8mm Forum: Memories of a 'Lemon'; my Braun Integral 5

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Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on May 29, 2008, 12:42 PM:

I am not sure what prompted this little bit of reminiscing, except perhaps yet another story of cheap production overseas vs. the 'good old days.'

At age 15, I became the proud owner of a Bauer C4, my first camera. I loved it and used it well, until the day came when nothing but sound would do (I had had an Eumig sound projector from the start, so I wanted live sound.)

Enter the Braun-Nizo 2056, with boom mic and all. I was now a purist, shooting only at 24fps, thank you very much [Wink]

and the quality of picture and sound was wonderful. But I couldn't leave well enough alone....

I still can't remember what made me want the Integral 5...the 'modern' design? the mic built into the handle? vanity?....

I had seen it advertized as a kind of cutting-edge camera in that the production line was automated in new ways, drastically cutting production costs. Pictures were shown of the integrated chips flowing on conveyor belts, much like computer parts...very space age for the late 70es.
So I got one.

The first test film came back with jumping and double-exposed images. The second test film did the same. Back the camera went, and I got no.2 just in time for a school trip. With no time for testing, I figured I had just had a 'bad one', so no worries.
The second one, after the first 10 secs or so, simply ate the film and stopped. I didn't have money to keep sacrificing K40 one cassette at a time, so no film from that trip.

You might think I should have stopped at this point, but the store said: 'give one more a shot, and if it fails, we'll upgrade you.' Being young and timid, I said yes... [Eek!]

The third one lasted through a trip to Rome, barely. Very intermittently, frames would do the now familiar jump and now there was also occational speed issues...that was enough.

I went back and told them that it was back to one of the 'regular' Nizos for me, in this case, the 3056. Rock solid images and sound.

The point of this ramble is, I guess, the idea of cutting edge approaches being a little too far ahead of practicality, and it's also just a little remembrance og how even a company like Braun-Nizo could make something so poor amidst the amazing cameras they were famous for.

I still run the film from Rome now and again, and the few jittery frames remind me of how I let myself get 'led atray' [Razz]

Best,
Claus.

Posted by Jan Bister (Member # 332) on June 06, 2008, 04:31 PM:

What an interesting story... as I'm fairly certain the Braun Nizo series of cameras was from the 80s when super-8 was destined to die for good (speaking in mainstream consumer terms of course), my guess is that equipment manufacturers were trying to sell their product by adding all the whiz-bang features they knew customers would want but losing track of the basics... i.e. a solid film transport mechanism that works reliably and flawlessly. Wonder how much steel was replaced with plastic in those late days? [Roll Eyes]

I think my very own Bauer Royal 8E makro is a great example for well-engineered cameras from the 70s that stood (and still stand) the test of time. [Smile]

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