Metabones Speed Booster - Faster, Sharper, Wider lenses on APS-C and below...

Kholi said:
Was thinking this same thing.

I think there's a way to do it, though. If you do an E to MFT, I think you can then take the PL to E route and get the results you want. It's one of those mounts, it might be NEX mount to MFT.
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That would do it, however I'm not sure there'd physically be space for the optical element. Flange distance for E-mount is 18mm and MFT is 19.25mm, so it'd be cutting it very fine space wise.
 
stefancolson said:
The most shocking thing about this is that nobody has done it before in this application. It seems like such a simple, obvious idea. I can't wait to get my hands on one.
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Actually it's not new at all. Astronomic telescopes use condenser lenses since donkeys years. It's just a new application of old tech.
That's why I don't understand Illya's tweed - it's a proofed and well tried ting in an other industry. Ask any astronomic photographer, the quality is beyond any doubt.
But maybe I miss something.
 
I always thought that the thing that stopped this being made earlier was a Kodak patent. I am very excited by this.
 
I wouldn't expect much from this, in terms of optical quality.

Basically, because if adding a single element behind a given lens was a simple and effective way to make it wider and sharper, lens makers would have already come out with great wide lenses for short-focal-flange mounts. We've seen some of that, but not a lot really. And lens makers have a huge advantage: they don't have to make their extra element work with every lens out there, just with the one they're using as a starting point.

Sometimes equipment makers are stubborn and take ages to realize there's a market for a product. But sometimes they are just wise and know what can be done and what won't work well enough.

On the other hand, if we look at the history of lens design, this method may just be something people forgot about when we switched to SLRs.
Nowadays, wide angles are not usually constructed like this. It may be for good reason (it's not good for IQ), or it may be because of path dependence (5 years ago we were using cameras with mirrors and this was not an option).

A telephoto design places a negative element at the back of the lens, increasing focal length without increasing lens size. This has been in use since the 1880s.
Until the 1930s, wide angle lenses were just normal designs of reduced size, that ended up sitting close to the film. When this became impossible, with the early SLRs in the 1930s, wide angle lenses started to be designed modifying the telephoto idea, but, instead of switching that negative element for a positive one (which is what the Metabones adapter does), the solution was to put the negative element in front of the lens, in what is known as a reverse telephoto design. This is much more costly, and the "positive element at the back" method must have been evident to anyone working in this back in the day, but it is still the way most wide angles are designed nowadays.
One possible reason is that the positive-element-at-the-back design creates IQ issues, but I'd tend to think it was just not possible: it was the switch to mirrored cameras with a long focal flange distance which drew the development of the reverse telephoto, so positive-element-at-the-back was probably not an option.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/02/who-invented-the-telephoto-lens
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/03/the-development-of-wide-angle-lenses
 
Samuel H said:
I wouldn't expect much from this, in terms of optical quality.

Basically, because if adding a single element behind a given lens was a simple and effective way to make it wider and sharper, lens makers would have already come out with great wide lenses for short-focal-flange mounts. We've seen some of that, but not a lot really. And lens makers have a huge advantage: they don't have to make their extra element work with every lens out there, just with the one they're using as a starting point.
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I think this has not happened due to culture.

Canikon see the apsC S35 market and amateur and have catered well with 18-xx zoom lenses perfect for am shooters

Cine lens makers just make lenses that fit S35 anyway with no spare image circle

Mft has seen voigt and slrm make some lenses appropriate to the sensor size for the prosumer/pro market while panny/oly have catered with some prosumer zooms

So who needs this apart from a few 'wonks' (like me)

S
 
Perhaps they could make a dumb Nikon-F to MFT version (and perhaps without the electronics, they could make it cheaper)?
 
Simon Shasha said:
Perhaps they could make a dumb Nikon-F to MFT version (and perhaps without the electronics, they could make it cheaper)?
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Of course, if this IS based solely on a hopefully expired Kodak patent (with no other IP) then there's nothing to stop other companies from making dumb MFT versions!
 
Dumb adapters are already on the site and are shipping at the end of the week. They are also cheaper @ 399.

http://www.metabones.com/product/sony-nex/leica-r-lens-to-sony-nex-adapter-detail

EDIT:
Also if you have not read the white paper on it give it a look Speed Booster White Paper.pdf

Interesting specs:
Maximum input aperture: f/1.26
Maximum output aperture: f/0.90 mirrorless
Lens elements/groups: 4/4

They also talk about the history "piror art" on page 16 and it appears that they were granted a patent on this design. I think because kodak's patient was for SLR cameras and this is for only for mirroless. Its a whole new design.
 
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I thought we were still waiting for the ef to m43 smart adapter ? Do you think that's why metabones delayed it in the first place ? Really, this has the potential of making the gh3 and the bmcc so much more utilitarian. And if it made bloom happy , it must have real possibilities.
 
NO NO NO. NOT A THIRD THREAD!!!!!

STRIKE THAT! FOUR THREADS!

Can a Mod Please combine these three threads? My brain is hurting from having to read 3 4 threads!

Thread #1: Metabones Speed Booster, makes Nikon and Canon lenses wider and faster!!!!!
Thread #2: Metabones Speed Booster - Faster, Sharper, Wider lenses on APS-C and below...
Thread #3: New Metabones adapter coming for EOS=>M4/3 that makes the lens faster!
Thread #4: Metabones Speed Booster

Or maybe a whole new www.metabonesUser.com forum?
laugh.gif


(Sorry for the cross posting of this in all three FOUR threads. That sort of happens when there are three FOUR threads on the same topic.)
 
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Having a closer look at the white paper reveals that MTF improvements are really only over a small part of the image, located in the center. In the outer parts the MTF is similar (or slightly worse) to what the original lens has to offer in its outer image regions. Paired with the higher pixel density of the NEX sensors this will lead to a softer image compared to the full frame equivalent. (I am tempted to use "borders" for this region, but these parts really cover a lot of the image, so "borders" is not appropriate.)
This is the case for the NEX adapter, the m43 version has much better MTF curves.
And, of course, having fast wide angles with a softish non-center is better than not having fast wide angles in the fist place. :)
 
Wonder if they will make one for the Canon mirrorless? But then, Canon would need to bring out a more ambitious mirrorless body this year...
 
As they most likely will release a dumb nikon F adapter as well, what would be the smartest for FX and M42 lenses on M43: Metabones Speedbooster Nikon F with F to M42 adapter(won't reach infinity on Nikon FX cameras, not sure if would here) or a Metabones Speedbooster Canon adapter(dumb hopefully) + Canon to F & Canon to M42 ​adapters?
 
Sadly I'll have to cross post this info because it's pertinent, but we have like eight different topics on the forums xD

Coming from the Blackmagic Design forums, here is a response form Conurus about the adapter and how it works:

rick.lang said:
conurus said:
Hi everyone, this is Bo-Ming Tong of Conurus (who contributed to the electronic portion of the Metabones Speed Booster). If you would allow me to explain the MFT plan...


Passive MFT will be added in March 2013 for Leica R, Alpa, Contax C/Y, Contarex, Rollei and Nikon (including DX and G). An active MFT for Canon EF is planned for the future.


The MFT version maintains the 0.71x crop factor but will have higher optical quality because the optics are covering a smaller image circle now. (Specs are the same across MFT and APS-C, but the optical design is optimized for each format.)
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Thanks for the news! Would you be so kind as to comment on my post below that I copied from another thread here so validate or correct my conclusions regarding the use of the MFT adapter on the BMCC MFT camera?


"To summarize the white paper if my understanding of the optics is correct:
The Metabones focal-reducer on a EF lens-to-MFT mount creates an image circle of about 21.6mm in diameter on a true micro four-thirds sensor with a resulting multiplier of 0.71 affecting the field-of-view on a full-frame 35mm lens, for example, as if it were now a 25mm lens and a full stop faster as long as the wide aperture of the EF lens is about f1.26. Please take a moment to digest that.


Now we are concerned here about the BMCC which as you know has a sensor size smaller than a micro four-thirds sensor. If we take the identical focal-reducer and mount it on the BMCC MFT camera, about 15% of that reduced image circle is lost as the BMCC sensor fits well within the image circle. So we will see the increased centre sharpness and even less of the loss of resolution at the edges and we get the increased brightness of the lens, but we won't quite get back to the field-of -view of a true micro four-thirds sensor. Instead of seeing the FOV of a 25mm lens, our 35mm EF lens will look like a 28mm or 29mm lens! Still amazing.


Please let me know if my reasoning is flawed."


Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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And then--

conurus said:
Hi Rick,


Thank you for your question. Correct me if I am wrong but BMCC has a 2.3x crop factor, which in my opinion is not that far behind the official MFT's 2x. The combined crop factor would have been 1.6, matching a Canon DSLR such as 7D. You could stick a Sigma 8-16 on the combo, and that shoots like a 13-26 in 135 format. BMCC + Speed Booster are already wider and faster than anything before! If, before the Speed Booster, the BMCC had already been a great proposition with the only nitpick being difficult to find wide angles for it, then the advent of Speed Booster completely wipes out that last bit of worry.


Bo-Ming Tong
Conurus
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Maybe that helps some!
 
Samuel H said:
I wouldn't expect much from this, in terms of optical quality.

Basically, because if adding a single element behind a given lens was a simple and effective way to make it wider and sharper, lens makers would have already come out with great wide lenses for short-focal-flange mounts.
Click to expand...

I predict that this will be a pretty big deal, that the adapters will produce very high quality images, and that a class of superprimes will be created, like affordable 35/1.0 lenses made from widely available 50/1.4 lenses, and that MFT will get a significant boost in interest owing to the adaptability of non FF zoom lenses, especially the widely available F2.8 zooms which suddenly become sharper, faster and wider.

We have already seen some amazing samples, and we will see more soon enough.
 
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