Optical Review Blog No. 59 – Auto Miranda 1:2.8 f=25mm

What do you mean 25mm? I mean, sure, Miranda produced a 28mm lens, but that’s boring. I have a tonne of 28mm lenses. I wanted something wider, but Miranda was always different, and instead of producing a 24mm lens, they went with 25mm. According to Joan from Burlington Camera, it was something to do with Germany and Voigtländer, and the decision to produce a 25mm as the ultra-wide offering before going wider. This particular lens was my second experience with Miranda optics, and it certainly did not disappoint after seeing the amazing results out of the 50mm f/1.8.

Lens Specifications
Make: Miranda Camera K.K.
Model: Auto Miranda 1:2.8 f=25mm
Focal Length: 25mm
Focal Range: ∞ – 0.25m
Aperture: f/2.8 – f/16, 6 Blades
Structure: 8 Elements in 7 Groups

Build Quality
Like other Miranda lenses, this is where the company dumped most of its skills. The 25mm f/2.8 is a great example of attention to detail. The lens itself is surprisingly longer than I expected when compared to the other primes, but that could be due to the number of elements in the construction. But it still sits nicely on my Sensorex, with no real change in the centre of gravity. In fact, it makes the camera nice to hold, and the 25mm focal length is a nice addition to the kit. The lens is an all-metal construction and is well-built. While it can’t take much of a drop, it can probably take a couple of hits without damage. Like other Miranda lenses, the 25mm has the same aperture indexing connection on the aperture ring. Again, there are no real click stops on the lens, making it difficult to tell when you have actually stopped. There is a slight change, but if you aren’t familiar with it, it can be easy to miss. Since I’ve found this on all my Miranda lenses, I think it’s due to the lens rather than age. The one age-related issue is how stiff the focusing helical is. I mean, this thing takes a lot of effort, but it’s better than when I first got it, mainly because I have been exercising the helical. It’s less of a problem, more of an annoyance at this point. Although after a bit of work it has loosened up so that it is far more usable now than when I first got the lens.

Image Quality
The first thing that impressed me about this lens is the lack of distortion. While it’s not free of barrel distortion, you can see some in the test chart image; I’ve seen worse on lenses narrower than the Miranda 25/2.8. And even so, it is easy to adjust manually as long as you have a line you remember as straight. When it comes to the aperture, shooting wide-open at f/2.8, there is significant fall-off in the corners, which doesn’t surprise me; the lens is also soft at the edges when shooting wide-open. Once you stop down to f/4, things clean up nicely. Yes, there’s still a bit of fall-off at the corners, but this is negligible at this point, and the image has sharpened up nicely. The out-of-focus rendering on this lens isn’t anything special, but you don’t get lenses like the Miranda 25/2.8 for that feature. But there’s nothing bad or off about it either. It is smooth around the edges, but no ghosting either. Now, once you stop this lens down from f/4-5.6 to f/16, you get an incredibly sharp lens, and while a maximum aperture of f/16 might turn some people off, you don’t need anything beyond that with a 25mm because at f/16, you pretty much have everything in focus. I highly rate this lens’s optical quality, despite some problems wide open. Most lenses have trouble shooting wide open; once you get it stopped down, you’re in for a good time.

Applications
Like any wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses, the Miranda 25mm is a great choice for architecture and urban landscape work. And while that 25mm might seem a bit odd, it’s a great focal length to work with, as you get wider than 28mm but not too wide. Perfect for catching the big picture, especially when you’re in tighter quarters, which I often find in historic downtowns I like to photograph. It would also be a great choice for travel photography. It also works great as an event lens for large-group shots in small spaces or for capturing the big picture to show the size of a crowd. The fast f/2.8 aperture allows it to perform well in low light, and, being a wide-angle lens, it means that even wide open, you still have a lot of your subject in focus. And even though it only goes down to f/16, it still works for getting your entire frame in focus. While I wouldn’t use this lens for a portrait session, I feel it would be a great lens for environmental portraits where you want to place the subject in the larger environment, putting them in the context of the space.

The Low Down
Like other Miranda lenses, the biggest issue is finding anything beyond the standard 50mm lenses in either f/1.9 or f/1.8. I was pretty lucky to land on this lens for a good price. Miranda also produced a 28mm f/2.8 lens, and while I initially looked for it, I never found one for sale online, even in the Soligor brand (the only company to produce a Miranda third-party lens). But I think even if I had gotten the 28mm, I would have been unhappy knowing that the 25mm was out there. So rather than get both for a system that doesn’t see much use, I went with something in the ultra-wide category. Given how iffy the quality of Miranda cameras is, I wouldn’t bother spending any more than 100$ on this lens. I found mine for slightly under that price point. It’s a great lens, good performance and a useful tool for anyone with a Miranda Sensorex camera.

Further Reading
Don’t just take my view on the Miranda 25/2.8, check out these other reviews.
No Other Reviews Found