Ermanox

image by Mario Groleau (Image rights)

The Ermanox is a camera for 4.5x6cm plates made by Ernemann in Dresden from 1924, and also advertised for 6.5x9cm and 9x12cm (see the advertisement below right, and examples cited), though the small model is the most commonly seen. When introduced, the camera was supplied with a 10cm f/2 Ernostar; later an 8.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar was offered: these cameras have a significantly shorter lens tube, and are lighter. The maker's instructions stress the care needed when focusing at such wide aperture, and discourage the use of film-packs, which may not lie as flat as plates. The camera has a focal-plane shutter, with speeds 1/20 - 1/1000 second, plus 'B' and 'T'. The earliest advertising for the camera named it Er-Nox, as in the text of the advertisement below right.

The unusually large aperture made available light photography a real possibility. It was this feature that made the camera famous, especially in the hands of Dr. Erich Salomon (1886-1944), who used it to make candids.

The small model version of the camera has a rigid metal body (covered with black leather); the larger model is a strut-folding camera. Both of these have the folding Newton viewfinder as shown here. A ground-glass focusing screen can also be used, and one was supplied with the camera.

A strut-folding 9x12cm Ermanox made in tropical materials (uncovered mahogany with brass fittings and brown leather bellows) has been seen at Westlicht; the notes suggest this camera may be unique (i.e. made in tropical finish to a special order: other non-tropical 9x12cm examples exist). It has a 16.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar.

There is also an SLR model, the Ermanox Reflex, which has a focusing screen on the top, with a folding leather hood, and a rear screen. This is really a Zeiss Ikon camera; it has only been seen with an Ernostar lens made by Carl Zeiss; also, the reflex body does not have 'Ernemann' impressed in its leather as does the non-reflex Ermanox, even when it carries a Zeiss Ikon badge.

Both the viewfinder and reflex cameras were copied by other makers, but whereas surviving examples of the Ermanox cameras are rare, all the copies are vanishingly so. Viewfinder copies include the Lorenz Nacht Kamera with the f/2 Plasmat, and the Thornton Pickard Ruby Speed Camera with an f/2 Cooke Anastigmat. Reflex copies include the Mentor Wonder Reflex for 6.5x9cm plates, with an f/1.9 Rietzschel/Agfa Prolinear, and the Ihagee Nachtreflex, with an f/1.5 Plasmat.

images by Mario Groleau (Image rights)

images by Mario Groleau (Image rights)

Ermanox ad by Central Camera Co. scanned by Mario Groleau  (Image rights)

images by Mario Groleau (Image rights)

Links

• Directions for Use of the Ermanox 4.5x6 in English and French (pdf, just four pages in each language) at Internet Archive.
• Dr. Erich Salomon, a photographer using the Ermanox, at German Wikipedia. Article in German.
• Lichtstärke Ermanox-Aufnahmen 1928 bis 1932, Erich Salomon, published by Franz Greno, 1988. ISBN 3891908717. Listed as Public Domain at the Internet Archive. Mostly interior photographs of public meetings, dinners, etc. - quite commonplace photographs by modern standards.
• 4.5x6cm examples sold at Leitz- and Westlicht Photographica Auctions:
  • Ermanox (exposure table in French) with 10cm f/2 Ernostar , serial no. 148233, sold at the 37th Auction;
  • Ermanox with 10cm f/2 Ernostar, serial no. 150266, sold at the 31st Auction;
  • Ermanox with 10cm f/2 Ernostar, serial no. 150297, sold at the 42nd Auction;
  • Ermanox serial no. 1039149, with 10cm f/2 Ernostar with precise focus scale, serial no. 150618, sold at the 32nd Auction;
  • Ermanox with 10cm f/2 Ernostar, serial no. 150802, sold at the 20th Auction;
  • Ermanox with 10cm f/2 Ernostar, serial no. 150967, and with precise focusing scale, sold at the eighteenth Auction;
  • Ermanox with 10cm f/2 Ernostar, serial no. 166029, and with plate-holders and a Rollex rollfilm back (for 127 film), sold at the nineteenth Auction;
  • Ermanox (exposure table in English and focusing in feet) with 8.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar, serial no. 167569; leather impressed with 'Ernemann' everywhere, but with a round Zeiss Ikon badge next to the viewfinder. Sold at the 28th Auction.
  • Ermanox Reflex with 10.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar, serial no. 917072, made for Ernemann by Carl Zeiss Jena, sold at the 28th Auction;
  • Ermanox Reflex with 10.5cm f/1.8 CZJ Ernostar, serial no. 917099, sold at the 20th Westlicht Auction;
  • Ermanox (English table, focus in feet) with 8.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar, serial no. 1109182; Zeiss Ikon badge on top. Sold at the 34th Auction;
• 9x12cm examples at Leitz/Westlicht Auctions:
  • 9x12cm strut-folding Ermanox with 16.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar, serial no. 166982, and precise focus scale, sold at the 34th Auction;
  • Tropical 9x12cm strut-folding Ermanox serial number 1053977 (exposure table in French), with 16.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar serial no. 166993, and with matching plate holders, filmpack holder and focusing screen, sold (for 38400 Euro) at the 24th Westlicht Auction;
• 9x12cm Ermanox serial no. 1051646, with 16.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar serial no. 167048 at the George Eastman Museum.