Metabones

[LKaven]

Has anyone had a chance to check out the Metabones Speed Booster?

I thought at first it might be a cheap gimmick, and then I realized that it was the creation of Brian Caldwell, who makes the Coastal Optics lens.  Hmm!  It touts an additional .7 f-stop and corresponding improvement in MTF.  Makes it more interesting!

Roger Cicala reviews it here:
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/01/metabones-magic

Caldwell's white paper here (good read):
http://www.metabones.com/images/metabones/Speed%20Booster%20White%20Paper.pdf

[LKaven]

Any bites?  I actually thought this might be one of the most elegant ideas to come this year. 

[RawheaD]

I bought it; it really just works as advertised.  I personally think it's a must-have for APS-C mirroless users

[dgberg]

Anyone heard a timeframe on the Nex/Nikon mount?

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

My initial reaction was that this was good stuff for owners of Leica R lenses.

Best regards
Erik

Any bites?  I actually thought this might be one of the most elegant ideas to come this year. 

[Michael Schoenfeld]

Michael Schoenfeld here,

I posted in the "motion and video" section because I purchased it for my FS700 video camera. I am primarily a stills shooter, but I have also shot a lot of motion projects in the last 7 years.

It's the real deal. Metabones found a real need and filled it elegantly IMHO. I don't use sony stills cameras (Canon 1DMKVI and 5DMKIII), but I'll bet it's fabulous on any NEX series camera using Canon glass (I've got a pile of L lenses, including 14 F4 TS, and all of them, including the Macro 100L works as advertised).

A tad sharper; full frame circle on APS (super 35 in my case); and about a stop brighter.

IMO,
Michael Schoenfeld
www.michaelschoenfeld.com

[LKaven]

My initial reaction was that this was good stuff for owners of Leica R lenses.

If they keep going, it could be good for owners of Canon FD, Nikon AI/AIs, and maybe M42 lenses also.

[mcbroomf]

I wanted to use this with the small OM lenses to keep the "package" small, 18, 24, 90 with a 35-70 c/y or Leica would be excellent and with a regular adapter woudl cover 18-135 FOV.  And I could also use it with many other lenses that have EF adapters.

The 18 and 21 OM lenses have fins that would damage the front lens element (although I could grind them a little), and several other lenses I tried with EF adapters (permanent) seem to short pins and don't allow the shutter enable to be switched (Rokkor 58/1.2 and 35 PC VFC and an FD 24/1.4).  These adapters are pretty thick (width of the adapter not depth) .. again perhaps grinding a bit off would work.

Here's a gallery of somewhat paired images taken with a bevy of lenses on Nex 7 and mainly 1Ds3 (a couple with 5D2) over the weekend.  Click on Original at the bottom and you'll get a 50% res image.  LR4 defaults.
http://www.pbase.com/mike_broomfield/speed_booster