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Metabones lens speed booster adapter, focal reducer
  • 873 Replies sorted by
  • A curved focal plane (corner sharpness dropoff) is to be expected on a wide and fast lens, though it looks rather severe, a bit like the slr magic 12mm. (other wide lenses might be a better fit wide open - I´d look at slightly slower lenses for better overall sharpness) Question is what happens when you stop down?

    For me, the c/y speedbooster works great with the 28mm f2 even wide open. I´d say the lens looks better than cropped.

  • Shouldnt we expect the Speedboosted Tokina 11-16 to look the same as if mounted on a APS-C sensor? On my old Nikon D80 it's no way as blurred in the corners. Let's see if someone dials in the back focus correctly before we give up all hope for a fast and wide m43 lens.

  • wait a second, so we can use the adaptor for sigma lenses? I thought it only works with manual aperture? Will we able to use it on the sigma 18-35 1.8 if we get it on the nikon mount??? Im really wondering... anybody knows the answer?

  • @CHARPU I'm using Sigma lenses with Nikon mounts, and they work perfectly on the Metabones Speed Booster. I'm betting the 18-35 will be usable just fine, since my other Sigmas also work.

    Here's a test I did:

  • Wow! So it works... and those lenses don't have a manual aperture control right? and the adaptor works.. thanks so much for your answer!

    C.

  • All Nikon Mount lenses except for the one mentioned by MB will work..........period. Seriously, I really am starting to think nobody reads any past posts in threads anymore. This is happening all the time now, I really don't understand it. For people who have been here for years, is this normal or has it ramped up the past couple months?

  • @oscillian, sort of yes.

    Looking forward to some comprehensive testing.. (not just one tester, one SB, one lens).

  • @vicharris not quite on topic but yes, there seems to be a lot of new posters who have not read anything from before. Maybe some old ones who are lazy, too.

  • @RRRR, thanks, I thought I was taking crazy pills the past few months or something :)

  • I went back and read a bunch.. but not every single page... im just extremely confuse about it because after sending a mail to Metabones they answer to me saying that the adapter wont work with the sigma lens..

    "Sorry! Our nikon g adapter have not electronic control……only support manual focus and manual aperture control. You can use your sigma Lens on it, but need use adapter ring for aperture control"

    so i wanted to check here with some of you, that's all, sorry if I bother anybody.

    thanks!

  • "I went back and read a bunch.. but not every single page... im just extremely confuse about it because after sending a mail to Metabones they answer to me saying that the adapter wont work with the sigma lens..

    "Sorry! Our nikon g adapter have not electronic control……only support manual focus and manual aperture control. You can use your sigma Lens on it, but need use adapter ring for aperture control"

    so i wanted to check here with some of you, that's all, sorry if I bother anybody.

    thanks!"

    Nikon G itself means the lens has no aperture ring, so if an adapter is a Nikon G adapter it will work with Nikon G lenses (including 3rd party Nikon G mount lenses). You don't need electronics to control the aperture on Nikon G lenses. Nikon G adapters just have an adapter ring on it to move the lever on the back of the lens.

    image

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  • The MetaBones adaptor (as with my other two MFT adaptors) each have a mechanism for manually controlling aperture. You can use the Sigma with Nikon interface just fine, but expect to change exposure by hand, and not through any electronic interface.

    For those who are expecting a more extensive test, I will be shooting some BMCC with MB-SB tomorrow, and am in pre-production for a TV pilot to shoot later this month, so there's plenty of footage coming soon. I've also pre-ordered the new Sigma 18-35, and will shoot a test with it as soon as it arrives, which is likely to be by the middle of August.

  • I was asking him about an specific lens, the new sigma 18-35 1.8 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/967345-REG/sigma_18_35mm_f1_8_dc_hsm.html)

    maybe that's why I got that answer, I am sorry about the confusion I am really unfamiliar with Nikon mount lenses.

    But thanks for the answers, I think I understand a bit better now.

  • Their answer says it all, you just need to use the aperture ring on the adapter. It will work.

  • @ahbleza Looking forward to your tests. Thank you!

  • "Working" and "covering" are two diffrent things; DX lenses designed for a 1.5x crop sensor may or may not cover the lesser 1.3-1.4 crops of MFT+SB cameras.

    I had a quick chance to fondle a bunch of DX lenses at a local camera store to check their coverage on the GH2 + SB (effective video crop ~1.32?). Here's a quick list of coverages:

    Sigma 10-20 (full coverage) Nikon 10-24 (very slight corner darkening) Nikon 16-35 (corner vignetting throughout range) Nikon 18-200 (slight corner vignetting throughout) Nikon 17-55/2.8 (full coverage)

    Also tested the Rokinon 8, 35, and 85 primes which worked spendidly; the 8 did have plenty of fishy wierdness at the edges, but that's expected.

    The 18-200 and 16-85 were the only two of the lot that had what I'd consider unacceptable vignetting. The 10-24 was very useable, and the Sigma 10-20 and Nikon 17-55 delightful.

  • Keep in mind a 16x9 image on DSLR's and the mirrorless cameras is a crop of a 4x3 or 3x2 frame meaning there is some room to have a slightly bigger FoV that will be ok. All tests I've seen say the standard 16x9 image on any MFT camera's (except the GH2) with all lenses tested seem ok. The issues seem to be with the GH2 and other MFT cameras shooting stills in taller aspect ratio's.

  • Nikon DX has a 28.4 mm image circle diameter. 28.4 mm x 0.71 = 20.2 mm.

    • GH2 16:9 non-ETC: 21.4 mm diagonal

    • GH3 16:9 non-ETC: 19.8 mm diagonal

    • BMCC: 18.1 mm diagonal

    • BMPCC: 14.3 mm diagonal

    So on the GH2, it's close. It will depend on the particular lens, like mcbob's tests showed. The other cameras are fully covered.

  • Another example, although almost everything in close up. Click on "Metabones Speed Booster Test" https://vimeo.com/user1449917 Can't imbed directly due to vimeo permissions.

  • Below are some test shots using the SB with a Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS lens on an Olympus OMD. The first three are at f/1.2, giving a 35mm f/0.90, and the second three are at f/2.8, giving a 35mm f/2.0.

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    501,2AISCenterAtF1,2.jpg
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    501,2AISCornerAtF1,2.jpg
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    501,2AISOverallAtF2,8.jpg
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    501,2AISCenterAtF2,8.jpg
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    501,2AISCornerAtF2,8.jpg
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  • @brianc1959 (a big!) thank you sir. Looks fantastic and as if most people will have to adjust their SB's rear element to get results like that.

    Is the light falloff on the edges of the chart due to the lighting? or the SB?

  • Light falloff is mostly due to the lens (not the SB), and maybe a little due to the lighting.

  • Funny how much this topic picked up after they release an mount that most people actually use... now if they'd only come out with the EF version already...

  • Finally got my Speedbooster for Contax C/Y and thought I should give a little report on my first impression.

    Communication and delivery: Perfect, nothing else to say. One of my fastest deliveries from mainland China I ever got.

    Mechanical quality: Very good, snug fit like all other my metabones stuff.

    Optical quality: I tested my Zeiss C/Y 28mm 2.8 with SB on GH2 against the 20mm 1.7 Lumix, a 21mm 2.8 Rokkor and the naked 28mm on a Canon 5D by standard test charts.

    WO (around 2.0) the SB combo was even a bit better than the Lumix (1.7) in center sharpness, corner sharpness was comparable, but the combo showed a tad CA and some distortion (which are both compensated in camera for the Lumix, of course). The Rokkor was both softer in center and corners and had considerably more CA in the corners. The Zeiss C/Y showed less resolution in the center on the 5D and some vignetting, but then it is considerably wider on a FF photo camera – the SB can't fully compensate for the 2x crop factor, as we all know. So we are still using the better part of the lens on MFT.

    BTW, don't judge the angle from calculated numbers. While the 28mm should behave like 19.88mm with SB, in reality the Lumix 20mm is a bit wider than the combo. The Rokkor is considerably less wide than the SB combo, so either the Lumix is wider than indicated or the SB combo has less than 20mm and the Rokkor doesn't even have 21mm.

    At 4 (lens setting, so it's real 2.8 with SB) the Zeiss C/Y on 5D is still softer, the Rokkor is coming up in center, but not in the corners. The Lumix at 2,8 is pretty much on par, at 4 it's a tad better in the corners.

    At 8 centers are pretty much on par for all, Rokkor now only a tad softer, but getting far better in corners. Still most CA on the Rokkor, Lumix is not getting much better any more, the SB plus C/Y is very sharp overall, just minor CA left in corners. Plus very good contrast with SB!

    So the combo held very well against the Lumix which is praised for it's sharpness, but here we have a stills glass with excellent mechanics and a relatively long focus throw.

    Finally I compared the bokeh of the combo against the naked lens on 5D. While I expected some negative effects from other tests I had seen, it's hard to see any difference here. Next to no deformation of OOF highlights, maybe a tiny little bit more defined OOF circles, but still very much my beloved Zeiss look with it's excellent micro-contrast and beautiful bokeh (for a wide, that is).

    Absolutely worth it's money and I doubt that you can expect the same quality for less money.

    The first pic is the upper left corner from the 5D at 1:1 crop, the second is the SB combo. Slightly different due to image size, viewing angle and color settings.

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    Bokeh_SB_GH2.jpg
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  • My report with the Metabones Nikon G to MFT adapter. Definitely sharper, especially with the sharp Sigma primes. The DOF and F-stop improves by about 2/3 of a stop, but not one full stop.

    There is a problem w/ the built-in aperture ring. Shallow aperture changes (From wide open F1 to F3) results in a 3 stop change while narrow aperture changes (from F5 to F8) results in 1/2 stop change instead of 3 stop change.

    Take a look at this image of that I shot of my friend with the amazing Sigma 85mm f/1.4. I seriously love this lens and the 35mm!

    Image straight out of the camera and after my retouch (I accidentally flipped the 100% crop around so the retouched image is first, followed by the unretouched. The full crop is original followed by retouched)

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    _1100539-Emily-100-crop-01-Before.jpg
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