New Metabones Speed Booster™ adapter provides an extra f/stop and full frame focal length on APS-C Sensors.
"Mounted between a mirrorless camera and a SLR lens, Speed Booster™ increases maximum aperture by 1 stop (hence its name), increases MTF and has a focal length multiplier of 0.71x. Optics designed by Caldwell Photographic in the USA."
Adapter Main Features:
Increase maximum aperture by 1 stop.
Increase MTF.
Makes lens 0.71x wider.
Optics designed by Caldwell Photographic in the USA (patent pending).
Electronic integration of aperture diaphragm, controlled by or from the camera body.
Partial autofocus support for late-model (post-2006) Canon-brand lenses.
It seems interesting if it works as stated. There's also supposed to a m4/3 version as well. However, the .pdf on Metabones website says you can use DX or APS-C lenses on m4/3 cameras.
i always wondered whether a condensor could be stuck in one of these adapters. theoretically it could improve image quality, but it looks like a single element that can't be customized for the lens in front of it. my guess is it'll improve or not effect central performance but will hurt corner performance and will be more detrimental to the performance of fast lenses than slower ones.
another exciting point – it seems to be thinner than the normal eos to E-mount adapter?
I'm just checking that it is OK to use fully manual lenses with EF adapters (eg OM/Leica R). The info suggests you can. Note it was deisgned by Brian Caldwell who designed the Coastal Optics 60mm.
I have the Nikkor E 50/1.8 in Blooms article, it's tempting to use just for pancakes and the reduced mount thickness, but @ the price listed, I'll wait till a FF EVIL is released first, then the price should come down.
The speed boost would be interesting with my Rokkor 58/1.2
Re: IQ, I would need to see a (24mp FF sensor) vs a (24mp APS-C sensor + speed booster) with the same lens on both type of shootout, before I'd buy one.
Edited to reduce confusion... I hope.
Re: IQ, I would need to see a (24mp FF) vs a (24mp APS-C + speed booster) shootout
before I'd buy one.
Do you mean 35mm FF + speedbooster vs 24mm APSC? (eg 24mm E Sonnar). The SpeedBooster won't work on APSC lenses (unless you put them on u4/3)
No I'm talking about a FF sensor vs an APS-C sensor + speed booster with both sensors having the same MP count ie 24mp.
With the same lens on both to see if quality suffers at all.
Sounds good! Then my Contax 35/1.4 should be 0.71x1.5 = 37mm on my Fuji X-Pro1! DOF pretty much the same, perhaps a little image loss in the corners, but who cares when useded wide open at 1-4 meters?
I've asked them how T/S lenses will do with the adapter (ie if there might be any unexpected optical issues, I'm especially concerned about corner/edge CA or blurring). Their reply was that they have not tested any but will try to find out.
LightShow wrote:
No I'm talking about a FF sensor vs an APS-C sensor + speed booster with both sensors having the same MP count ie 24mp.
With the same lens on both to see if quality suffers at all.
Oh yes ... got it
Very interested to see what happens with this. As a fast normal shooter this finally makes the NEX cameras viable. The price of fast 35mm lenses with character is rather prohibitive and far smaller than that of the 50mm choices. I really like the idea of my 50mm Tak being both a fast 50mm equivalent and a fast 85mm equivalent just by taking the adaptor on and off!
Don't assume optical losses will be visible, the optical designer involved is superb (the guy behind the Coastal Optics 60mm Macro) and it's the same basic tech that Olympus used on their 14-35/2 and 35-100/2 for 4/3rds mount.
I'll likely buy the F mount version, and hopefully we'll see an Alpha mount version as well. This pretty much resolves my last issue with going fully NEX
mawz wrote:
Don't assume optical losses will be visible, the optical designer involved is superb (the guy behind the Coastal Optics 60mm Macro) ....
This is the reason why I think this adapter will work good :-)
But I wonder how the NEX or 4/3 sensor microlenses work with lenses with f/0.9.
Most likely the microlenses are optimized for lenses with maximum of f/1.4 or 2.0, and the light from faster lenses doesn´t reach the senistive area to 100%.
The excellent 35-70 C/Y Vario Sonnar will be a more interesting lens on Nex with the ability to cover 35-105 FOV with an additional normal EF-E adapter, and faster in the 35-70 range as well
I was just about to shell out for the CV Ultron 21 1.8.
Now I might try this instead, with some good old pancakes on the NEX 5N to see if it can be a poor man's RX1.
There will be optical losses. Should be interesting to see what will make it. I will wait for the Nikon F version.