This is the Miranda Sensomat, an SLR of dubious build quality released in 1969. It looks nice enough and is reasonably pleasant to hold in the hands but appears to be strong with the “Miranda Curse” as Mike Eckman likes to say. I will not go into the manufacturer history as he has done a better job than I ever could here.
I was warned by Mike that the Miranda gods would find a way to screw me, but as the meter worked well, I was confident that this particular camera would appease them. I was wrong.
The first roll loaded into the camera promptly ripped, the second managed to end up in this position. I still don’t know how that happened, given that I advanced a few frames prior to closing the back.
The third roll (Ultrafine Xtreme 400 12exp) loaded and I was on my way. Yay! Not so fast… a lot of picture taking takes place from my balcony these days and I thought it would be cool to do a panorama with the Sensomat. So I set up and fired off 12 or so shots. As it turns out, this particular camera is good at making you think the shutter has fired when it hasn’t.
| Make | Miranda |
|---|---|
| Model | Sensomat |
| Year | c1969 |
| Format | 35mm |
| Shutter | focal plane |
| Speed | B,1,2,4,8,15,30,60,125,250,500,1000 |
| Lens | Auto Miranda |
| f1.8 50mm | |
| Focus | 3ft – ∞ |
| Aperture | f1.8 – f16 |
| Light Meter | Yes (TTL Cds) |
| SLR | Yes |
I got 9 of 12 shots and stitched them together with Affinity Photo. The result is below.
My brother had quite a number of Miranda cameras, and the earlier ones were fine. The Sensorex was probably the last decent one they made, and the Sensormat was just as you have found; cheap and unreliable. It was shortly after that the brand disappeared from the stores.