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MOOLY, Geez what a weird name.
In Today's 35 mm World of Motordrives, it's pretty easy to forget the very first one. In 1938, Leica introduced the first commercially successful 35 mm motordrive, the mechanical "clockwork", MOOLY. NO batteries! No, I have no idea how or where Leica got the name, other then knowing that Leica used five letter nonsensical codes at that time. Today, they have reformed the process to give us non-sensical products instead, like a manual focus SLR in an Autofocus Age. Sorry 'R' fans, but I just couldn't resist -- Nikon made me do it!
The MOOLY is quite an achievement. Mega-corporation Zeiss never introduced one for Leica's main pre-war competitor, the Contax. For that matter, neither did anyone else. Before the war, Leica often lead the entire camera industry in new technology. For it's time, the MOOLY was a big deal with literally no other choices to do what it did.
The MOOLY replaced the camera's baseplate, was spring wound, and used an arm to connect the shutter release with the motor. The earlier ones, like this one, were two speeds, a blazingly fast one or two frames per second. On later models the switch was eliminated in favor of the simplicity of a single speed. About 12 exposures were possible on a fully wound motor.
About 5,000 MOOLY's were made for the shorter body Leica II, III, IIIa and IIIb. A later, and rarer, MOOLY-C was made for the larger bodies IIIc. It had internal linkage. Later models during the war were grey paint rather than chrome.
Today most MOOLY's are not working. Often they have also lost their linking arm. Below the motor switch is the Lutz Ferrando & Co. engraving for the Argentina Leica distributor.
Note the 28/6.3 Hektor with the rare TUVOO viewfinder attachment.
Photos courtesy of Adrian Sternfeld
Oh I Got the MOOLY Blues. MOOLY MOOLY, oh Wooly MOOLY MOOLY, oh Wooly Luv you in the Morning, Luv you in the Night. Gotta Get my MOOLY MOOLY or I ain't Gonna Be Happy Tonight. Luv that MOOLY MOOLY, Would do somethin' Else But all I can think of is MOOLY MOOLY, MOOLY MOOLY.
Oh I Got the MOOLY Blues Take it from me, A day without MOOLY MOOLY just ain't worth livin Oh I Got the MOOLY Blues Ok, so it wasn't a hit song, but with a name like MOOLY, maybe it should've been. The MOOLY Blues, Copyright © 1998 Stephen Gandy, All Rights Reserved |
Revised: November 26, 2003 . Copyright © 1998-2002 Stephen Gandy. All rights reserved. This means you may NOT copy and re-use the text or the pictures in ANY other internet or printed publication of ANY kind. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.
