Official announcement - Metabones Speed Booster ULTRA

[Andrew Reid]

The Speed Booster ULTRA has new optics and is available for E-Mount and Fuji X-mount (APS-C or Super 35mm sensors). The adapter has the latest evolution of optics from Caldwell Photographic in the US.

The new optics bring an increase in performance, with sharper corners and better contrast.

The new design is an extremely advanced 5-element / 4 group tantalum based optical formula. The old version of Speed Booster will be phased out.

Read the full article here

[Eaglewood Films]

Is there any word whether this new glass is inside the new EF to MFT SpeedBooster as well?

 

It wouldn't make sense to release a new product with old glass, but I'm kinda suspicious that that's the case here.

[dstilio]

for cropped e-mount, the two best in video right now are sony a6000 and sony a5100.

These cost (body only) approximatelly the same price as the metabones adapter.

 

If someone wants to spend this amount, why not buying one of Sony's full frame cameras instead?

The sensor size will make a difference (maybe more than having an f/1.2 transforming into 0.9 apperture).

[Andrew Reid]

EF to MFT does not have the same optical design, it's a totally different product line and bang up to date. It isn't old. This replaces the January 2013 Speed Booster for E-Mount.

[Nikkor]

Nice to see an update.

Could you place this one in front of the A7 or A7r forcing fullframe mode and without a lens attached to see how much vignetting happens? Maybe this one can cover fullframe and use medium format glass.

I'm asking because improving corner performance can be done by increasing image circle.

[Werner H. Graf]

Maybe with a Speed Boosters "centuring the light Rays is going straighter" to the Sensor - it can bring a real better performance?

And avoid this scenario: 

 

Loss of light at wider aperture 
“We have been very surprised,†explained Frédéric Guichard, chief scientist at DxO Labs, “to find out that some of the gain from wider lens openings seems to be offset by the present state of sensor technology. Our measurements all point in the same direction: as you go further than f/ 4 – to f /2 and wider, the accrued quantity of light falls marginally onto the sensor. A stronger and stronger part of this additional light is blocked or lost. I am therefore inclined to question the real benefit of faster lenses.†This loss seems to increase when the pixel size decreases, as shown on the figure below. 


http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/an_open_letter_to_the_major_camera_manufacturers.shtml 

http://www.dxomark.com/Reviews/F-stop-blues

[Alfunch]

Any word on when the MFT version will be available?

[Nikkor]

Any word on when the MFT version will be available?

The MFT version has nothing to do with this. The MFT version performs better than the old APS-C version, that's why they came up with this one.

[Andrew Reid]

Also the MFT version is designed to cover a smaller sensor. The Ultra is designed to cover APS-C not MFT.

 

Maybe a FAQ blog is in order!

 

But for now I'll hand it over to the other blogs, who just love so much to take news via EOSHD and without credit to where they heard about it, sell all their B&H affiliate links around it...

 

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/metabones-announces-the-new-speedbooster-ultra/

[rishio]

Makes you wonder why APS-C camera makers don't make ultrafast, wide lenses on their cameras by using a retrofocus design combined with a metabones like speedbooster integrated into the lens. It's not clear why there aren't more 23mm f/.9 lenses or such.

[SleepyWill]

Makes you wonder why APS-C camera makers don't make ultrafast, wide lenses on their cameras by using a retrofocus design combined with a metabones like speedbooster integrated into the lens. It's not clear why there aren't more 23mm f/.9 lenses or such.

 

Well, you could keep adding speedbooster elements ad infinitum onto bigger and bigger lenses, adding £500 a pop each time, but presumably the cost is going to get out of control very quickly, because it's not just the speedbooster element, but the larger format lens in front of it each increment - every m4t lens would actually be gathering for APC, every APC lens gathers for full frame, every FF lens gathers for medium format etc etc, sending the cost through the roof. The last group in every lens almost certainly does a very similar job to a speed booster, so you could think of them as already having them built in! I'm sure if, say Olympus thought they could sell a line of super wide fast lenses at £3000+ a pop, they would have already put them in to production!

 

All in all, a separate adapter seems the best idea all round!

[Alfunch]

The MFT version has nothing to do with this. The MFT version performs better than the old APS-C version, that's why they came up with this one.

 

Also the MFT version is designed to cover a smaller sensor. The Ultra is designed to cover APS-C not MFT.

 

Maybe a FAQ blog is in order!

 

But for now I'll hand it over to the other blogs, who just love so much to take news via EOSHD and without credit to where they heard about it, sell all their B&H affiliate links around it...

 

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/metabones-announces-the-new-speedbooster-ultra/

My bad, didn't do my reading, but thanks for clearing it up for me!

[richg101]

Nice to see an update.

Could you place this one in front of the A7 or A7r forcing fullframe mode and without a lens attached to see how much vignetting happens? Maybe this one can cover fullframe and use medium format glass.

I'm asking because improving corner performance can be done by increasing image circle.

 

It's the rare earth glass elements which allow the improvements since they require less correction than cheaper glass.  I imagine the original speed booster was made to a level they felt adequate for the purpose.  since the chinese copycats devalued the original product, metabones have decided to go for rare earth glass in order to get the edge and maintain their advantage.  The Chinese manufacturers wont deem it viable to utilise such glass (since it's about 4-10 times the price of what would have been used previously,.. only Metabone's pricing can accommodate such an increase in material costs).

 

I'd like to use the full image circle of my hassy lenses on the a7r (since the majority of 35mm format glass wont deliver 36mpx resolution).  Squeezing such huge imaging areas onto a smaller format will deliver resolving power if the focal reducing optics are good enough, however I think the likelihood of a decent manufacturer developing a cost effective, high quality solution is slim.  - at least until sony start to deliver 50+mpx onto full frame sensors, at which point nearly all 35mm format lenses will fail to deliver the resolving power required to make the file sizes worthwhile.  

[Nikkor]

Well, this one lens for mirrorless cameras, I think it is 40mm 0.85, seems to me like a rehoused 645 lens with a 0.5x focal reducer inside. It's only a matter of time. Actually you do have the elements needed to do a speedbooster at home, the only problem is that you can't use it with wideangle lenses and that the quality is limited.

[Orangenz]

So which is the best for the GH4 if you have no lenses at all?  The coming new Nikon MFT, the new electronic Canon MFT, or the old Nikon MFT?

[Caleb Genheimer]

So which is the best for the GH4 if you have no lenses at all?  The coming new Nikon MFT, the new electronic Canon MFT, or the old Nikon MFT?

 

I'm going to say Canon Electronic. Say what you will about Canon's cameras, but their lenses are very good, and widely available. If you do paid gigs it's certainly the Canon, their lenses are widely available to rent all over the place, not to mention CP and ZE Zeiss lenses. IF you end up in a pickle, you can call rental houses and find an EF mount lens last minute, no problem.

[agora1]

this news is important but we wait too much for your review of Sony a7s part 2

[Caleb Genheimer]

Suggestions to use these on the a7s are completely nonsensical to me. Isn't the whole point to have a fullframe camera?! Why put it in APSC mode, is full mode really that atrocious because if so, you're adding an extra $600 price tag by getting a speedbooster to an already expensive camera.

I'm hoping that Panny/Sony come out with video form-factor versions of the GH4/a7s pretty soon (think AF100/FS-100).

[Andrew Reid]

Suggestions to use these on the a7s are completely nonsensical to me. Isn't the whole point to have a fullframe camera?! Why put it in APSC mode, is full mode really that atrocious because if so, you're adding an extra $600 price tag by getting a speedbooster to an already expensive camera.

I'm hoping that Panny/Sony come out with video form-factor versions of the GH4/a7s pretty soon (think AF100/FS-100).

 

Reasons... I dunno... Why don't you try saving my limited time by reading the article to find out!? APS-C mode on the A7S reduces rolling shutter from some of the most severe on any camera, to around the level of a dedicated cinema camera like the FS100. So if you have a shot that benefits from the full frame look but also requires less skew from the rolling shutter, switch to APS-C mode and attach the Speed Booster.

[Chris Gibbs]

Makes you wonder why APS-C camera makers don't make ultrafast, wide lenses on their cameras by using a retrofocus design combined with a metabones like speedbooster integrated into the lens. It's not clear why there aren't more 23mm f/.9 lenses or such.

 

Sensible question to which the only sensible answer could be - you don't get anything for nothing in optical design.