hands of a surgeon, Alex a model of quiet persistence, etc.  The extraordinary progress you see below was not possible without the sweat and generosity of our friends and family.

Raising the beams:

R3 (1024x683)The beam team; Zach on boom

R38editLaying in the first pieces of horizontal rebar after locking in the beams

Rebar, endless rebar, every intersection tied twice:

R7 (853x1280)Zach placing the first layer of rebar

R6 (1024x683)Bryan testing the curvature

R9 (1280x853)Jenevive

R40editIMG_9778Jenevive and Jess, filthy and satisfied

R10 (1280x853)The mesh grows with the help of Jeremy and Gabe.

R39editMegan’s hat, caught in a rebar shadow web

R12 (1280x853)Zach cutting rebar

R11 (1280x853)Jeremy holding rebar for Zach to cut

R21 (1280x853)Alex tying rebar at the apex of the monkey gym

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R4edit (1024x694)Job boss!

Building the front walls out of insulated concrete forms (“ICF block”):

R20edit (1280x853)Jess and Zach, pausing to admire the view through the picture window frames in Dome 1

R25 (1280x853)The wall for the bedroom and office, Dome 2

R23 (1280x853)

R33edit (1280x853)Each individual ICF block has plastic webbing inside 2″ foam sides, which holds rebar and eventually, a 6″ concrete core.

R37edit (1280x853)The blocks have rows of interlocking teeth- picture a front wall made of enormous foam Legos.

R24 (1280x853) (2)The wall grows

R34 (1280x853)We inserted vent tubes into big circular holes in the wall, along with electrical penetrations.

R2 (1024x683)

R32edit (1280x853)The final challenge was cutting the curves into the top of the foam to create the contour of our dome front walls. Zach did this with a reciprocating saw while I held onto his belt loops! Then tons of bracing to make sure the walls don’t shift or bulge during the concrete pour, and disgusting yellow insulating foam to fill in all the cracks.

Pouring concrete into the front wall:

R29edit (1280x853)The pump reaching over the domes and shooting concrete into the front wall:

R27edit (853x1280)Damien of Ron’s Quality Construction guiding a huge tube of concrete into the top of the front wall.

R36 (1280x853)Dan, who arrived from Vienna via D.C. the night before pour day, got up at 5:30 am to help us out. And he was EXCITED about it!

R28edit (1280x853)Dan agitating the poured concrete to prevent air pockets by pounding a 2×4 on the side of the wall

R30edit (1280x853)The now-concrete walls.

IMG_9760Evening wanderings with Jenevive and Bryan

Introducing the Mercury: An Infinitely Extensible, Open Camera System

 

machining the Mercury prototype

Machining the original Mercury prototype

After over two years of development, I’m very excited to announce the debut of the Mercury, a fully modular, open, universal camera system. For years I’ve been tinkering with cameras, machining custom parts, modifying existing designs, and generally experimenting with the technical possibilities of still photography. Eventually, a “maker quest” took shape, for purely personal reasons: the fabrication of the perfect camera. For me, at the time, that meant a relatively small, compact, hand-holdable camera capable of shooting a full 6x9cm frame on 120 film. That’s standard medium format film, which has a fixed height of 60mm but no fixed width: it is up to the camera and lens system to determine how much width to use for each frame. Most common today is 645, which uses only 45mm of film width, utilizing it as the vertical dimension of the frame. Older but stouter cameras, such as the venerable Hasselblad, Pentacon 6 (about which I’ve written extensively here) utilize a square 6×6 (cm) frame. Some professional cameras from the end of the 20th century shoot even larger frames, 6×7, but are themselves so enormous and heavy that they are often referred to as “boat anchors” by photographers. I wanted to do 6×9, a format popularized by Kodak in the 1920s (for which they invented 120 roll film). 6×9 “folders” were popular through the 1940s as amateur cameras, before being replaced by the new flood of 35mm film cameras once film stock became “good enough” to shoot on such a small negative. Folders were very limited, with only one lens and an often awkward mechanism by which they would fold out and lock together into their final form when you wanted to shoot—a delicate state not conducive to protection or focus accuracy. I love these cameras, but they would not satisfy me: I wanted my camera to be able to take nearly any lens, and to be rugged.

The Mercury, in medium format film mode.

The Mercury, in medium format film mode.

Professional cameras that could shoot 6×9 were made by Graflex in the USA, Linhof in Germany, and Horseman in Japan, but their heyday was in the 1960s, and they mostly faded away after that. And most of these cameras were fairly large and heavy, invariably made of metal, and contained a lot of options and controls that, for me, added too much bulk. Plus, most of these cameras were too thick to take ultra wide, non-retrofocal lenses. These special lenses, for the ultimate in wide angle photography, require an extremely thin camera; they are made for so-called “technical cameras” that generally cost multiple thousands of dollars. So I set out to make my own. I machined various parts from various cameras, but to make everything fit together, I ended up having to 3D print a number of components. When I was done, I ended up with an awesome prototype, and a revelation: I could create a version of this camera entirely from plastic components and it would be far more flexible, extensible, and lighter, as well as sharable by a community of users. So I set out to make a fully modular, open camera system based upon standard components that anyone could modify, replace, and upgrade for new functionality.

medium format rear right

The Mercury, in medium format film mode, sporting a classic Horseman 6×9 roll film back.

Slowly, a system began to come together that was, I hoped, truly revolutionary. On one hand it was a camera that could do anything, theoretically: any module could be modified or replaced to allow compatibility with some past or future part that already existed (19th century lenses, 21st century digital backs, new and old instant film formats, Hasselblad film backs, etc.). This was truly a rhizomatic camera: it could connect anything to anything else. But it was, I felt, more than that: it was also a form of hardware development that was fundamentally anti-corporate. It was meant to follow an open source software model of open community development coupled with new distributed manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and low-volume injection molding with innovative materials, and the collective potential of crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc.) and social media. This would be hardware development for the 21st century: distributed but centrally organized, driven by the very dynamics that make a community vibrant, without profit motive or exclusionary intellectual property (the double helix of contemporary capitalism). In short, the Mercury was a unique photographic tool, a platform for hardware development and creative experimentation, and a socially driven, user-innovator system with hardware, software, and social components inextricably linked.

The Mercury, in medium format film mode, sporting a Mercury modified Instax Mini back.

The Mercury, in medium format film mode, sporting a Mercury modified Instax Mini back.


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Along the way, I started working with Andrew Duerner, a robotics engineer in Goleta who is a true master of 3D design, printing, and assembly. He developed our breakthrough focusing helical unit, which takes nearly any lens and allows the user to focus it if, like view camera lenses originally made for bellows cameras, it lacks a built-in helical. For lenses that have a build in helical but lack an internal shutter (such as many medium format “system” lenses by Mamiya, Pentax, etc.), we have adapter kits that adapt the lens to a standard large format shutter (either the Ilex 4 or Copal 3), and then adapt that shutter to the camera, at the correct flange distance for that format.

The other members of the team include my dear friends Joe Babine (a veteran machist and master craftsman) and Alexandra Magearu, who has extensively tested, evaluated, and re-designed the camera’s ergonomics and aesthetics.

The Mercury, in Large Format (4x5 inch sheet film) mode.

The Mercury, in Large Format (4×5 inch sheet film) mode.

As I write this, we have one week left in our Kickstarter campaign. I do not yet know if the campaign will result in the project being funded or not. If it isn’t, we’ll reach out to users in other ways. If it is, we’ll be able to afford the tooling to create injection molds for the most common parts, which will bring the cost and manufacturing time down to the necessary level to make this system available to users on a significant scale, as well as optimizing the system itself so that each part is made in with the best method, imparting the optimal characteristics (surface finish, flatness, and strength for molded parts, flexibility and customizability for 3D printed parts).

Already, the Kickstarter campaign has been incredibly rewarding. I’ve received messages from photographers all over the world, with all sorts of wild use scenarios: adapting nineteenth century lenses for medium or large format, using their favorite lenses to shoot Instax, coupling non-Hasselblad lenses with Hasselblad backs, shooting high-end digital, etc. It has been incredibly rewarding to hear about all of the things folks want to (and will) do with the Mercury: this is what has made it truly open and universal.

The Kickstarter campaign can be viewed here. Your support is greatly appreciated!

A photograph taken with the Mercury on large format sheet film: Kodak Portra 400, with a vintage Kodak Ektar 127mm f/4.7 lens.

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