Gimmick? Knowledgeable input requested.

[jake337]

Metabones Speed Booster lens adapter for mirrorless cameras increases apertures, sharpness | Photo Rumors


http://www.metabones.com/images/metabones/Speed Booster White Paper.pdf


This is just a telecompressor it seems.

 

[Derrel]

"Science".

Wow. I wish I had a mirrorless camera on which to use a Speed Booster.

 

[amolitor]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ngth-increases-f-stop-mirrorless-cameras.html

 

[jake337]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ngth-increases-f-stop-mirrorless-cameras.html

Damn! I missed that one!

 

[tirediron]

I'm not really getting how this works, but at $600, it's NOT going to be working for me, I can tell you!

 

[amolitor]

Just as a teleconverter takes the image projected by a lens, and spreads it out so that only the part in the middle falls on the film/sensor/whatever, this things takes that same image and squishes it down. So you need "excess image" which you have when using a full-frame lens on a crop sensor.

 

[jake337]

I'm not really getting how this works, but at $600, it's NOT going to be working for me, I can tell you!

I'm thinking more for DX or FX with large format lenses. I also think what the price might be next year used would be a more compelling option for a hobbyist.

Me, personally I'm thinking about a used 50 1.2 + speed booster and my D90 for indoor family snaps. Or a 200 f2 on a crop with this thing.


Anyways...
Since BrianV already had a thread started on this topic, we could delete this thread.

 

[Mike_E]

Since this topic is in a more general area than the mirror-less one I'll leave this here (seems to work on Canon too)

A review: LensRentals.com - Metabones Magic?

 

[Patrice]

Similar devices are commonly used in astrophotography to decrease the focal length and increase the f-ratio of telescopes, particularly useful for catadioptric telescopes.

 

[bluehouse]

I really missed it.

 

[BrianV]

The Back-Focus of the lens is reduced when using the convertor- so it lends itself to mirrorless cameras. Using large-back-focus lenses with other cameras is possible.

Just as there are expensive tele-convertors, I'll bet there will be inexpensive reducers coming out. It's one of those ideas that has been around for a long time, no one thought of using it for mirrorless adapters until now. The $600 adapter apparently does AF and other electronic stuff. Like a TC-16AF? Not sure- but it was not cheap, either. I'll bet we see some cheaper reducers from Ebay, every legacy lens has been adapted to mirrorless and the adapters are available cheap on Ebay.

 

[lonewolfsx]

So this will never work on a full frame camera, unless I suppose if you wanted to use something with larger-than-35mm image circle (like medium or large format lenses). That's a shame, but the price is still pretty ridiculous. It's also unlikely they'll ever make a variant of this adapter for medium format to 35mm use... not a big enough market (I mean, there can't be many of us who would have/buy Mamiya or Pentax 645 lenses etc to use on a 35mm FF) If I had a m4/3 camera though I'd definitely be extremely interesting pending on autofocus performance, could use my F-mount lenses on an Olympus OM-D and be wide enough to take normal pictures! That'd be cool. If I just had tons of cash to burn.

 

[amolitor]

They would never make a version of this for medium format to 35mm/full frame because that would be silly. I suppose I could convert my Mamiya 110/2.8 into a 77mm/2.0 for my Nikon FE2, but the result would be absurd in many dimensions, and useful in none.

In almost all cases, this thing is a device for converting expensive lenses into cheaper ones. In the specific case that it is marketed to, it makes sense.

 

[Garbz]

Similar devices are commonly used in astrophotography to decrease the focal length and increase the f-ratio of telescopes, particularly useful for catadioptric telescopes.

Yep we call them focal reducers, but they serve other purposes as well. They are often combined with field flatteners or "correctors" which compensates for lack of aspherical mirror design. Mine is f/10->f/6.3 and does not cost anywhere near $600. I mean **** it's a single element piece of glass, and mine is aspherical and multicoated and didn't cost $600.