Ermanox

image by Mario Groleau (Image rights)

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

images 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. The earliest advertising for the camera also used the name Er-Nox, as in the text of the advertisement below right. When introduced, the camera was supplied with a 10cm f/2 Ernostar; later an 8.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar was offered (12.5cm and 16.5cm for the two larger cameras): these cameras have a significantly shorter lens tube, and are lighter. The 4.5x6cm model 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. The camera has a focal-plane shutter, with speeds 1/20 - 1/1000 second, plus 'B' and 'T' (slowest speed 1/15 second in the 9x12cm camera).

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 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.

In the earliest example cited below (with lens serial no. 148233), the focus scale is marked on the painted lens tube, with the index mark on the plated focusing ring. In all other examples the scale is on the ring, and the pointer on the tube. In all examples there is a single indent in the ring and a toothed spring on the bottom of the tube which mates with it when the lens is at infinity focus. Later lenses (from serial number 150503 in the examples cited here) have a more precise focus scale than previously, with more marked distances (and the closest distances marked to two places of decimals in some cases).

A strut-folding 9x12cm Ermanox made in tropical materials (uncovered mahogany with brass fittings and tan 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 in black finish.

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 has a 10.5cm f/1.8 Ernostar. Some of these lenses were made by Carl Zeiss (marked as such on the name-ring), with a focusing knob on the left side of the barrel; some have a focus ring and are by Ernemann.

Both the viewfinder and reflex cameras were copied by other makers, but while surviving examples of the Ermanox cameras are rare enough, all the copies are vanishingly so. Viewfinder copies include the Lorenz Nacht Kamera with an f/2 Plasmat, the Thornton Pickard Ruby Speed Camera with an f/2 Cooke Anastigmat, and a 'night camera' by Sommer with an f/1.5 Plasmat. 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.

Known examples, at Westlicht auctions, etc.

4.x6cm viewfinder Ermanox

Body Serial no. if known	Lens Serial no. (link to source)	Focal length & f-no.	Comments	Westlicht/Leitz Auction no.
1139240	148233	10cm f/2	Speed table in French	37
1184920	150266	10cm f/2		31
1184987	150289	10cm f/2		7
	150297	10cm f/2		42
1185098	150503	10cm f/2	First camera seen with more precise focus scale	16
1185290	150548	10cm f/2		12
1039149	150618	10cm f/2		32
1185381	150666	10cm f/2		11
1185427	150802	10cm f/2		20
1235777	150967	10cm f/2		18
1185547	151067	10cm f/2		8
1038999	166029	10cm f/2	w/ Rollex rollfilm back (for 127)	19
1253577	167170	8.5cm f/1.8	With its box	16
1254025	167265	8.5cm f/1.8	Focus in feet. At Early Photography	n/a
1253880	167428	8.5cm f/1.8	Focus in feet. Round Zeiss Ikon badge by viewfinder. Flint Auctions, 2020. With sales receipt dated April 1934.	n/a
1253836	167552	8.5cm f/1.8	Impressed 'Ernemann', but with Zeiss Ikon badge.	8
1253718	167569	8.5cm f/1.8	Speed table in English, focusing in feet; Zeiss Ikon badge	28
1254214	1342114	8.5cm f/1.8	The camera pictured here	n/a
1254444	167639	8.5cm f/1.8		18
	1109182	8.5cm f/1.8	Speeds in English, focus in feet; Zeiss Ikon badge. Lens serial seems wrong; can't be read in auction photos	34

4.5x6cm Ermanox Reflex

Body Serial no. if known	Lens Serial no. (link to source)	Focal length & f-no.	Comments	Westlicht/Leitz Auction no.
1297263	179626	10.5cm f/1.8		18
1297308	179705	10.5cm f/1.8		13
1297315	205312	10.5cm f/1.8	Speed table in English	17
M.99925	917001	10.5cm f/1.8	First Ernostar lens made by Carl Zeiss Jena for Ernemann	27
M.00064	917021	10.5cm f/1.8	CZJ Ernostar	6
M.99928	917072	10.5cm f/1.8	CZJ Ernostar	28
	917099	10.5cm f/1.8	CZJ Ernostar	20

6.5x9cm strut-folding Ermanox

Body Serial no. if known	Lens Serial no. (link to source)	Focal length & f-no.	Comments	Westlicht/Leitz Auction no.
1168023	192063	12.5cm f/1.8		13
1322310	192098	12.5cm f/1.8		6

9x12cm strut-folding Ermanox

Body Serial no. if known	Lens Serial no. (link to source)	Focal length & f-no.	Comments	Westlicht/Leitz Auction no.
1051818	166982	16.5cm f/1.8		34
1053977	166993	16.5cm f/1.8	Tropical, and with speed table in French	24
1051646	167048	16.5cm f/1.8	At the George Eastman Museum.	-

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.
• Roll-film back for 4.5x6cm Ermanox badged for Salomon, with shoe-mounting brilliant finder, and with unused roll of film, in a tropical container; at the seventh Westlicht Auction.