New to this forum, what better way to break the ice than ramble about my current favorite camera:
The 1960 Miranda D SLR. I've always wanted a Miranda, but so little info was available about these cameras that I never wanted to fork over dough for one. On hearing a positive review from a friend, I decided I needed to finally get one myself.
A little background on Miranda. The first Miranda appeared on the market in 1956. The Miranda T. The first Japanese SLR with a pentaprism - the first Japanese SLR with interchangeable viewfinders and a 1/1000 top shutter speed. The T was followed by the A, the first Miranda with lever wind, and the B, the first with an instant return mirror. The Miranda system enjoyed brief popularity as a pro SLR until Nikon released the F, and pulled the market out from under the younger, smaller company.
During the late 1950s, Soligor invested in Miranda and this brought about the Miranda D - envisioned as mid-tier full featured SLR for the budget minded. The D only exported, and was never on the market in its native Japan. It turned out to be a huge success for Soligor and they sold tons of them during the early 60s.
At a glance: shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/500. Revolving shutter dial, and slow speeds on a separate lever. Lever wind, interchangeable viewfinders and lenses. Miranda's big claim to fame at the time was the short back-focus distance which allowed their cameras to use every other SLR system's lenses with the proper adapter.
Adapters were available for Praktica Mount lenses (M42), Exakta, Nikon F, while retaining infinity focus. There were adapters for Leica thread mount and Nikon/Contax RF lenses too, but these could only be used for close up work. I have an M42 adapter, and it is awesome.
In 1960 it cost a whopping $159 with an F1.9/50 "automatic" lens. The F2.8/50 preset lens option lowered the cost to $119. Expensive yes, but an Exakta would set you back $300+ at the time, so a bargain considering. The automatic lenses of this era were provided by Kowa.
In any event -
I love this camera! SLRs never clicked for me (no pun intended), they were just too clunky, too loud, and too many other things. I never found one I liked entirely. I did however know from using my Praktiflex that I enjoyed having a WLF, so one of the things that appealed to me about the Miranda was the option of using a WLF if I wanted to.
There are other nice touches: with the prism, the view is 1:1 with a 50mm lens, which makes it super easy to envision a shot in your head without having to lift the camera to your eye. The advance lever is ratcheted, so you can advance the film incrementally - camera straps never get in the way of your fingers. The shutter is rather quiet for an SLR of this era too, although hardly quiet by even 1970s standards - but way better than the sounds Prakticas and Exaktas make.
Anyway:
The standard lens is ok. It's not retina splitting sharp, but like most fast lenses of the era, it was designed to be fast first most and sharpness took a back seat. Kind of like the old Biotars, and many other contemporary designs.
Color is a little soft, as one would expect for a single coated lens.
The OOF has a fuzzy look. There's a little bit of double lining but it is not too distracting. Again it is a bit like the Biotar in this respect.
The F1.9 focusses down to 17" It really does have an "old fashioned" look to it.
I also have the F2.8 preset - and I really love the way it goes:
It's a tessar design. Sharp, contrasty, round-ish aperture (8 blades).
have a crop of a bee (wide open):
The fun part is that with the M42 adapter I can also use my vintage M42 lenses on it. Some of these won't work on "modern" M42 cameras because they intrude too far into the mirror box and will foul the aperture plunger. I used to have to load up the Praktiflex if I wanted to use my preset CZJ Tessar for instance. Now I can use them all on the Miranda.
Some ISCO ISCONAR test shots:
Meyer Oreston with extension tube:
Soligor F2.8/105 (T mount with Miranda adapter):
Next I plan to take photos of some interesting things.
