Difference between revisions of "Ermanox"
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Revision as of 14:10, 14 February 2024
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. | n/a |
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.