Ernemann camera

[psmithp]

A (very good!) friend has given me an Ernemann film&plate camera, apparently for 122 film. Its serial number is 1028870, the lens is an Ernemann Doppel-Objektiv f=12,5 cm f:11, serial number 343518.
Does anybody know how to find out how old it is?

 

[xkaes]

Ernemann made a ton of cameras. Without a model name -- Bob, Ernoflex, Heag, etc. -- or a picture, we have nothing to work with except that the serial # means it was made in 1922.

 

[Dustin McAmera]

A lens of that description is listed in this *1924* catalogue reproduced at Pacific Rim, page 8:

https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/01407/01407.pdf

(there's 24 MB of it)

At the top of page 2, it says the listed prices are valid from 15 December 1924. So your lens was still available at that time.
This isn't much help: a two-piece periscope lens wouldn't be a new design then. I looked here because I thought maybe the lens *wouldn't* be listed; that would have let us say it's definitely older than 1924. The next catalogue you're likely to find may have it rebranded as Zeiss Ikon, if it was still there at all.

Camera-wiki has serial number lists for some brands, but not Ernemann. Sorry not to be more help.


FWIW, the description at the top of p8, translated (by Google) is Highly recommended, inexpensive optics, consisting of 2 meniscus lenses with the best possible optical correction. As a periscope, it is not spherically and chromatically corrected, and the astigmatism is not completely eliminated, but it is practically free of distortion.

 

[Dustin McAmera]

122 film is postcard format; 8 (or 8¼) x 14 inch. That seems a bit big for a 12.5cm lens.

From Ernemann, I would expect your camera to be a Bob (with rounded ends) or a Heag (square ends). Maybe the Bob 0:

Ernemann Bob - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

camera-wiki.org

(and page 16 of that 1924 catalogue)

You might try comparing the style of fittings (struts, viewfinder, the little catches you pull the lens carriage out with, winding key, etc) with photos of examples; in that catalogue, at Flickr, Camera-wiki, ...

There is this other catalogue, at ''Cineressources'':

http://www.cineressources.net/consultationPdf/web/o000/256.pdf

Ernemann Kameras sind die Besten! (10 MB of it)

That's not dated, but they describe the Bob III as new, so it's probably about 1904. The Bob 0 doesn't exist yet. You can see the style of the shutters and brilliant finders is visibly a bit more antiquated than in the '24 catalogue.
This helps: they have a periscopic lens (listed as an option for the Bob I) but they call it 'Rapid-Detektiv-Periscop', not Doppel-Objektiv. So maybe it's safe to say your camera is later than 1904.

 

[choiliefan]

Post a couple pix of the camera.

 

[xkaes]

As I mentioned above, the camera is from 1922.

 

[psmithp]

Thanks to all for your interest and replies.

 

[Don_ih]

8 (or 8¼) x 14 inch. That seems a bit big for a 12.5cm lens

It's supposed to be cm. Postcard is 3.5 x 5.5 inches.

 

[Dustin McAmera]

Sorry; I meant cm. That is, even in cm I thought 12.5cm lens is a bit short for an 8x14cm postcard camera.

I said this because postcard (8.25x14cm is 3¼x5½ inch) is like quarter-plate but longer. My quarter-plate Ensign folder has a 5½-inch (14cm) lens; so I can see a 12.5cm being a bit short to cover the postcard format. Not that I doubt the OP's reading of what's on the front of his lens; if it'sengraved 12.cm, that's what it is. I meant to sow doubt that maybe the camera isn't as big as he thinks.

However, now I look again at the catalogue linked in my first post, I see the 12.cm lens is listed as suitable for '6.5x9 (9x12)'on p8. 9x12 isn't quite postcard length.

On p16 I see the Bob 00 listed in 8x10.5 roll-film or 9x12 plates, with exactly the lens the OP has. So I was wrong.

Incidentally, I was looking earlier at some of the recent 35mm cheap (-ish) and cheerful 35mm cameras like the 'Kodak' Ektar H35 ; many of them have a two-element lens at f/9 - f/10, which I guess is a smaller (and acrylic) version of a periscope lens.

 

[Don_ih]

I thought 12.5cm lens is a bit short for an 8x14cm postcard camera

I used a postcard camera lens on 4x5 and there was no movement available. That was a Kodak. I think it's about 125mm. Realistically, the format is 3.25x5.25, zero movements, so it doesn't need to cover quite as much as a 4x5 lens does. The Ektar 127 covers 4x5 with lots of movement.