Sonikon NikkorNex: A Vintage Nikon Film SLR Fused with a Modern Sony Mirrorless

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Photographer Brendan Taylor is currently working on an ambitious frankencamera project. He’s trying to transfer the innards of a working Sony NEX 5N mirrorless camera into the body of a non-functional Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm manual SLR.

Taylor originally wanted to use a broken Leica M3 as the shell, but decided to attempt the transplant surgery on a Nikon first for practice.

After gutting the Nikon of its internal components, Taylor was happy to find that the NEX’s components fit very nicely within the frame of the Nikkormat. In particular, the LCD screen and back section of the Sony camera sits snugly in the rear door gap of the Nikon.

Taylor’s hope is that the finished camera will be a retro-looking digital camera that offers focus peaking, manual-only focusing, and a SLR prism component that is completely replaced with Sony’s electronic viewfinder.

Here are some photographs showing the state of the surgery so far:

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Taylor is currently documenting his build progress over on Photo.net and in a large gallery of photographs on his Google+ profile.

Camera Mashup – Sonikon NikkorNex – vintage digital conversion [Photo.net via duckrabbit]


Image credits: Photographs by Brendan Taylor

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