Description: Rare Ernemann Anastigmat "Ernostar" 10.5cm f/1.8 lens, produced about 100 years ago in 1920s or early 1930s. It was originally mounted on Ermanox compact medium format camera, famous for making photojournalist-style indoor photography with available light possible for the very first time, thanks to the development of these lenses with such large aperture. The optical formula of this lens later evolved into the famous Sonnar design, with which it shares many character traits, such as very smooth bokeh, low contrast and light glow wide open but still good sharpness, especially flattering in glamour-style portraiture. This lens has been retrofitted to the modern Fuji G mount for cameras such as GFX 100s. It covers GFX sensor fully with no vignetting (tested on the 50S II), and the original lens helicoid is still being used here for manual focusing, providing smooth experience with easy rotation and ability to focus from infinity to about 3 feet with correct distance scale. The aperture is perfectly round with 18 or so blades, opens and closes very easily despite few light traces of oil on the blades. The conversion was non-desctructive, the adapter tube with GFX mount can simply be unscrewed from the lens to bring it back to the original condition. The front glass on this lens is in near perfect condition with no visible scratches or cleaning marks.The rear glass element, however, has obvious issues, including a web of scratches around the center and a couple of glass chips near the edge. Internally there is one small scuff, a tiny air bubble and faint internal haze. No fungus or large dust particles. The glass condition does not look good by any means, but surprisingly this lens still produces sharp images with good sharpness level from wide open for a Sonnar design, but the contrast is on the lower side (to be honest, it is never strong for an uncoated Sonnar-type lens to begin with). The contrast can be restored in post-processing though, please see "before" and "after" example images plus a center crop, In my opinion the unique character and bokeh of this lens deserve some extra effort. The scratches are diffused and not visible on images at all until at least f/11, and at the smaller apertures they start showing up as faint shadow areas. Cosmetically the lens shows obvious signs of age and use, but no serious scratches and no dents. It comes with a front cap. Offered at a significant discount because of the glass condition.
Price: 999 USD
Location: Boca Raton, Florida
End Time: 2024-10-01T16:33:27.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Maximum Aperture: f/1.8
Brand: Ernemann
Type: Telephoto
Model: Ernemann Anastigmat Ernostar 10.5cm F1.8
Focal Length: 105mm
Country/Region of Manufacture: Germany
