1955 NOVOFLEX: Follow Focus Bazooka telephoto system

That thing that looks like a Bazooka is a Novoflex action follow focus pistol grip system. It was made for 2 types of Leica Telyt lens heads, the 6,8 / 400 and Telyt 6,8 / 560. Novoflex is a German maker of camera accessories. It is renowned for its macro bellows and makes tripods and tripod heads, flash systems, tilt-shift bellows, lens adapters and other parts. Its still in existence today (homepage listed below).

The company was founded in 1948 by Karl Müller, a photographer and photo dealer from Memmingen, and began producing camera housings on behalf of German manufacturers such as Leica and Contax as well as related lenses . From the early 1950s Novoflex developed accessories. The first products were bellows devices for macro photography with small format and medium format cameras. Within a few years, the company became the market leader among the foreign manufacturers and continues to make camera accessories till the present day. In 1955, this fast-shooting lens came onto the market and revolutionised animal and sports photography. Novoflex fast-shooting lenses do not adjust the sharpness by turning, but by pressure against a spring in a pistol grip, thus enabling a previously unimagined speed and precision of the focusing of moving motifs. In the 1980s, the company expanded its range of accessories for macro photography. It developed special holders for flash units and tripod heads for use in close range, as well as from 1990 special light sources, which are adapted to the macro photography. Until the practice of autofocus technology in the 1990s many animal and sports recordings were made worldwide with telephoto lenses from Novoflex. Since the beginning of the 21st century Novoflex is also building on a tripod line, which in 2008 culminated in the modular tripod system "QuadroPod" that has a special feature of four instead of the usual three legs. In addition, Novoflex has been manufacturing precision mechanical parts for customers from the optical industry, mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, electrical industry, furniture industry, hydraulics and pneumatics, jewelry industry and other sectors.

The company's production of lenses was switched from Leica lenses to special lenses, for example its "Rapid Focus" lenses (called "fast-shot" lenses in Germany) or its Novoflexar macro bellows heads.