In late 1946 or early 1947 (no one appears fairly positive) a pair of ex-military engineers, Ogihara Akira and Ōtsuka Shintarō, began Orion Seiki Sangyō YK (“Orion Precision Merchandise Industries”) – a small workshop named after the Orion constellation, as Ogihara was an astronomy buff.
Their firm provided repairs and modifications for skilled cameras, however quickly invented an ingenious adapter that enabled the usage of Contax or Nikkor lenses on Leica thread-mount cameras whereas conserving the rangefinder coupling.
Then, in 1954, they confirmed their prototype Phoenix SLR, however discovered they may not use the Phoenix title because of a trademark battle. So it was launched the subsequent 12 months because the Miranda T – which stood for “Know-how”.
Though the primary SLR digicam to make use of a pentaprism for proper eye-level viewing was Italy’s Rectaflex in 1947, adopted by Germany’s Contax S in 1948, the Miranda T was the primary Japanese digicam to make use of a pentaprism for eye-level use.
As such, alongside the sooner Asahiflex, which had the primary on the spot rerun mirror, and the later Zunow, with the primary internally coupled absolutely automated diaphragm, it helped lay the muse for the Japanese takeover of the digicam business.
In 1957, Orion turned the Miranda Digital camera Co. The Miranda A of 1958 swapped the movie wind knob for the extra superior speedy movie wind lever – and was adopted, simply months later, by the Miranda “B”, which added an on the spot return mirror, making Miranda a “completely fashionable Millie”.
The agency went on to provide over 30 fashions, together with the semi-professional Sensorex of 1966 – which featured a match needle, through-the-lens (TTL) metering system and interchangeable viewfinders.
In contrast to most Japanese digicam makers, Miranda by no means made its personal lenses however bought them from exterior suppliers. The T got here geared up with a 50mm Zunow f/1.9 as its equipment lens, with later cameras coming with lenses made by quite a lot of companies – however offered as “Miranda” or “Auto-Miranda” lenses.
Within the USA, the Soligor model was used – although Soligor lenses have been made beneath contract by numerous Japanese makers for AIC, Miranda’s US distributor. All through its historical past, Miranda stored its digicam our bodies as skinny as doable, which allowed for adapters to allow the usage of different manufacturers of lens.
In 1963, Allied Impex Corp purchased Miranda. When AIC failed in 1976, Miranda rapidly adopted and each the Miranda and Soligor names disappeared… however not fairly ceaselessly.
Within the late Eighties Cosina used the Miranda title on a number of of its personal, extra reasonably priced cameras. The Soligor title was utilized in Europe by Soligor GmbH, AIC’s German subsidiary, which had survived the chapter. It offered Soligor-branded lenses and equipment in Europe till it, too, failed in 2011.
Discover out extra about images’s previous in David Younger’s e-book, A Temporary Historical past of Pictures.
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