Nemrod Siluro

Em português 

I have some diving and underwater photography experience, but I had never seen or heard about this camera, until I saw one on OZBOX photostream, at Flickr.

I googled it, just to try to know more about it, and found this nice example on a local auction site, contacted the seller, went to see him and the camera.
It was a nice young man from Vila Nova de Cerveira. His father at some instance bought this camera but had no idea of what it was, the son insisted that it was a diving camera, he didn't believe it due to the flash unit, he thought it wouldn't work underwater.
They made some inquiries and found what it was and had it for sale.

After inspection of the camera, money changed hands and I came home with this beauty.

This camera was made by Nemrod Metzeler, S.A. in Barcelona, Spain.

and it was distributed by Vilarrubís y Sagué, S. A.

Sagrera, 44 - 55, Barcelona - 13, España

The Nemrod company, named after the bible character of Nemrod the hunter, king of Babylonia, was a manufacturer of diving and spearfishing equipment, they produced this camera from 1960 to 1966

It's moulded in a kind of heavy Bakelite, known as Novodur.

It has close resemblances to the Mako-shark, by Healthways, California, with the benefit of using 120 film instead of 620 and having a dedicated flash unit, invaluable for underwater photography.

The lens is a 70 mm fix focus and aperture, 1-2,5m, f:16

The shutter is a very simple single speed type, 1/55 sec.

Built-in inside the back there is a pair of lead weights to make it's buoyancy neutral.

Made to be water tight at 40 meters.

Valve in the front to pressurize it.

It provides twelve 6 x 6 exposures on 120 film, the film advance, via scalloped knob, is controlled by the ruby window, on the back.

The power, for the exterior flash unit,is provided by a 22,5 V battery and it uses an 100 μF 25/30 V capacitor, both housed inside the body.

Dimensions and weight: 16,5(d) x 27(l) x 20(h) cm, 1.550 kg (including flash)

In a nutshell it is an underwater box camera.

Let's see how it's made:

Left to right: ruby window rubber cover; back cover, containing the ballast weights and film pressure plate; 

 

the front with the camera itself and the flash electronics; 

 

flash unit; adapter to XM-1 bulbs. 

The controls: up the shutter release, down the film advance knob; the logos; flash connectors.

  

The flash unit may use MB2/3 bulbs

 

Or, via the included adapter, XM-1 bulbs

 

For underwater use white bulbs are the best choice, blue bulbs for topside use.

It's an amazing piece, seen from any angle

Even the sports finder is great

 

This is a curious feature, the pressurizer valve, you can use a bike pump to do it, it provides positive pressure inside and, if some gasket is leaking, on the immersion the diver will see a stream of bubbles denouncing it, giving him time to take it out of the water, before any damage occur.

The only fault in the camera was a broken piece in the inside, some kind of adapter, that glued quite all right.

I'm not sure what it's function is as you can see in the following pictures: on the left one there's a kind of adapter, that gives an extra clearance between lens and film plane, of about 5 mm.
On the picture on the right I removed the adapter.

 

I can only guess that the adapter is for close range photography, mainly underwater, and removing it probably it will focus from 2/3 m to infinity, for topside use.
It's just a guess, as the camera doesn't have B position, I haven't yet tested my supposition.
If someone can confirm or discredit my theory I would be must obliged.


Stay tuned (o;