Sony A7RII and Metabones EF to E Mark 4 Adapter

H

Hywel

Well-known member
Hi All.

I've taken delivery of my A7RII and a Metabones EF to E mount Mk4 adaptor.

The camera is peachy and works fine with FE 55/1.8 native lens.

But I'm getting a lots less functionality than I'd hoped for from adapted lenses. I'm shooting stills only so far.

I can't get AF at all on any of my Canon lenses. Most of them don't have aperture control, and some won't shoot when shutter release is pressed reliably, even.

Anyone have any clue what I may be doing wrong? Or I am expecting too much of old lenses on an adaptor?

I tried turning off first curtain electronic shutter, which I read might deactivate AF with non-native lenses. I've played with the other menu settings, but as a newcomer to Sony cameras I'm finding the options all a bit baffling and nothing I seem to do makes any Canon lens AF at all, even the few new-ish lenses I have that are definitely on metabones' product page http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB-EF-E-BT4. I'm on the latest firmware for the metabones.

The lenses I have which are on the supported list are EF-S so don't have full-frame coverage (Tokina 11-16, 17-55/2.8 18-135/3.5-5.6 IS).

Is that why they won't AF on A7RII?

I only tried the EF-S ones because I couldn't get anything out of my older lenses at all, not even aperture for most of them: 85/1.8, 35/2.0, 50/1.4, 16-35/2.8 Mark I, 24-70/2.8 Mark I (does given aperture control), Ancient 70-210/4 non USM.

The shutter release doesn't work reliably on all adapted lenses, even, with the camera refusing to fire at all most of the time with the older lenses even though I *think* I've turned all the "shoot with out lens" and similar options on.

Ironically the nicest adapted lenses I've tried so far on A7RII are ancient Russian 58/2.0 and Tamron 90/2.8 Macro from the stone age!

I probably just need to pony up for some more FE mount glass, but was hoping to at least use the Canon L zooms with aperture control. Can anyone help?

(Please forgive cross-post from stills-orientated LuLa forum, hoping someone can confirm that this is expected behaviour, or I'm doing something wrong, or maybe I have a duff copy of the Metabones adapter....)

Cheers, Hywel.
 
Yes, I checked - downloaded the latest firmware, connected the Metabones, it reported it as OK- having latest version (41 IIRC)

Cheers, Hywel
 
Hywel said:
Yes, I checked - downloaded the latest firmware, connected the Metabones, it reported it as OK- having latest version (41 IIRC)

Cheers, Hywel
Click to expand...

Weird. I'll test tomorrow... I have that adapter and the Canon 24-105 F4 and 70-200 F2.8 IS Mark II to try for Canon lenses (the rest of my EF are fully manual Rokinon/Samyang, Tokina, etc.)
 
Thanks. If someone else has some 10 year old Canon EF lenses, could you check functionality too?

AF I can live without, but was a bit surprised not to be able to set aperture.

Cheers, Hywel
 
Hmmm.


Today aperture and shutter firing works on all lenses that I've tried.


IBIS is working on my old 70-210/f4 which is great.


But I'm not entirely sure why it is working now, when yesterday I couldn't set aperture or trigger shutter for half of these lenses.


I don't *think* I changed any setting other than manual focus magnifier time limit, and crop mode on and off a few times. I hypothesise that I may have swapped a lens with the camera powered on yesterday and confused it? I did most of the swaps with power off I think though. Other possibility is bad electrical contacts which have improved with a bit of on-and-off lens swapping. About to go and thoroughly swab all lens contacts on all bits of kit with cotton buds and cleaning fluid.


Still no AF on any lens, including the EF-S ones on Metabones' supported list, including when camera is set to crop mode, though. Camera won't let me set AF- says to do it on the lens (which it already is).


Cheers, Hywel
 
The lack of aperture control/shutter won't fire problem is a mechanical tolerance/mechanical strength one, I have concluded.

I think the pins in the Metabones are a bit reluctant to make contact if the lens isn't twisted around hard; hearing the click as it seats isn't enough. If the lens doesn't go on quite correctly, the pins don't make contact, and everything goes a bit haywire. When this happens, holding the throat of the metabones and twisting the lens a little further seems to restore contact and sanity.

Still no joy on AF on any of the lenses, but they are all either EF-S or too old to be on Metabones support list, so that's about what I was expecting. It's fine for landscape and video; I'll muddle through for people photography until I can pick up the 35 and 85 or 90 Macro native lenses which cover 95% of my professional shots.

It's not great but it'll do to tide me over until I can acquire more native FE glass. Reinforces my prejudice against adapted lenses, I've NEVER had a problem with native glass on a native body.

Cheers, Hywel
 
Just purchased an Canon MB4 adapter, don't of course have the ARii to put it on, however I have tried repeatedly to update the firmware to the newest .4 with no luck. I have tried to interface with Metabones support with very little luck. They actually sent me an email after I explained my problem with another Eula to sign, which I did, and then another saying that a new file was being sent via dropbox email??? I sent an email asking where the file was and after several days have heard nothing in response. Absolutely abysmal support from this company. I am returning the adapter, as I just recently purchased it, voting with my feet so to speak. There are other options out there and cheaper to boot. Just thought everyone should know what kind of support Metabones offers.
 
I don't have a metabones adapter, but did you check if you were on green mode?

I think the green mode shuts down certain functions?
 
Ok I just tested this extensively on both a speedbooster ultra and the mark iv adapter. I tested with 24-105 f4 IS and the 70-200 F2.8 IS II beast.

I tested in in both stills and video, on both adapters.

In had no issues with IS on or off (the lenses' IS seemed smoother than the IBIS especially on the 70-200), and no issues with changing aperture.

However... This whole claim that adapted canon glass focuses "like on a canon body" with the new AF system on this camera is just false. While it was barely usable, as opposed to say on the A7S where AF was useless, it was nowhere near as fast as on a Canon body. In many cases it hunted, especially on close in subjects, often never achieving focus at all. On far subjects it fared better. I'd say it's barely usable for stills if you also tweak it manually. (Use 12.5x magnification for stills; 5x is blurry).

Lots is of odd claims about this camera that don't match reality. Still, yes it's barely usable in AF for stills with some Canon glass, and for video of course the lenses work great. Just don't expect any kind of usable AF in video at all.

I I couldn't reproduce the issues you had; apateure changes were fine and my lenses recognized each time no issue.

I also tried a bunch of Rokinon and tokina manual glass. Of course no issues and IBIS worked great.

I should note in all cases with 3rd party glass the IBIS looks like 3 axis only. No roll correction for one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top