Not many know Miranda anymore today, but concerning Japanese SLR history they played quite a role. They've been the first to introduce a modern Pentaprism SLR on the Japanese market, and in the beginning they were a serious competitor to Asahi Pentax and Nippon Kogaku (Nikon), at least from the technical perspective. Technical details about their cameras and a little bit of history of the company can be found mainly in this two web-sites: www.mirandacamera.com and at pentax-slr.com. Both sites don't answer the question or at least give a hint, how many cameras Miranda produced. Except of some speculation in a forum there was not much to find to help me with my assessment.
Fortunately, Miranda serial numbers are easy to find on (mostly e-bay) pictures and I could use my method to determine the production numbers of at least the majority of the models. I guess, the few types I was not able to find at least 4 or 5 different units have not been produced in a huge amount anyway. Here is my list and the corresponding best estimates:
| Miranda … | Comments | Introd. | Disc. | Numbers produced |
| T, S, TII, ST | Knob winder types | 1955 | 1961 | 30,000 * |
| A, B, C, D, … | early lever winders | 1957 | 1962 | 70,000 * |
| F, Fv, G, … | and similar | 1963 | 1969 | 90,000 ** |
| Sensomat | 1969 | 1971 | 40,000 ** | |
| Sensomat RE | 1971 | 1975 | 75,000 ** | |
| Sensomat RE II | 1975 | 1975 | 20,000 ** | |
| TM (M42) | Miranda, Soligor + Pallas TM | 1969 | 1974 | 120,000 * |
| Automex | I, II, and III | 1960 | 1966 | 40,000 ** |
| Sensorex | incl. Sesorex C | 1966 | 1972 | 160,000 *** |
| Sensorex II | 1972 | 1975 | 60,000 *** | |
| Sensorex EE | incl. EE2 | 1971 | 1976 | 100,000 *** |
| DX-3 | 1975 | 1976 | 60,000 ** |
*** high (+/- 5%), ** medium (+/- 15%), * low (+/- 25%) confidence level
In total Miranda produced 865,000 (+/- 15%) units and therefore much less than the Big Four I've assessed so far. This is no surprise as Miranda went bankrupt and out of business in 1976, where others just took off, number wise. However, while in the beginning their numbers were comparable to other producers, they missed out at the growth the early 60ies provided and never caught up. Beside other reasons described elsewhere the low production might be one reason for Miranda's demise.
The most popular single model is definitely the Sensorex, although smaller technical changes have been implemented during its production period. Out of the 120 cameras I used for my assessment 50 were Sensorex. As these 120 is not a huge number, every Miranda fan can contribute to make this here more accurate. Just drop a comment below including type and serial number and I'll be happy to update the numbers if needed.
Dear Knippsen, I very much enjoyed your Japanese data sheet #5 of original Miranda production numbers, and wondered if you kept any statistics by model and lens serial numbers?
AntwortenLöschenTo give you my background, I bought my first Miranda in 1965 (an Automex 3), and have now amassed some 160 complete cameras, plus a further 100 auxiliary lenses and probably 100 accessories.
The pride of my collection is an Orion T, three Miranda T's, a Miranda S, plus a recent B. I'm sure that there's a Miranda A somewhere, and I have lost count of the D's, F's, G's, Sensorex, Sensomat, EE's EE-2's and dX3's.
In fact, my third (and only new Miranda purchase was a dX3 with f1.4 lens in 1976), shortly before the company ceased production.
I would be very grateful if you could drop me an e-mail to: paul@divergence.org.uk to see if I may be able to help with your model and lens serial number database.
Regards, Paul Hastings
From: paulhas214@gmail.com
AntwortenLöschenOrion Camera Co. - Miranda T - S/n: 555236
Paul Hastings
I've just "won" a beautiful Miranda C (serial number 602501) on Ebay, which is yet to be delivered. It doesn't have the Exakta type lens with external diaphragm control, but it does come with a lovely zebra pattern preset 5cm F1.9 lens. Described as mint, it clearly isn't, but nevertheless appears to be in excellent condition. I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea of proportionally how many were produced compared to other early lever winders. Clearly there are endless curvy bodied Ds out there, but what about compared to the others? It looks like the S (which I also own) and the original Automex started production the same year. With this product diversification, I imagine that production numbers of each individual variant would have been lower.
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