• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Metabones adapter (1 Viewer)

Nick-on

Well-known member
Morning All,

Has anyone used the Metabones adapters. Wondering how it affects general ease of use and things like speed of focussing? Saw one at the Birdfair on the Panasonic stand. It was connecting a GH4 to a Canon 500mm. I was surprised to be told that it enabled all autofocus as well as metering functions (at least I think that was what I was told, my head was crammed full of info about new bins, scopes, birding destinations etc. that it was close to going bang!). Also puzzled why I had not seen anything about it on the Forum, surely sticking a canon 500mm or similar on a GH4 (as was on the stand) would give 1000mm lens without the need for a T-Con and subsequent loss of light, admittedly with a slightly smaller sensor. The owner of the combination was extremely effusive about its capabilities although as a Panasonic representative (although think he actually worked for Jessops) I expect he would be....



Nick
 
Nick, two comments:
What little I have read about the brand new adapter indicates that is is something like a 0.75x converter, so you would get a field of view corresponding to maybe 800mm, not 1000. And second, it still is a very big lens to carry around. If I were to use such a lens, I would likely use a 7Dii with it.

The rep may not have actually used the setup yet.

Niels
 
Hi Nick there are good points and bad points for the metabones speed booster the good points are the optics are very very good and it also gives one extra stop of light. The downsides are the price and it has a .71 reducing level? As I understand it thus a 500mm lens becomes approx 350mm it does however keep AF on certain cameras but not all m4/3 I am quite happy to be corrected
Kind regards mike
 
Nick, two comments:

The rep may not have actually used the setup yet.

Niels

Hi Niels,

He said he had, his name was Phil Gould. I'm sure he was a photographer 'working' on the stand not a sales rep (I probably phrased that badly originally). He certainly seemed to know his stuff and was very enthusiastic about his lens (called it his baby!), also very enthusiastic about the 4k video of the GH4 and the quality of the stills that you are able to extract from the video footage.

Nick
 
The downsides are the price and it has a .71 reducing level? As I understand it thus a 500mm lens becomes approx 350mm it does however keep AF on certain cameras but not all m4/3 I am quite happy to be corrected
Kind regards mike

I think that a Metabones Speedbooster would reduce the crop factor to 1.4x rather than the 2x crop that putting an EF adapter on a GH4 would normally produce. Not claiming any expertise but I do know a guy who was experimenting with the latter setup and 500 f4 and it was definitely 2x. I am sure it was also a Metabones adapter but can't ask him as he is off working abroad and uncontactable for the foreseeable future.

Edit: sorry I should also have said that I believe that the AF is not a patch on Canon's but he did have some frames from 4K video that I would have been happy with as photos
 
Last edited:
Paul, regarding AF: I referred elsewhere that the latest G camera according to a review (dpreview?) now had a continuous AF on par with the canon rebel series and the similar level nikons. The AF disparity might not continue to be as great as in my old GH2 ;)

Niels
 
Niels, was that with the Metabones do you remember? 4K video would, for me, be a God send in that I could step through it frame by frame and select from hundreds or thousands of images for reference material for painting. But it would be a commitment to a whole new system.

It is also one of several ideas that I am currently kicking around :smoke:
 
Paul, sorry no. It was with a lens for which the camera could use DFD (or whatever that acronym is).

I expect to update my camera by the time the newly announced 100-400 lens becomes available, and I will want a camera that does the DFD trick.

Niels
 
That's interesting reading Dan and what looks like good image quality. Do you get the 2x FOV equivalent with the 400 f5.6? I only ask because I noted in one of the threads you provided a link for you mentioned that on one occasion you left the IBIS set to 400 rather than 600mm which would be 1.5x

I am considering getting a MFT body for video as the output looks considerably better than the 70D that I use now and would love to carry my 400 over to any new system. There seems to be so many more options on MFT - just the choice of bodies is amazing!

Paul
 
You set the IBIS to the ACTUAL focal length. Crop factor has nothing to do with optics. I set the 400 to 400 without the TC and to 600 (actual is 560mm) with the TC.
 
You set the IBIS to the ACTUAL focal length. Crop factor has nothing to do with optics. I set the 400 to 400 without the TC and to 600 (actual is 560mm) with the TC.

Thanks for the reply Dan and that makes sense now. So does that Metabones adapter give 2x equivalent? If it does and works with a tc that's very impressive - can't say that I have ever felt the 400 f5.6 and tc on my 70D was up to anything more than 20' for shooting reasonable quality

Paul
 
Paul,
The Metabones Smart Adapter has no effect on the crop factor. There as nothing inside. The Speed Booster changes the crop factor with lenses. The 2x crop factor with the four thirds sensor is the same.
The 400 is a good walk around lens for birds, especially on a mFT body, and with the 1.4x TC added it is getting close to my 600mm scope in IQ. Still, if I use the Oly EC-14 with the scope it licks the Canon, but it is not something I like to carry around!
Here is a quick, hand held shot of the moon with the 400+1.4x TC
PA233920s.jpg
and here a few minutes later with the scope
PA233949-55 t-jpg 2.jpg
Full sized here:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/669/22401975016_9c95728c49_o.jpg
 
Hi Nick,

I use a Panasonic GX8 with a Metabones adaptor on my Canon 600mm L II. Yes, I do get a 2x crop factor without losing any light.

Despite carrying a Canon 1Dx (full frame) and a Canon 7DII (APSC), I took some 90% of my shots in Papua New Guinea with the GX8. That's because the Birds of Paradise were elusive and distant. The Raggiana BOP would lek up the highest tree in dense forest. Autofocussing with either of the Canons steadfastly failed with leaves and twigs in the way. To add to my woes, I was on a steep slope looking almost vertically upwards. Peering into the viewfinder meant neck breaking contortionist postures that I couldn't hold for more than a minute.

The GX8 has a tiltable EVF and focus peaking as well as variable magnification when focussing manually. So it triumphed over the two Canons admirably!

Funnily enough, I haven't yet tried autofocussing with the Metabones!

Here's a Lesser BOP taken by the GX8, Metabones & 600mm
http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/538939/ppuser/87866
 
"Funnily enough, I haven't yet tried autofocussing with the Metabones!"

Please do! I myself would love to know how it works with a Big White Monster.;)

I have been getting excellent results with my 400/5.6, with and without a 1.4x Extender III.
 
Hi all, I have just purchased the smart adapter there is an initial findings over on Olympus section.
Kind regards mike
 
Warning! This thread is more than 8 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top