Metabones Canon EF to E-mount - Speed Booster Ultra T Ciné

Like the revolutionary original Metabones Speed Booster announced in January 2013, the Speed Booster ULTRA has a magnification of 0.71x, and so it effectively reduces the crop factor of mirrorless cameras with DX-sized sensors, such as Sony E-mount and Fuji X-mount cameras, from 1.5x to 1.07x. However, the new ULTRA design makes very effective use of exotic materials at the furthest limit of glassmaking technology, and as a result is well corrected for use with virtually all fullframe SLR lenses regardless of exit pupil distance. Thus, the Speed Booster ULTRA performs extremely well with professional-grade f/2.8 zoom lenses such as the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 zooms by Canon and Nikon to produce 17-50mm f/2.0 and 50-142mm f/2.0 high-speed zooms, respectively. Similarly, high-speed fixed focal length lenses such as a 50mm f/1.2 will be transformed into a 35.5mm f/0.9 lens with excellent contrast and resolution from the center all the way to the edges of the image.

Features and benefits

Electronic

• Increase maximum aperture by 1 stop.
• Increase MTF.
• Makes lens 0.71x wider.
• Advanced 5-element/4-group optical design incorporating ultra-high index tantalum-based optical glass by Caldwell Photographic in the USA (patent pending).
• New positive-lock EF lens mount. (Patent pending).
• Rubber gasket protects E-mount connection from dust and moisture.
• Felt material flocked inside the opening to reduce internal reflection.
• Compatible with Sony FS7 Mark II camera.
• The tripod foot is detachable and compatible with Arca Swiss, Markins, Photo Clam ball heads.

Optical/mechanical

• Fast contrast-detect AF on all E-mount cameras.
• Phase-detect autofocus support on A7RII, A7II, A6300 and A6500.
• Smooth iris support with the latest Canon (2009+), Tamron (SP series 2013+) and Sigma (2016+) lenses
• Supports 5-axis in-body image stabilization of A7II, A7RII and A7SII. (Distance information from lens required; 3-axis IBIS if lens does not transmit distance information.)
• Powered by camera body. No external power source required.
• Aperture control from camera body.
• Custom function button assignable to more than 50 functions on A7 series, A6300 and A6500.
• Dedicated IBIS (in-body image stabilization) switch for A6500, A7II, A7RII and A7SII.
• LED indicator shows operation mode, OIS (optical image stabilization) activity and communication status.
• High performance 32-bit processor and efficient switched-mode power supply.
• Supports image stabilization (IS) lenses.
• Supports electronic manual focusing (e.g. EF 85/1.2L II and discontinued EF 50/1.0L)
• EXIF support (focal length, aperture, zoom range)
• Distance and zoom display on VG and FS series camcorders, A7 series, A6300 and A6500 (lens with distance information support required).
• Auto magnify (lens with distance information support required)
• Auto "APS-C Size Capture" on full-frame cameras.

Limitations

Electronic

• Full-frame lens required. EF-S/DX/DC/Di II lenses are NOT supported.
• Speed Booster ULTRA is designed to cover an APS-C image circle which is not big enough to cover a full-size 36mm x 24mm sensor. On a full frame camera body (A7 series, NEX-VG900) the camera needs to have "APS-C/Super 35mm" set to either "Auto" or "On".
• Flocking material coated inside the opening to reduce internal reflection.
• The tripod foot is detachable and compatible with Arca Swiss, Markins, Photo Clam ball heads.

Autofocus

• Continuous AF and video AF are not supported. (Performance may be unsatisfactory.)
• AF may not work if the maximum aperture of the lens plus any EF Extender or other teleconverter attached is smaller than f/8 before boost or smaller than f/5.6 after boost.
• AF is disabled with Canon Cinema lenses such as CN-E 18-80mm T4.4.
• The first two autofocus attempts are used to calibrate the lens and as a result may not lock successfully on the target. Half-press the shutter release button again and autofocus will lock successfully.
• Autofocus may have difficultly locking onto subjects which are very close to the nearest focusing distance of the lens.
• Autofocus accuracy depends heavily on the design and working condition of the lens. Lenses with hidden problems which may not be apparent on Canon DSLRs will lead to inaccurate and unreliable autofocus on Sony NEX. Typical problems of this kind that we have seen include an unsmooth/erratic autofocus mechanism (e.g. getting stuck intermittently at a certain focusing distance), a faulty/worn-out distance encoder or other faulty/worn-out internal sensors.

Other

• No support for lens corrections such as peripheral shading, CA and distortion.
• Use of Canon Cinema lenses such as CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 for still photography is not supported.
• The EF-mount lens may make audible noises during iris changes and autofocus, wich may be picked up by the built-in microphone of the camera during video recording. Use of an external microphone is advised.
• Early Tamron VC lenses such as the AF 28-300/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical [IF] Macro (model A20), AF 18-270/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO (model B003), SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di II VC LD Aspherical [IF] (model B005) may not be able to freely switch between OIS and IBIS because they may not report IS activity status. Later Tamron VC lenses equipped with USD or PZD focus motors are fine.
• Some aftermarket battery grips may cause the aperture to change erraneously. This is a bug of the aftermarket battery grip but NOT arising from the Metabones Speed Booster. Turn off the aftermarket battery grip or use a genuine Sony battery grip.