Just to confirm.. I have updated my Metabones IV to the latest firmware V0.44 (22Sept15)
My Canon 85 1.8 now focuses like a champ in most every instance I've tried it. Interior and exterior environments. However better in AF-S than AF-C. Which by the way are your only choices. Focus area limited to wide, center and flexible spot.
skinsey wrote:
Just to confirm.. I have updated my Metabones IV to the latest firmware V0.44 (22Sept15)
My Canon 85 1.8 now focuses like a champ in most every instance I've tried it. Interior and exterior environments. However better in AF-S than AF-C. Which by the way are your only choices. Focus area limited to wide, center and flexible spot.
So, if you use the smallest flexible spot and you select an AF point on the outer edge of the PDAF cluster, you still can get the AF without any hesitation with the 85mm f/1.8 (or with the 135mm f/2.0 related to MedicineMan404)? I could not get that with the 85mm f/1.2 Mark II. I have to select one of the AF points in the row closer to the center from the outer edge to get it to AF correctly. And my 85mm lens is brighter than yours. Could you check and confirm that, please? Thanks!
Maybe a hair slower. It really is greatly greatly improved....but it was a dud via the original firmware on the MB T IV so maybe in my mind it is comparatively greatly improved. AND I was outside in light. I did tinker around the room with it and it did fine inside too. I'd get a lot of use opinions before I purchased though. I just happen to have the 135/F2.
ok I did my testing. I tested the following lenses on Metabones IV with 0.44 Firmware
Canon mount
Sigma 35 1.4
Canon 85 1.8 EF
Canon 135L
and Sony 55FE for good measure
I lowered the light first to about EV0, then to somewhere around EV-3 (where I could not see the object i was focusing on, but I saw its shape thats all).... That would be EV-3 in my guestimate.
With regard to Canon 85 1.8 it focused instantly irrespective of whether I was picking the center focus, the small box, the medium box, or the large box. Also it did not matter whether I was moving the focusing box from center to the edges everywhere, same speed of focusing - instant. That was at EV 0.
With regard to Canon 135L, I got results similar to what AGeoJO elaborated. First of all, Af was very good but generally slower overall than 85 1.8 EF each time. Picking SAF or CAF did not matter. But it was finding focus very quick, just not as instant as it was on 85 1.8. Now when I moved the small/medium box to edges of PDAF box, I could see that AF struggled at edges while it was fine at Center and close to Center box. So the phenomena described by AGeoJO is true with that particular lens.
Then I turned the light off to EV-3, basically I could just see the shape of the small object I was focusing on (a ninja turtle toy). I saw the shape only but could not see any details with my naked eye.
With 85 1.8 it struggled a little but would after some going back and forth would find the focus. But not each time. Some times it would not. That was true for center AF or flexible AF boxes. It should be noted that no AF assist light was used for any of the testing.
I then put on 135L and that lens could not find focus at all, it struggled with zero hits.
I then remembered that Rishi Sanyal of dpreview wrote an article explaining that faster lenses would autofocus in lower light with A7RII based on how the af system is designed and lens opens. So a F2 lens would focus to EV-2, while F1.4 lens wuld focus to EV-3, while F2.8 lens would focus to EV-1 etc.. I decided to check his proposition and put on my Sigma 35 1.4 in Canon mount. And what do you know, Rishi is correct!!!! All of the sudden my 35 1.4 would find focus correctly each and every time, much better than 85 1.8 and much much better than 135L!!!
Then I wanted to check if native lens would do better. 55FE is a great fast focusing lens. I put it on and, again Rishi Sanyal seems to be right, this lens performed EXACTLY like Canon 85/1.8 with adapter. It autofocused as slow as 85 1.8 and sometimes would not find focus at all. So two 1.8 lenses focused the same irrespective of whether the adapter was used, or the lens was native. 1.4 lens had advantage, and 2.0 lens had disadvantage. I did try every possible mode each time to make sure that had nothing to do with it.
Bottom line: you want to focus in very low light with A7R2, use the fastest lenses available. I wish I owned 85/1.2 Canon to check but I don't.
I don't believe the discrepancy you see between the AF speed/accuracy between the center and the outer PDAF points is 100% related to the maximum speed of the lens. Case in point, I do have the 85mm f/1.2 Mark II that struggles to focus using the outer AF points while my 24-70mm f/2.8 Mark II focuses like a champ using all AF points I select and that at all FL I choose. The exact same speed of lens, my 70-200mm f/2.8 Mark II has problems focusing on the outer AF points between 135-200mm. But it performs just fine between 70-135mm.
I believe that there are more variables than just the aperture. For sure the FL plays a role, too. And I am sure the AF algorithm built into each lens plays a role. One thing for sure though and we all agree on this, the new firmware from Metabones has improved the AF capability of Canon lenses significantly and that's what counts. Cheers!
Sep 24, 2015 at 06:57 AM
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p.24 #10 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
AGeoJO wrote:
Thanks for doing the test.
I don't believe the discrepancy you see between the AF speed/accuracy between the center and the outer PDAF points is 100% related to the maximum speed of the lens. Case in point, I do have the 85mm f/1.2 Mark II that struggles to focus using the outer AF points while my 24-70mm f/2.8 Mark II focuses like a champ using all AF points I select and that at all FL I choose. The exact same speed of lens, my 70-200mm f/2.8 Mark II has problems focusing on the outer AF points between 135-200mm. But it performs just fine between 70-135mm.
I believe that there are more variables than just the aperture. For sure the FL plays a role, too. And I am sure the AF algorithm built into each lens plays a role. One thing for sure though and we all agree on this, the new firmware from Metabones has improved the AF capability of Canon lenses significantly and that's what counts. Cheers!...Show more →
As a guess I think that lenses with field curvature may have problems with the outer focus points as the curvature may make the image less sharp at those outer points.
p.24 #12 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
Metabones emailed me that they have not worked with the 100-400L II at this time. So even though the latest update works now at 400, hopefully when they actually work with a 100-400, it will be faster to focus.
p.24 #13 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
jamato8 wrote:
Metabones emailed me that they have not worked with the 100-400L II at this time. So even though the latest update works now at 400, hopefully when they actually work with a 100-400, it will be faster to focus.
somebody send Metabones some long Canon lenses so they could come up with codes !
p.24 #14 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
absolutic wrote:
somebody send Metabones some long Canon lenses so they could come up with codes !
I am not sure how they go about testing all the lenses but I guess they have a source. I have sent them in the past, a pretty complete list of lenses that had issues and they let me know they are working their way through it. I would guess there will be another FW soon, hopefully.
p.24 #15 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
So!! There is hope yet for the 100-400ii, that is something to hope for. Kinda of a moot point now I've added the 70-400g2 but it's hard to predict the exact kit one might have on hand in the future.
p.24 #17 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
Big Cheese wrote:
Do any of the Metabones give fast AF with Canon lenses on the A7 II ?
Metabones has improved the firmware of its latest adapter alright but it has to do more with the PDAF capability of the A7r II to make Canon EF lenses more useable.
p.24 #19 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
Just updated my Metabones to latest firmware and my 100 f2 which hunted like crazy is working great and the 50 1.4 seems to work pretty good in decent light. Will have to try them both in lower light situations
p.24 #20 · A7RII and Canon lenses AF compatibility
The promise of the A7RII with Canon EF lenses is finally coming to some fruition (as I expected) after the metabones firmware update. Pretty fantastic stuff!
I'm still probably going to wait for one of the cheaper options to update their adaptors, since $400 is a bit rich for my blood as a mostly stop-gap (for me) until native options are available. But $100 is just about right.
