GH4 Sharpness of native MFT lenses vs Canon and Speedbooster

James Carpenter

James Carpenter

Well-known member
In your esteemed opinions, does a speed booster have an adverse effect on image sharpness and quality over good native lenses?
I was using a 70-200 f2.8 over the weekend (so not a shabby lens) with the Speed Booster. I was trying to get some decent stills of birds, but even though my focus was good, the image just looked bad.

Any opinions on Native vs Canon + Speed Booster would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
From what I understand, a high quality focal reducer like Metabones actually increases sharpness and overall image quality of an already excellent lens. It has something to do with shrinking a full frame or APS-C image circle down to m43; it somehow increases sharpness. Not a scientific answer, but I hope it helps.
 
James Carpenter said:
In your esteemed opinions, does a speed booster have an adverse effect on image sharpness and quality over good native lenses?
I was using a 70-200 f2.8 over the weekend (so not a shabby lens) with the Speed Booster. I was trying to get some decent stills of birds, but even though my focus was good, the image just looked bad.

Any opinions on Native vs Canon + Speed Booster would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
While a good native lens always has the theoretical edge, in actual practice the SpeedBooster Canon combo should be able to produce wonderfully detailed images. The optical reduction even tightens things up a tad.

I can't know what you mean by "bad" but there shouldn't be a problem with that combo.
 
Interesting, thanks. I'll post pics shortly showing the particular image in question, maybe it's a limitation of the camera then, over say a 6D.
 
The 70-200mm lens is a full frame lens, thus a cropped sensor only gets a part, albeit the best, of the projected image on its sensor.
It is better to get a crop frame lens or a full frame lens with a speedbooster on a cropped frame camera.

See Tony Northrup's video for an explanation:
 
Cary Knoop said:
The 70-200mm lens is a full frame lens, thus a cropped sensor only gets a part, albeit the best, of the projected image on its sensor.
It is better to get a crop frame lens or a full frame lens with a speedbooster on a cropped frame camera.

See Tony Northrup's video for an explanation:
Click to expand...
1. That video discounts that the SpeedBooster refocuses more of the image circle onto the smaller sensor.
2. Theoretical resolution is interesting, but not necessarily indicative of perceivable real-world results.
 
woodduck.jpg
Still shot on a GH3 with an old Canon FD tele lens (300mm if I recall.)

sunset_lake.jpg
Video shot on a GH4 with Rokinon cine lens (Nikon mount, SpeedBooster)

If you're not getting more than enough detail for any real-world application, something solvable is wrong.
 
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