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Metabones lens speed booster adapter, focal reducer
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  • You guys don't understand. It's all about the glass manufacture they buy from, Period. Has nothing to do with anything else.

  • I'm using the Samyang primes, 16mm / 35mm / 85mm. I'm planning to buy a Speedbooster but I wonder how it would work out on the 16mm F2.0. That lens is designed for APS-C, unlike the other 2 which are FF lenses.

    The speedbooster will turn my GH3 into a 1.4x crop camera. Will that cause problems with the 16mm f2.0? Vignetting? Something else?

  • What about Konica AR? ARe there any rumors?

  • @Stab:

    Hard to tell that without having both. BUT: The 16mm has worse vignetting than the Simga 18-35mm @ full open aperture. But it´s way better stopped down to F2.8. (Even better than the 18-35mm @ 18mm @ F2.0)! Btw.: The 18-35mm is only vignetting on a GH2. On a GH3 (in video mode) there is nearly no vignetting. SO: At least at F2.8 the 16mm SHOULD be completely vignetting-free.

  • Thanks Tscheckoff,

    Well, I bit the bullet today and ordered the Speedbooster. It's a lot of money for what it is, but I guess it's worth it for what it does. Tomorrow it will arrive and will try it on my Samyang primes. I'm confident it will work. Let's see what happens to the 16mm with the SB. Someone has to try it 1st I guess :D

  • @Stab:

    I think it´s a good decision. You can even try out the Sigma 18-35mm with it OR any other Nikon-F compatible glass (if you want to in the future). Btw.: It´s also REALLY intersting, how good the 16mm will perform with it (vignetting AND all in all). Can you maybe post a few examples as soon as you got the Speedbooster?

    Btw.: Also important / don´t forget -> If you don´t like it you can also send it back to Metabones for 7 days (starting with delivery date). Altough it´s for sure also not hard to find a potential buyer in ANY online community ^^.

    Please keep us updated! =)

  • I have nikkor and rokkor lenses, can I use both types of lenses with one adapter--connect the Nikkor to the Rokkor (as the rokkor has a shorter flange) or will this create problems with the metabones?

    Putting it another way, does it makes sense to buy the MB in the form with the shortest flange, then you can fit any lens to it?

  • @DrDave

    No, how can two totally different lens mounts (Nikkor F and Rokkor MD) attach to a SB that is designed specifically for one or the other?

    Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your question...especially "connect the Nikkor to the Rokkor"

  • @DrDave You can get an MD Speed Booster, and then attach Nikon lenses to it via a Nikon-F (lens) to Minolta-MD (camera) adapter. However, I'm not aware of any really high quality F-MD adapters, so there is a possibility you will run into flange parallelism problems due to stacking multiple adapters.

  • ordered the Nikon and Minolta booster - will report back with 11-16 Tokina Nikon mount - 16 2.8 and 21 2.8 24 2.8 35 1.8 58 1.2 85 1.7 85 2 and 100 2 Rokkor when I finish this mix next week! Early excitement with 58 1.2 - is lovely bokeh and character looks undisturbed - out with the adapter and tomorrow with the 100 and 35 in the studio so maybe boring fader shots but post all at end of week. Looks smashing though - more attractive than my CY collection - 28 2 35 1.4 and 85 1.4 but horses and courses! I do like the Rokkors ;p

  • @_OZ Nikkor to Rokkor adapter, then metabones, one lens, one adapter one MB. Or the other way around, but I figured you could only go "glassless" in the direction of the shortest flange and still maintain infinity. I'm probably missing something here.

  • @soundgh

    c/y speedbooster makes a massive difference for m43 sized sensors. The Zeiss glass look so much better when closer to full frame.

  • MD and FD to M43 speedboosters are back in stock!

  • Thanks @JuMo ...just ordered the MFT>FD

  • Regarding FD->M43 speed booster, I was worried that the rear element of some lenses could touch the adapter glass, I can confirm that it doesn't with the following lenses which are the most "rear protuberant" in my FD collection :

    • 24mm f1.4 Asph
    • 55mm f1.2 Asph
    • 85mm f1.2 L

    I also tested 35-105 f3.5 and 80-200 f4 L, no problem.

  • Ok I got the speedbooster, but I'm afraid it is faulty.

    I bit the bullet and ordered the SpeedBooster to use with my Samyang primes on the GH3. I thought it was working great, until I wanted to change the aperture on my lens. No matter what I did, the aperture was stuck at wide open. I tried mounting it at different aperture settings (both the SB and the Samyangs) but to no effect. In some positions I was able to close the aperture with the SpeedBooster ring from f1.4 to f2.8 but no further.

    So I looked at the Speedbooster and saw that there is something loose that I think is not designed to move. It is clear that the Speedbooster doesn't 'grip' the aperture rings of my lenses. When I pull the lever on my lenses myself, it works correctly though.

    I know that the Speedbooster's aperture ring should be at position '8' before mounting the lens to ensure you can use the lens' aperture ring. Did that, no effect. When I turn the aperture ring, it stays wide open...

    Here is the metal thingy that is loose to the touch. The left arrow shows the part that is moving when turning the aperture ring of the Speedbooster.

    It was the last Speedbooster in stock at the shop I bought it from. At the moment they are 'seeing what they can do', but I won't hear from them until tomorrow. I have an upcoming shoot this friday. Is there anything I can do?

    And, there might be another option. Maybe I am an idiot and I missed something??

    Thanks for helping!

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  • @stab I bent my aperture lever on my Samyang 85 when I put it on the SB in the wrong way and pushed it into place firmly, which ended up with the aperture on that lens being stuck wide open.

    I had to take the rear ring apart on the Samyang as it was catching on the inner barrel and sticking. Took some work, but it's now fine.

    Have you got another lens to try?

  • I have often set my aperture with a toothpick if the lens has a lever.

  • Hi itimjim,

    Bad to hear about your Samyang but I'm glad it's fixed now. Scary story :)

    I have 3 Samyang lenses, tried all of them.

    I found out what the problem is. It is that thingy I marked red in the picture. It should have 'clicked' inwards and stay there firmly in place. My girlfriend just pushed it and it suddenly clicked. When mounting the lens on it, I can now control my aperture from f1.4 to f11. The last stops don't work. That's actually no problem cause I have never made a shot at an aperture smaller than f11.

    My problem is not completely fixed though, because I still have a faulty Speedbooster. The problem might worsen over time and after I paid €499 for an adapter with some glass in it, I expect and want it to work 100% flawlessly.

    Tomorrow the shop calls me about a plan, so will update later again.

  • When it dawned on me that with my recent Zeiss C/Y 35mm 1.4 and the SB I have something in the range of SLRM 25mm and Voigt 25mm, I arranged some pixel peeping with a colleague today.

    Result: The Zeiss with SB is about one third stop slower than the SLRM or Voigt WO. The center is 100% as sharp as the SLRM, the corners are sharper. The Voigt is softer WO, but the corners are better than SLRM and a tad softer than Zeiss+SB.

    At 1.4 the Voigt is gaining ground (I seem to have a good one), center as good as the others, corners nearly as good as Zeiss+SB.

    At 2.0 the Voigt is slightly ahead in the corners (less CA in particular). Even at 4.0 the SLRM never get's harp in the corners, both Zeiss+SB and Voigt are far better.

    Just like the Voigt, the Zeiss has no play in the focus mechanism, the SLRM has some. Zeiss and SLRM have the same NFD around 26cm, Voigt is nearly a macro at 17cm. The SLRM is more yellow, the others are close to neutral.

    The only disadvantage of the Zeiss is weight, 760 g with SB vs. 450 for the others. But, OTOH, you are then carrying two lenses in one.

    Bokeh: Well, my Zeiss makes nice OOF shapes WO, but has the Ninja shape when closed down one or two stops. The Voigt is good WO, but get's a bit angular stopped down. The SLRM is really nice in this respect, but has massive coma in the corners.

    My two cents: None is perfect, but nobody will need all three.

    Oh, and by the way, the Minolta Rokkor 24mm at 2.8 is a beast too, it can hold it's own against the Zeiss+SB at 4.0 (eff. 2.8): sharper and more contrasty, just a tad more CA in the corners.

  • Any body with the canon FD SB that have tried it with the canon FD 20-35 f3.5 that they wanna share?

  • I have been testing the MD-M43 Metabones Speed Booster and I am very pleased with the IQ. I have found a problem that's very related to @Stab 's. First, the 58mm/F1.2 works great in every way; it has a sizable rear glass element without any issues with the "tab". Pretty much all the rest of my Minoltas need some tweaking of the old focusing tab. I am enclosing a photo of what I have had to do to the 35mm/F1.8, 85mm/F2.0, 100mm/F2.5, and the 135mm/F2.8. The tab rubs on the Metabones glass perimeter keeping the lens from closing all the way. For example, the 35 could only close to about 5.6 With the slight bending of the tab towards the outside, all the lenses wok fine.

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  • @aljimenez I am hoping that the inside of the aperture linkage tabs can be filed down so that they do not rub on the interior of Speedbooster. I want the lenses to still work on film bodies, and bending the tab might not allow them to do that. When they designed the MD-MFT Speedbooster, they must have used the older Minolta lenses with the flat tabs. I am all in favor of filing the tabs if that is what is needed to use this great adapter. Finally, my MC (2nd Gen) 16/2.8 looks like a real fisheye lens!

  • Here is an HDR test that I did using the MD-MFT Speedbooster with my Minolta MC (2nd Gen) 16/2.8 on the GH2. It is through the window of my hotel room which does not open. Sadly, you can see a bit of a tripod leg reflected in the lower part of the image.

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