When I hear the name Miranda I think of two things first and foremost, number one is Star Trek and the venerable Miranda Class that first appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and has remained a staple of the Federation Starfleet (I prefer the roll bar version) the second is Shakespeare which is where the class name takes its inspiration from. But when it comes to cameras, the Miranda brand is one that doesn’t get much respect, despite being an innovative company that sadly lacked the level of quality assurance that the bigger names could provide. I first learned about Miranda cameras through my good friend John Meadows and got a quick history lesson in the company back in 2022 for an episode of the Classic Camera Revival but never went to the effort to get my hands on one, until recently when a fellow camera blogger offered to send me a Sensorex! Thanks to Jim Grey for the donation of this camera for the review!
Nikon D750 – AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4D
Camera Specifications
Manufacturer: Miranda
Model: Sensorex
Type: Single Lens Reflex
Format: 135 (35mm), 36x24mm
Lens: Interchangeable, Miranda Bayonet and 44mm Screw Mount
Shutter: Focal plane type, 1s – 1/1000s + Bulb
Meter: TTL CdS Meter, EV1 – EV 18 @ ASA-100, ASA-25 – ASA-1600
Dimensions (WxHxD): 146x94x86mm
Weight: 650g w/o lens
Power Source: 1.35V Mercury Cell
Year of Manufacture: 1966-71
Background
Miranda Camera Co is one of those post-war Japanese camera makers that fly under the radar as they never had the reach or cultural cache to gain widespread popularity. Ogihara Akira and Ōtsuka Shintarō, a pair of aeronautical engineers who had worked on the Japanese version of a pulse jet engine (based on the one used in the V1 rocket), found themselves out of work after the end of World War Two in August 1945. Ōtsuka would find work in the civilian aeronautical field working on civilian gas turbine engines; Ogihara set himself up in a room in the former research facility doing camera repair and modification not long before Ōtsuka joined his former partner in a new venture, the pair forming Orion Seki Sangyō Y.K. (Orion Precision Products Co. Ltd.) in 1946/7. The first product released by Orion, the Coupler, designed by Ōtsuka, allows for Contax RF and Nikon S lenses to be mounted on Leica Thread Mount camera bodies. These were followed up in the 1950s by a reflex finder, the Mirax, a set of macro bellows, Focabell, and a set of lenses. While the company grew, the pair was already working on designing and building a camera. The Phoenix, a prototype, was showcased in 1954; the main purpose was to secure funding from distributors to fund the construction of a production SLR. In 1955, with buy-in from Mikami, the newly rebranded Orion Camera K.K. released the Miranda T. The Miranda is a 35mm SLR with interchangeable lenses using a dedicated M44 screw mount. It features an interchangeable viewfinder, a first from a Japanese SLR.
Only a couple of years later, Orion became Miranda Camera K.K. In 1958, the Miranda A replaced the knob-style advance with a leaver-style film advance and in 1959, the Miranda B added an instant return mirror. In 1960, Miranda changed the overall body design of their cameras and released the Automex, the first camera from the company to feature a meter. The Automex featured an external selenium-based meter with match-needle metering and a new bayonet mount while retaining the ability to mount the older M44 lenses. The new bayonet-mount lenses added the capacity for internal diaphragm actuation and allowed a mechanical link to communicate the aperture set on the lens with the body for coupled metering. Miranda completed the construction of a domestic lens factory in 1963 and released the Automex II and Miranda F, which used a modern film advance lever. The selenium meters were replaced with an external CdS cell in 1965 with the release of the Automex III. A year later, the Sensorex hit the market, which featured open-aperture TTL metering with a match-needle display. The CdS cell in the camera body allowed full functionality even with the interchangeable prism removed. The Sensorex also featured a removable film door; the idea was to attach a motor drive, but that never materialised. The Sensorex was released in 1971 with the Sensorex II, which had some design changes, including relocating the aperture index selector to the top plate. The same year, the Sensorex EE added semi-automatic aperture priority operation. Although by this point, the camera market was saturated and Miranda would struggle to keep up, in 1975, the RE-II and dx-3 changed to the new EC-Mount for lenses, with the dx-3 abandoning the interchangeable prisms to break into the compact SLR market. Neither camera proved popular and ultimately was a market flop; Miranda would go bankrupt and shut down operations by December 1976.
Impressions
The Sensorex is not a light camera by any stretch of the imagination, it is a big heavy chunk of metal that could probably cause serious damage if you hit someone with it as a means of self-defense. But unlike similar cameras you might break the camera more than the target. And there is almost no plastic on this camera. What I find rather interesting is that the camera despite being from the 1960s looks more in line with what SLRs were like in the previous decade, especially the look and feel of the lens. There is of course the iconic front plate of the pentaprism that wouldn’t look out of place on the front of a Chrysler. The design and layout of the controls are also a weird mix between what you would typically see in a Japanese SLR along with some East German, with the shutter release on the front rather than the top. What strikes me the most is that the shutter speed dial is mounted on the top of the film advance leaver. All things considered, the Sensorex is not a bad looking camera and gives a bit of a peak into the design ethos of the era and a strange merger in camera styles.
Experiences
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Sensorex is not a light camera, so you do want to ensure you have a comfortable strap which will save you a bit of pain later. You can opts to use the camera in one of two ways, the first is the standard method with SLRs using the pentaprism finder, the second is using a waist-level finder, while you can use the camera without a finder the manual advises against it because it could throw off the meter reading. Because the CdS cell is located in the camera body, with styles of finders have full TTL metering. Removal of the finder is easy, with a simple slide safety catch next to the finder, slide it to the left, then slide the finder towards you. The metering is a simple ‘match needle’ with a swinging needle and a round match, it is large and easy to see both with and without the pentaprism. The meter is powered by a 6V mercury cell, but the camera does have a dedicated on/off switch located on the film rewind knob, and there is an indicator window to see if the battery is off or on. If you’re not used to the layout it might take a bit of time before you settle in on the grip, the biggest change is that the shutter release is on the front plate and doesn’t have that nice angle like on Praktica SLRs, but with a camera gripped right you can use your middle finger to trip the shutter while your thumb can actuate the film advance. Loading film is straightforward, but the film door does have a simple safety button before releasing the latch, make sure to push the latch back down after closing the door and the lock is manual. There’s a certain raw elegance to working with the Sensorex. I can see why those who used them liked them, and why those who didn’t did not. These aren’t like your normal SLR and a lot of things that I take for granted are not present on the camera. Everything works, the shutter is smooth and has a great sound when released, but not too heavy. The film advance is short and even with an all-metal piece isn’t hard on your hands. The one thing I do have issue with is that the aperture control has light click-stops, so it can be hard to know if you have stopped at the right point.
Optics
One thing that makes the Sensorex unique among all SLRs is that it has a dual lens mount, meaning you can mount the older M44 thread-mount Miranda lenses along side the newer bayonet mount lenses. Now if you are wanting to use the internal meter it is recommended that you stick with the bayonet lenses as they have the appropriate linkages. Notably for the Sensorex you need a lens with an external linkage similar to what you find in Pre-AI lenses and cameras from the Nikon F series. Another interesting feature of the Miranda mount is that they also produced a large range of adapters that allowed you to connect your other lenses to the camera body using the M44 thread mount. From what I’ve seen, Miranda put more efforts into the optics than the cameras, if they had stuck to building optics for other companies they might have survived a bit longer. What I’m saying is that having only used three lenses, there isn’t a bad one among them. My first time using the 50mm f/1.8 I was blown away by the image quality out of them. Apparently the Miranda 50mm f/1.4 has a seven element construction which is wild. Next up is the 25mm f/2.8 now it does seem weird that instead of going with a 24mm Miranda went with 25mm (it’s a European thing). Don’t let that stop you, this is an 8 element lens and produces amazing quality images. And finally we have the 135mm f/3.5. Of the three lenses this is the one with the lowest count on construction at 3 groups of 4 elements, but don’t let that stop you, this is an affordable short telephoto that has surprisingly excellent performance! And while it performs well stopped down, when you’re shooting wide-open there is a defined swirl in the out-of-focus rendering. One thing to note, if you do want to use the internal meter then an Auto Miranda bayonet lens is required, any older M44 lenses will require you to manually stop down and have an external meter. Sadly, finding lenses that work are hard, probably because the people who have them keep them close possibly adapting them to modern mirrorless cameras (They do).
Lowdown
There are two things that the Sensorex and almost all Miranda cameras have going against them, the later models suffered from a serious issue with quality control, it is difficult to find one in working order but it is possible by the fact that both Jim and I reviewed the same camera. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid them completely, there are working ones out there, they’re only a bit harder to find these days. The second strike is that they use a mercury based battery, these are no longer made and do pose a serious health and environmental risk. At least the battery is a 6V unit so a modern silver cell might do the trick. Thankfully the camera does have a dedicated on/off switch so the power can be preserved and in this case the battery still has the juice needed to drive the metering. But in the end being an all mechanical camera you don’t have to use the meter at all and either use an external meter (if you’re model has a cold shoe, a Reveni Labs, Voitlander, or AstrHori meter are excellent matches) or use your two eyes and brain to get the exposure. Also a final plug for Jim’s blog, it’s filled with a tonne of amazing content from film photography to infrastructure history and even his personal thoughts and essays.
Video Review – Late May 2025!
Further Reading
Don’t just take my word on the Sensorex; you can check out the reviews by other awesome camera reviewers!
Down the Road – Miranda Sensorex Review
Mike Eckmann – Miranda Sensorex Review
Daniel J. Schneider – Miranda Sensorex: A Honking Hunk of Funk
Brennan Probst – Spotlight: Miranda Sensorex
View from the Carrot Room – Cameras: Miranda Sensorex