Skip to main content

Miranda Auto Sensorex EE

Cameras in this blog are a bit like buses – no camera for months and suddenly four in a row. Two of them were given to me as non working examples so I did not bother putting any film in them but I am happy to share my initial impressions of them. One of them is this Miranda Auto Sensorex EE.

If you have not heard of Miranda before, you are not alone. Many people haven't. The thing is that Miranda cameras are exceptionally well build, with high quality optics and features which pro cameras of their time (that is 60s' and 70s) would be envious of. Take this one as an example, it comes from the very distant 1972 (before the OM-1 era) and offers:
  • Dual light metering including spot !
  • Removable prism.
  • Totally mechanical shutter.
  • Speed priority automation.
These sound like old school kind of staff but find a better equipped camera of that time. And not only that, the camera is very well build, it weights 930gr with lens on – that is Nikon F2 category – and is made only out of glass and metal.

The engineer boffins behind the Autorex EE, took the decision to implement the light meter inside the mirror (!), the mirror itself is a bit thicker and there is a set of three cables coming out of it. This proved to be the Achilles' knee for these cameras, the cables are subjected to continuous movement and eventually give up. On my sample, average light metering was not working properly, possibly a fault on the cable. But to my surprise, spot metering was... well... spot on.

The viewfinder is reasonably bright but it takes a bit of time to get used to the split focusing screen as you can see the spot metering lines in the viewfinder. I would describe it as distracting in the beginning but you get used to it very quickly. Film advance is relatively smooth but the camera produces quite a vibration when taking a picture.

A couple of things to be cautious about. When the camera is used in aperture priority, there is an interlocking system that does not allow you to select certain speeds. That is because the light meter of that time had a limited metering range. If you try to force the camera and change the shutter speeds, you will end up damaging it. To give you an example, with film 400 ISO the aperture priority works with speeds between 1/15 to 1/1000. You can select 1/8 if you wish too but you need to press the lock button on the centre of the speed dial. Also, once you are outside the effective speed range, the shutter speed is not coupled to the aperture which means that you will get a wrong exposure. Try to remember that and read the manual.
Another thing to remember is that when you remove the finder, light hits the mirror from top. This means that the exposure will be influenced this way if you use auto exposure and result in under-exposure. If you want to use the camera as a waist finder camera, you might want to use an external light meter and avoid the auto-mode in this camera.


Conclusion
This is a first impressions write up, so I cannot really say much more. Miranda cameras are usually well made and the can be quite pricey when in working order. Also optics are first rate so I would recommend buying one if it is in good working order. Just make sure that the light meter works before you hand in your hard earned cash.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nikon F801s

The venerable Nikon F801s  This is a review of the Nikon F801s and it's progenitor, the F801. I've been using the F801s for a few months now and I own a plain F801 since 2017. As it is usually the case, it was an impulsive buy, it was for £0.99 with no bids online and I decided that I wanted to compare it with the old trusty F801. * Background information and history. Nikon joined the AF race quite early on in 1986 - Minolta's surprising announcement of the Dynax 7000/9000 the year before forced Nikon to release a modified version of the F301 with an AF module - the F501AF. Canon joined a year later with the first EOS camera (EOS 650) featuring a new lens mount with no backwards compatibility. Nikon's F501 used a very basic AF module with 96 CCDs  - this was eventually replaced by the "legendary" (the emphasis is mine) AM200 module (an array of 20 by 10 CCDs) which found its way in all AF Nikons - from F401 to the F4 and even the third generation ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pentax MZ-50

Cute... This was an impulsive buy - found it for £5 and thought i could have it. It came with 2 CR-2 batteries and initial testing at the shop showed that it worked well. Anyway, the batteries alone cost more than £5. I am not sure how did Pentax experienced the 1990's. Pentax was big in the swinging and dancing 60's with the Spotmatic, did very well in the 70s with the MX and it was the LX that dominated Pentax's pro-line in the 80s. But in the 90s Pentax did not come up with any pro camera and did not introduce any exotic lenses either. The different iterations of the Z-1 were good cameras but in the same league such as the Nikon F90 or Canon EOS5. If you scroll down my blog you will find a review of the Z1 - a very good camera which I sold due to the complicated user interface.  I have to say that the photographic press was pleasantly surprised by the Z-20. I don't see a lot of them coming up online and some of the reviews I read describe it as functiona...
Post a Comment
Read more

Olympus 35DC

Pretty little thing This is a review of the Olympus 35 DC rangefinder. After i shot a film with it, i realized that it needed a CLA, so i will come back to it in the future and add a long lasting impressions section to this post. You know when you are going to have a good day - you walk down the street to go to your local car boot sale and you find a one pound coin and then you go to the sale and you find a nice Olympus 35 DC for £2. The previous owner stated that the camera belonged to his father, used it a few years ago before switching to digital and all pictures came out fine. So i thought.... yea why not, lets not haggle on this one. There were plenty of 35mm fixed lens rangefinder from Olympus during the 60's - too many to remember - all sold with beautiful Zuiko lenses. The Olympus 35xx series peaked with the 35SP during the late 60's. The 35SP was succeeded by the 35RD - Olympus dropped the spot metering and the 7 elements lens was scaled down to...
2 comments
Read more