Finding my mojo!
Miranda Sensorex EE
Recently I have been struggling to find / see images, when I
did I wasn’t satisfied by the results. No matter how hard I tried it just
wasn’t happening. Russell came through with an idea, I could blast carefree
testing a bundle he needed test shots for. Lots of lenses to try different
things with no pressure just let it happen. I was a big bundle but not a camera
that immediately gets the juices flowing….A Miranda?!?!
The kit.
Miranda Sensorex EE body, it also comes with a functioning
complete spare.
EE lenses –
f2.8-25mm, f2.8-35mm, f1.8-50mm, f2.8-100mm, f2.8-135mm, f3.5-200mm
Non EE manual lens – f1.4-50mm
Soligor m44 fit – f6.3-300 & 400mm The body takes both
bayonet & screw thread
All lenses have either slide out hoods or purpose screw on
ones, flash, extension tubes, WLF and other bits are also in there…big innit!
This is not a review, just a test so will just crack on…I
loaded a roll of Kodak TMax 400 into the chunky solid (heavy) body and set the
asa dial to 200 as my preferred speed. I popped the 1.4 – 50mm on first. I
messed up the loading, realised on frame 3 it hadn’t caught, preceded to wind
it back into the cassette so ended up rerolling into a re-usable one so not a
great start! I started again, I put 5
frames on the 50mm, a length I am used to so nothing new for me. The next day I
ran the 25mm, wide I just don’t get on with but it let me try a few things. I
doubled it up with 100mm which I honestly really enjoyed! A short walk from the
shop with the 200 & 400mm and a tripod which was interesting. I then
finished of the roll with the 135 & 35mm as a pair and found those fun
also, the 100mm was by far my favourite.
I ran them all as manual, the EE mode, electronic exposure, gives you shutter priority but I do prefer manual and it’s where I am
comfortable. I used both meter options, yes it has 2! Located on the left top,
“A” is average and “S” is spot meter. Both metered well considering the harsh
light at times. I developed the roll in Rodinal 1:50 and results are overall
pleasing. A couple from the 200 and most of the 400 aren’t all that but given I
shot out over the sea into the sun I was probably expecting too much. The
results from the 25mm are quite over exposed which I cannot explain, I am
guessing my attempts to compensate for shadows was over the top. The meter
scale inside the viewer is really easy to use, whatever f stop the needle
points at you use! Other than that given
there is no pedigree to speak of it all performed really well, better than I
expected and more importantly I had fun.
NB The 25mm was found to have a slow return on the aperture
blades explaining the over exposures.
