Description
The Leica II was introduced in 1932 als successing model of the Leica I and the camera has been produced until 1947/1948.
The Leica II was the first Leica camera with built-in rangefinder. Very late Leica II cameras are built on complete Leica III basic housings and have slightly different top cap and other parts, which were not yet available at the introduction of the model.
Starting in 1938 Leica build a clockwork motor for use with Leica models beginning with serial number 159000, the so called motor MOOLY.
The MOOLY can be attached to the Leica instead of the baseplate and make possible to take up to 12 frames in sequence with full wound up spring driven mechanism. The shutter is released either by the lever on the front of the motor housing or by using a cable release which could be srewed into a special port on the base of the motor.
The coupling between motor unit and release button of the camera is solved by an external linkage arm. There is at least one model of the motor MOOLY known which has an internal coupling, a technical solution which is normally found on the MOOLY-C type, only.
Further known versions are the early units with incorporated speed switch to change between one or two frames per second.
Offerd is a Leica II camera body in silver chrome finish from 1938, equiped with a Summar 2,0/5cm collapsible lens and a MOOLY drive unit.
The MOOLY belongs to the second type of the clockwork motors and this one still has the speed selector switch on the front of the motor housing. It is common with this second type motor MOOLY units that the switch has been disengaged at the factory.
These motor drive units are the transition models between the first type with selectable frame rate and the normal series production model without switch and are nowadays hard to find!
The combination of Leica II camera body, Summar 2,0/5cm lens and motor MOOLY drive unit number 704 offered is in very good cosmetically and technically conditionand also in perfect working order!
Total production: not exactly known for the motor units
Rarity: R7 for Motor MOOLY, a full working combination at least R7
Rarity forecast: R7 for Motor MOOLY, a full working combination R8
