Nizo epezial 136

[Louis]

I just bought a Nizo "epezial 136"(i think is what it says) on eBay, and I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts about this specific camera? I've heard good things about the Nizo brand in general, but does anyone know anything about this particular model? Any information at all would be helpful.

[Alessandro Machi]

I have the Nizo 156XL, perhaps the bigger brother or sister to the camera you just won, so I'll compare and contrast both Super-8 cameras.

 

The on off switch is the button with the orange dot and the zero. Slide the switch to the orange dot position and the camera is on, slide the switch to the zero positon and the camera is off.

 

7mm-8mm tends to be standard widest angle defaults for many Super-8 camera lenses, (although 10mm wide can be found on the lesser zoom cameras). The 56 in 156 stands for the maximum telephoto the lens will achieve, the 156 has a 7-56mm and an 8-1 zoom lens. Your camera is a 136, so that probably means it's a 9-36, aka a 4-1 zoom lens, although it's possible it's a 7-36, which would be a five to one zoom. However, if it were a 7mm on the wide side, then it probably would have only gone to 35mm on the telephoto side, aka a 5-1 zoom and therefore been called a 135. The fact that they call it a 136 leads me to think it's a 9-36 and a 4-1 zoom. The camera has a Schneider lens. Most basic Super-8 cameras generally focus down to five feet, the 156 Nizo focuses down to an impressive 3 feet 6 inches (perhaps even a tad closer than that). Focusing capablitities of under five feet are usually reserved for Super-8 cameras of higher regard. Just as impressive is the extensive focus distance markings found on the lens. The lens barrel goes almost completely around and because of this there are 14 printed focus distances!

 

Your 136 has filming speeds of 1, 18 & 24, the 156 has filming speeds of 1, 9, 18, 24, & 36.

 

Both cameras have intervalometers. The 156 has notched intervalometer settings, your 136 appears to have the same intervalometer dial, but with no notched settings. The 156's fastest intervalometer setting is a way cool 6-7 Frames per second. The 156's fastest intervalometer setting seems to sound slightly faster than my Eumigs or other Nizo's that I have tried in the past.

 

I may crown the 156 (and persumeably the 136) the fastest Super-8 intervalometers I have ever heard.

 

The 156, besides this super fast intervalometer speed (which I assume your camera will have as well), also has a notched intervalometer setting of 0.8 seconds and another one set to 4 seconds. The intervalometer dial also has written on it "timer", which is the single frame position where you can choose your own interval by either depressing the trigger or via a remote control cable. The remote control cable appears to be designed for the metal remotes versus the electronic ones.

 

The exposure control knob has three notches, "control", autom. and manual. Suffice it to say that the "control" setting on my camera doesn't do much other than quickly change the f-stop several stops. It appears to quickly fade in or out the aperture, I wonder why????

 

The automatic exposure works as it should on the 156, and another button on the camera labeled "+1" works in conjuction with the automatic setting as backlight compensation, it opens up the f-stop somewhere between 1-2 stops when in the automatic exposure mode.

 

The manual exposure knob works great on the 156, and gives full control over the aperture. However the numbers are so big in the viewfinder that every other f-stop number does not have its number "printed" in the viewfinder, instead it is represented by a straight line. The f-stop sequence goes like this...

 

22 -- 11 -- 5.6 -- 2.8 -- 1.8.

 

the 156 and the 136 are very small cameras and when the handle is folded up it makes the overall height of the camera barely taller than the film cartridge itself! The Fold up handle also allows for a more "stable" ride on the tripod as well since it allows the entire base of the camera to be flush with the tripod head rather than just the camera handle.

 

There is also a viewfinder focus dial which is nicely made so that different camera operators can set the focus to their eyesight, and there is the standard footage counter in both meters and feet.

 

The handlegrip houses the battery compartment and requires four double AA batteries. The handlegrip is unique in that unlike other Nizo's I have come across, the bottom of the handle has a round tripod mount that one unscrews to get to the battery compartment. When the handle is flipped up there are TWO thread sizes to attach to a tripod, WAY COOL! It looks like the two standard default thread sizes that are used by most cameras ever made. That is way cool. Looks like the camera will go right onto a Sachtler adapter plate, but with the advantage of being able to use two screws to keep it firmly in place.

 

If you flip the handle all the way up, it inconveniently covers the eyepiece??? OOOOPS!!! However you don't have to flip the handle all the way up. Perhaps this is a design oversight caused by the camera appearing to have an overall lower profile than the other, taller Nizo's. Perhaps they used the same size handle and then realized that because of the lower overall profile it now covered the eyepiece. But as I stated, you don't have to keep the handle all the way up unless you use a super big tripod plate that forces the handle to the completely up position. Still, this must have been one of those "WHAT WERE WE THINKING" moments.

 

The other side of the camera has the standard 85 filter switch and what appears to be a flash connector for possibly syncing with a remote flash? Perhaps this would be used if one were doing indoor time-lapse of plants growing and wanted more light at the moment the picture was taken.

 

However with the slowest interval speed of only 4 seconds, not quite sure how handy that would actually be for time-lapse of growing vegetation. But for single frame animation such as claymation that could prove to be very handy so that lights wouldn't have to be kept on all the time thereby warming up the room and running up the electricity bill.

 

I would rate the 156 and the 136 Nizos as having most of the basic functions a "student of film" would want, and in a very compact package. (the 156 having just a tad more options when it comes to lens zoom ratio and filming speed options including 9FPS and 36 FPS).

 

The Nizo 136 is a good choice, I hope it works well when you get it.

 

By the way, my camera sounds like it could use some lubrication and there are speed surges when I change the filming speed dial.

[Louis]

Alessandro-

That is WAY more information than I was ever expcting. Thank you very, very much.

[Louis]

Alessandro-

If you're still out there, I was wondering if you could answer this question, or if not, refer me to someone who can: I just got my 136 the other day, and the motor runs fine after I put batteries in it, and everything else seems to be working just fine as well, except the exposure settings. The guy I bought it from said the automatic exposure is not working, which I'm ok with, because I plan on using manual exposure all the time anyway, but for some reason the dial that I see when I look through the viewfinder does not move when I change the exposure dial, it's just stuck on 1.8. Do you know of anyway to fix this, or do you know of any places I can take it to have it looked at? Thanks.

[Alessandro Machi]

I just checked my camera to see how the manual exposure works. It looks like when I moved the autoexposure dial from the automatic position to the manual position that the f-stop wheel inside shifted, almost as if the dial had "grabbed" it, thus allowing me to control the f-stop wheel.

 

I'm 99% sure that the battery handle also powers the exposure meter. I'll assume the camera was actually on when you tried to use the manual exposure setting.

 

If you want to you can check out my camera since I'm in LA as well.