My Ermanox Journey

Godfrey said:
Looks handy and fun, much like a Hasselblad SWC is. You're making me want another one of those. LOL! Of course, the 907x + XCD 45P is not much different either. 🙂

The Second Ermanox Shot is again a winner. It takes a while to get the hang of using an interesting old camera like this, so just keep on going!

😀

G
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One thing is for certain - you’d definitely build arm muscles with this camera. It’s a heavy sucker despite its relatively small appearance.

Placing the Ermanox next to the 907x, there really is a lot of commonality between the two. Makes me wonder how far we’ve actually come!


Ermanox vs 907x by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Ermanox vs 907x2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
Vince Lupo said:
One thing is for certain - you’d definitely build arm muscles with this camera. It’s a heavy sucker despite its relatively small appearance.

Placing the Ermanox next to the 907x, there really is a lot of commonality between the two. Makes me wonder how far we’ve actually come!
...
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That lens on the Ermanox has to be heavy with all that glass!

I had the 907x out yesterday ... finally refitted the Peak Design anchors for neckstrap. Perhaps I'll go make photos with it today. 🙂

Vince Lupo said:
One more from yesterday morning -- I had to crop out a small part of the image due to a light leak on the left side.

Ilford Delta 100, I think at about f/4.5.
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Another very nice photograph! I like it!

Gawds. I'm tempted to get another SWC. It's not in the budget but I know the comptroller of this establishment. LOL! We'll see what he says... :angel:

G
 
Vince, I realize this may be blasphemous, considering your embrace of the historical significance and traditional esthetics of using the Ermanox. But are you considering trying color at any point? As you probably know, both Portra and Ektachrome are available in 127. They are also $22 to $23 a pop for a single roll! Then again, this whole project of yours is wonderfully crazy anyway, so what's a little more expense, right?
 
These are just mind-blowing shots, Vince. Where's the light leak you mentioned from? I had the same issue with a Zeiss Ikon folding plate camera with Rollex patent back, due to failure of a strange bit of felt at the edge.

Concerning Salomon's technique, he might of course have done quite a bit of practicing to improve his skills in distance guesstimation... and, there is one later self-portrait of his with two Leicas on a tripod. So I guess he might have sought just about any post or piece of furniture to lean on before he became so famous as to be officially allowed to stand his photographic ground. ISO 25 seems most realistic to me. Try to shoot orthochromatically sensitized film if available. Or get a blue filter for the series adaptor and shoot ISO 100 to 125 panchromatic and give it the two or so f-stops or rather shutter speeds. That's what I did to obtain that very old look.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Vince, I realize this may be blasphemous, considering your embrace of the historical significance and traditional esthetics of using the Ermanox. But are you considering trying color at any point? As you probably know, both Portra and Ektachrome are available in 127. They are also $22 to $23 a pop for a single roll! Then again, this whole project of yours is wonderfully crazy anyway, so what's a little more expense, right?
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No I think that’s an entirely reasonable suggestion - I had colour on my mind as well! I think I may actually have a roll of colour 120 in my film box - I can cut it down to 127, so I don’t need to go the $23 a roll route. Other alternative is that I try one of the many expired rolls of colour 127 film on eBay.
 
drmatthes said:
These are just mind-blowing shots, Vince. Where's the light leak you mentioned from? I had the same issue with a Zeiss Ikon folding plate camera with Rollex patent back, due to failure of a strange bit of felt at the edge.

Concerning Salomon's technique, he might of course have done quite a bit of practicing to improve his skills in distance guesstimation... and, there is one later self-portrait of his with two Leicas on a tripod. So I guess he might have sought just about any post or piece of furniture to lean on before he became so famous as to be officially allowed to stand his photographic ground. ISO 25 seems most realistic to me. Try to shoot orthochromatically sensitized film if available. Or get a blue filter for the series adaptor and shoot ISO 100 to 125 panchromatic and give it the two or so f-stops or rather shutter speeds. That's what I did to obtain that very old look.
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The light leaks were from one of the red windows on the roll film back, and the other light leak was (I think) from the dark slide slot. I have another Rollex-Patent back that now fits the camera (had to do some very slight modifications), and I’ll run a roll through it to see if it’s okay.

There is also another spot where light can possibly come in, but I’m actually not too worried about it right now, and it’s on the left and right edges of the shutter curtains. There is the tiniest of gaps between the edges of the shutter curtains and the internal mechanism on either side of the camera, which is the way the camera was designed. I asked Frank about it, and he said that the next time he has the camera in his possession, he’ll look at it and see if he can minimize the possibility of light getting through those spots. But I’m not going to worry about it until it becomes an issue.

The glass plates I have are ASA/ISO 25 and are orthochromatic (Jason Lane’s ‘Speed Plates’), and they give a very vintage look. I’m shooting some environmental portraits tomorrow, so we’ll see how it all goes.
 
Vince Lupo said:
There is also another spot where light can possibly come in, but I’m actually not too worried about it right now, and it’s on the left and right edges of the shutter curtains. There is the tiniest of gaps between the edges of the shutter curtains and the internal mechanism on either side of the camera, which is the way the camera was designed.
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Oh, I see. AFAIK you can literally see that on some of Salomon's plates, too. So we'll take this for granted, historically. I must confess, my admiration for your work is just a little ahead of my envy😎, so keep up this great re-enactment of yours or rather of Salomon. Bet he's reading this thread from way above the clouds, smiling. - Isn't there any badly lit town hall around in your place, in order to get some shots of tired politicians?
 
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drmatthes said:
Oh, I see. AFAIK you can literally see that on some of Salomon's plates, too. So we'll take this for granted, historically. I must confess, my admiration for your work is just a little ahead of my envy😎, so keep up this great re-enactment of yours or rather of Salomon. Bet he's reading this thread from way above the clouds, smiling. - Isn't there any badly lit town hall around in your place, in order to get some shots of tired politicians?
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Ha I'll keep my eye out for one!

But this did just show up in the mail, so hopefully will provide further inspiration.


Erich Salomon Book 1931 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Not in the best of shape (for collectors, anyways), dust jacket missing, but good enough for me. Original 1931 copy, written by him.
 
Vince Lupo said:
But this did just show up in the mail, so hopefully will provide further inspiration.


Erich Salomon Book 1931 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Not in the best of shape (for collectors, anyways), dust jacket missing, but good enough for me. Original 1931 copy, written by him.
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Yeah, that's it!!! Good copies with dust jacket preserved will cost you a fortune here, about a fourth of the Ermanox's value. This goes for beauty of item, not for pictures.

Would have bought that one, too, just to accompany that wonderful camera...

Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen,
die da träumen fort und fort,
und die Welt hebt an zu singen,
triffst du nur das Zauberwort.

Sleeps a song in all things clinging,
ever dreaming, ever heard,
and the world commences singing
when you hit that magic word.

(Joseph von Eichendorff)
 
Vince Lupo said:
Yes it's a great book - I only wish there was an English translation of the first 42 pages!
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Send me a PM, and I will try and translate the parts you would like to decrypt 😀, if you like. Just commited that crime against Eichendorff, too, so why not try Salomon?

Edit: To keep things more simple, I just ordered a paperback reprint from 2015 for reference.

Page 104 is simple: Vater kommt nach der Arbeit nach Hause = Father, returning home from work. Seems that one was taken by his son Otto = Peter Hunter. Would also eplain the somewhat tired facial expression.

Guess what's in the suitcase...!
 
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P.S.: Upon seeing your ongoing project Mapping the West - might it be possible to map the west by means/making use of the Ermanox, too? - This would have been one of Salomon's aspirations and pleasures, had he been staying in New York & the U.S. instead of returning to Europe and being killed by the Nazis, too. Architecture, people, night shots, cities, villages - that's what he would have been into, I suppose. This might bring all of us even closer to his spirit.
 
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First round of glass plates from the Ermanox!


First Ermanox Glass Plate by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

I managed to coerce (well, browbeat really) my client friends into letting me take their portraits today. J. Lane 'Speed' Plates, ASA 25, exposed at ASA 12, D76 1:1 for 10.5 minutes in a daylight tank with modified Kodak hangers, agitating 15 seconds every 30 seconds (per Jason Lane). I think - just quickly holding them up to the light while they're still in the wash - that the highlights are a bit more dense than I like. I was basing the D76 dilution and developing time on previous images I've done with the 'Speed' plates in my stereo cameras, so I think next time I will back off on the development by maybe a minute or more. I think I can still work with them, but I wish they weren't as punchy as they appear to be.

I focused with the ground glass, aperture settings were between f/2 and f/3.5. Shutter speeds were around 1/8 - 1/4 of a second. To achieve those speeds with this camera you have to set the shutter on Z (B) and just guesstimate the amount of time you keep your finger on the cable release trigger. So my 1/8 may or may not be a true 1/8 - more of a sorta kinda 1/8.

If the plates manage to dry completely tonight I'll try to scan a couple of them.
 
drmatthes said:
P.S.: Upon seeing your ongoing project Mapping the West - might it be possible to map the west by means/making use of the Ermanox, too? - This would have been one of Salomon's aspirations and pleasures, had he been staying in New York & the U.S. instead of returning to Europe and being killed by the Nazis, too. Architecture, people, night shots, cities, villages - that's what he would have been into, I suppose. This might bring all of us even closer to his spirit.
Click to expand...

I'm participating in an Artist in Residence program in New Mexico in January, and I've thought about bringing it out there. However, I will also have two other camera systems with me, so I don't know that I want to confuse myself too much. It might be a separate thing, but I'm not sure that I'd necessarily want to incorporate Ermanox-based photos into the existing project. Still, it would make for some interesting image possibilities -- who knows, I may end up leaving one of my planned camera systems at home and take the Ermanox instead.
 
First glass plate image from the Ermanox.


Jack 2021 Ermanox by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

J. Lane Glass 'Speed' Plate, ASA 25 (exposed at ASA 12), about 1/8th of a second at f/2.8. Scanned with my Hasselblad 907x digital back on a Hasselblad 500C/M body, 120mm f/4 Makro Planar lens on a Novoflex copystand, Skier Copybox.

Really pleased with the result, and the highlights weren't as bulletproof as I thought. I think I may still back off on the development a bit just to keep them in check.

I think I have a good system now, both for exposure and development of the glass plates. Loading them is pretty straightforward (I have a changing tent), and the modified Kodak hangers work perfectly in the daylight tank. Now I just need more subjects!

One thing about this particular image -- I did 'clean up' the various white dust marks throughout the image, but I left the black dots/marks. The black marks are in the emulsion itself and are a result of the hand-coating of the glass plates. I didn't want to make a completely clean final image, as there are some inherent 'imperfections' in the entire process.

This glass plate negative (along with others) is going to the Dresden Technical Museum.
 
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