OT: Metabones Speed Booster.

farss wrote on 1/15/2013, 6:24 PM
This really is optical magic. Add an extra lens to increase speed and resolution.
Read the white paper here.

It isn't really magic or voodoo, this optical trick has been well known for over a century, there's been various attempts at producing such a lens that pretty well failed. The advent of the mirrorless cameras opened a new window of opportunity that has enabled some very smart engineers to implement the theory well.

The first camera the Metabones Speedbooster will be available for is the Sony NEX 5/7 series.

Bob.

Comments

Serena wrote on 1/15/2013, 7:59 PM
Known as a "barlow" on telescopes where they reduce focal length (hence increase relative aperture) and perform field flattening. So no magic in principle, but this application looks interesting.
farss wrote on 1/16/2013, 4:27 PM
If this turns out to be as good as the designers published results indicate it could be quite a game changer especially for a lot of people here who are using older optics on modern cameras. Not only does this address the FOV issue to some extent it's also claimed to address the issue that arises when lenses that were designed to work with film don't work well with a digital sensor.

Bob.
FilmingPhotoGuy wrote on 1/16/2013, 10:41 PM
Interesting!
It only mentions EF lenses. I wonder if it'll work on the EF-S lenses.

The difference between the two is:
EF for fullframe cameras
EF-S crop factor cameras

Craig
Serena wrote on 1/17/2013, 3:48 AM
It reduces the size of the image, so not the thing to use on a lens that is designed for the smaller frame.
farss wrote on 1/23/2013, 6:08 PM
Some interesting 3rd party test results here.

"I think it was pretty obvious that I came armed for battle, ready to slam this product as some marketing overhype. I was less correct than I might have been. The Speed Booster does what they claimed it would do, much to my shock and surprise. It creates a wider-angle, greater aperture lens while retaining resolution and acutance."

Nothing that wasn't revealed in the Metabones white paper although the issue of keeping the sensor dead perpendicular to the optical axis raises it's head.

Bob.
JasonATL wrote on 1/23/2013, 8:25 PM
Bob,

Thanks for the link from Roger. I really trust his take on things to be fair. I'm a fan of LensRentals, having rented and bought from them quite a bit. They've always delivered on what was promised.

The existence of the Speed Booster is really making me question my order for a Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera. Well... that, the delay, and cluster**** of a launch that Blackmagic has had (is having - as people who ordered in June, for camera promised in July, still have not received cameras). I'm now wondering whether I should be buying a Sony FS100 + Speed Booster instead.

I have a small fortune worth of EF lenses that I love. The FS100 is "old" technology, but it is also tried and true. The FS100's form factor is a real turn-off. I love the DSLR form factor and the BMCC seems close enough, whereas the FS100 just seems like a huge brick of a beast. The BMCC's raw capability is really so alluring. However, well-exposed FS100 footage recorded at 10-bits on an external recorder should hold up to post processing nearly as well as raw, yes?

In the end, the image is what shows up on screen. The Speed Booster just makes the tradeoffs even more difficult.