Can the Mooly on a iiib be ditched?

[Gben]

I'm curious where you're located Gben. In the Chicago area of US? I'd wait to see what Brian (Sonnar_Brian) has to say about your lens before dismissing it as low worth.
MOOLYs sometimes sell for silly prices but I like to consider the recipient of some of my items....

I am in the Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh triangle. I don't see why the lens would take any better or worse photos than any other Sonnar f1.5, I am just saying that it's build-quality is not as good as pre-war lenses or 1950s Zeiss lenses.

As far as the MOOLY goes, I would never break it up and get rid of the shutter actuating arm, that would be silly. It will all go together. I love old things and would never break anything up for profit. Is there a chance this iib left the factory with this MOOLY on it? I don't know if they sold them this way complete or if they all had to be added on by dealers. The camera and the MOOLY are of the same age though right? If it was shipped from the factory on one piece then maybe I am doing something wrong taking the Mooly off it.

 

[dexdog]

I don't see why the lens would take any better or worse photos than any other Sonnar f1.5, I am just saying that it's build-quality is not as good as pre-war lenses or 1950s Zeiss lenses.

I agree about the build quality, but there is also the issue of quality control dealing with lens assembly and tolerances. For instance, lens elements may not be shimmed properly, and focusing may be inaccurate. It might work just fine as it is, but you will not know for sure until you take some photos.
BTW, running serial number using Hartmut Thiele's book shows that your lens was part of a batch of 5000 lenses completed 12 April 1945. The book also notes that some of the batch were produced in leica mount.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I wasn't aware Zeiss actually made LTM Sonnars in 1944-45. But I know a lot of Contax-mount Sonnars were also converted to LTM by third-party workshops after VE-day for GIs eager to use Zeiss lenses on their Leica bodies.

Brian would be able to share more info

 

[David Hughes]

Looking at the state they are in I don't think that QC comes into it after 80 or so years. GI's weren't the only people in uniforms - field grey from memory - who wanted LTM lenses, even made by CZ.


Regards, David

 

[Gben]

It might work just fine as it is, but you will not know for sure until you take some photos.
BTW, running serial number using Hartmut Thiele's book shows that your lens was part of a batch of 5000 lenses completed 12 April 1945. The book also notes that some of the batch were produced in leica mount.

Thanks for the fabulous information. That sounds like a great book, are copies of it readily available? I ran a roll of film through this camera today, walking around my area in the bright sunshine. I noticed the rangefinder does not match the reading on the distance scale, so I shot one photo of a subject using the rangefinder, then another using the scale on the lens. I shot some at infinity and some as short as the focus would let me go, most all of them at f11 or f16. I found a nice plastic lens cap for the camera instead of the screw-on alloy item, I put an old strap on it so I would not drop it, and I tore the covering off the body as it was falling off anyway.

Slow shutter speeds do not work well, no big surprise there. I shot six or eight of the photos using the MOOLY and it worked fine, then I just used the manual wind for the rest of the shots. The MOOLY makes the camera ridiculously heavy, advancing the film manually is a snap. The only thing the MOOLY is really good for is maybe someone photographing sports, otherwise it is just a curiosity.

 

[Rob-F]

My Leica illustrated Guide II by Jim Lager just says the "MOOLY was supplied for short base-length screw-mount leicas. The MOOLY was attached to the Leica like a normal baseplate . . ." He also says that early motors had a selector switch for either one or two frames per second; while later ones were simply two frames per second. In your photo, your MOOLY looks like it has that selector switch for a selectable frame rate. The MOOLY can advance 12 frames on one winding.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

The MOOLY requires the slots in the take-up spindle for the drive shaft to grab onto. I recall reading that not all IIIa bodies might have this type of spindle, but all IIIb's do.

The MOOLY-C is for the long base-length IIIc and later bodies, it features an internal link instead of the connector arm for the shutter release.

 

[raydm6]

Love the looks of that rig sans vulcanite!

 

[dexdog]

Thanks for the fabulous information. That sounds like a great book, are copies of it readily available?

The book is called "Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II. Carl Zeiss Jena 1927 bis 1991". It appears to be for sale from Lindemans bookseller in Germany for 58 euros.

BTW, your camera looks pretty cool with the old vulcanite removed.

 

[Gben]

The book is called "Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II. Carl Zeiss Jena 1927 bis 1991". It appears to be for sale from Lindemans bookseller in Germany for 58 euros.

BTW, your camera looks pretty cool with the old vulcanite removed.

Thank-you for the info, I will look into that, I love history and books. Coincidentally, I also have a pair of Leitz binoculars that have almost no vulcanite, an old friend of mine got them over in Germany when he was in the Navy during the Korean war.

 

[seany65]

Gben, You'd be in trouble if it was a "Woggler's Mouli" you wanted to remove:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E86pi81QWeo

 

[Gben]

Thanks to all for the education on the Leica Mooly. One gentleman commenting through a public forum told me that if you unscrew the knob on the front for switching speeds, that there may be a piece behind it that can be removed that limits it to the single speed. I have not looked into this, and I think Leica blocked the two-speed feature for a reason, maybe it stretched the design too far. I saw photos of a Mooly that was apart and there is a LOT of stuff packed in that little case. From training in repairing mechanical watches, and from growing up in the analog era and having used wind-up clocks in practical daily life, I am betting there is a lot of force and strain on the internal parts of a MOOLY when it is wound up and operating. That this one is working fine after 83 years shows that it was built to take the strain. Without a competent CLA, I would always be wondering when in use, the MOOLY would give up the ghost. It is a marvel of compact engineering though.

This MOOLY has "open"/"close" on its latch and a quarter-inch tripod screw, so does that mean it was made for export to the USA or U.K. when new? Still always wondering what sort of history such an odd combination of Leica parts might have.