Ermanox

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The Ermanox is the definitive 'night camera', a compact camera for small plates or film-packs, with a focal-plane shutter and a very fast lens, allowing use in low light. The 4.5x6cm model of the camera has a rigid body; the larger models are strut-folding (though a rigid-bodied 6.5x9cm camera was available briefly). 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). All models have the folding Newton viewfinder as shown here. A ground-glass focusing screen can also be used, and one was supplied with the camera.

It was introduced by Ernemann in Dresden from 1924, as a camera for 4.5x6cm plates, and the camera was continued after Ernemann's merger into Zeiss Ikon. It was also seen later in 6.5x9cm and 9x12cm sizes[1] (see the 1926 advertisement below right, and examples cited), though the small model is the most commonly seen. In 1925, the French distributor Omnium Photo still only advertised the 4.5x6cm camera, but offered three sizes by 1926.[2] The German distributor Photo-Porst's catalogue for 1925 already shows the 6.5x9cm camera as well as the 4.5x6cm, both with the same rigid form, with a 14cm f/2 lens on the larger one.[2] By 1926, only the 4.x6cm camera had the rigid body; larger cameras were strut-folding,[2] and apparently wooden-bodied.[3] Zeiss Ikon's 1927 catalogue even offers the camera in 10x15cm and 13x18cm sizes (as a special order, 'price on request');[1] no example of either size has been seen, though a 24cm f/1.8 Ernostar suitable for the 13x18cm camera was sold at Westlicht (see the links below). The 1931 catalogue only offers the 4.5x6cm and 6.5x9cm cameras.[1] Some (not much) advertising for the camera also used the name Er-Nox, as in the text of the 1926 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 f/1.8 for the two larger cameras). The 1927 Zeiss Ikon catalogue offers both the f/2 and f/1.8 lenses,[1] but the French Photo-Plait catalogue of 1926 already offers only the f/1.8 lens.[2]. Actual examples seen suggest that customers chose the fast lens once it was available. The 1930 Zeiss Ikon catalogue only offers the f/1.8 lens.[1] Cameras with the short, fast lens have a significantly shorter lens tube, and are lighter: the camera body is mostly aluminium (covered with black leather), but the lens-mount is brass and makes up a lot of the weight.

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, giving a 'click-stop'. 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.

Ermanox Reflex

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: the 1927 Zeiss Ikon catalogue also offers the camera with either this lens or a 9cm f/2.7 Ernostar. The camera appears in French distributors' catalogues from 1926,[4] only offered with the f/1.8 lens. Later cameras have lenses made by Carl Zeiss (marked as such on the name-ring), with a focusing knob on the left side of the barrel instead of a ring.

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
1235814 150287 10cm f/2 In the stock of dealer Coeln Cameras n/a
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
1297439 179763 10.5cm f/1.8 At Chiswick Auctions, March 2024 n/a
1297315 205312 10.5cm f/1.8 Speed table in English 17
M.99906 224877 10.5cm f/1.8 With 15cm f/2.7 Ernostar in same lot, at Christie's, 2002.
Likely lens has been exchanged by user (see position
of focus knob).
n/a
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 Ermanox

Body Serial no.
if known
Lens Serial no.
(link to source)
Focal length
& f-no.
Comments Westlicht/Leitz
Auction no.
1168015 165363 14cm f/2 Rigid body 21
1168023 192063 12.5cm f/1.8 13
1322310 192098 12.5cm f/1.8 6
L 6910 225058 12.5cm f/1.8 LP Foto
Auction 16

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


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Catalogues, reproduced at Pacific Rim Camera:
    * 1924 Ernemann catalogue, with the 10cm f/2 Ernostar on p12 and the 4.5x6cm Ermanox on p45.
    * 1927 Zeiss Ikon catalogue (260-MB pdf, German, but with Czech prices), with the Ermanox and Ermanox Reflex on p37.
    * 1930 Zeiss Ikon catalogue (253-MB pdf, English), with the Ermanox and Ermanox Reflex on pp47-48. The entry seems to damn the Ernostar with faint praise: The ERNOSTAR F 1.8 is an anastigmat of the highest class and the definition is so good that enlargements up to 5½"x3½" can be made with the greatest ease.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Catalogue pages for the Ermanox reproduced at Collection Appareils: Omnium Photo's in 1925, 1926 and 1927, and Photo-Porst's in 1925.
  3. Jahrbuch für Photographie, Kinematographie und Reproduktionsverfahren, Prof. Josef Maria Eder, Eduard Kuchinka & Curt Emmermann, 1931. Verlag Wilhelm Knapp, Halle (publisher) p.41 ( Reports of new cameras for 1928-9 describes the 9x12cm Ermanox as new, a sturdy wooden box in which the giant lens is recessed, and describes a lead-weighted stand offered for its use in a theatre. The camera is described as being used with a rangefinder, and provided with a small electric lamp to illuminate the rangefinder and focus scales in the dark of the theatre.
  4. Catalogue pages showing the Ermanox Reflex: various French distributors including Omnium Photo, 1926 and '27,at Collection Appareils.

Links