Metabones Speed Booster Adapter...oooh!

Tim - you joined the mirrorless revolution just in time! ; Have you seen this little beauty?:

http://www.metabones.com/images/metabones/Speed%20Booster%20White%20Paper.pdf

Looks like Canon EF and Nikon FX are coming first. ; I know you don't necessarily want to use the bigger lenses on the smaller body, but it is a fascinating technology and idea...a converter that allows you to attach full frame lenses to an APS-C body and achieve full-frame equivalent focal length and aperture.

Stick a 50mm F2.8 lens on, and it will shoot as a 35mm F2 lens on the NEX, which with the crop factor of the camera applied, results in a 53.25mm F2.8 equivalent lens...effectively a match of full frame plus or minus some small change.

I see this as most promising or interesting for low light work with primes...being able to shoot with a nice, fast prime and essentially wipe out the crop factor and maintain the same aperture equivalence sounds really nice! ; A 30mm F1.4 actually shoots as a 30mm F1.4. ; A 50mm F1.2 actually shoots as a 50mm F1.2 (or close enough to not matter much). ; Even the DOF matches full frame.

Cool stuff! ; And for you M4:3 shooters, you'll have one made for your mount too! ; A full-frame 50mm lens on M4:3 using this adapter would be converted down to 35mm, then the 2x crop factor applied for a 70mm equivalent...certainly closer than the 100mm equivalent it would normally deliver...and the aperture would be closer effectively too.

 

Whoa Nellie!

 

$599?? ; Ouch!

So to make sure I am understanding this right, a 50mm f/1.4 would essentially turn into a 35.5 f/1.0? ; Then 35.5 * 1.5 crop = 53.25 f/1.0? ; Hot diggity!

 

I *think* that's about right. ; I thought the aperture essentially would 'crop factor' back to around 1.4 equivalence too - technically F1.4 on full frame and F1.4 on crop sensor should deliver the same exposure, but the F1.4 on full frame is putting light on more sensor area so most seem to agree that a full frame camera takes more advantage of F1.4 than does a crop body - but by the samples in their white paper, they seem to be showing a notably brighter exposure at the same settings when using the Speed Booster Adapter, which would seem to indicate that it's taking advantage of the extra stop of light magnification this thing produces, allowing you to use a one-stop lesser ISO or one-stop faster shutter than the full frame at the same aperture setting. ; Crazy stuff.


I know one thing - I'm already dreaming of picking up a Nikkor 50mm F1.2 lens, and going dark-ride shooting with this adapter - that would deliver a 35.5mm F0.9 lens, or 53mm F0.9 equivalent!


It's definitely pricey. ; Though rumor seems to point to other versions coming - Leica mount, maybe some other mounts - and those not requiring AF compatibility should be cheaper - more along the $300 and under range.


Can't wait to see how it works in actuality and where the price settles in...it's certainly interesting!


Check out this site, that already beta-tested it with sample images compared to a 5DmkIII:


http://www.eoshd.com/content/9474/prototype-metabones-speed-booster-equipped-nex-7-vs-full-frame-5d-mark-iii

 

I'm already considering the Canon 50/1.2 FD mount. ; They actually have a bunch of variants: ; 50, 55 and 58 all 1.2. ; The Nikon is MF anyway so I figured...why not?

 

BUT, it does *claim* about a 1-stop light GAIN, doesn't it? ; So a f/1.4 would be a f/1.0 *technically*?

 

That's the part that's interesting...I look forward to hearing more about how precisely it works and the results from it. ; Indeed it seems to be actually delivering a brighter exposure than the comparable full frame camera with the very same lens, so it may indeed be giving you one extra stop of aperture independent of the crop factor.


I'm hoping some of these eventually come down the road for Pentax or other mounts - since I already have a big collection of full frame lenses for that mount and for Konica mount. ; Konica might be too small a player for them, but Pentax certainly has a huge backlog of lenses and a lot of mirrorless users who bought and buy Pentax lenses. ; And without the need for autofocus, they would be cheaper.

 

That's the one I linked above, Jeff. ; Indeed, there are a few tests and sample photos floating about now. ; It's very interesting for sure!


I'm right on the verge of picking up the Sony eMount 35mm F1.8 OSS to have a stabilized low light lens for the NEX...I've already got some good fast F1.7 and F1.8 manual lenses, but an AF and stabilized version would be nice too!

 

Right! ; The only downside is that this is (at least currently) limited to use with mirrorless cameras that have a shallow registration distance - since they need to slide this adapter in between the lens and camera. ; It seems this adapter at the moment won't work with standard APS-C/DX DSLRs since their registration gap is similar to full frame and far too thick to fit the adapter in - even Pentax's mirrorless K01 won't work since it maintains the same K-mount registration distance. ; NEX, M4:3, Canon EOS-M, Samsung NX, and Nikon Series 1 all potentially can use these adapters to various effect, IF they decide to make adapters to fit all those different mounts. ; They're committed to NEX and M4:3 for sure.

 

Technically. ; But what it's doing is to allow for APS-C to have the exact same focal length as FF, including the DOF. ; So while a 50/1.4 will be a 35.5mm/1.0 crop factor, it will look really close to a 50/1.4 on FF.

 

Roger, I was thinking more along the lines of shutter speed for dark rides... ;

Does this thing auto-focus and/or control the f/stop?

 

The Canon one will control the aperture but the auto focus is slowwwwwwww

 

So dark riding it might be difficult? ; But regardless this is intriguing. ;

 

TThe autofocus is likely slow and unreliable enough during dark shooting that you might just be better off going with manual focus. ; Manual focus I find is easier and more pleasurable on the NEX than with my DSLR - the peaking in the viewfinder, the ability to magnify in the viewfinder, and the gain-up for focusing in low light, all make it a cinch!

 

So a Chinese company took this idea and created their own versions. I don't think that they will have AF with theirs but they have announced that before the year is out they will have a speed booster for nine different mounts including FD and Contax.

Depending on the price and if it gets picked up to be rented out or not, I think I am looking forward to having a 55 f/0.9 lens at WDW!

Especially when you consider the cost of a modern f/1.2 lens.

 

I just hope that the Chinese glass is well made - some Chinese products can be just as good as any other, while others can be, well, not so much! ; Otherwise, the speed booster effect can be canceled out by poor converter glass that introduces myriad other quality issues.