Metabones Smart Adapter

[Daniel Bradley]

The Metabones Smart Adapter for Canon lenses on mFT bodies with phase detect AF (E-M1!) has gotten a new firmware update that now allows fast and accurate S-AF! C-AF is not (yet) possible. A friend in Germany has been testing on with a Canon 400/5.6 (my favorite lens on the E-M1) and the AF and IS work a treat. Only problem is it is a bit of a juice hog and only about 120-130 shots are possible with one battery. It can however be powered with an external USB 5V power pack, a bother to have to carry around, but it should get the total back up around 600 shots.
I will probably try one and will keep you posted. It makes a jewel of a lens very attractive.

[Don Baldwinson]

That's interesting Daniel, because up until now the reports have been that the 400 f5.6 (and similar older long lenses) did not work at all well on the Metabones. It's amazing how quickly development moves these days.
So I will be very interested to hear how you go.
My 400 f5.6 works wonderfully well on the 1D and the battery lasts forever ))
Cheers,
Don

[Daniel Bradley]

Hi Don,
It is due to the latest firmware update (1.8) for the EF-m43-BT2 (latest) and the EF-m43-BM1 (previous model, only one available here) that it works. With the BM1 you have to update via USB. Easy to do. Until now you could only control the f-stop.
Very curious. Can't warm to the 7D II (great camera with a crappy sensor) and the D7200 doesn't have the lenses and AF system, though it has a MUCH better sensor. Check this out...


Only exposure and WB balanced. From the low light studio samples at dpreview. Dark area raised about 1.7 EV.
So if the Metabones works as I hope it will save me having to buy something else I don't really want. But if the AF is as lame as it is with the 50-200 in anything but the best light, well......
To be honest, focusing manually is getting more and more frustrating as I get older. If I have time, no problem, and the E-M1 works very well. But I miss so many shots....

[JimUSNY]

Oh sure, right after I sell my 400 off! pretty much sticking with Nikon for birds now, and sold my 7D, so couldn't see keeping the canon for manual focus only on my EM1, I didnt know they made such things

[Daniel Bradley]

It has been around for a while, but only just now working with AF.
Which Nik are you using for birds and which lens? I could see a D7200 and either an AF-S VR 80-400 + TC 1.4E III, or maybe a Sigma 150-600 S, or a C if it is going to be hand held a lot. I wish Canon weren't so hung up on their own sensors....
Still going to give the Metabones a good try though. I really like the 400/5.6 on my E-M1.

[Daniel Bradley]

Got the adapter today. First tests in pretty bad light this morning with the Canon 400/5.6. S-AF, IS-1 on, Focus Priority on. Impressions:
1. I just went out and shot anything that moved. Took over 700 shots on one battery, and it still isn't empty. So it is NOT a juice hog as I had feared.
2. AF works VERY WELL, not blazing fast, but it is very accurate. The 50-200 + EC-14 is still faster, but it is f4.9 vs f5.6, and that makes a big difference. It gets better as light improves as would be expected. Don't know about BiF yet. Need to try it in better light and when there is something flying around.
3. The 1.4x Extender III does not work, which is a disappointment, but it could in the future. The Mark II version works, from what I have heard.

All in all, I am so far quite pleased with how it performs.
Definitely a BIG addition to the mFT arsenal! More to follow as I spend more time with it.

From this morning: All ISO 800, 1/50 to 1/125 at about f/9, hand held.

15 Meters away.

Through our double glass (dirty) window.

Focus on feet.

Click to enlarge.

[Daniel Bradley]

The 1.4x Extender works fine using the well known pin tape trick, i.e. taping over the first three pins on the TC so that the lens can't communicate with the it. Canon made it so that the TC with anything f/5.6 or slower won't auto focus. They were getting poor results with some cameras, so they "locked" it. For those cameras where it did work, they simply put something in the firmware to unlock it.
One sample, still in crappy light. AF is not very fast under those conditions, but it is not that fast with a Canon either when it is so murky outside.
Still, faster than MF!



ISO 800, 1/160th, f/7.1, 540mm, hand held.

[Don Baldwinson]

A promising start Daniel. The first pic is very convincing for IQ.
The 50-200+1.4 I find hunts at the drop of a hat on the E-M1. Any signs of that using the Metabones?
Sounds as if their latest firmware is doing well. Hopefully the way those guys work, there may be even more improvements in the future.
I'm doubtful about BIF though, but I guess you will soon show us.
Cheers,
Don

[Daniel Bradley]

Don,
I have only been able to try it out in fair to poor light, and yes, it does hunt when there is not something structured in the frame of the focus point, as does the 50-200+EC-14. It gets a little worse with the 1.4x Extender on it, but not much. It is not a speed demon, but the combination of accurate AF and being able to stop down has given me many more keepers and all together sharper files. A lot have gone into the bin these last two days, but mostly due to subject movement at slow shutter speeds. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and we are going to spend the day looking for Hoopoes in a friends vineyard. Then I can tell you more.
BIF... there hasn't been much subject matter, but at one point a bunch of crows started flying around, and I was surprised at how well it worked.
It is and always will be a compromise, but so far it looks like a good one. I have a nice quiet compact body with IBIS and 10 fps if I need it and a really sharp 400mm lens on it that weighs in at about 1.8kg total, with the adapter. A Canon 7D II + 100-400 II would have MUCH faster AF, no question, and would come close.... sort of... at 400mm in lens resolution and reach, but it has a ho-hum sensor in it with a strong AA filter, weighs 2.5kg, is bigger and bulkier, and would cost me a good €3600. And that is ignoring the horror stories about the 7DII's AF problems and the huge differences between one body and the next...
So do I want worse IQ, more weight, more cost, more bulk just to have better AF? Still too early to tell for sure, but so far, don't think so....

[RAH]

Daniel, can you please tell me exactly what Metabones product you are referring to? Is it this?:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ef_to_mft.html

It seems to be, and I realize that this stuff is changing rapidly with new upgrades, but it can be pretty hard to figure what is required. The metabones website was not helpful at all, at least for me. All I could find was stuff about their adapters working on Panasonic m43 bodies, and they seem to be fixated on speed boosters, which is kind of what I do NOT want (yeah, I want to lose the 2x factor - NOT!).

Also, it won't work AF-wise on an E-M10, right?

[Daniel Bradley]

Hi Rich.
Yes that is the one. You find out more on the Metabones site if you look at the newer model.
http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_EF-m43-BT2
Basically there is no difference and they both run on the same firmware.
See here too:
http://www.metabones.com/article/of/...te_version_1.8

[Daniel Bradley]

Wow, what a little light will do! Not even really bright, maybe one or two stops brighter, but a huge improvement in the speed of AF. I shot around for a few minutes out the window with the 1.4x attached and it went pretty much bang bang bang. Once it is near what it wants it zeros in quite quickly. Very usable!







Another nice feature is that even with the Extender attached to the 400/5.6, I still have the whole center group of 37 AF points if I need them, and they all work! The 7D II has ONE!

[Don Baldwinson]

I see what you mean Nice.
Don

[Daniel Bradley]

Spent the day with the 400/5.6+1.4x Extender III on the E-M1 via the Metabones adapter. Good light. Here are some un-cropped examples of BIF.
BIF.... this kind?

or does BIF mean bats in flight?

(I could barely even see this guy with the naked eye he was so high up! Spotted him when I was watching a plane.

...or is it birds in flight? (weren't many of those around today...)


Bigger here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/421620...57659863679710

I have left these un-cropped so you can see what the AF had to deal with. In short, it worked VERY WELL! For the BIF shots I used all 37 points. Anything else on the ground or in a tree I used center large. The focus was very fast. It hunted sometimes in the sky, but I put the 8.5 meter focus limiter to good use, and if I have to I can give the focus ring a quick twist to get it in the general area, and then AF takes over.
The only mistake I made was I forgot to set the IS to 600mm, and at 400mm it didn't do as well as it does set properly. I was struggling trying to get my head around the Mysets thing, and overlooked it. So some shots showed image blur, but the focus is really good.

[Don Baldwinson]

Looking crisp Daniel.
Tempting for those who have the lens, because the pro Olympus will be expensive I imagine.
Cheers,
Don

[Daniel Bradley]

All I know is there were a number of used 400s on sale a couple of weeks ago and now there isn't a single one! All the Canon people want the 100-400 II, and now all the Oly guys are snapping up the primes!

Couple from this morning. Hard to hold the camera when they are so high overhead.


More here full sized:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/421620...57659863679710

[Daniel Bradley]

Slowly getting used to AF!
Here are some selective AF tests with the E-M1 + Canon 400/5.6, (no TC), using single point, small. IS1 on. Hand held. Distance, about 7 meters. Difficult situation for any AF system.


click
more here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/421620...57659863679710

I had all of six seconds to fire off 5 shots, and all were in focus! The camera/lens backs off a tad and refocused each time. I have S-AF Rls priority off, but it is buggy and sometimes works, sometimes not. So I just wait till I see the little green box flash, then recompose and fire.

[Godfrey]

Looks like you're enjoying some very long lens fun.. :-)

I have been too: found a Leica Telyt-R 250mm f/4 v1 for virtually nothing ($320) in near perfect condition, and a 2x Extender-R for $80 too. So now I have a very high quality, if manual focus, 500mm f/8 to play with. I tested it fitted to the Leica M-P with R Adapter M the other day; it works a treat. I'll have to fit it to the E-M1 and see how it does.

These Leica R lenses are built like tanks! I think I could use this one as a battering ram when not needed to do photography. :-)

G

[Daniel Bradley]

Those old Telyts are very fine lenses! Hook it up to your E-M1. I am sure it will work great. 250mm easily hand holdable with the Oly IS!

[Daniel Bradley]

New firmware update, v.2, has made taping the pins on the Canon extenders unnecessary, and the EXIF data also shows the Extender. Works with all three versions of the 1.4x and the 2x.

[Don Baldwinson]

New firmware update, v.2, has made taping the pins on the Canon extenders unnecessary, and the EXIF data also shows the Extender. Works with all three versions of the 1.4x and the 2x.

Metabones seems to be an "onto it" company Daniel.
Don

[Daniel Bradley]

There seems to be a bug, or at least, something not working properly with v2, and that is that the aperture of the bare 400 gets stuck at f/8 once a TC has been on the camera. Breaking the contacts with the camera ON and re-locking the lens resolves the issue, until the camera is turned off, and back on again, then it is stuck at f/8 again. Not sure what is going on, and I have reported it to Metabones. In the meantime, I have reloaded v1.82 (nice to be able to revert to previous versions!) and taped the first pin on the TC. I want to be able to shoot the 400 wide open, especially at this dreary time of year.
The exif data shows the proper f-stop with a TC on, but the focal length stays at 400. No big deal, but sometimes I forget whether a shot was made with or without the TC.

[Daniel Bradley]

I have spent the better part of the last month under our 20 year old car, just keeping ahead of the rust and keeping it in shape. Should be able to squeeze a few more years out of it. Still in pretty good shape. Anyway.... with improving weather and light I am at least getting out in the back yard now and then with my E-M1/Canon 400/5.6+Metabones setup, with and without the TCs. Very relaxing. I just sit and wait for whatever happens by.
They got rid of the above mentioned bug, so all in all, in spite of the fact that it is not blazing fast, I am pretty happy with the results. Here are a few of the latest visitors, nothing special, just putting the rig through its paces.

[Don Baldwinson]

I have spent the better part of the last month under our 20 year old car, just keeping ahead of the rust and keeping it in shape. Should be able to squeeze a few more years out of it. Still in pretty good shape. Anyway.... with improving weather and light I am at least getting out in the back yard now and then with my E-M1/Canon 400/5.6+Metabones setup, with and without the TCs. Very relaxing. I just sit and wait for whatever happens by.
They got rid of the above mentioned bug, so all in all, in spite of the fact that it is not blazing fast, I am pretty happy with the results. Here are a few of the latest visitors, nothing special, just putting the rig through its paces.

And they say you can't take the background out with an m4/3 sensor! Lovely work Dan.
Don

[Daniel Bradley]

Thanks, Don.
The trick is to have the background far enough behind the subject. We were down in Hungary over the weekend, probably for the last time as they have closed off our favorite viewing places . Back on the Austrian side, the light was not bad, but it was warm and windy, so no chance of any detail, even up close, like these:




400+2x TC
We spent a few hours watching these Little Ringed Plovers going through the whole routine, flying around, getting all puffed up, playing hard to get, the works. Fascinating and fun to watch.

Hard to know if the background would be any better with anything else. Better than my scope, at any rate.