NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket review: one ring to bind them

NiSi is a name I’ve grown to trust, as a manufacturer of high-quality photographic accessories at very competitive prices. I’ve been particularly impressed with some of the company’s filters and even more so with the outstanding NiSi NM-200s Macro Focusing Rail. The new NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket is more akin to the latter, as a support to aid the precise positioning of your camera.

This time though, it’s not so much about fine incremental changes, but more about enabling quick and easy rotation between landscape and portrait orientation shooting, and further still for some scenarios. As such, it offers a viable and arguably better alternative to using an L-bracket. Its ingenious design combines speed and ease of use with solid dependability, in a beautifully crafted and finished product. All in all, it aims to be among the best camera supports you can buy right now.

NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket: Specifications

NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket: Price

The NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket comes in a range of sizes and options, as I’ll explain a bit later, but all have a list price of $90 / £75 / AU$139. I reckon that’s quite a bargain, given the extensive (though not universal) compatibility with many cameras and lenses. The closest comparison is perhaps a tripod mounting ring for relatively large telephoto lenses. When sold as optional extras for specific lenses, these often cost considerably more and are one-trick ponies, only working with one specific lens.

NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket: Design & Handling

L-brackets have been growing in popularity. Whether they’re dedicated to a specific camera or a more universal affair like the 3 Legged Thing Lexie, they all serve the same purpose. They attach to the camera body and enable you to then mount the camera on a tripod in either landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical) orientation. Moreover, you can easily switch between the two, while keeping the same shooting position and without shifting the point of balance off-axis, so the weight is still centered on the tripod. The NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket sets out with the same aim, but with even more seamless operation.

As with an L-bracket, you’ll want to avoid using the NiSi when you’ve got a big, heavy lens attached to your camera. These tend to come with their own tripod mounting rings, helping to keep the center of gravity balanced on the tripod rather than your camera/lens combo being horribly front-heavy. However, when using cameras with small to medium sized lenses attached, the NiSi brings the same advantages as using a tripod ring normally associated with big lenses, making them available in general shooting with a tripod, monopod or other support.

Size matters when you’re seeking out the ideal NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket for your camera, and also for your lenses. There are four different versions to choose from, namely the W-63, W-72, W-82D, and W-82M. The clue is in the title, as the numbers represent the maximum diameter of the lens that can be used with each edition, equating to 63mm, 72mm, or 82mm. You therefore need to measure the external diameter of your lens near the rear, to make sure the bracket will fit over it.

Better still, if the diameter of the lens is less than that of the bracket throughout its whole length, you can slide the bracket on and off the lens without having to detach it from the camera body. To avoid any scratching, the inside of the aluminum ring that fits around the lens has a protective rubber gasket.

You might be wondering why there are two different ‘D’ and ‘M’ variants of the 82mm bracket. The ‘D’ version is for DSLRs and the ‘M’ edition is for mirrorless cameras, with the former having a longer attachment plate to ensure a better fit and balance for DSLRs. NiSi doesn’t yet have an exhaustive list of which versions are compatible with different cameras, but recommends the W-63 for most Sony A and Canon M system cameras. The W-72 should be find for many Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, Panasonic S5 and Leica SL/SL2 cameras, lens diameter allowing. For most cameras with wider-diameter lenses, the W-82D and W-82M offer the most wide-ranging compatibility for DLSRs and mirrorless cameras respectively.

Compatibility with tripods really is pretty much universal. The tripod mounting section of the base plate has an Arca-Swiss profile as well as featuring a 1/4-inch socket. That makes it a good fit for pretty much any tripod head.

So what won’t work? For starters, there’s not enough adjustment in the bracket to cater to cameras with a battery grip attached, or for cameras that have an integral vertical grip like the Canon EOS R1. Medium format cameras like the Fujifilm GFX 100 II are also off-limits. The same goes for cameras like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, where the tripod mounting socket isn’t aligned with the center of the lens. That’s because when you start rotating the camera, everything goes off-center.

Whereas some L-brackets impinge on the range of movement for vari-angle LCD screens on a camera, this isn’t a problem with the NiSi camera bracket, although there is another issue which I’ll come to in ‘performance’. The ring might also obscure Function buttons on a lens if they’re mounted near the rear, or Function buttons on the camera body itself if they’re placed close to the lens mount. There can also be problems if the hand grip is positioned very close to the lens, and there’s simply not enough clearance for fitting the bracket.

NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket: Performance

The bracket is lightweight yet solid and robust, engineered from aerospace-grade aluminum alloy. Build quality is excellent, as is the smart anodized finish. Accurate centering is key to good performance, ensuring that the axis remains fixed when rotating the camera. This is important when you want to keep the same shooting position for landscape and portrait orientation use, as well as for keeping the weight centered on the tripod in both orientations.

I tested the W-82M version of the bracket with Nikon Z 6II, Nikon Z fc, and Sony A7 II cameras, using the largest-diameter bracket to cater to a variety of lenses. With both full-frame cameras, I found that I had to adjust the bracket’s camera mounting plate to its maximum height to enable good centering. Even the highest setting was slightly too low for the Nikon Z fc.

To adjust the height of the camera mounting plate relative to the circular section that fits around the lens requires rotating it from its ‘landscape’ position, so that you can access the two Allen bolts that hold the sliding mechanism in place. Releasing and tightening the Allen bolts is courtesy of a supplied Allen key, which is held in the underneath of the camera mounting platform by four magnets. The same Allen key is used for securing the camera to the bracket.

I like the feeling of stability and security that the bracket delivers. Ease of use is enhanced by click-stops at every 90 degrees, throughout a complete 360-degree range of rotation. However, for cameras with a handgrip, you’ll generally find that you can only use 180 degrees of the rotational range, otherwise the bottom section of the bracket will collide with the handgrip and make any further rotation impossible. For cameras without a handgrip, like my Nikon Z fc, a full 360 degrees of rotation is possible.

A neat bonus enabled by the 180 degrees of rotation comes into play when you invert the center column of a tripod for ultra-low level shooting. Instead of having to shoot with the camera upside down, you can rotate it through 180 degrees and retain the correct orientation of the camera. This is great for stills and a real godsend for shooting video. It’s also something that can’t be achieved by using an L-bracket.

The ring of the mounting bracket can get in the way at times. I found that the W-82M was a very snug fit against the handgrip of my Sony A7 II, and also obscured the camera’s lens release button. I therefore had to remove the ring every time I wanted to swap between different lenses. I also found that the ring obscured the camera Function buttons to the side of the lens mount on my Nikon Z 6II and Z fc cameras. And while the lack of a handgrip on the Z fc enables clockwise rotation of the camera, this isn’t usually the case with most cameras. Instead you need to rotate it counter-clockwise for portrait orientation shooting. The net result is that the tripod head tends to block your view of the vari-angle screen when it’s facing forward in portrait orientation selfies or vlogging.

The gallery of images below shows the NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket in use at 0, 45 and 90 degrees of orientation.

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NiSi Wizard Camera Bracket: Verdict

The NiSi Wizard Camera Adapter isn’t a universal fit but the range of size options means there’s a version to suit most camera and lens combinations. I like the quick and easy swapping between portrait and landscape shooting, and that unlike using an L-bracket, I don’t have to remove the camera from the tripod and remount it. I also like the 180-degree rotation to enable low-level tripod shooting with the center column inverted, while keeping the camera the right way up. The only things I’m not so keen on is the obscuring of Function buttons with some cameras and lenses, and the blocking of vari-angle screens in portrait orientation, when using cameras that have a handgrip.

Alternatives

The 3 Legged Thing Lexie is unlike most of the company’s L-brackets in that it’s designed to be a universal fit, rather than being tailor-made for one specific camera. It’s a nice bit of kit at a competitive price.

The Benro QRB95 is more similar to the NiSi than an L-bracket, in that it’s a ring-type support that can rotate without being removed and remounted on a tripod. However, the Benro only enables 90 degrees of rotation in total.