Other: New major Release for Metabones adapters

I cannot seem to get my Metabones to be recognised on the software on the Mac. I am holding down the WO button on the side whilst plugging it in, does anyone have any suggestions?

I have the Canon EF to E Mount ULTRA Speed Booster & the Canon EF to E Mount Mark IV.
 
I've found that sometimes the cable I used to connect it was no good. There are a lot of mini USB to usb cables that you get for charging but they don't have all the connections. This drove me crazy till I went to my local electronics store and bought a new one for a couple bucks. That worked fine. If you have a lot of cables keep trying till one works or buy a new one. This drove me crazy at first.
 
Lenilenapi said:
I've found that sometimes the cable I used to connect it was no good. There are a lot of mini USB to usb cables that you get for charging but they don't have all the connections. This drove me crazy till I went to my local electronics store and bought a new one for a couple bucks. That worked fine. If you have a lot of cables keep trying till one works or buy a new one. This drove me crazy at first.
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Thanks - this seemed to solve the problem!
 
Much of the information in this threads seems to be very outdated by now. With the latest firmware V052 the default mode is again the green mode - what is a pitty since the advanced mode seems to work much better for continous autofocus but also continuous autoiris with Canon lenses (tested with a speedbooster 0.71x and a Canon 24-105 f4). So knowing that they went back to the "green" mode I have changed the default mode to the "advanced" mode.

Tested the Speedbooste also wih with the Sigma 18-35 works now similar well to the MC11, both c AF and c AI are woring hre too in the advanced mode.
 
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So Wolfgang - are you saying your Canon lenses' aperture doesn't hunt like crazy with your adapter in Advanced mode with AI on? Interesting - I must try that one day... Thanks!

Piotr
 
The continuous AF takes some time to adapt, but then smaller changes are adjusted quite well. That was my first impresssion at least.
 
Yes, AF is OK - I was asking about Auto Exposure (Auto Iris) - last time it was unstable, causing exposure fluctuate (almost impossible to correct in post); is it gone now?
 
But I am still testing. The Stabilizer is not adjustable within the FS7 in the advanved mode here now (Canon 24-105), but it works within the lens.

The push AF with the Metabones and Canon is similar to the MC11 - nice to adjust roughly before you start shooting but not so great during shooting. So the same as with the MC11 behaviour with the Sigma 18-35.
 
mattjeh said:
Great news! Push auto works on both my Sigma 24-105 and Canon 70-200. It's not the fastest (or quietest on the sigma), but it's certainly useful in certain circumstances.

Just a quick question, I've only recently bought my speedbooster with lenses. When changing lenses I've been turning the camera off, is this necessary? Or can I leave the camera running when switching lenses? I've seen some references to powerering down the camera (FS5) but just wondering what people do in the real world?
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You think Nikon lenses will work as well?
 
Is anything known about losses in resolution, caused by the additional glass in the Speedbooster?
 
Good question, Wolfgang! This is the first thing I was wondering about when first decided to add 2 Canon wide zooms (and of course the Speed Booster) to my arsenal (at that time limited to only one lens - the wonderful kit 28-135 zoom lens by Sony). Yes, wonderful - in spite of not being bright or wide enough..

I haven't run any scientific tests, but from my comparison of the pictures I'm getting with the kit lens vs. both 16-35mm and 24-70mm F4 Canons I can tell you this: areas of critically sharp focus are at least as sharp with the Canon/Speed Booster combos as they are with the kit lens (if not sharper), but I do see some serious disadvantage of Speed Booster in the out-of-focus areas, and particularly the aesthetics of the bokeh effect, achievable with Speed Booster in comparison the the kit lens. I'm not sure whether this is caused by the Speed Booster additional glass, or my viewing equipment - which is the otherwise great Samsung 49KS8000 "Quantum Dot" SUHD TV which - even with all and any of the numerous "picture enhancement" settings turned off of course, never really stops trying to reduce noise. This NR action manifests itself in any slightly out of focus areas - particularly those darkish ones - which tend to become ugly patches of plastickly looking, one-dimensional, almost dirty picture, in which any bokeh effect the FS7's S35 sensor can produce is lost completely. And for some reason, these unwelcome areas do look even worse on my display when Speed Booster is used than they are without it (i.e. in my kit lens footage). Actually, the difference is so big that I only noticed this effect when I put my Canon/Metabones combo on the camera for the very first time; after that - knowing what to look for - I started to also see it with the kit lens, but it's much less pronounced without the Speed Booster for sure...

So - while I realize I didn't answer your question directly - something is definitely getting worse due to Speed Booster glass; but again: it's not the potential of it to produce really sharp picture (which - after all - both my Canons are most certainly fully capable of), but the quality of bokeh that is suffering - and I'm really not sure how much of this can be blamed on the Speed Booster glass, and how much (any why) is the specifics of my display subsystem.

Also - and this is not related to your question at all, just my observation on pros & cons of the Metabones Speed Booster adapters: they are far from the advertised doubling of the attached lens' light sensitivity. My two F4 Canons are reported to the camera as F2.8 when fully opened, but to my eyes (and my scopes) they are more like F3.5 at best. What's more, increasing the light sensitivity is not constant at all focal lenses, so unfortunately, both Cacons become even darker when zoomed fully in. One must remember about it - and my future lenses I will ever buy for use with my Speed Booster will definitely be faster than F4 (F2.8 at least)!

I wonder if your testing will confirm my findings; please report, Wolfgang!

Piotr
 
moldcad said:
I'm not sure whether this is caused by the Speed Booster additional glass, or my viewing equipment - which is the otherwise great Samsung 49KS8000 "Quantum Dot" SUHD TV which - even with all and any of the numerous "picture enhancement" settings turned off of course, never really stops trying to reduce noise. This NR action manifests itself in any slightly out of focus areas - particularly those darkish ones - which tend to become ugly patches of plastickly looking, one-dimensional, almost dirty picture, in which any bokeh effect the FS7's S35 sensor can produce is lost completely. And for some reason, these unwelcome areas do look even worse on my display when Speed Booster is used than they are without it (i.e. in my kit lens footage). Actually, the difference is so big that I only noticed this effect when I put my Canon/Metabones combo on the camera for the very first time; after that - knowing what to look for - I started to also see it with the kit lens, but it's much less pronounced without the Speed Booster for sure...

I wonder if your testing will confirm my findings; please report, Wolfgang!

Piotr
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Hey Piotr,

As someone who's never owned a native Sony-mount lens, and has shot 90% of my work on the FS-7 with Canon-L series via a S/B, I'd be very interested to see some examples of your bokeh IQ mis-matching issues. Is there any way you could post some screengrabs on FlickR or similar and link to them here? Ideally obviously it would be UHD clips on YouTube, but that would take a lot more time, and stills would already give us much more of an idea of the issue you're experiencing than a verbal description does.

Thanks,

jason
 
I did some kind of internet search, and most sources seems to come to the conclusion that there is some impact of the speedbooster, but they seem to jugde it as minor.
https://m.dpreview.com/articles/2667195592/first-impressions-metabones-speed-booster

I did only some fast non-scientific comparison using my Canon 24-105 f4 with either the Speedbooster ultra 0.71 or the Commlite adapter and have not seen a major difference when editing the footage. But since the only difference between the Speedbooster and the Commlite are the optical advantages of the Speedbooster and that the Speedbooster allows push autoiris, I think I will use the Commlite whenever I do not need the other advantages of the Speedbooster.
 
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I just updated three metabones. Put two of them on fs7's and switched them to advance mode. I left one in basic mode (didn't change anything after fw update) for a7rii. All seem to be exactly the same. AF doesn't work at all. Push AF works but sucks. IS works. AE doesn't work at all. What modes am I in? This thread has me beyond confused.
 
jasonbrooks said:
Hey Piotr,

As someone who's never owned a native Sony-mount lens, and has shot 90% of my work on the FS-7 with Canon-L series via a S/B, I'd be very interested to see some examples of your bokeh IQ mis-matching issues. Is there any way you could post some screengrabs on FlickR or similar and link to them here? Ideally obviously it would be UHD clips on YouTube, but that would take a lot more time, and stills would already give us much more of an idea of the issue you're experiencing than a verbal description does.

Thanks,

jason
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Hi Jason,

I'm afraid only A/B comparison of full quality (preferably untouched) clips on a large display (preferably similar to what I'm using) could really expose the (subtle) differences I'm talking about. So - since this would be rather difficult to show to you - I'm afraid you must take my word for it.

And please don't get me wrong: my 2 Canon lenses with Speed Booster (the 16-35mm and the 24-70mm, F4.0, also "L" series of course) are able to produce great looking imagery; it's just that the image from my kit lens looks even better in the bokeh rendering department... Cheers,

Piotr
 
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weasel-d said:
I just updated three metabones. Put two of them on fs7's and switched them to advance mode. I left one in basic mode (didn't change anything after fw update) for a7rii. All seem to be exactly the same. AF doesn't work at all. Push AF works but sucks. IS works. AE doesn't work at all. What modes am I in? This thread has me beyond confused.
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If you have updated to the fimware 0.52, then the default mode is the green mode. I have changed that to the advanced mode permanently (how that can be done permanently can be found on the metabones homepage).

For the FS7 in the advanced mode I have continuous autofocus, continuous autoiris and push autofocus - with the Speedbooster Ultra 0.71 from Canon EF to Sony E-mount. Tested with Canon glas 24-105 f4. IS works at the level of the Canon.

With the green mode I have seen that some functions do not work so well or at all - my findings for the FS7.

I do not know how that is for th A7RII. Should not be different? But I have no A7RII.
 
Supplementing the info from Wolfgang, I can confirm all his findings plus:

1. In Advanced mode, also Push Auto Iris works pretty well; I even suggested to Metabones Support that in the future firmware they should also include the Push AI functionality in the Green mode, so that it would provide all the functionalities we video operators really need sometimes:

a. Push AF
b. Push AI
c. IS (switchable on/off by the lens own switch)

2. In Advanced mode, all the "continuous" functionalities should be left in addition to everything working in Green mode only (as both continuous AF and continuous AI require the most power from the camera's battery)

Also: when I last tried it in Advanced mode, continuous AF worked pretty well, but continuous AI - while certainly active - was hunting like crazy, fluctuating the aperture opening in the way not practically correctable in post. BUT, it was with the second to newest firmware - how is it doing with the newest firmware, Wolfgang? I'm asking because - while usually following the rule "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" - I would be ready to upgrade my Speed Booster to the newest firmware should it really give me stable Auto Iris in Advanced mode (no mater how rarely used, it'd be just "nice to have"). Thanks,

Piotr
 
There seems to be situations where the continuous AI still seems to jump between two positions - but my impression is that if the change in the luminance is quite clear, it seems to work well. My impression is that both continuous funtions are of limited use for the moviemaker. I think I will use push AF and push AI before you start to shoot the video. I tend to check th AF with the loops and adjust it with the follow focus. And for AI I tend to use the waveform anyway.
 
I was actually quite happy with V.050 firmware of my Speed Booster; OIS working fine in both modes and Push AF quite reliable in Green mode. But I often missed Push AI (which – for some strange reason – is not operational in Green Mode, and in Advanced mode both Push and Continuous AI were hunting very loudly)...


This was the reason for me to upgrade to the latest V.052, as I was hoping (Push)AI would work better. And it does indeed, but:


- Push AI is still only in Advanced Mode (WHY, Metabones?!!!)
- Continuous AI works nice in Advanced Mode (THANKS Metabones)
- BUT: Continuous AF hunts now very loudly AND Push AF doesn’t work in ANY mode!


Is it a known limitation of V.052, or is my Speed Booster faulty? If it’s a limitation of V.052 firmware – how do I revert to an earlier firmware to regain my Push AF? I asked these question in my email to Metabones Support, but they don'ta nswer so I'm repeating them here. I also asked them for a new fw release and putting both Push AF and Push AI into Green Mode - this and OIS is all we really need...


Piotr
 
Anyone, please? Are you satisfied with Push AF performance of your Speed Boosters with the latest firmware V.052? TIA

Piotr
 
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