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Metabones lens speed booster adapter, focal reducer
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  • @club_irate:

    Your calculation is right (about the focal length).

    About vignetting: Well - I cannot answer your vignetting question (as I only used the Sigma on a GH4 in 2.3x crop and 2.0x crop til now) - BUT: Why do you want to go for the SpeedBooster if you´re using the GH2 with the WAY lower crop factor (compared to the GH4 4k mode especially)?

    For example: You could also get a normal EF to MFT active adapter without a reducer glass element. (Like the Aputure DEC or the new upcoming / now available Kipon EF/EF-S to MFT adapter - Which is also delivering nice AF performance. At least according the first sample videos.) The HUGE pro of that solution would be, that you get a way better usable focal range on the GH2 (around 35-65mm full frame equivalent - All still on the original F1.8 aperture of the lens which is also quite fast aka "fast enough"). AND you´re also saving money (as the Metabones EF SpeedBooster is quite pricey around 600$ - The new Kipon is actually around 300$ which is WAY more attractive price wise). You could even go for a used (or new) Samyang / Rokinon 12mm F2.0 native Micro 4/3 lens instead (for the money you saved NOT getting the SpeedBooster) - That would be nice, as the 12mm F2.0 is WAY handier on glidecams, gimbals, shoulder rigs and so on (as it´s WAY smaller and lighter).

    AND with that choice you would get an even wider focal length range (for STILL a lower price if you buy the 12mm lens used ^^) - The 12mm would give you an additional ~22mm full frame equivalent focal length. Btw.: You can still buy a SpeedBooster in the future (if you want to use the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 on a GH4 for example as an "always on"). With the booster on the GH4 (2.3x 4K crop) you would get the quite similar 30-57mm (compared to the 18-35mm F1.8 with the standard adapter on the GH2 which is giving you 35-65mm). Btw.: You can go even cheaper if you don´t want the autofocus feature AND if you don´t want to use EF lenses on the adapter - As for the Nikon lenses Metabones is also offering a very nice controllable passive adapter (also without a reducer glass installed - But it comes with the same (better) aperture control mechanism like on the SpeedBoosters):

    http://metabones.com/products/details/MB_NFG-m43-BM1

    Just keep in mind: With that adapter you cannot achieve image stabilization with lenses (as it´s a passive adapter). AND you also don´t get AF in ANY kind. So if you plan to use existing EF lenses, I would go for the Kipon EF adapter (or any other solution).

    I hope I didn´t confuse you further ^^.

    LG

  • @brian1959 Thank you for the clear and precise answer, appreciate it.

    So is my calculation right

    18x1.86.0.71 = 24mm

    Also, can anyone confirm whether the MB SB with Sigma 18-35 vignette at 18mm or so on the GH2? I read some older threads where they said that on the Nikon MB SB it vignettes till about 20mm on the GH2.

  • "I got the Metabone Canon EF Lens to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster which i wish to pair with my next purchase, Sigma 18-35 1.8 lens onto my GH2

    Will the GH2 or will it Not need an external power source via MicroUSB to activate the Speedbooster functions of 0.71x reduction and 1 stop lesser.

    If the answer is yes, could anyone who has experience share a tried and tested third party 5 volt MicroUSB power supply brand i would need to buy for the same?"

    The 0.71x reduction and 1 stop speed increase are done by the optics, and no power is needed.

    Power is needed to control the iris and activate image stabilization on EF mount lenses. The GH2 has an active m43 lens mount, so it should work fine with your Speed Booster, meaning you can control the aperture of EF lenses from the camera. External power is only needed for the special 0.64x BMCC - EF version because the BMCC has a "dead" mount with no electronic connections.

  • @khill It says it supports the BMPCC with external power, doesnt state anything about GH2. Just says it supports it. But isnt the GH2 a passive mount?

    Im still not very clear about it.

  • This from Metabones...

    scroll down , the comparison between the 2 different models is listed :)

    http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPEF-m43-BM1

  • I don't think you need a power source, but you could always go to Metabones website and send em an email to ask. Most likely someone on this site who has used it will chime in to confirm what I think.

  • I got the Metabone Canon EF Lens to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster which i wish to pair with my next purchase, Sigma 18-35 1.8 lens onto my GH2

    Will the GH2 or will it Not need an external power source via MicroUSB to activate the Speedbooster functions of 0.71x reduction and 1 stop lesser.

    If the answer is yes, could anyone who has experience share a tried and tested third party 5 volt MicroUSB power supply brand i would need to buy for the same?

  • I wonder why this isn't mentioned too often.

    @Adinan, I think it's because most people don't know that this is the case. Canon made EF-S specifically for "crop" sensors, so people assume all APS-C lenses are EF-S. In this case, the fact that Canon doesn't allow others to use the EF-S mount is actually a good thing :)

  • @Jive, that's great new then. If third party lenses have an EF mount and not an EF-S, then it ought to be mountable on the speedbooster simply because it's the same mount. I've looked at my EF-S lenses (Canon lenses) and they all have that protrusion, by there's a space between the it and the glass element; basically nothing. So I would guess that third party lenses should work just fine on either adapter, given the mount. That link you gave says that as well. Great news, man. Thanks :D

    I wonder why this isn't mentioned too often. I had thought I was stuck to Nikon speedboosters & without electronic integration if I were to use any third parrty lenses :) 16-300mm Tamron ought to be a beast.

  • @Adinan, the rear protrusion of EF-S lenses will come into contact with the Speed Booster's optics. However, EF-S is only used on lenses manufactured by Canon. Third-party manufacturers use the standard EF mount even if the lens is designed for APS-C sensors.

    More info here: http://suggestionofmotion.com/blog/panasonic-gh4-answers-lens-compatibility/#q-efs-spb

  • @Wichtelfieber The image cirlce of the EF-S lenses equals the imaging circle of the Nikon DX lenses, especially true of third party manufacturers of lenses for these mounts; and the Nikon DX lenses work just fine on a speed booster. My question isn't regarding the image circle, but rather the electronic connectivity of the Canon adapters.

  • +1 on review with good res chart and various lenses... for the MFT version :)

  • the native projection coverage of the lens needs to be larger.

  • Heya. I've moved from a 550D to a GH4 and decided to keep the 50mm 1.8, so I got an EF- > m43 adapter. Out of curiosity, I tried to mount my 2 kit lenses on it, and it worked perfectly fine. The adapter didn't have the white dot on it so you had to place it slightly to the left of the red dot and try your chances. None of the adapters I've looked at specified that EF-S lenses would work; most said that they didn't. This then called me to question what I've heard about the metabones adapter and speedbooster being incompatible with EF-S lenses.

    As far as I'm aware, the lenses have a protruding mount ring that doesn't allow the lenses to be mounted on full frame canons, but seeing as it worked on this adapter, I wonder if it would've worked on the adapter with electronic integration, at least. My concerns are mostly about the speedbooster, and whether or not the protrusions would collide with the glass and pins. I do not have either of these adapters and, unfortunately, cannot test this myself.

    What I have been wondering aside to that is whether 3rd party lenses like Sigma and Tamron also have that same protrusion and whether they could be mounted. If not, then could the mount ring be replaced with the tradition ef ring on the lens and then mounted afterwards? The protrusion itself seems like a simple piece of plastic that protects nothing; an artifice to prevent any simple attempt at mounting EF-S lenses on full frame Canons. I'm wondering if anyone has tried to get around that in these ways. The biggest reason for my concerns is that getting a telephoto lens like the 16-300 would need the image stabilisation in the lens at long focal lengths; and at least the EF- > m43 adapter wouldn't have a glass element to collide with it.

  • @psyco - thanks for the reply/info! I think the important thing is that the focal length measurements of the Rokinon lenses aren't approximations but the actual focal lengths of the lenses and that no matter the rear element/mount I simply calculate the focal reduction and then the crop as normally to find out my 35mm-equiv viewing angle. whether or not i see vignetting is just a function of the crop on the rear element. so there's no difference in adapting a Rokinon lens that has full frame coverage vs ASP-C (as long as I'm using GH4 in C4K).

    Has anyone shot resolution charts with and without the speedbooster?

  • @csync if the focal length is the same and the lens is covering the full APS-C image circle (without vigneting) you should see no difference in FOV when adapted to m4/3. If using a full frame lens with the Speedbooster on m4/3 you are only using the best part of the image - so, especially with old glas, you get a bit better image but at much higher cost.

    The FOV advertised with the lens is always measured with the proper sensor size. So a 14mm APS-C lens will have a much smaller FOV on an APS-C sensor as a 14mm full frame lens on a full frame sensor. If you want to know the FOV try to find a native m4/3 lens with the same focal length (after Speedbooster calculation) and take that FOV as a good aproximation.

    @mrbill sure you can, e.g. Tokina 11-16 f2.8 with Speedbooster on GH4 or BMPCC-Speedbooster on BMPCC. Nice wide APS-C lens which works really well with all speedboosters (as long as the Speedbooster is adjusted for infinity focus ;-)

  • afaik, you cannot adapt aspc lenses to m/43 using the metabones speedbooster

  • Does anyone know if there is a difference in FOV degree or how wide the lens is when adapting an APS-C-only lens like the Rokinon 16mm Nikon F Cine DS vs adapting a full frame coverage Rokinon 14mm Nikon F Cine DS?

    I guess I'm asking does Rokinon express FOV differently for their APS-C coverage Cine primes vs their full frame coverage? Are some of the full frame coverage designs just rehoused with a focal reducer behind already?

    I would be using the Metabones Nikon-F -> MFT speedbooster.

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  • @CFreak - I know that officially the GH4 is not supported on the BMCC Speedboosters, but there are lots of examples of people using them anyway... even Philip Bloom has talked about this. But it does sound like maybe the electronics are not compatible for use with autofocus? Maybe just aperture control? What about image stabilization?

  • From the link I provided above MB says the GH4 is not supported:

    Autofocus EF-S lenses GH4 Lens correction such as peripheral shading, CA and distortion Focus confirmation "chip" (e.g. Dandelion) M42 screw mount adapters (see note 5) Stacking non-Metabones/non-Conurus mount adapters on top (see note 6 and list of lenses which require modification below.)

    Isn't there an issue where the mechanical shutter can hit the rear of this adapter. Voldermort wrote something about it.

    Also, before I bought my NikG to MFT SB, I asked MB if they were planning to develop one just for the GH4 and they replied in broken english that they already have one for the GH4, the same NikG to MFT model. So I guess those rumors are nothing but rumors?

  • Reposting from another thread that can be deleted --

    I bought a Nikon to MFT Metabones Speedbooster for the GH2, which served me quite well for a year, particularly with the remarkably good Sigma 18-35. The crop factor was 1.42x, which was just about perfect with the Sigma: any wider would have caused vignetting, as evidenced in the fact that I could only use it with the lens hood off.

    Now that I'm using a GH4, I am still using this setup, but in UHD mode I'm getting a 1.7x crop, which is a little annoying to me. My Sigma 18-35 suddenly doesn't feel quite wide enough on the wide end for a walk-about lens, and I struggle to get good subject isolation in situations where it never used to be a problem.

    Another annoyance is not having autofocus, or the possibility of image stabilization if I buy a VR Nikon lens in the future, due to the Nikon Speedboosters not having electronic contacts. I don't use autofocus in video, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable shooting stills if I had autofocus. I'd also feel more comfortable shooting video and stills beyond 85mm, if I had image stabilized lenses that are supported as such on my GH4.

    Finally, around here everyone and their mom is using Canon. I'm mostly happy with my modest lens collection, but there are definitely times when I'd love to be able to throw someones' Canon 70-200mm f2.8 on my GH4.

    To me, it seems like the best option at the moment is the Canon EF to BMCC-MFT Speedbooster. This has a 0.64x reduction, yielding a crop of 1.53x on the GH4 in UHD mode, which is damn near Super 35 -- perfect, in other words. It also inexplicably has electronic contacts (surprising, because the BMCC-MFT doesn't). This would mean that I get autofocus and image stabilization as an added benefit.

    Finally, as far as I know, I could use a basic Nikon to Canon adapter ring to mount old Nikon AI/AI-s lenses (as well as newer Nikon glass with manual aperture rings, like my Rokinon Cine lenses) onto a Canon to BMCC-MFT Speedbooster, opening up the way for even more lens choices with a single Speedbooster.

    I've read rumors about a GH4 specific Speedbooster. I also would happily spend the extra cash on an "Ultra" variant Speedbooster, if it yielded improve image quality. These are the main considerations that are holding me back from exchanging my Nikon-mount Sigma 18-35 for a Canon EF mount copy, and exchanging my Nikon to MFT Speedbooster for a Canon EF to BMCC Speedbooster.

    Any thoughts on these questions would be very appreciated. I'm a little reluctant to sell my Sigma and Speedbooster, crippling my lens options for at least a week while I wait for Canon replacements to ship in... but overall, it seems like the best idea.