{"id":2580,"date":"2013-11-03T11:10:36","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T16:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=2580"},"modified":"2014-09-02T11:30:23","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T16:30:23","slug":"review-metabones-speed-booster-canon-fd-to-fuji-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-metabones-speed-booster-canon-fd-to-fuji-x\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Metabones Speed Booster (Canon FD to Fuji X)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Speed Booster with Canon FD 35mm f\/2 – This combo is now a 25mm f\/1.4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After what was for many an excruciating wait, Metabones has released their generally well-regarded Speed Booster in Canon FD and Minolta MD mounts. \u00a0As someone with a rather extensive stable of FD lenses (thanks partly to my father), I was extremely excited by this news. \u00a0If you’re a frequent visitor to the site, you may have ready my review of the Zhongyi Lens Turbo<\/a>, a Speed Booster clone, in which I lamented the lack of an FD Speed Booster. \u00a0You may also remember that while the Lens Turbo works well with some lenses, it can be quite poor with other lenses.<\/p>\n

Enter the original. \u00a0Metabones released their first Speed Boosters back in January of this year, and they’ve been quite a success. \u00a0Let’s take a look at how this new FD mount Speed Booster works in real world application, and if it truly is worth the significantly higher price tag over the cheaper Zhongyi knockoff.<\/p>\n

What does the Speed Booster do?<\/h3>\n

If you’ve not seen one of these before, it can be rather confusing. Teleconverters have been around for a very long time, and most photographers know they are a nice way to gain some extra length on their lenses without having to carry around a separate lens. \u00a0On the down side, teleconverters generally decrease image quality a little, and you lose one stop of light on a 1.4x teleconverter, and two stops of light on a 2x teleconverter.<\/p>\n

The Speed Booster does exactly the opposite. \u00a0It is a 0.71x wide-converter, and you will actually gain image sharpness (in theory), while gaining a full stop of light. \u00a0When used on an APS-C camera, this allows a lens to be used and have almost exactly its full frame field of view when used on an APS-C camera.\u00a0 So, for instance, a 50mm f\/1.4 lens will be turned into a 35mm f\/1.0 lens.\u00a0 With APS-C sensor, this 35mm combination gives you the field of view of a 53mm lens on full frame – very close to the lens’ original field of view on full-frame. \u00a0And, because the lens speed is also increased by a stop, the depth of field and background blur the lens produces will also be extremely similar to how the lens performs on a full frame camera. \u00a0The long and short of it is, the Speed Booster allows you to take full frame SLR lenses and use them on an APS-C camera with the optical properties of using them on a full-frame camera.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Canon FL 55mm f\/1.2 on the Speed Booster – This combination becomes a 39mm f\/0.9, which has the same field of view and depth of field as a 58mm f\/1.3 lens does on full frame.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a great boon to APS-C shooters who may sometimes want that full-frame shallow depth of field look, but don’t otherwise want to carry around larger lenses for the most part. \u00a0Or, if you have a large stable of manual focus lenses and want to use them at their original field of view, this will allow you to do that.<\/p>\n

The Speed Booster is available for Sony E-mount, Fuji X-mount and Micro 4\/3 (though Micro 4\/3 users won’t get the ‘full frame’ look, but rather closer to APS-C). \u00a0Metabones currently makes Speed Boosters compatible with Alpa, Contax\/Yashica, Canon EF (E-mount only), Leica R, Contarex, Nikon G, Sony A (E-Mount only), and now Canon FD and Minolta MD. \u00a0They retail for $399 for the simple mechanical versions and $599 for the Canon EF to Sony E-Mount version, which has electronics to allow for autofocus and auto-aperture control. \u00a0The Nikon G version is $429, as it contains a separate aperture diaphragm for use with G lenses.<\/p>\n

Build Quality<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Metabones FD to Fuji X Speed Booster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Metabones Speed Booster is a very well constructed piece of kit. \u00a0It is solid metal throughout, with chromium-plated brass mount plates for both the mount to the camera and to the lens. \u00a0The FD version has a rotating ring with an ON\/OFF designation, which is used to activate the aperture lever, allowing the lens aperture to be changed. \u00a0This is needed on the FD mount speed booster, because the Canon FD mount is a breech-lock style mount. Therefore, the mounting surfaces between the camera and lens do not move against each other when mounting the lens. \u00a0You must turn the ring to OFF before mounting a lens, then switch it to ON to enable aperture control.<\/p>\n

The Metabones also includes an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod foot mount that is integral to the adapter. \u00a0If you are using the Speed Booster with heavier lenses that lack their own tripod collar, this can be helpful to relieve stress on the camera mount. \u00a0As almost all lenses that I will be using with the Speed Booster are relatively small, I removed the tripod mount upon opening the Speed Booster. \u00a0Metabones provides the allen wrench needed to remove the tripod foot as well as two plastic plugs to insert into the screw holes once it’s removed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Portal to the Full Frame Look<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The optical elements on the Speed Booster are very prominent, and they seem to float in the center of the adapter. \u00a0Care must be taken when mounting an FD lens due to the long aperture lever. \u00a0While I didn’t try to see if the adapter is built-in a way that prevented you from scraping the lever against the optics, it certainly looks possible to do if you are careless, so pay attention when mounting your lenses.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Speed Booster is a solid, well machined adapter that feels quite premium. It also has a fair bit of heft to it. \u00a0One nice thing that Metabones allows is infinity adjustment. \u00a0While they adjust it at the factory to enable infinity focus if the lens is perfectly calibrated, they do allow you to adjust if your infinity stop is off on your lenses. \u00a0Indeed, my lenses predominantly focused to infinity just fine with the exception of my FD 35mm f\/2, which couldn’t quite get there, though stopping down to f\/8 or so would bring that into focus. \u00a0If I planned on shooting with this lens regularly at infinity, I can simply loosen the optic set screw, rotate the optics and re-set until infinity focus was achieved. \u00a0As I will be using that lens mostly for environmental portraiture, I felt no need to adjust the infinity stop.<\/p>\n

Continue: Optical Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

First off, let’s get the big question out of the way first: Is it worth paying $400 for a Speed Booster when you can get a Lens Turbo for only $130? \u00a0As one who has both adapters, in my opinion, absolutely. \u00a0If you are in the market for one of these wide converters, save up and get the Metabones. \u00a0When used with faster lenses, the Speed Booster is significantly sharper on the edges of the frame, and frankly anywhere outside the center 20% of the frame. \u00a0Field curvature also doesn’t seem to be nearly as big a problem as it is with the Lens Turbo.<\/p>\n

So now let’s get on to specifics with the Speed Booster.<\/p>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n
\"Man<\/a>
Man Reading – Fujifilm X-E1 with Canon FD 135mm f\/2 + Speed Booster @ 96mm, f\/1.4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Metabones promises increased MTF on lenses when used with the Speed Booster. \u00a0This turns out to be both true and false. \u00a0In the central part of the image, this claim is certainly true, with images being surprisingly sharp in the center, and indeed sharper than the bare lens with a standard adapter. \u00a0Towards the edges, it’s not quite as true, as there is some softening of detail and contrast as you get to the edges of the frame. \u00a0Luckily, with the Speed Booster, this softening isn’t particularly severe. \u00a0Images from the fast lenses I tested are usable across the vast majority of the frame even wide open. \u00a0There is some variation on performance based on a specific lens, however.<\/p>\n

I tried the Speed Booster on the Canon new FD 50mm f\/1.4, the Canon FD 50mm f\/1.4 SSC and the Canon FL 55mm f\/1.2. \u00a0All of these lenses are fast normal focal length lenses, and all three are quite sharp across the frame by themselves. \u00a0While the two 50mm lenses performed near identically, the FL 55mm f\/1.2 performs notably better across the frame. \u00a0While there is a visible dip in resolution on the 50mm lenses about a quarter of the way into the frame from the long edge, the 55mm retains good sharpness until you get to the corners. \u00a0This is not to say the 50mm lenses performed poorly. \u00a0They are still quite decent, but that sharpness dropoff is visible if you pixel peep. \u00a0I also noticed edge resolution loss on the FD 35mm f\/2 and 85mm f\/1.8, though the FD 135mm f\/2, like the 55mm f\/1.2, seemed largely immune to this.<\/p>\n

One thing that is consistent with all lenses, though, is that the sharpness profile is slightly wavy…very sharp in the center, then going a little softer as you near the edges, then sharpness increases again as you get to the very edge of the frame. \u00a0The extreme corners, however, go to complete mush with all lenses. \u00a0Luckily, this is only the last 2-3% of the corner and is almost never an issue unless you are using the Speed Booster for critical landscape work stopped down on a tripod.<\/p>\n

Using these lenses stopped down to optimal aperture yields sharp images across the frame (excepting the extreme corners). \u00a0While you still may notice some of that wavy sharpness profile if you look very closely with some lenses, overall, the lenses perform very well stopped down.<\/p>\n

On the whole I was very impressed with the sharpness that the Speed Booster was able to maintain. Even those that don’t work quite as well are still quite usable. Compared to the Lens Turbo, it’s not even a contest: The Speed Booster is much better with faster aperture lenses.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This shot was taken with the Canon FL 55mm f\/1.2 + Speed Booster, resulting in a shot taken at 39mm at f\/0.9 on my Fuji X-E1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

Thankfully, the Speed Booster appears to have no major effect on the bokeh characteristics of a lens. \u00a0At least, no detrimental effect. \u00a0It’s hard to say if it affects the edge bokeh, as I can’t mount FD lenses to a modern full frame DSLR to test this. \u00a0If I get my hands on a Sony A7 for review, I’ll try to test this to see how full frame corner bokeh looks with and without the Speed Booster.<\/p>\n

In any case, bokeh from the lenses appears to be well in line with the lens’ native look. \u00a0As one of the main reasons for getting the Speed Booster is to obtain full-frame shallow depth of field capability on an APS-C camera, this is very good news.<\/p>\n

Lens Aberrations<\/h4>\n

In contrast with the Lens Turbo, the Speed Booster did not seem to have any major effect on chromatic aberration. \u00a0There may be a very slight increase in lateral CA, but for all intents and purposes, it’s nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n

There is a notable increase in barrel distortion with certain lenses, especially at close focus distances. \u00a0This is lens dependent, however, and seemed more dependent on focal length than anything else. \u00a0Wider and normal lenses showed more distortion, while longer lenses showed virtually none.<\/p>\n

Additionally, partly because of the use of the full image circle and partly because of the limited optical size of the Speed Booster, there is visible corner shading or vignetting with the Speed Booster. \u00a0For portrait considerations, I actually view this as a positive, as I quite like some natural lens vignetting or shading in my portraits. \u00a0It is flattering to the subject and the photo in most situations. \u00a0In other situations, it’s not so good. \u00a0I found that I could correct natural lens vignetting via the vignetting slider in Lightroom, though sometimes it took maxing out the slider to correct it. \u00a0However, caution must be taken when shooting with telephoto lenses with deeply recessed rear elements with the Speed Booster. \u00a0These lenses can actually mechanically vignette, causing a hard black edge to the corners that can’t really be corrected. \u00a0Of all my FD glass, only my FD 50-300mm f\/4.5L suffered from this, but it was visible at all focal lengths.<\/p>\n

\"Statue<\/a>
Statue – Fujifilm X-E1 with Canon FD 50mm f\/1.4 + Speed Booster @ 35mm, f\/1.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One important thing to note is the Speed Booster does not seem to generally affect how a lens draws. \u00a0If you like a certain lens for the way it handles tonal transitions, or depth of field rolloff, or the contrast of the lens, these things are all preserved with the Speed Booster.<\/p>\n

Pixel Shading<\/h4>\n

Note: This is not a flaw with the Speed Booster, but rather a limitation of digital cameras as they currently exist. \u00a0It is important to note that the ‘extra stop of light’ you get with the Speed Booster breaks down when you start dealing with extremely fast lenses. \u00a0While the optical effect is always there, the exposure benefit hits a wall around f\/1.1 due to an effect called Pixel Shading.<\/p>\n

What this means is that due to the depth of the microlenses and pixel wells in the sensor, there is only so much light that can be gathered by the lens and transmitted to these wells. \u00a0The limit comes around f\/1.1 or so. \u00a0You can see this in the f\/0.95 lenses for Micro 4\/3: While they certainly exhibit shallower depth of field and the blurrier backgrounds associated with its f\/0.95 aperture, it only exposes about a half a stop faster than an f\/1.4 lens.<\/p>\n

Similarly, using an f\/1.2 lens on the speed booster results in a combination with an insane aperture of f\/0.9!\u00a0 It would nominally be an f\/0.85 lens, though the Speed Booster is limited to f\/0.9 due to the size of the optics. Again, the optical considerations and rendering are fully consistent with this f\/0.9 aperture, but you’ll notice that the shutter speed you get with the lens at f\/0.9 is only fractionally faster than what you get with the lens without the Speed Booster. \u00a0Since I am mostly after the optical characteristics, this is not a big deal, but it is worth noting that you will hit a wall with the Speed Booster in terms of exposure when you start dealing with ultra-fast lenses.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros:<\/h4>\n