#Merlin camera

[dancuny]

Merlin Camera

This week's posting is about a relatively uncommon camera with an odd and unusual look made by a tiny company in the UK. The camera is the Merlin, produced by United Optical Instruments in Southend-on-the-Sea, England. 

 I had seen the Merlin camera in books and online when looking at subminiature cameras. Still, it wasn't until my wife. I was on a trip to London a couple of years ago when I came across this odd bird at the Camera’s London stall on Portobello Road on a day that my wife and I were scheduled to go home. 

 Our flight wasn't until later in the afternoon, and I wanted to look for cameras before leaving, so I went there early in the morning to make it back in time to go to the airport. That's where I spotted the Merlin camera and a few other cameras I brought back to the States with me.

 What caught my eye about the Merlin camera is the very odd shape of the camera. It has a wide part of the body, then narrows down, but the lens area flares out again, and the winding knob is on the bottom of the camera. You need to display the camera on the side unless you rest the camera on something due to the winding knob on the bottom of the camera. It just doesn't sit evenly on a flat surface.

The Company:

United Optical Instruments is only known to have made two different cameras, and neither was very popular. One of the cameras they manufactured was the Jupiter camera, a simple plastic camera with an Art Deco faceplate that took 127-size film. The only controls on the camera were two shutter speeds, the winding mechanism, and the shutter release. The other camera they manufactured was the subminiature Merlin camera. 

 I can find little information about United Optical Instruments, which is located in a resort town on the Thames Estuary in Essex, southeast England, about 68 kilometers from London. However, I did find that the company was associated with the Erac Selling Company.

 The Erac Selling Co. manufactured and patented two slightly different, oddly shaped cameras that resembled a pistol made from thermoplastic material. One of the items was the Erac Automatic Pistol Camera, and the other was the Erac Mercury 1. These pistol-shaped cameras housed a Merlin camera without the viewfinder inside the pistol's body. When you pulled the pistol trigger, the camera took the photo. 

 According to the information I found online, the Erac is described and illustrated in a patent issued to Harry Steward of Southend-on-Sea in 1931. The early version uses a different type of film advance, and the Merlin doesn't seem to be in this version.

 Harry Steward and Harry Covill were issued an improved patent in 1937. The second camera's patent described it as a pistol-shaped device. The patent drawings show it to resemble a Merlin camera inside, but there is no mention of Erac.

 Since the Merlin camera is inside the Erac Pistol camera, they patented a camera without the Merlin inside. Still, they found it too difficult to make it work. A few years later, they decided to put the Merlin camera inside the camera without the viewfinder.

The Camera:

As you can see in the photos, the camera is very small. It's only  2" wide, 2" deep, and 2" tall with finder up and 1.5" when it's down, and it only weighs 3.9 oz. The camera is made from cast metal and painted with a crackle finish, as the exterior has a rough surface. I can see areas where it's either chipped off or some flaked off. My Merlin camera is black, but they also have blue, green, and red cameras.

 The Merlin took a special film of only 20mm rolls with a negative size of 18x18mm. It came on paperback rolls similar to the small "hit" style cameras, and to load the camera, the top of the camera, which is attached to the back, slides off, exposing the film chamber. Put in the roll of film, bring it over to the take-up spool, slide the top back on, and advance the roll to the first frame. The winding knob is on the bottom of the camera, as I mentioned earlier.

 Another slight issue is that the top of the body doesn't lock, so if the camera falls, the top can slide off, exposing the film. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't have any original fill spools, only the blank areas where the film goes.

 There is only one shutter speed, and the shutter release is on the bottom of the camera along with the film advance knob. The only item on the top of the camera is the fold-down viewfinder. The lens has no focus as it's a meniscus-style lens.

Conclusion:

Since I didn't have the film for this camera, I couldn't take it out for a walk through the neighborhood to take photos and see how it did. That's OK. I can use other cameras to do that.

 I really like having this small camera in my collection, and now I want to find a Jupiter or Erac camera to add to it.

 Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to read about this wonderful camera made almost 100 years ago by a very small company in England. It has a nice place in my collection and hopefully inspires you to find one for it, too.

 I'd love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, or concerns about this or any of the cameras I've written about.

 Until next week, please be safe.

[eleftherian]

bbc merlin remake but this time merlin and arthur fuck nasty onscreen

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Radiant Garden

[bisclavret]

this gif makes me lose it every time

[dollopole]

Let’s not all forget that the only time Merlin even dares to hit Arthur back, we don’t know what happens next.

But we can guess.

[elizaisdunn]

ignore that i’m a few days late BUT I have a silly tradition where every year on my birthday I draw myself with characters from whatever my current hyperfixation is. so here’s me taking a selfie with merlin and arthur :)

[cinnabon-sweetroll-tiramisu]

Imma kidnap Merlin from Arthur's bed...wait, what is he doing there? He must've been tired from his chores that Arthur keeps piling on him.

Now that I think about it, hmm, he's only wearing a red tunic and nothing else. He probably felt too warm and undressed but, that tunic looks kinda big on him tho.

Could it be—GASP! DID ARTHUR RUIN MERLIN'S CLOTHES?? Oh wow, he better buy Merlin some new breeches.

Blink

Blink

I don't remember Merlin wearing this particular tunic before yet it is familiar 🤔

[eliounora]

so I'm watching the first episode of merlin and these guys, on their first meeting, are out there in broad daylight taunting each other like "do you know how to walk on your knees?" and "what are you going to do to me?" "you have no idea", magic rituals may be banned in camelot but intricate rituals seem to be abiding

[acey-lacey]

Going through all my tiktok saves before they’re taken from me forever and finding out that among my 200 Merlin edits 10 of them are all with the “Just A Man” song from epic

[parrot-parent]

HELP 😭

[tiodolma]

.

.

he just believed he understood her but actually, he didn't.

[thursdaysyme]

arwen spotted at the club and who are they if they don’t pose when a cameras in front of them

[daisylikestowritestuff]

11.04.25

i recently downloaded the Merlin Bird ID app and honestly? I cannot believe it’s free. since moving to rural Ireland, my whole birdwatching world has expanded. growing up in the city, my sightings were pretty limited...feral pigeons, seagulls, starlings, crows, and the occasional pied wagtail. Now? A whole parade of fabulous feathered friends await me just outside my door.

today’s discovery: even though I’ve got a couple of peanut feeders hanging up in.. well, I’ll check the tree name tomorrow (possibly an elm? We’ll see lol)—not all birds are interested in nuts. The regular diners at my feeders include coal tits, great tits, red robins, and blue tits. But thanks to the Merlin app’s magical ability to ID birdsong, I’ve discovered even more winged visitors: warblers, goldcrests, treecreepers, mistle thrushes, wrens, sparrows, blackcaps, and even a bullfinch! Honestly, the list goes on and on.

I borrowed my partner’s camera recently, and I want need to charge it up. would love to catch a few of these beauties on film.

[formorgana]

[nksdrs]

they’re talking about someone something in the castle. i wonder who’s what’s it about… it’s definitely about rodrigo cryonaia’s aesthetics…

[abirddogmoment]

First merlin of the year!