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Electronic Adapters for the EF-M series

Started Sep 19, 2016 | Polls thread
nnowak Veteran Member • Posts: 9,074
Speaking from personal experience...
4

I have hacked together two electronic focal reduction adapters for the M series.  One was built from an original Metabones SpeedBooster and the other was the newer Metabones SpeedBooster Ultra.

All of the Metabones claims are true.  Yes, it makes the base lens sharper.  Yes, it gives you one stop more light.  Yes, it gets you closer to the true full frame focal length.  Yes, AF is fully functional.

Sounds wonderful, right? Wellllll....  First off, these things aren't cheap.  it is a minimum of $500 for the Metabones version.  I am sure Canon could build one for less, but it would probably be at least $300.  Second, you don't completely turn your M into a full frame camera.  The focal reducer does not improve the dynamic range of your sensor to full frame levels.  Third, the adapters aren't perfect.  Optical quality will be better than the bare lens on your M, but not quite as good as the bare lens on a full frame camera.  Finally, these things really only make sense when paired with big lenses with bright apertures.

Add the cost of the focal reducer on top of the cost of an M5 and you are basically at the price of a full frame 6D.  However, you don't get all of the image quality benefits of the 6D.  Personally, I find the Speedboosters fun to play with, but it is a lot easier and more effective to just use the lenses on a full frame camera.  Image quality is better and I don't need to shuffle adapters.

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