The Ermanox: First with the fastest lens
It inspired the photojournalist movement but was eclipsed by the Leica
By Jason Schneider
In the first decades of the 20th century European press photographers relied on such cameras as the popular 13 x 18 cm (near as dammit 5 x 7) Contessa-Nettel Deckrullo, a folding strut plate camera with an open, military style, folding Newtonian viewfinder, a huge cloth focal plane shutter with speeds set using separate controls for slit width and spring tension, and a 21 cm f/4.5 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens. It was cumbersome but serviceable for handheld shooting outdoors in good light, but required a tripod for low light and indoor shooting—hardly surprising in an era when “superspeed” plates and film were rated at an equivalent of ISO 32. The world was ripe for a technological breakthrough and by 1925, E. Leitz Wetzlar brought forth the Leica, the camera that came to define contemporary photojournalism. However, a year before that momentous event, another great German company almost stole the Leica’s thunder by announcing a compact handheld camera with what was then the fastest lens in series production.
.jpg/:/rs=w:1440,h:1440)
Ermanox, original rigid body model of 1924, with landmark 10cm f/2 Ernostar lens designed by Ludwig Bertele.
In 1924, Ernemann-Werke AG of Dresden unleashed the Ermanox, essentially a “miniature” solid metal bodied, leather clad, iteration of the classic folding, focal-plane shutter press camera that took pictures on individual 4.5 x 6 cm class plates and had a giant 10cm f/2 Ernostar lens in a massive unit-focusing helical permanently affixed to its front. The new model created a sensation, and was soon adopted by pioneer photojournalist Dr. Erich Salomon, famous for his uncanny ability to capture surreptitious indoor pictures of the famous and infamous. Almost singlehandedly Salomon transformed the Ermonox from a fascinating (and expensive!) curiosity into the cult camera of emerging photojournalists and photo enthusiasts.
The great Dr. Erich Salomon, pioneer of unposed photojournalism, with his beloved Ermanox. A Jew, he and his wife were murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944
Benito Mussolini (left) conferring with German diplomats. Photo by Salomon demonstrates his unique ability to discreetly capture authentic unposed moments even in "restricted" settings.
Alas, by 1931 the ingenious Ermanox, by then sold under Zeiss Ikon banner, had ceased production, vanquished by the all-conquering Leica, which was smaller, far better integrated, and infinitely more convenient to shoot with. By the time Leitz came out with the model II (or D), the first Leica with a built-in coupled rangefinder, in 1932, and released the 50mm f/2 Summar lens shortly thereafter the audacious Ermanox was already a dead letter. Indeed, even longtime Ermanox devotee Erich Salomon had abandoned it, switching to the Leica.
Ernostar 10.5 cm f/1.8 lens of 1924, an advanced 6-element 4-group triplet derivative designed by Ludwig Bertele, inspired his later 50mm f/1.5 and f/2 Zeiss Sonnars.
The Ernostar
The groundbreaking lens on the original Ermanox was designed by Ludwig Bertele, one of the foremost lens designers of the 20th century, and the man responsible for creating the acclaimed 50mm f/1.5 and 50mm f/2 Zeiss Sonnar lenses for the Zeiss Contax of 1932. His 100mm f/2 Ernostar of 1923, equivalent to a 58mm in the full frame 35mm format, is an asymmetrical design, a highly evolved derivative of the Cooke triplet with an extra positive front group. In 1924, Bertele designed two improved, slightly faster versions, the 85mm f/1.8 Ernostar and 105mm f/1.8 Ernostar which were used on later rigid and strut type collapsible versions of the 4.5 x 6 cm Ermanox and on the Ermanox Reflex, a 4.5 x 6 cm waist-level viewing SLR based on the same basic design. There was also a 6.5 x 9cm strut-type folding Ermanox with a bellows and a huge 12.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens, and 9 x 12 cm Ermanoxes in both Tropical (teak wood) and standard versions, each of which sported a humongous 16.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens. These are all gorgeous, eminently collectible, and stratospherically priced, but they’re also grand dinosaurs of the pre-Leica/Contax era.
Glorious limited edition Tropical Ermanox 9 x 12 cm collapsible strut camera shown with plate holders and unique lens cap sported a ginormous 16.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens.
Ernemann-Werke was originally founded back in 1889 as a partnership between Heinrich Ernemann and photo dealer Wilhelm Matthias under the name Dresdner Photographische Apparate-Fabrik Ernemann & Matthias and they initially made wooden cameras such as the Globus. By 1891 Matthias had left the firm, and in 1896 Ernemann expanded the company, and moved it to Dresden in 1899 under the new name Heinrich Ernemann, Aktiengeselleschaft fur Cameraproduktion. The company produced an extensive inventory of high-quality photo equipment ranging from basic box cameras to precision folding cameras. In 1903, the company designed its first cine camera, and within 5 years its line of hand crank wooden movie cameras had expanded considerably. By the time Ernemann’s son Alexander joined the company as technical director, Ernemann had become the premier European cinematic company of the era, producing studio cameras, process cameras, projectors, and a variety of 17.5mm and 35mm equipment. One of its top sellers was the robust Impersonator projector, with 15,000 units produced from the time of its introduction in 1909 until it was discontinued in 1933.
Fastest lens ever fitted to a 4.5 x 6 cm Ermanox? How about this stupendous 7 cm f/1.4 Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar. Did rigs like this inspire the later Night (Nacht) Exakta? Could be, and Ihagee founder Jan Steenbergen one worked for Ernemann. Hmmmm...
Ernemann had only 150 employees in 1904, but that ballooned to 1,400 over the next decade. In 1917 the company name was changed to Ernemann-Werke AG, and in 1923 the company relocated to its new official headquarters in Dresden-Streisen. The dire post WW I economy in Germany led to yet another great merger in 1926, this time with Carl Zeiss, Ica, Contessa-Nettel, and Ernemann coming together to form Zeiss Ikon AG. The once coveted Ermanox cameras could not compete with the superior design and functionality of the Leica or Zeiss Ikon’s newly released Contax, and they were officially discontinued in 1931 in the depth of the worldwide Great Depression.
Ermanox Reflex: This waist level SLR 4.5 x 6 cm version had a flipping mirror, f/1.8 lens, and top-mounted viewing screen with a "chimney" type hood like an old Graflex.
The 4.5 x 6 cm Ermanox vs the Leica
When it was released in 1924 the original rigid bodied Ermanox had two major advantages over the upstart Leica I, model A of 1925. It had a much faster 100mm f/2 Ernostar lens vs. the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar on the Leica, and it provided a considerably larger format, nominally 45 x 60mm compared to the Leica’s 24 x 36mm. Its “superspeed” f/2 lens meant you could shoot handheld exposures indoors (like the Leica, its slowest timed speed was a (barely) hand-holdable 1/20 sec), and the larger format had the potential of yielding better quality enlargements on the grainy low-performance “superspeed” films of the day, which topped out at a blistering ISO 32 equivalent. By the late ‘20s you could order your Leica I with a one-stop-faster (permanently mounted) 50mm f.2.5 Hektor lens, but by them the Ermanox was sporing an 85mm or 105mm f/1.8 Ernostar lens so it was still winning the lens speed race by a comfortable margin.
The main problem with the Ermanox was that taking pictures was a slow and ponderous process. Even if you used it as a scale-focusing point-and shoot, as Erich Salomon often did, you would still have to cock the shutter, set the shutter speed using separate controls for slit width and spring tension, load an individual glass plate holder after removing the ground glass focusing screen, erect the folding military style optical viewfinder with crosshairs, estimate and set the shooting distance, pull the dark slide sheath, and press the shutter release. Needless to say, the depth of field when shooting at f/2 or f/1.8 is extremely limited so this technique will not work for close-ups, but it may suffice for subjects beyond 15 feet or so. The 1931 Ermanox manual contains a stern warning that “only glass plates should be used, not film packs” and “when purchasing extra dark slides, always state that they are intended for the Ermanox camera” because “the slides supplied with the camera have been carefully tested for accurate focussing.” Presumably third party 127 roll film adapters, which were available at the time, were also officially verboten.
“To obtain absolutely sharp pictures” the manual continues, you must use the focusing screen on the back of the camera, “which has a light hood that erects itself automatically on raising the cover held by a press-button catch.” This lets you focus precisely all right (a handheld magnifier is advised to aid focusing precision!), but first you have to set the shutter to “T” and open it to view the image on the ground glass, open the lens to maximum aperture, focus, close, cock and reset the shutter’s controls to the shutter speed you want, set the lens to shooting aperture (there’s not even a pre-set diaphragm), remove the focusing screen and replace it with a plate holder, pull the dark slide, and take the shot. To say that this is not ideal for handheld shooting is beyond overstatement, but it’s a procedure familiar to anyone who’s used a tripod-mounted 4 x 5 view camera. In addition to these charming inconveniences, remember that none of the Ermanox models featured interchangeable lenses, a feature fully realized in the Leica II (model D) and the Leica Standard (model E) of 1932.
While the Leicas of the 1920’s used Leica 35mm cassettes in place daylight loading cartridges (Kodak unveiled the modern “disposable” 35mm cartridge in 1935) they provided 36 exposures (actually, up to 40) per roll, featured automatic shutter cocking and frame counting as you wound the film to the next frame, and required no pesky plate holders. These features don’t sound too exciting by contemporary standards, but back in the ‘20s they were cutting edge. It’s also worth noting that Leica lenses have shorter focal lengths and greater depth of field than the corresponding Ernostars, and therefore yield better results when guesstimating distances with a scale focusing model like the Leica I or Leica Standard.
Early Ernemann ad published in Milan, Italy describes and shows the Ermanox with 10 cm f.2 Ernostar without mentioning it by name.
Ermanox myths
One enduring Ermanox legend is that it was originally called Er-Nox or Ernox, and the name was changed to Ermanox shortly thereafter. While this is possible nobody so far has been able to come up with an ad or official catalog reference listing the name as Er-Nox. Undoubtedly Ernemann was a company capable of producing high-quality cameras but the focal plane shutters in Ermanoxes are hardly paragons of reliability and they’re delicate and devilishly difficult to repair. To be fair, the big two-curtain focal plane shutters in other German cameras made by great companies like Ica and Contessa-Nettel are also less reliable than the simpler more rugged ones (still using separate slit-width and spring tension adjustments) found in 4x5, 5x7, and 3-1/4 x 4-1/4 Graflexes of the same era. Score one for dear old Folmer & Schwing.
Note: I deliberately haven’t provided detailed descriptions of every iteration of Ermanox ever produced for reasons of space and obviating boredom. Aside from format and general configuration (rigid body, folding strut, or waist level SLR), the basic concept and features are quite similar. However, I’ve done something even better—included a plethora of pictures and captions which are a lot more informative and entertaining. If you hanker for an Ermanox in good nick I sure hope you have deep pockets. Here are a few sample asking prices currently listed at online auction sites:
1. Ernemann Ermanox Reflex (SLR) 4.5 x 6 cm with 10.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens, “working in very good condition,” $5,223.55 plus $132.86 shipping
2. Ermanox 4.5 x 6 cm, rigid body with 8.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens, with case, “excellent condition, works great.” $8.925.00 or best offer, plus $50.00 shipping.
3. Ermanox original 4.5 x 6 cm rigid body with 10 cm f/2 Ernostar, not tested, $3,276.00 or best offer, plus $50,00 shipping.
It inspired the photojournalist movement but was eclipsed by the Leica
By Jason Schneider
In the first decades of the 20th century European press photographers relied on such cameras as the popular 13 x 18 cm (near as dammit 5 x 7) Contessa-Nettel Deckrullo, a folding strut plate camera with an open, military style, folding Newtonian viewfinder, a huge cloth focal plane shutter with speeds set using separate controls for slit width and spring tension, and a 21 cm f/4.5 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens. It was cumbersome but serviceable for handheld shooting outdoors in good light, but required a tripod for low light and indoor shooting—hardly surprising in an era when “superspeed” plates and film were rated at an equivalent of ISO 32. The world was ripe for a technological breakthrough and by 1925, E. Leitz Wetzlar brought forth the Leica, the camera that came to define contemporary photojournalism. However, a year before that momentous event, another great German company almost stole the Leica’s thunder by announcing a compact handheld camera with what was then the fastest lens in series production.
Ermanox, original rigid body model of 1924, with landmark 10cm f/2 Ernostar lens designed by Ludwig Bertele.
In 1924, Ernemann-Werke AG of Dresden unleashed the Ermanox, essentially a “miniature” solid metal bodied, leather clad, iteration of the classic folding, focal-plane shutter press camera that took pictures on individual 4.5 x 6 cm class plates and had a giant 10cm f/2 Ernostar lens in a massive unit-focusing helical permanently affixed to its front. The new model created a sensation, and was soon adopted by pioneer photojournalist Dr. Erich Salomon, famous for his uncanny ability to capture surreptitious indoor pictures of the famous and infamous. Almost singlehandedly Salomon transformed the Ermonox from a fascinating (and expensive!) curiosity into the cult camera of emerging photojournalists and photo enthusiasts.
The great Dr. Erich Salomon, pioneer of unposed photojournalism, with his beloved Ermanox. A Jew, he and his wife were murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944
Benito Mussolini (left) conferring with German diplomats. Photo by Salomon demonstrates his unique ability to discreetly capture authentic unposed moments even in "restricted" settings.
Alas, by 1931 the ingenious Ermanox, by then sold under Zeiss Ikon banner, had ceased production, vanquished by the all-conquering Leica, which was smaller, far better integrated, and infinitely more convenient to shoot with. By the time Leitz came out with the model II (or D), the first Leica with a built-in coupled rangefinder, in 1932, and released the 50mm f/2 Summar lens shortly thereafter the audacious Ermanox was already a dead letter. Indeed, even longtime Ermanox devotee Erich Salomon had abandoned it, switching to the Leica.
Ernostar 10.5 cm f/1.8 lens of 1924, an advanced 6-element 4-group triplet derivative designed by Ludwig Bertele, inspired his later 50mm f/1.5 and f/2 Zeiss Sonnars.
The Ernostar
The groundbreaking lens on the original Ermanox was designed by Ludwig Bertele, one of the foremost lens designers of the 20th century, and the man responsible for creating the acclaimed 50mm f/1.5 and 50mm f/2 Zeiss Sonnar lenses for the Zeiss Contax of 1932. His 100mm f/2 Ernostar of 1923, equivalent to a 58mm in the full frame 35mm format, is an asymmetrical design, a highly evolved derivative of the Cooke triplet with an extra positive front group. In 1924, Bertele designed two improved, slightly faster versions, the 85mm f/1.8 Ernostar and 105mm f/1.8 Ernostar which were used on later rigid and strut type collapsible versions of the 4.5 x 6 cm Ermanox and on the Ermanox Reflex, a 4.5 x 6 cm waist-level viewing SLR based on the same basic design. There was also a 6.5 x 9cm strut-type folding Ermanox with a bellows and a huge 12.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens, and 9 x 12 cm Ermanoxes in both Tropical (teak wood) and standard versions, each of which sported a humongous 16.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens. These are all gorgeous, eminently collectible, and stratospherically priced, but they’re also grand dinosaurs of the pre-Leica/Contax era.
Glorious limited edition Tropical Ermanox 9 x 12 cm collapsible strut camera shown with plate holders and unique lens cap sported a ginormous 16.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens.
Ernemann-Werke was originally founded back in 1889 as a partnership between Heinrich Ernemann and photo dealer Wilhelm Matthias under the name Dresdner Photographische Apparate-Fabrik Ernemann & Matthias and they initially made wooden cameras such as the Globus. By 1891 Matthias had left the firm, and in 1896 Ernemann expanded the company, and moved it to Dresden in 1899 under the new name Heinrich Ernemann, Aktiengeselleschaft fur Cameraproduktion. The company produced an extensive inventory of high-quality photo equipment ranging from basic box cameras to precision folding cameras. In 1903, the company designed its first cine camera, and within 5 years its line of hand crank wooden movie cameras had expanded considerably. By the time Ernemann’s son Alexander joined the company as technical director, Ernemann had become the premier European cinematic company of the era, producing studio cameras, process cameras, projectors, and a variety of 17.5mm and 35mm equipment. One of its top sellers was the robust Impersonator projector, with 15,000 units produced from the time of its introduction in 1909 until it was discontinued in 1933.
Fastest lens ever fitted to a 4.5 x 6 cm Ermanox? How about this stupendous 7 cm f/1.4 Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar. Did rigs like this inspire the later Night (Nacht) Exakta? Could be, and Ihagee founder Jan Steenbergen one worked for Ernemann. Hmmmm...
Ernemann had only 150 employees in 1904, but that ballooned to 1,400 over the next decade. In 1917 the company name was changed to Ernemann-Werke AG, and in 1923 the company relocated to its new official headquarters in Dresden-Streisen. The dire post WW I economy in Germany led to yet another great merger in 1926, this time with Carl Zeiss, Ica, Contessa-Nettel, and Ernemann coming together to form Zeiss Ikon AG. The once coveted Ermanox cameras could not compete with the superior design and functionality of the Leica or Zeiss Ikon’s newly released Contax, and they were officially discontinued in 1931 in the depth of the worldwide Great Depression.
Ermanox Reflex: This waist level SLR 4.5 x 6 cm version had a flipping mirror, f/1.8 lens, and top-mounted viewing screen with a "chimney" type hood like an old Graflex.
The 4.5 x 6 cm Ermanox vs the Leica
When it was released in 1924 the original rigid bodied Ermanox had two major advantages over the upstart Leica I, model A of 1925. It had a much faster 100mm f/2 Ernostar lens vs. the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar on the Leica, and it provided a considerably larger format, nominally 45 x 60mm compared to the Leica’s 24 x 36mm. Its “superspeed” f/2 lens meant you could shoot handheld exposures indoors (like the Leica, its slowest timed speed was a (barely) hand-holdable 1/20 sec), and the larger format had the potential of yielding better quality enlargements on the grainy low-performance “superspeed” films of the day, which topped out at a blistering ISO 32 equivalent. By the late ‘20s you could order your Leica I with a one-stop-faster (permanently mounted) 50mm f.2.5 Hektor lens, but by them the Ermanox was sporing an 85mm or 105mm f/1.8 Ernostar lens so it was still winning the lens speed race by a comfortable margin.
The main problem with the Ermanox was that taking pictures was a slow and ponderous process. Even if you used it as a scale-focusing point-and shoot, as Erich Salomon often did, you would still have to cock the shutter, set the shutter speed using separate controls for slit width and spring tension, load an individual glass plate holder after removing the ground glass focusing screen, erect the folding military style optical viewfinder with crosshairs, estimate and set the shooting distance, pull the dark slide sheath, and press the shutter release. Needless to say, the depth of field when shooting at f/2 or f/1.8 is extremely limited so this technique will not work for close-ups, but it may suffice for subjects beyond 15 feet or so. The 1931 Ermanox manual contains a stern warning that “only glass plates should be used, not film packs” and “when purchasing extra dark slides, always state that they are intended for the Ermanox camera” because “the slides supplied with the camera have been carefully tested for accurate focussing.” Presumably third party 127 roll film adapters, which were available at the time, were also officially verboten.
“To obtain absolutely sharp pictures” the manual continues, you must use the focusing screen on the back of the camera, “which has a light hood that erects itself automatically on raising the cover held by a press-button catch.” This lets you focus precisely all right (a handheld magnifier is advised to aid focusing precision!), but first you have to set the shutter to “T” and open it to view the image on the ground glass, open the lens to maximum aperture, focus, close, cock and reset the shutter’s controls to the shutter speed you want, set the lens to shooting aperture (there’s not even a pre-set diaphragm), remove the focusing screen and replace it with a plate holder, pull the dark slide, and take the shot. To say that this is not ideal for handheld shooting is beyond overstatement, but it’s a procedure familiar to anyone who’s used a tripod-mounted 4 x 5 view camera. In addition to these charming inconveniences, remember that none of the Ermanox models featured interchangeable lenses, a feature fully realized in the Leica II (model D) and the Leica Standard (model E) of 1932.
While the Leicas of the 1920’s used Leica 35mm cassettes in place daylight loading cartridges (Kodak unveiled the modern “disposable” 35mm cartridge in 1935) they provided 36 exposures (actually, up to 40) per roll, featured automatic shutter cocking and frame counting as you wound the film to the next frame, and required no pesky plate holders. These features don’t sound too exciting by contemporary standards, but back in the ‘20s they were cutting edge. It’s also worth noting that Leica lenses have shorter focal lengths and greater depth of field than the corresponding Ernostars, and therefore yield better results when guesstimating distances with a scale focusing model like the Leica I or Leica Standard.
Early Ernemann ad published in Milan, Italy describes and shows the Ermanox with 10 cm f.2 Ernostar without mentioning it by name.
Ermanox myths
One enduring Ermanox legend is that it was originally called Er-Nox or Ernox, and the name was changed to Ermanox shortly thereafter. While this is possible nobody so far has been able to come up with an ad or official catalog reference listing the name as Er-Nox. Undoubtedly Ernemann was a company capable of producing high-quality cameras but the focal plane shutters in Ermanoxes are hardly paragons of reliability and they’re delicate and devilishly difficult to repair. To be fair, the big two-curtain focal plane shutters in other German cameras made by great companies like Ica and Contessa-Nettel are also less reliable than the simpler more rugged ones (still using separate slit-width and spring tension adjustments) found in 4x5, 5x7, and 3-1/4 x 4-1/4 Graflexes of the same era. Score one for dear old Folmer & Schwing.
Note: I deliberately haven’t provided detailed descriptions of every iteration of Ermanox ever produced for reasons of space and obviating boredom. Aside from format and general configuration (rigid body, folding strut, or waist level SLR), the basic concept and features are quite similar. However, I’ve done something even better—included a plethora of pictures and captions which are a lot more informative and entertaining. If you hanker for an Ermanox in good nick I sure hope you have deep pockets. Here are a few sample asking prices currently listed at online auction sites:
1. Ernemann Ermanox Reflex (SLR) 4.5 x 6 cm with 10.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens, “working in very good condition,” $5,223.55 plus $132.86 shipping
2. Ermanox 4.5 x 6 cm, rigid body with 8.5 cm f/1.8 Ernostar lens, with case, “excellent condition, works great.” $8.925.00 or best offer, plus $50.00 shipping.
3. Ermanox original 4.5 x 6 cm rigid body with 10 cm f/2 Ernostar, not tested, $3,276.00 or best offer, plus $50,00 shipping.
