GH4 RJ lens turbo vs. Speedbooster

J

JasonMillard81

Active member
Greetings,

Looking to get feedback on the pros/cons of: Speedbooster Canon EF to mft vs. Rj Lens Turbo booster EF to mft?

I am doing 50/50 video/photo... I only have one lens for my gh4 (tamron 17-50) and want to use that before deciding which other lenses to get (either FF/APSC lenses or native mft)

I am an amateur/hobbyist/enthusiasti making mini docs and narratives for my students and personal travel documentary video stuff...also photography too

Thoughts on these options? There is about a $400+ difference in price...is the speedbooster worth it over the rj lens turbo?
 
I have a Tamron 17-50mm non-VC but for Nikon mount. I was wondering the same thing in regards to a speedbooster.
 
The Metabones is a "smart" or "active" adapter: meaning your lenses' IS/VC will work (if they have it), and you'll be able to monitor and control aperture from the body. This also means you'd be able to use auto or semi-auto exposure modes on the GH4. There are also a couple Canon lenses with fly-by-wire focus rings (50mm f1.2, and one of the 100 or 135mm macros I believe) that need power to focus, so you would be able to use those.

The RJ and other clones are "dumb" adapters, meaning they mount the lens to the body and nothing else. So no IS, no aperture control, no autoexposure modes, and no fly-by-wire-focusing lenses. This is fine with the few "dumb" EF-mount lenses out there, like the Samyang/Rokinon all-manual lenses, as they don't have IS anyways and their aperture is controlled by the ring on the lens, not the camera body. Ditto for all the old manual lenses out there that are adaptable to EF (m42, Nikon, etc).

But with any other EF lens, you get no aperture control, which is kind of an unworkable option IMO. Yes, technically, you could keep a Canon body around and switch the lens to it, change the aperture, hold the DOF preview button down while turning the camera off, take off the lens, and re-mount it to your GH4, but come on. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Optically, the MetaBones is superior, but not by a huge, massive amount. The clones often have the "blue dot" problem, and don't seem to control CA as well. These aren't major issues really, but to me, it's like, why compromise the performance of ALL of my lenses, that I spent a lot of money on, by cheaping out on the booster? Per lens, the RJ would only save me a few bucks.

Plus, Metabones and Brian Caldwell (the optical designer, also a member here) are the ones actually innovating with this stuff, the Chinese are just imitating.
 
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