Miranda Wide Angle PAD Lenses

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

Miranda offered two wide angle lenses in the PAD mount (pressure activated diaphragm) - and I have acquired examples of both. Very Happy

The 2.8/35mm is unusual but by no means rare. A few came up on ebay this year, but unfortunately both as parts of lots that sold for zillions of dollars. This one came up attached to a camera, and not well described so I bid and got it for a fair price considering the camera came with it (not the pictured camera though).

The barrel is slightly different from those used on the normal f1.9/50 lens - the aperture ring is painted black and has set screws so it can be adjusted. I also really like the dayglo colors used on the distance scale - quite futuristic for 1960!

The front element is nearly flat on front as you can see. Supposedly made by Kowa.

The 28mm unfortunately has a fogged element that won't come clean. But it is a considerably harder to find lens than the 35mm. The front element is considerably curved and the lens barrel is longer than that used on the 35 and 50 lenses.

The full PAD line up consisted of: 2.8/28, 2.8/35, 1.9/50, 1.5/58, 2.8/105, 3.5/135 and 2.8/135. The 1.5/58 seems to be the rarest of these. All of the PAD lenses were supposedly made by Kowa, although the 1.5 seems to be considerably different from the rest in the line up in smaller details.

Kowa doesn't seem to have provided these lenses for any other SLRs that I know of. They made some long lenses in Exakta and Nikon F mounts, but I've never heard of them offering wide angle or normal lenses in those mounts. Does anybody know of any? They did make some T mount lenses though, I do know that much.

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

I don�t know to much about Miranda, but i can remember that when I was a poor student this cam was my dream but due to financial limits at that time unreachable. I like this cam today as I liked it 40 years ago. It is still a beauty. Congrats for your find. A very nice cam and lenses.

Wink

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

There's a 25mm Soligor Miranda as well, not sure if it's made by Kowa or not.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

The 25mm was never available in the PAD mount. In the automatic mount you could get lenses as short as 17mm, but they were not made by Kowa. As mentioned in another thread, Tomioka supplied Miranda with ultrawides, except for the 17mm which was made by Norita.

Although some of the early 35mm lenses in the auto mount were apparently Kowa too.

s58y · Expire: 2013-09-10

My father had an old Miranda model A, with a chrome 50mm PAD lens, but the 135mm was black and chrome.

For a long time, I've wondered if Miranda ever made all-chrome 135mm and 35mm PAD lenses?

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

They had a chrome 135, but it was preset. The 35mm lens wasn't introduced until 1959, by which time all lenses had black barrels. There was a preset 35mm earlier but it has black and chrome rings.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Very handsome! How about image quality ?

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

Drool, I have kept a sporadic eye on the bay for more PAD lenses... the set up is just so steam-punk cool. Please show us samples from the 35mm. The 50/1.9 is very very good indeed, even for a normal.

estudleon · Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 3754 Location: Argentina

Miranda cams are very pretty ones.

Specially the "G" model (perhaps the rolls royce of the group).

It was said a lot of time ago that the model "G" was the reason of that Nikon was buying Miranda. Who knows......i don't.

Very nice equipment.

Thanks for sharing.

Rino.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

I'll be finishing a test roll soon.

Estudleon, I don't believe Nikon ever had any interest in Miranda, however Ricoh did. I don't know what the motivation was behind the G, maybe they wanted to get some of the pro market back, or thought there was room for for another extensive system camera in the market. Whatever it was it apparently wasn't enough as the line wasn't developed any further - no other Mirandas had interchangeable screens for instance. It may have been as many have suggested, a way for Miranda to take a bite out of Nikon F sales by offering a camera with many of the same capabilities for about $100 less.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I'm rather confused about these Miranda lens mounts.

I just got a PAD mount lens labelled 'Soligor Miranda 1:1.9 f=5cm No.K487424 Japan' it's in great condition. I expected it would have the same mount as my other Miranda - an Auto Miranda 1.4 50mm.

However, they are totally different, the PAD lens mount is a smaller diameter to the Miranda bayonet on the 1.4/50 and is a breechlock type mounting.

I'm confused now, I thought Miranda lenses were M44 to begin with then became bayonet mount like my 1.4/50, seems this is not the case.

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

The Miranda from the beginning had the dual mount - in order to be maximally compatible with other maker's lenses...
Here's a link to some pages from the Miranda Manual for some interesting reading:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/5989861477/sizes/o/in/photostream/

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I will have to take photographs of my two mirandas as they are definitely not the same mounting.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

I took a photo of three of my Miranda lenses to show the mount:

An automatic lens on the top left, PAD lens on the top right, and a screw mount lens on the bottom. f1.9/50, f1.9/50, and f2.8/50 respectively.

Although the mount looks different between the top lenses, the actual bayonet it mounts on is exactly the same. Both lenses will mount on any Miranda from any era. The latch is different though, and in a different location between them. The bayonet is on the camera itself, and never changed from 1956 through 1977. However the lenses and mount itself got more complicated and complex, as the cameras and lenses developed. Kind of like how the Nikon F mount evolved. The last Miranda lenses have the auto-diaphragm pin, the open aperture meter lever, and a pin that registers the max aperture so that open aperture metering is possible.

The screw mount was used for pre-set lenses, extension tubes, and T mount lenses primarily.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Aha, that makes sense to me now, mine look like the top two in your picture, it confused the hell out of me that they looked so different!

Just bought a Soligor Miranda TC to take the mount off to make a NEX-Miranda adapter then I will post samples.

Many thanks for the pic, that cleared things up for me!

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

Those could be Kawanon or Norita made.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 961 Location: Austin

Do you have an examples from the same period? I would be interested in seeing them.

flapan · Joined: 23 Aug 2019 Posts: 1 Location: Quilpué, Chile

I am just delving into the Miranda world, previously I have only a early Automex I release -with honeycomb shape selenium meter-, and its originals 28, 35, 50, and 135 lenses (with preset/automatic knop). Regarding PAD lenses, I found this page that caught my attention with a Schacht lens in Miranda:

www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-lot-miranda-35mm-film-camera-1901932516

Can you inform me more about it? Is there a list or page where all the lenses and manufacturers that made PAD lenses appear?