Metabones just announced the new “Speed Booster” adapter which increases the speed and sharpness of any FF or APS-C lens by reducing the on sensor projected image circle. It will be first available for E-Mount in January 2013 from Metabones’ web site http://www.metabones.com and its worldwide dealer network for US$599 / £372 plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties. The MFT and X mount versions will come later this year.
Philip Bloom is the first having tested the lens:
14 Responses
Interesting…
We need more info on the workings of this product. Their website reveals even less data.
I have never seen a white paper with more information than this one: http://www.metabones.com/images/metabones/Speed%20Booster%20White%20Paper.pdf
I was clicking all the wrong links. My apologies.
Saw all the great info on 43rumors as well. 🙂
The curves look good, sample photos look good, and looks like they have different optics for the APS version vs. the µ43 version. I think it’s a product a lot of us have been waiting for, although it comes a bit too late for me.
I once advocated for an opposite product to use Leica R lenses on S bodies. 🙂
Sorry, but the curves don’t look good IMHO.
Look at page 8 of the paper – the example with the 50/1.2 AIS Nikkor.
There You see that the Nikkor without Speed Booster has only slight astigmatism right up to the corners of the NEX frame…
…but with Speed Booster, it already has strong astigmatism in the middle of the frame – so it is no real good idea to use this adapter in any case.
In some cases it may be helpful in others obviously not.
So, as expected no optical miracle, but an additional choice,
which isn’t harmful exept for the wallet and in cases, like the above, for the optical quality in regard of abberations like astigmatism.
Strange news… “Increase the sharpness”? Ok, there will be a convergence of the light, but don’t forget the “sweet spot” effect concerning a lot of FF lenses mouted on an APS-C body. In most of case, the center is sharper than the edges and corners, and the APS-C crop effect deletes this. This additional lenses may just reveal the weakness of corners…
And if you plan to use it with stellar lenses, don’t forget that the whole system is as weak as the weakest part of it…
It could be usefull. Not magical.
so a .71x multiplier effectively neutralizes the crop factor of APS-C, meaning a 35mm on a full frame camera would look just like the same lens with this adapter on a Fuji or NEX APS-C camera? but with a larger aperture (dof and metering?)? this could be a huge development!
It would have the same field of view (think angle) and I think the SAME DoF, not more: think 50mm f/2 vs 35mm f/1.4 The 35 has a larger aperture, but the 50 is a longer focal length.
This their first over priced adapter that looks worth it for what it offers to m43 users in terms of performance and FL deductions.
I will consider it but my target price would be 400-45$. Somehow I thing m43 version will be a bit more… 🙁
cited from the white-paper:
“A focal reducer, schematically illustrated in Figure 1, is basically a positive lens that fits behind an objective lens, and its function is to reduce the focal length. However, the entrance pupil D remains fixed. Because of this, the f/#, given by f/# = (focal length) / D, is reduced. In other words, the speed of the lens is increased – for the same reason, why a teleconverter reduces the speed of the lens.”