My Ermanox Journey

Erik van Straten said:
Indeed, this film does not do justice to the camera.

Are there no rangefinders from other brands available? This one is for EUR 69 available on eBay.

Erik.


https://www.ebay.de/itm/164896469368?hash=item2664987178:g:qx8AAOSwOsNguOO~
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I’m going to give this phone app a try and see how it does. I know - not as elegant a solution as a vintage rangefinder, but if it does the job that’s good enough for me.

As far as the film goes, I may stick with glass plates for the time being until Frank can do something about the light leaking from the edges of the shutter curtains.
 
Vince I have a black painted Saymon-Brown rangefinder made in New York in feet scale if you want it, it's a copy of a Leica FOKOS, with a circular foot to fit in a cold shoe. I am not planning on using it and would rather send it to you than put it on eBay.

Let me know if you're interested, just need your address.
 
mothertrucker said:
Vince I have a black painted Saymon-Brown rangefinder made in New York in feet scale if you want it, it's a copy of a Leica FOKOS, with a circular foot to fit in a cold shoe. I am not planning on using it and would rather send it to you than put it on eBay.

Let me know if you're interested, just need your address.
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Thanks for the offer -- however if I'm going to use a rangefinder, I really would prefer to have it in meters. I'm already making conversion calculations in my head!
 
mothertrucker said:
That's like not driving a 1920's Alfa Romeo 6C , what fun is that?
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Not that it's necessarily a fair comparison to a 1920's Alfa, but from about 2000 thru about 2010 I had both a 1965 Ford Thunderbird and a 1963 Ford Falcon as my daily drivers. I put about 50,000 miles on the T-Bird and 100,000 miles on the Falcon.

I remember my motorcycle mechanic saying to me that if he had the T-Bird he'd drive it once a month on a sunny Sunday. I replied that I want to drive this T-Bird into the ground. I didn't quite manage to do that, as it became more trouble than I care to mention, but the Falcon was definitely driven into the ground (and in the snow, two road trips to Toronto from Baltimore) and I enjoyed every minute of it. Actually I wish I still had the Falcon, it was a great car.
 
JeffS7444 said:
I like the idea of that Leica D2, but wonder how visible a laser spot will be in general outdoor usage? I suspect that's why this type is more commonly sold to golfers and hunters:
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/rangefinders/prostaff-1000-laser-rangefinder.html
But (shrug) if we're mostly talking about distances of 10 M or less, maybe it's not a big deal.
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Not sure actually -- but I'm going to work with this phone app for now and see how it does.
 
Just arrived in the mail -- an original photo of the giant Ermanox model for the 1925 KIPHO (cinema and photo) exhibition in Berlin. I believe this was the one and only time the KIPHO show happened.


Ernemann KIPHO by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Guido Seeber did an avant-garde promotional film for this exhibition -- I've seen a number of stills from the movie online, but can't seem to find the actual six minute film.
 
Vince Lupo said:
Just arrived in the mail -- an original photo of the giant Ermanox model for the 1925 KIPHO (cinema and photo) exhibition in Berlin. I believe this was the one and only time the KIPHO show happened.
Ernemann KIPHO by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Guido Seeber did an avant-garde promotional film for this exhibition -- I've seen a number of stills from the movie online, but can't seem to find the actual six minute film.
Click to expand...
Love it! In some cases I like the promotional materials more than the cameras themselves. I wonder what became of that jumbo camera? I once saw a giant Leica III for sale at a camera swap meet, and I've wondered about building my own from scratch.
 
JeffS7444 said:
Love it! In some cases I like the promotional materials more than the cameras themselves. I wonder what became of that jumbo camera? I once saw a giant Leica III for sale at a camera swap meet, and I've wondered about building my own from scratch.
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According to Peter Göllner, author of 'Ernemann Cameras: Die Geschichte des Dresdener Photo-Kino-Werks': "I don't assume this model survived. According to contemporary witnesses, many old things from the Ernemann and Zeiss Ikon times were destroyed during the GDR era."
 
Erik van Straten said:
Great picture, Vince!


Erik.
Click to expand...

Many thanks Erik - I wish it was a bit sharper and better shadow detail, but I think I'm getting there.

Another glass plate shot -- I have about 10 more to develop and I may adjust the developing times a bit more.

This shot required a lot of cleanup - I actually cleaned it up a bit more after having initially posted this shot here, as I saw room for a bit of improvement.


Culps Hill2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

One of the things that I'm still trying to figure out is whether the exposure/development of the orthochromatic glass plates is similar to conventional film (expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights) or does it more closely resemble the exposure/development of photographic paper. So I wonder if more development would have revealed more shadow detail -- of course that would have in turn pushed the highlights up as well. Hmm.
 
Nice choice of subjects. In the 1920s there would have been quite a few veterans that were the same age as those you have photographed with the Ermanox. So you have succeeded in reproducing the experience of a photographer from those times. For me that is much of the value of using the old cameras.
 
mconnealy said:
Nice choice of subjects. In the 1920s there would have been quite a few veterans that were the same age as those you have photographed with the Ermanox. So you have succeeded in reproducing the experience of a photographer from those times. For me that is much of the value of using the old cameras.
Click to expand...

Many thanks Mike - I’d like to try to put myself into more situations like this, and especially more ‘available light’ situations where I can test out a ‘Salomonesque’ way of shooting.

I corresponded with Jason Lane this morning, and he pretty much told me that I underdeveloped my plates yesterday. Maybe I compensated too much for the fact that the chemicals are 73 degrees (which is the most reliable ‘standing’ temperature for them at this time of year), plus I didn’t really realize that there is in fact shadow development that happens in the developer, so it’s not all ‘expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights’. Jason said that I’d have to overexpose my highlights by three stops in order for them to be fully blocked-up, so I’m going to try a longer development time today. I’m exposing the ASA 25 plates at ASA 12, so I can’t imagine that I’m underexposing the plates.

As an aside, I’ve also been corresponding with Peter Göllner, who is the author of a very comprehensive book on Ernemann and the ‘Ernemann expert’ with whom the Dresden Technical museum consults. I asked him if he knew of anyone else who is shooting with their Ermanox, and he didn’t know of anyone else (including himself). “The collectors really only enjoy the appearance and possession of this beautiful piece”, according the Peter.

So it looks like I’m it 🙂
 
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