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Metabones lens speed booster adapter, focal reducer
  • 873 Replies sorted by
  • @JohnBarlow I understand what you mean with the back focal length / track length. What you mean is if they apply the same optical system in the cylindrical way it will change the flange distance just in the X axis so it will not work good. But probably they can find a solution to this. Caldwell are optics experts 25 / 30 years working with lenses. Or maybe you can, you are good in optics.

    About flares, it is a residual generated by cylindrical surfaces, maybe it can generate flares if there are cylindrical surfaces in the system.

  • @BurnetRhoades

    That's not spin. It actually makes the lens faster

    Yes - I realised that - just saying, I like the way they chose to use that description over the focal reducer one. I've followed the similar topic on here for a long while and it became apparent that making a focal reducer is quite difficult to do well, and it looks like they've succeeded very impressively. A lot of money but the video examples look great. For me the ability to use the whole (mostly, anyway in MFT) of a standard DSLR lens image circle brings about lots of advantages and I hope they have great success with this product.

  • Agreed. I spent about $650 on an anamorphic attachment and would have spent more. I know some folks have invested thousands in just one lens. As much as I love anamorphic and would shoot everything that way if I could, this device, as advertised, is so much more useful to so many people, I must admit. Given what it does it still seems like a bargain to me, even if the passive mounts were the same price as this first model.

    I just wish I wasn't going to have to decide whether or not to shoot anamorphic or full-frame and crop after I get mine.

  • @BurnetRhoades And then there's the question of how to adapt different lenses to the Speed Booster - because I'm sure most people have a range of different lenses.

  • I'm quite excited at the prospect of strapping my Contax Zeiss stuff on this @-0 seems to be causing quite a ripple over the web.

  • @itimjim

    Why would I want to adapt from EF? What you've suggested adds to the problem, not solve it. Now i would have to buy additional adaptors to faciliate the EF mount. So what, CY to EF? Minolta to EF? Pentax to EF? Just so i can in turn slap glass of different mounts on the metabones? Where does this madness stop? Goes back to my initial point - how much do you need to spend to make this work?

  • @Micah but Speed Booster is said to work only for the Full Frame lenses, while Sigma 8-16mm is already an APS-C lens. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Speed Booster wouldn't work on Sigma 8-16mm lens.

  • @kazuo The way I see it, is you have two choices. You buy a Metabone Speedbooster for each lens type one has, so mFT > EF, mFT > Nikon, mFT > whatever is available at $400-600 a pop. Or, you buy one Speedbooster adapter and then adapt to the front mount....which is going to be a lot cheaper.

    So then one has to choose the front mount. In my case, that's Nikon, but if I had EF lenses and Nikon, I would choose EF and buy an EF to Nikon adapter. Cheaper than buying two metabones adapters.

    One thing is for certain, is there will not be a mFT read > mFT front version.

    @Kronstadt read the pdf whitepaper. It clearly shows DX/APS-C type lenses being compatible with mFT or smaller sensor (BMCC for instance). However, the Sigma 8-16 will not work with the Speedbooster on APS-C sensors. If Metabones release an active mFT to EF remains to be seen, so the 8-16 may never work regardless.

  • @kazuo That's always the problem - yet more stuff to spend money on. I haven't actually made any video in a month, and any "serious" stuff for a lot longer than that. I'm not sure this adaptor would solve my current un-productiveness. But it still looks enticing!!

  • Usually EF lenses retain good resale value. Also good value for the money. One could use them on Canon DSLR for photography and on Gh1/2/3 for videography. Some, I guess most of them, use mechanical focus/zoom rings. The only zoom I have is 14-140, and I may get the speed booster if it's proven to work well. I got friends loaded with Canon L lenses collecting nothing but dust :)

    But this won't replace native m43 lenses like 12mm T1.6, 17.5mm 0.95, and 25mm 0.95. The native lenses have advantage in minimum focus distance.

  • A terrible hand drawing, but here's how I'm interpreting the basic working of this speed booster. Sorta in layman's terms.

    Notice that the length is reduced between the focal point and the sensor. Also notice b > a.

    That is the latter one with speed booster has image projection on the cropped sensor closer to the perpendicular angle which explains the claimed better image quality. More sharpness, better CA control, etc.

    It must be a brilliant engineering work. But I'm not sure if it's worth $600, and we need more hands-on reports.

    Edit: This adapter will shorten the flange back distance. See the latter image.

    image

    sb-2.JPG
    640 x 480 - 107K
    booster-3.jpg
    600 x 322 - 40K
  • Designers share some thoughts on m43 adapter: http://diglloyd.com/blog/2013/20130114_6-Metabones-Speed-Booster-Caldwell.html

    They say the IQ might be better than the NEX.

  • f/2.8 lens with the speed booster on m43 would give similar DOF from f/4.0 lens on FF sensor. That would be good enough. Basically one stop shallower DOF gain from the adapter.

    BTW the AF is going to be slow. Very slow. But who cares. We are getting 2.0 equivalent from 2.8 zoom :)

  • I just got samyang 24mm t1.5 and 14mm t3.1 cine lenses. canon mount with eos-m4/3 adapter for my gh2. will I benefit from this speed booster adapter?

  • will I benefit from this speed booster adapter?

    Yep. You can just check PDF (see first post) on details.

  • @lenuisible Yes, of course, I doubt that m4/3 have a circle large enough--although I guess one could use them in etc mode for yet another look. Even if I could only use it in my my 50/1.4 it would be a good investment, and I'm sure the Nikkor 85/2 would get some use. Obviously newer prime lenses that are sharp wide open would be amazing, but some of these would have to be jiggered for aperture control if they aren't full manual.

    Curious what the effect of ETC mode mode would be, if it is possible.

    So what are the super hot lenses for this adapter? Obviously any 50/1.4 is going to be a low light winner, and inexpensive. Are there any lenses we should look at in particular before the price goes up on eBay?

  • Are there any lenses we should look at in particular before the price goes up on eBay?

    And good and sharp lenses. Initially price won't go up fast. But after someone will copy it... You bet.

  • @DrDave I heard Samyang will release 50mm CINE T/1.5 lens this year. Yeap 35mm T1.1 equivalent :)

    APS-C f/2.8 zooms for m43. FF f/4.0 zooms for NEX.

  • Tokina 11-16 2.8

    Tamron 17-50 2.8 VC

    Canon 17-55 2.8 IS

    Canon 16-35 2.8L

    Canon 17-40 4.0L IS

    Canon 25-105 4.0L IS

    etc.

    I'm just listing'em. I have no idea whether they are going to work or not.

  • Will this work on a GH1 or will it only work on the GH2 and 3. I believe the sensor sizes are a bit larger on the 2 and 3?

  • FF lenses will work on Gh1/2/3.

    APS-C lenses will work surely on Gh3. Gh1/2 might have very negligible vignetting if there's any. Each lens has slightly different image circles, and each lens' image circle changes a bit depending on its aperture and focus distance. Usually sharp lenses have relatively larger circles.

    I'm sure people will test'em out.

  • @stonebat Good starter list, I'm especially interested in primes that are sharp wide open that then become "super primes", like sharp F/1.0 that really don't even exist right now. Many of the old primes are good value but really have to be stopped down. Obviously, some of the newer prime lenses are sharp wide open, so it is interesting to ask what is the best value for primes that are sharp wide open, have no circle/focusing issues and also work with filters, have good bokeh, and so on.

    What would be the best bang for the buck for a "super prime" in each range? It seems like the Samyang 85mm, though heavy, would be a good candidate for super prime status.

  • @DrDave Frankly I don't see much gain from fast primes other than relatively cheap 50mm lens. You meant vintage lenses? Usually they are not sharp at max aperture. I'm more interested in fast DSLR zoom lenses.

  • It'd be a major boost to use it with CP2s on m4/3 and BMCC cams. I'm looking forward to trying one out.

  • @stonebat I'm thinking superprime in the sense that some of the newer primes are sharp wide open, like the Nikon 35/1.8 and the Canon 28/1.8--obviously some of these need some sort of tweaking to adjust the focus and aperture. Super for LL work or for extreme DOF.

    @shian those CP.2 lenses would be amazing, but maybe out of my budget. Maybe some of the Voigtlaender F/1.4 primes.