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Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:28 pm
by InTheSky
Has David told us almost the first day Sony announced the E-mount hey told us about some adapter to benefit of the larger lens on smaller sensor and distance from the lens, here a very interesting adapter from Metabone again :-) :

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/wow-spee ... d-sharper/

Last year I finally not sold all my big inventory of Minolta full frame lenses, but with the only A99 as full frame camera from Sony I take the decision to sold every thing over the next month.

This this kind of new adapter and not seeing one from Sony, this make me feel I probably take the good decision.

My future investment will be almost only on Sony NEX system and probably some good old Canon fast lens and adapter. Even if the Canon has probably the worse Dynamic range, they still have very good native (in camera) implementation of movie control.

I have played with the NEX 6 and the new pancake zoom, and this kit is a killer for portability and performance.

Regards,

Frank

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:40 pm
by InTheSky
Pre-order done ... , I will let you know if the adapter is good or not. I have access to almost all the exotic lenses Canon has built and other new one.

The adapter should be home by the end of the month.

Regards,

Frank

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:29 pm
by gio67
is this too good to be true,

that could be the death knell of the Sony full frame, even before it's hatched

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:32 pm
by agorabasta
Well, them being so late is only proving they are terribly backwards. Everyone and their grannies have been waiting for a thing that simple and straightforward.

Now seriously, it's only now that a single-element lens may be manufactured economically feasible to do the trick; just a few years back that would be near impossible.

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:01 am
by David Kilpatrick
I knew that this type of adaptor already existed, made by Zeiss/Arri to adapt 35mm movie format lenses down to 16mm, but these units have always been complex multi-element 'optical relay' designs. The lack of anything between the mount and sensor in the NEX makes this simpler design possible, but the image-forming cone of rays is going to pose some challenges for the sensor and the limited depth of focus will demand very close tolerances.

Great to see it actually appear.

David

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:48 pm
by InTheSky
I ordered the 100mm 2.0 EF of Canon that to my taste is near than the Minolta.

I'm think that playing with the two adapter of EF to NEX will be the best scenario.

If you want more reach you put the standard one (available now on Ebay, that focus at a slow, but usable speed and give you 1.5x -> ~250$ US). And when you want to do portrait with smaller depth of field, you put the 0.7x adapter.

I just realized yesterday night, that with this adapter, I can probably switch my current macro setup for the 100mm 2.8 IS of canon coupled on the NEX 7, what will bring a killer setup for my experimentation of Macro video. I always need more light in macro and with the 0.7x adapter this can be the difference between blur or not blur picture when I need to push the limit (twice the light and IS).

The E-mount system is very interesting, because it brings the possibility to not only focus on one brand/technology of lens :-).

Frank

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:54 am
by OneGuyKs
I remember DK article with this idea two years ago, but can't find the link to it anymore.

Sorry, DK, bad site if I can't something that I know was posted on the main page, but can't find the link anymore! not even when using Google

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:08 am
by artington
Won't the limiting factor here for IQ be the lens in the adapter? I don't imagine the glass or build will be up to Canon L standards.

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:34 am
by OneGuyKs
artington wrote:Won't the limiting factor here for IQ be the lens in the adapter? I don't imagine the glass or build will be up to Canon L standards.
See this

http://www.metabones.com/images/metabon ... 0Paper.pdf

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 1:19 pm
by artington
OneGuyKs wrote:
artington wrote:Won't the limiting factor here for IQ be the lens in the adapter? I don't imagine the glass or build will be up to Canon L standards.
See this

http://www.metabones.com/images/metabon ... 0Paper.pdf
Very interesting paper. The design clearly improves IQ by reducing most aberrations although I note that peripheral distortion is increased - a factor not discussed in the paper. Not perhaps a big deal unless you are photographing buildings with a converted TSE lens. The designers clearly have huge experience too.

However, the transition from design to product will determine whether it's as good as it appears on paper so I retain my comment about the limiting factors being the quality of glass and build. However, Metabones makes fine adaptors and, as we have noted with Samyang, fine lenses are no longer the preserve of the big names.

One thing I am not clear about. The paper and press release suggest that with a 0.71x mag factor a (for example) 50/1.8 becomes a 35/1.2 equivalent. Now I had assumed that with APS-C (Nex) this would then equate to 50/1.2 given the 1.5x crop factor and with MFT to 70/1.2. Also the DOF (but not light transmitting) characteristics would equate to 1.8 and 2.4 respectively. However both the illustrations in the paper and the text suggest that the resulting faster and wider lens is not then cropped by these two sensors. That is to say a 50/1.8 becomes a 35/1.2 equivalent on either APS-C or MFT. I can't quite get my head around this and shoukd be grateful if someone can clarify it for me.

Re: Good new today ... (probably they listen to David)

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:55 pm
by InTheSky
I'm in the skeptical department also for the moment, but the best way was to pre-order it and test it. Hope it will not arrived late :-).

Today, one of my friend share me its Rokkor 58mm 1.2 converted in EOS mount, and old Zeiss Biogon 80mm 2.0, so they will be part of the test.

I currently own some example of the 50mm 1.2 and 58mm 1.2 of Minolta MD, but they are in original version or converted to fit Minolta AF mount. So if the test is good with the adapter, they might be a chance I will convert them to Canon instead for the moment.

I will rent also the Canon 17mm 4.0 TS that will be the real test for the distortion effect, but the Canon is already perfection with standard APS-C adapter for NEX on the NEX 7 what I'm pretty sure it will react in good result. For me this will become my perfect setup for Product photography contract.

Frank