My Ermanox Journey

I'll make a bet that "High Water Mark" is from Ellicott City. I lived there in '76, and the memory of the '75 flood was still fresh. I lived right up the hill from the bakery with the world's best doughnuts! Back then, the town was still affordable for a newly graduated and very poor art student. Sweet little place!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
I'll make a bet that "High Water Mark" is from Ellicott City. I lived there in '76, and the memory of the '75 flood was still fresh. I lived right up the hill from the bakery with the world's best doughnuts! Back then, the town was still affordable for a newly graduated and very poor art student. Sweet little place!
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Actually it’s closer to Elkridge, just off Rt.1 / Washington Blvd, but if you continued to walk the trail on the opposite side of the river, you’d eventually reach Ellicott City.
 
The more trials I do with my crappy 127 Rollex back (and half-fogged respooled Fomapan 100 film), the more I'm stunned at the quality of your pictures. Mine are quite crappy, for now. And I've found I can only respool Foma film to 127. All my trials with Kodak or Ilford end with the film broken in the cutting phase. I think the Foma film is thinner and gives me less problems (although not problem-free). And then the 25 ASA plates love A LOT of light, even in the open (and love dust).

Damn... I miss my Hassaelblad & Rolleiflex, I've abandoned them for a while...
 
carbo73 said:
The more trials I do with my crappy 127 Rollex back (and half-fogged respooled Fomapan 100 film), the more I'm stunned at the quality of your pictures. Mine are quite crappy, for now. And I've found I can only respool Foma film to 127. All my trials with Kodak or Ilford end with the film broken in the cutting phase. I think the Foma film is thinner and gives me less problems (although not problem-free). And then the 25 ASA plates love A LOT of light, even in the open (and love dust).

Damn... I miss my Hassaelblad & Rolleiflex, I've abandoned them for a while...
Click to expand...

It’s definitely a tough road, no doubt about it. And the thousands of dollars we get to spend for the privilege! It does seem kind of senseless when we could likely get much better photos (and more reliably so) for much less money - why do we do such things? I’ll never be able to figure it out.

No idea why your film would be tearing - have you contacted Claudio about it? I’ve cut and respooled maybe 30 or so rolls of film with his device, all Ilford Pan F, and haven’t had any issues with tearing (I have had other issues though, but have pretty much figured them out). Most likely just a result of dumb luck on my part. But maybe reaching out to Claudio might help solve the problem.
 
Vince Lupo said:
It’s definitely a tough road, no doubt about it. And the thousands of dollars we get to spend for the privilege! It does seem kind of senseless when we could likely get much better photos (and more reliably so) for much less money - why do we do such things? I’ll never be able to figure it out.

No idea why your film would be tearing - have you contacted Claudio about it? I’ve cut and respooled maybe 30 or so rolls of film with his device, all Ilford Pan F, and haven’t had any issues with tearing (I have had other issues though, but have pretty much figured them out). Most likely just a result of dumb luck on my part. But maybe reaching out to Claudio might help solve the problem.
Click to expand...

About the tearing of film, I've contacted Claudio, and said it was indeed an issue. Respooling on the other side (so that it ends with the black side out in the cutting phase) helps, that's why he made the "mark 3" model (this is designed to cut the 120 film without rolling it on the other side). But I have a "mark 2". Anyway, even with a new blade, the Ilford & Kodak films continue to tear apart, so I stick with thinner, cheaper, Fomapan 100. I hope to get some Rerapan 400 but it's quite expensive.
 
I'm having better success with the 120 Graflex back on the 'old' Ermanox, and I just developed some Ektar 100 this morning.


Hammonds Ferry Colour Ermanox1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Backyard Dogwood Ermanox by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

I'm not the best colour neg converter, so the colours may not necessarily be the best they could be. However I'm pretty pleased that I've managed to solve the latest light leak issue and I seem to have gotten the distance scale sorted out.
 
It seems that your Ermanox journey, in one sense, is over. It's clear that the bugs are worked out and that you've mastered the technical aspects of your wonderful cameras. In another sense, it's time for the journey to begin; now, unencumbered by the technical bugs, you can really begin to discover how these old tools can teach you how to see in new ways. The journey just goes on, and that's the best part!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
It seems that your Ermanox journey, in one sense, is over. It's clear that the bugs are worked out and that you've mastered the technical aspects of your wonderful cameras. In another sense, it's time for the journey to begin; now, unencumbered by the technical bugs, you can really begin to discover how these old tools can teach you how to see in new ways. The journey just goes on, and that's the best part!
Click to expand...

Two things I’m thinking of: i) When I next venture out West, I should exclusively use the Ermanoxes. I think they’ll help me potentially look at the landscape/scenes and the people differently; ii) I need to put myself into more ‘low light’ situations with people, like an event of some kind, dinner party etc. I do have one coming up next weekend so hopefully that will afford a good opportunity.

Having said that, I will still continue to take them along on our weekend nature walks. The only downside is that all my other cameras are being neglected.
 
Still trying my hand at low-light shooting with the Ermanox whenever I have a chance. I'm getting the exposures right and everything seems to be working out in that regard, but I'm still having the challenge of getting the focus right. I still have a long way to go!


Andrew at Scott's by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
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