Matthew Johnson

I think you'll be VERY happy with the Braun Nizo Professional. I'm a newbie myself really and bought one of these at the end of last year. It is a beautiful camera. One piece of advice I would give though is make sure you get a good telecine transfer. After I shoot a few test rolls of Super 8 I had them processed and telecined and excitedly got them home to watch on my computer. To be honest I was crestfallen and depressed. The images were washed out with a pink tinge and my initial excitement with the camera started to fade rapidly. It was only after buying a cheap viewer (and Agfa Family) that I saw the real beauty of the film and the Nizo Professional. The colour balance was spot on and beautifully rich with perfect contrast. In fact I was so excited by waht I saw, which was just as I had hoped and imagined I would get from the Nizo. Fantastic!! So this was a real shot in the arm for me, to realise the camera was working as beautifully as I had hoped. So ... please make sure to view your Super 8 film on a decent projector or viewer as well as getting telecine'd. It make pay dividends to look around and test out a few services first. But congratulations on your purchase. I think you have made the perfect choice and will be very happy indeed

Many thanks for your considered replies. I shall copy/paste those and refer to them as I start shooting. I also just found a great little book about Super 8 by a guy called Lenny Lipton. Brilliant book. Seems a very perceptive guy with a very wry sense of humour.

Hi, this is my first post. After reading as much info as I've been able to find on Super 8 and doing some intensive research (not least Michael Lehnert's excellent series of articles in Super 8 Today) I've just purchased a Nizo Professional from Germany. I've also purchased a few rolls of various Kodak film stock (Ektachrome, Plus-X, Tri-X, Vision2) in order to start experimenting. I'd like to make short, atmospheric films set to pieces of music, soundscapes or spoken word poems. I don't intend to use actors or even have many people in them but instead shoot in the countryside and/or city using time lapse and other Super 8 techniques. Trying to be sensible (and wary of the cost of shooting/developing Super 8 as opposed to video) I thought it prudent to seek some advice on this forum before I start shooting. I'm a complete novice so apologies if these questions sound a bit obvious. Which frame rate is it best to shoot at? 18fps or 25fps? I realise the cartridge lasts longer at 18fps but what are the advantages and disadvantages to either speed? And how does this affect the telecine process? In his article about the Nizo Professional Michael said that it can in fact accept speeds up to 400. How will I know if the camera has adopted the correct setting? As the manual I downloaded doesn't seem to give much detail in this regard. And how would it react to film as fast as the Vision2 500T? I intend to edit digitally. Can both reversal and negative film be telecined the same? Or does one or the other have to be somehow treated first? I'm sure I have a lot more questions but that's about it for now. Any advice gratefully received Thanks