Venus Lenses announces the Magic Shift Converter

[Ellis Vener]

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www.venuslens.net

There are two versions for using it with Nikon Z bodies: one for Nikon F mount lenses and the other for Canon EF mount lenses. With no electronic contacts to the body you’ll have to use lenses with built in mechanical aperture control except for Nikon G mount lenses and in all cases no EXIF info from the lens is recorded.

Even without using the shift function (+/- 10 degrees) it acts as a 1.4x teleconverter. As with other 1.4x teleconverters, there is 1 stop of transmission loss.



but the big news here is obviously the shift movement. There is a tripod mount mount with an Arca-Swiss type QR plate included that you can mount to the MSC and that lets you shift the body position instead of the lens position. The advantage of shifting the body instead of the lens is you eliminate parallax when shifting and stitching.



MSRP: $320 (USD)

 

[xlucine]

I understand why someone would want an SLR to mirrorless shift adapter, and I understand why someone would want a 1.4x TC. But why both in the same product?

 

[rubank]

I understand why someone would want an SLR to mirrorless shift adapter, and I understand why someone would want a 1.4x TC. But why both in the same product?

Because without the TC - which enlarges the lens projection - you would get severe vignetting when using shift.

 

[WalterH]

It actually seems to be a +- 10mm shift.

Sorry to be so picky.

 

[Ellis Vener]

Thank you for the correction. You are absolutely right, it is +/- 10mm.

 

[xlucine]

I understand why someone would want an SLR to mirrorless shift adapter, and I understand why someone would want a 1.4x TC. But why both in the same product?

Because without the TC - which enlarges the lens projection - you would get severe vignetting when using shift.

So exactly the same outcome as a 1.4x crop (in photon bucket and perspective terms), as you can shift the crop region around the sensor?

Stitching shifted images with this seems like an expensive and complex way to get the same picture you'd get with a regular mount adapter.

 

[Ellis Vener]

I understand why someone would want an SLR to mirrorless shift adapter, and I understand why someone would want a 1.4x TC. But why both in the same product?

Because without the TC - which enlarges the lens projection - you would get severe vignetting when using shift.

So exactly the same outcome as a 1.4x crop (in photon bucket and perspective terms), as you can shift the crop region around the sensor?

except that you get to use the entire frame or a larger portion of it.

to use your words you get a larger “photon bucket.”

Stitching shifted images with this seems like an expensive and complex way to get the same picture you'd get with a regular mount adapter.

not quite.

and maybe it’s not a product for you.

 

[Kirnbichler]

For EF mount lenses this would be a pretty useless toy, as EF mount lenses have electronic aperture.

This adapter would only make sense if it were combined with the electronics from, say, a "Fringer" adapter. This could also do the necessary translation of focal length and aperture, so that the camera would see the correct focal length for IBIS and record the correct aperture value.

But without any electronics? Without any means of operating the EF mount lenses aperture?

Useless. Completely useless.

 

[Kirnbichler]

This adapter would allow the use of EF-S lenses on a full-frame camera without the need to crop (albeit without the shift functionality due to the EF-S lens' reduced image circle).

But as stated elswhere: This adapter is useless, as it can't operate the aperture on EF or EF-S lenses.

 

[Ellis Vener]

Useless only for EF MOUNT LENSES without physical aperture connteols? I agree.

but there are some non-Canon made EF mount lenses Zeiss comes to mind) that do have a physical aperture control ring.

 

[pe1125]

I look forward to the first substantive review that compares perspective control with a wide angle lens with the 1.4x shift adapter vs without it but shifting the subject in the wider view and then cropping (and perhaps post process transform with software.)

 

[Kirnbichler]

I'd say that the vast majority of all EF mount lenses has electronic aperture control; lenses as you describe are the rare exception (and probably close to useless on an EF body, as that would need an "AF confirm" chip even to allow the camera to do basic metering).

There are F mount lenses with electronic aperture (don't know the somewhat confusing Nikon nomenclature) that would be equally unuseable on F mount variant of this adapter, but even with mechanical aperture and no aperture ring operation would be somewhat "basic", as you won't be able to set the aperture to reproducible values.

I've tried a K mount to Z mount adapter that sports "aperture control", that's a ring with a throw of maybe 10 degrees that moves the aperture lever of the lens. In a studio setup with controlled lighting and precise metering, it might be possible to reproduce aperture settings, but under normal conditions?

I presume that the mechanical aperture control for F mount lenses works in a similar way.

Nice for a gadget, but insufficient for an adapter that costs several hundred dollars.

This adapter should be combined with the electronics of a "Fringer" or the innards of the FTZ adapter or it's clone made by Viltrox.

 

[Paul Pasco]

Isn't anyone concerned about the possible image degradation from the "one size fits all" 1.4X converter lens?

--
Regards, Paul
Lili's Dad
WSSA Member #450