My Ermanox Journey

Godfrey said:
Lovely work, Vince! You seem well in tune with the Ermanox! :D

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Many thanks Godfrey -- it's definitely a challenge, as there are certainly much easier (and less expensive!) ways to take a mediocre photo.

Like this one -- mediocre photo (if even that), but just to show that my distance 'guesstimating' is getting better.


Snowy Ermanox2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
carbo73 said:
Well, I've been following this topic and journey with increasing GAS in the last few months, that finally this new year, just today, I got my hands into an Ermanox, an f1.8 / 85mm model. I intend to use it, mainly with Jason Lane dry plates (as I have experience with his plates in several other formats).

This one was listed as working, but less that I had hoped. Also came completely alone, even without lens cap. Fortunately I managed to get 3 Ermanox holders from a separate sale, and several other 4,5x6 holders (Goerz, for example, that may not work). But even as the shutter fires, I can't get into the fastest position of the shutter and worse, the tension lever is stuck at position 12 and doest not move, not even in Z or O modes (where it should return to 1 on it's own), that fire as normal speeds, so no ground glass focusing is possible. The release is a bit hard, as it is the focus helical. Oh, and on the curtain there's a tiny string of pinholes close to the metal part.

Even another problem is that the finder has no diopter so composition should be more a guess. In fact I think that the whole finder was taken from another Ernemann, as it has a speeds table completely different and in English (even as the lens is in meters, not feet). There's a correct (and German) table inside the cover of the ground glass, the original one, I presume.

So now I must take this camera for a CLA... or return it in these next two weeks.

Any ideas for a recomended repair, specially if this could be inside the EU? Okvintagecamera in Russia? Or 3rcamera in the US, maybe?

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Well, now my Ermanox is fully working, after it's own CLA odyssey. Now it has brand new curtains and all the speeds, tensions and modes work just fine. The oddysey was that... in early January 2022 I decided to send it for a CLA to.... Oleg from Okvintagecamera.com. As most of you will know, he's Russia. But in early January it didn't look everything was going to be thrown out of the window! Anyway, in early february I began to think that I had done some risky decission. Fortunately Oleg ended the CLA quite fast (specially considering it's not a simple camera at all) and very fine job I must say. Anyway the camera was back in early February and last news was that it passed through customs in Moscow without problems the 16th ... and as in some cases happens, there stopped the parcel tracking. All of you know what happened on the 24th of February, and still no news! But the parcel was out of Russia in time, as it finally arrived the 1st of March.

Now, about the use of the camera, I have 20 4,5x6 cm Jason Lane Dry Plates, three Ermanox holders, 4 Ernemann generic 4,5x6 holders and a very abused Rollex 127 back. The Ermanox holders work fantastic, the other black ones can be used but are stiffier, and the Rollex back had a lot of problems but I've managed to solve some. It had tons of light leaks, most or all of them eliminated with medium format backing paper and contact cement. But it still scratches a lot the emulsion. Another problem is that half the times I cut a 120 roll to 126 with the CamerHack device, it gets destroyed.

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Good to know that things are coming along. Yes those Rollex backs aren't exactly high quality and it took quite a while to get both of mine to work well, as well as with those Camerhack devices.

BTW what did you figure out regarding your focusing issues?
 
Vince Lupo said:
Good to know that things are coming along. Yes those Rollex backs aren't exactly high quality and it took quite a while to get both of mine to work well, as well as with those Camerhack devices.

BTW what did you figure out regarding your focusing issues?
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I've tried some reading glasses in the chemist, but they have better ones arriving this week, so I wait, but looks promising to be able to focus using the ground glass. As expected, with subjects more than 10 m. away there's not much problem, but obviously one of the key points for using an Ermanox are the close portraits, specially in low light.

And for the Camerhack respooler I would try to change the blade for a new one. Here's the way to dump an unused FP4 roll, damn!
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Not perfect, but not bad.


Ermanox 120 Back by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

I took about 6 months thinking about how to do this, then another two weeks trying to make it work. It does work, but I still have to tweak a few things. Have to say it was not an easy thing to do - maybe for someone more technically-minded it might have been easier.

I’m bound and determined!
 
The Graflex back looks like it's working great. I'd definitely be interested to see more photos of how you modified the back. Great work!
 
tlloydau said:
The Graflex back looks like it's working great. I'd definitely be interested to see more photos of how you modified the back. Great work!
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No modification shots just yet - I need to see if it’s fully doing what I want it to do. I know there’s at least one thing I need to adjust. If this one works I might end up doing another one, having learned from this one.
 
Very interesting to see this Graflex back. A 120 back? Then it's quite more larger than the Ermanox. I undersant that you use 120 film in it, that obviously is not fully exposed in all it's height... Yet I do have a Graflex back (and quite a little collection of Graflexes, Speedgraphics and Autos, but that's another history ;)), and I wonder how you managed to adapt it, as it's enormous, compared to the Ermanox! Keep up the great work!
 
On my own slow learning of how to shoot with the Ermanox, a bit more pictures, both Jason Lane Dry Plates (now cut in the right size by him) and Fomapan 100 film. The Rollex back now without leaks (but scratches). And for the next pictures I would be using some extremely massive reading glasses that allow me to see the ground glass from much more near, and focus properly. You will see that the dry plates have movement. It was a bit dark so I had to open quite a lot (my main concern was focusing, not shaking) and shoot 1/50, wich is suboptimal with this lens, I presume.

JasonLane 25ASA6 mdFFF.jpg JasonLane 25ASA4 mdfFF.jpg JasonLane 25ASA5mod_1.jpg

All these dry plates

And this one in Fomapan 100 film, pushed to 200

fomapan5 mdFFF.jpg
 
carbo73 said:
Very interesting to see this Graflex back. A 120 back? Then it's quite more larger than the Ermanox. I undersant that you use 120 film in it, that obviously is not fully exposed in all it's height... Yet I do have a Graflex back (and quite a little collection of Graflexes, Speedgraphics and Autos, but that's another history ;)), and I wonder how you managed to adapt it, as it's enormous, compared to the Ermanox! Keep up the great work!
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It was a ton of work and thought, and it's not all entirely perfect, but it's getting closer. Yes it's still the 4.5x6cm frame, so the entire height of the 120 film is not fully exposed. Having said that, if this all works out I'll now be able to get 12 exposures per roll rather than 8 exposures with 127, and I won't have to worry about trimming down the film. I'm still tweaking it.

One suggestion for the scratches - get yourself some very fine (2000 grit) sandpaper and sand that entire area where the film would come in contact. Then wipe it down really well. That should help.
 
Your Ermanox dry plates look so clean and contrasty... the ones I shoot were not quite focused (now I hope to get focus better, with the reading glasses), and as I used slower speeds like 1/50... not much still. Did you use tripod? Oh, and I've to use always Photoshop to clean the ton of dirt allways my dry plates seem to atract. I used to think it was due to the old dirty bellows of the usual cameras for dry plates, but the Ermanox has no bellows and is now perfectly clean!
 
carbo73 said:
Your Ermanox dry plates look so clean and contrasty... the ones I shoot were not quite focused (now I hope to get focus better, with the reading glasses), and as I used slower speeds like 1/50... not much still. Did you use tripod? Oh, and I've to use always Photoshop to clean the ton of dirt allways my dry plates seem to atract. I used to think it was due to the old dirty bellows of the usual cameras for dry plates, but the Ermanox has no bellows and is now perfectly clean!
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No I almost never use a tripod, and I try to shoot with the fastest shutter speed possible. I'm not using the ground glass to focus - usually I'm 'guesstimating' the focus. I think I've just come up with a system that seems to work for me - or else it's just dumb luck!

I got the 120 back working fine now -- no more light leaks and things are in focus. I'm going to send the insert off to Frank so that he can clean the internal mechanism. One issue that I have had is some overlapping of the frames, and Frank said that all it likely needs is a good cleaning. Not such an easy job!


Ermanox Graflex2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
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