Off-brand EOS M Focal Reducer/ "Speed Booster"

nobuchika · May 26, 2015

nevermind, i tried it again and it went through

seller has only 8 feedback rating, and no sold items before, so hopefully i dont get scammed out of $300

it will really extend the usability of the 85 1.8

belleandlilsebastian · May 26, 2015

belleandlilsebastian said:
Hey all,

So a preliminary report back, some quick notes:

-build quality is way better than expected-- very firm grip

-works with my AI-S and Non-AI lenses alike with no problem, at least so far. At this point, I've only used my 85mm 1.4 AI-S and my 50mm 1.4 Non-AI.

-This is both a pleasant surprise and a bit of a dissapointment. First-- when you take the pictures and look in the in-camera preview, you're gonna be blown away, but that afterglow will obviously fade once you get a detailed look at things on a higher-res screen. Prone to haze, odd flares, and some distortion, this isn't the best thing to use with any subjects further off in the background. Also-- when using old Nikkors, keep in mind that often, the slowest stop is f/16 rather than 22, so you'll only be able to stop down to 11 in daylight.

-However, this speedbooster is great at one thing, and thankfully its the most important thing for what it is-- it really shines in boosting the dof, especially for close shots. I was shooting at 100 iso and a shutter speed of 50 in a subway station with the 50mm wide open.

-overall, definitely better for video than stills just because the abberations are less noticible at the lower resolution

I'll do a way more detailed review later, these are some quick thoughts. Here are some cruddy images, I'll post better ones + test video later. all shot with 50mm and 85mm (I've got a 35mm, a 3rd party 28mm, and a tamron 35-70 zoom all to try still too).

In short: don't get it expecting a versatile tool, don't get it if you're not ok with a little imperfection in your images, but if you want to get insanely shallow DOF for cheap this delivers surprisingly well.

(sorry, forgot to write down aperture values-- i think theyre all wide open though)

50mm 1.4

85mm f/1.4

50mm 1.4

85mm 1.4

85mm 1.4

85mm 1.4

50mm 1.4

Also: I'm new at testing gear for other people, so if there are specific things you'd like to see let me know. I'm also noticing a lot of curvature/distortion in the center at wide open-- that said, i kind of like the effect in the right circumstance

herion · May 29, 2015

nobuchika said:
nevermind, i tried it again and it went through

seller has only 8 feedback rating, and no sold items before, so hopefully i dont get scammed out of $300

it will really extend the usability of the 85 1.8

Looking forward to your review - would be great if it works across both Canon and 3rd party lenses AND takes good pics!

SmoothGlass · May 29, 2015

edit: sorry, I meant to reply to another thread, not this one.

nobuchika · Jun 4, 2015

herion said:
nobuchika said:

nevermind, i tried it again and it went through

seller has only 8 feedback rating, and no sold items before, so hopefully i dont get scammed out of $300

it will really extend the usability of the 85 1.8

Click to expand...

Looking forward to your review - would be great if it works across both Canon and 3rd party lenses AND takes good pics!

I received it last Saturday, but weather was bad and i've been busy this week. Weather should be nice in manhattan this weekend to shoot with it and put up some samples.

Just from playing around with it inside, first impression is pretty good. There is a tiny tiny bit of reduction in sharpness, but only noticeable when you are pixel peeping. Otherwise seems to do its job pretty well, and build quality is pretty good.

creisti86 · Jun 5, 2015

THIS:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EOS-EOSM-Focal-reducer-Auto-focus-adapter-EF-EFM-EF-to-EFM-EOS-to-EOSM-Booster/301650351908?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D31356%26meid%3D3faed3394abf436bac59265723d1316c%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D301610826889

creisti86 · Jun 5, 2015

Could you post some sample pictures? with the speed booster and with the normal adapter.

(The samples from the korean forums show me that resolution from the sides and corners is very low with the adapter, and I wanted to confirm that)

Thank you!

belleandlilsebastian · Jun 5, 2015

Hey nobuchika-

I also live in NYC, if you'd be interested in doing an EOS M off-brand speedbooster comparison together.

verum lens · Jun 5, 2015

belleandlilsebastian said:
Hey nobuchika-

I also live in NYC, if you'd be interested in doing an EOS M off-brand speedbooster comparison together.

I also live here if someone wants to loan me their speedbooster for testing

verum lens · Jun 5, 2015

creisti86 said:
Could you post some sample pictures? with the speed booster and with the normal adapter.

(The samples from the korean forums show me that resolution from the sides and corners is very low with the adapter, and I wanted to confirm that)

Thank you!

herion · Jun 5, 2015

verum lens said:
belleandlilsebastian said:

Hey nobuchika-

I also live in NYC, if you'd be interested in doing an EOS M off-brand speedbooster comparison together.

Click to expand...

I also live here if someone wants to loan me their speedbooster for testing

I see - that makes 3 of us!

I work right around the corner from B&H.... how's that for temptation?

zsedcft · Jun 5, 2015

They look pretty good. I want to use it mainly for timelapse so the resolution looks adequate. One of them compares it to a 6D (which is a little unfair), but those samples show some pretty heavy vignetting with the canon 24mm. The sharpness in the center and stopped down looks impressive.

It looks like a good product.

thedanj · Jan 2, 2016

belleandlilsebastian said:
This is, on the whole, good, but I kind of wish I sprang for this instead: http://www.ebay.com/itm/EOS-EOSM-Fo...889?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item463967fc89

Has anyone tried this slightly more expensive version? I'd be really interested in hearing what others who have tried this think of it.

magnesiumnitrate · Sep 18, 2016

thedanj said:
thedanj said:

This is, on the whole, good, but I kind of wish I sprang for this instead: http://www.ebay.com/itm/EOS-EOSM-Fo...889?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item463967fc89

Click to expand...

Has anyone tried this slightly more expensive version? I'd be really interested in hearing what others who have tried this think of it.

Bumping this thread for visibility and to ask the same question. The seller has sample pictures here.

[EOSM + 스피드 부스터] 제주 여행 스냅

와이프와 함께 2박3일 제주여행 스냅입니다.제주 현대 미술관 / 사려니숲길 / 성산일출봉 / 오설록 박물관 스냅입니다.사용장비는 EOSM-매직랜턴 커펌 / 자작 스피드 부스터(AF) / YN50.8(용누오렌즈), EF24-85(올드..

www.popco.net

I see some fringing in the first landscape picture in the top left corner and overall corner softness in all of them. Wondering if that was a result of the lens used or the focal reducer. Can anyone weigh in? The seller refused to send me a picture of a focus chart or a brick wall.

nnowak · Sep 18, 2016

magnesiumnitrate said:
thedanj said:

magnesiumnitrate said:

This is, on the whole, good, but I kind of wish I sprang for this instead: http://www.ebay.com/itm/EOS-EOSM-Fo...889?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item463967fc89

Click to expand...

Has anyone tried this slightly more expensive version? I'd be really interested in hearing what others who have tried this think of it.

Click to expand...

Bumping this thread for visibility and to ask the same question. The seller has sample pictures here.

[EOSM + 스피드 부스터] 제주 여행 스냅

와이프와 함께 2박3일 제주여행 스냅입니다.제주 현대 미술관 / 사려니숲길 / 성산일출봉 / 오설록 박물관 스냅입니다.사용장비는 EOSM-매직랜턴 커펌 / 자작 스피드 부스터(AF) / YN50.8(용누오렌즈), EF24-85(올드..

www.popco.net

I see some fringing in the first landscape picture in the top left corner and overall corner softness in all of them. Wondering if that was a result of the lens used or the focal reducer. Can anyone weigh in? The seller refused to send me a picture of a focus chart or a brick wall.

It is the result of the focal reducer. This unit for sale on ebay is hacked together from the first generation Chinese clones of the Metabones Speedbooster. Those units had pretty bad optical qualities with a lot of flare, purple fringing and overall softness. The current Chinese clones for sale are a second generation with much better performance.

nobuchika · Sep 18, 2016

nnowak said:
magnesiumnitrate said:

Bumping this thread for visibility and to ask the same question. The seller has sample pictures here.

[EOSM + 스피드 부스터] 제주 여행 스냅

와이프와 함께 2박3일 제주여행 스냅입니다.제주 현대 미술관 / 사려니숲길 / 성산일출봉 / 오설록 박물관 스냅입니다.사용장비는 EOSM-매직랜턴 커펌 / 자작 스피드 부스터(AF) / YN50.8(용누오렌즈), EF24-85(올드..

www.popco.net

I see some fringing in the first landscape picture in the top left corner and overall corner softness in all of them. Wondering if that was a result of the lens used or the focal reducer. Can anyone weigh in? The seller refused to send me a picture of a focus chart or a brick wall.

Click to expand...

It is the result of the focal reducer. This unit for sale on ebay is hacked together from the first generation Chinese clones of the Metabones Speedbooster. Those units had pretty bad optical qualities with a lot of flare, purple fringing and overall softness. The current Chinese clones for sale are a second generation with much better performance.

Adding in extra glass is going to result in more aberration for this system.

Even with your high quality metabones glass, the picture you posted here: ( https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58064013 ) also shows noticeable dropoff of sharpness of the potting shed roof from center to periphery even stopped down to f2 as compared to the same 50 1.4 lens natively mounted on your full frame DSLR.

nnowak · Sep 18, 2016

nobuchika said:
nnowak said:

magnesiumnitrate said:

Bumping this thread for visibility and to ask the same question. The seller has sample pictures here.

[EOSM + 스피드 부스터] 제주 여행 스냅

와이프와 함께 2박3일 제주여행 스냅입니다.제주 현대 미술관 / 사려니숲길 / 성산일출봉 / 오설록 박물관 스냅입니다.사용장비는 EOSM-매직랜턴 커펌 / 자작 스피드 부스터(AF) / YN50.8(용누오렌즈), EF24-85(올드..

www.popco.net

I see some fringing in the first landscape picture in the top left corner and overall corner softness in all of them. Wondering if that was a result of the lens used or the focal reducer. Can anyone weigh in? The seller refused to send me a picture of a focus chart or a brick wall.

Click to expand...

It is the result of the focal reducer. This unit for sale on ebay is hacked together from the first generation Chinese clones of the Metabones Speedbooster. Those units had pretty bad optical qualities with a lot of flare, purple fringing and overall softness. The current Chinese clones for sale are a second generation with much better performance.

Click to expand...

Adding in extra glass is going to result in more aberration for this system.

Even with your high quality metabones glass, the picture you posted here: ( https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58064013 ) also shows noticeable dropoff of sharpness of the potting shed roof from center to periphery even stopped down to f2 as compared to the same 50 1.4 lens natively mounted on your full frame DSLR.

Definitely. It isn't all bad though. In the past I had done some other testing with the 70-200 f4L IS on the M2. I shot with and without the speedbooster at comparable wide and long focal lengths. Roughly 70 without vs 110 with, and 125 without vs 200 with. Apertures were also adjusted to compensate for the speedbooster and maintain the same exposure and DoF. The shots with the speedbooster were sharper and had more detail.

This is a very broad generalization, but I would rank the bare lens on crop as the weakest, the bare lens on full frame the best, and the speedboster setup somewhere in between.

The speedbooster does work quite well and it is fun to experiment with, but in the end I personally just find it works better to use the bare lens on full frame.

formusjim · May 1, 2018

what is the name of this adapter?

LKFX_House · May 1, 2018

I Just have experience with Roxsen focal reducer, Canon FD mount on the Sony A6000, i find it very neat, but like the OP said, this is great for video, not so practical for stills, which i've done stills with it with success, to calculate Aperture or focal length it gives you, multiply aperture or focal length x 0.71 (50mm x 0.71 = 35.5 or F4 x 0.71 = 2.8) Out if these generic focal reducers, the best brand is Mitakon Zhongyi, then Roxsen (Also called Pixco)

out of the ones in ebay for our EOS M cameras i would only trust Pixco as is the same Roxsen which i have very good experience with, their best use is for low light or anything that is NOT sun directly to it as that would give lots of unwanted flare, hope that helps --

formusjim · May 6, 2018

Do they support auto-focus?

Off-brand EOS M Focal Reducer/ "Speed Booster"

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