This Metabones Speed Booster is a well made and quite brilliant adapter for those who’d like to mount Canon EF-mount lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras. Not only does it allow control of the aperture in a Canon lens from a Micro Four Thirds camera, it supports image stabilisation where present and allows the camera to record EXIF data. With a magnification of 0.64x and advanced 6-element optical design users can transform Micro Four Thirds cameras into super-35 format 4K cine cameras while achieving extraordinary optical performance at apertures up to an incredible f/0.80. Autofocus is also supported, but we should point out it’s worth double-checking camera compatibility first.
Our thoughts
'This Metabones Speed Booster is a well made and quite brilliant adapter for those who’d like to mount Canon EF-mount lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras. Not only does it allow control of the aperture in a Canon lens from a Micro Four Thirds camera, it supports image stabilisation where present and allows the camera to record EXIF data. With a magnification of 0.64x and advanced 6-element optical design users can transform Micro Four Thirds cameras into super-35 format 4K cine cameras while achieving extraordinary optical performance at apertures up to an incredible f/0.80. Autofocus is also supported, but we should point out it’s worth double-checking camera compatibility first.
The details
A Micro-4/3 mount Speed Booster adapter designed for selected Micro Four Thirds cameras, with a magnification of 0.64x. The Speed Booster XL 0.64x uses an advanced 6-element optical design to achieve extraordinary optical performance at apertures up to f/0.80, a new record for Micro Four Thirds format.
The Speed Booster XL 0.64x reduces the full-frame crop factor of the camera from 2.0x to 1.28x, thus effectively transforming these cameras into APS-H format. When the GH4 is used in Cinema 4k video mode the horizontal full frame crop factor is reduced from 2.34x to 1.50x, thus effectively transforming a Micro Four Thirds camera into a super-35 format 4k cine camera. In addition, the speed of any attached lens is increased by 11/3 stops, with a maximum output aperture of f/0.80 when an f/1.2 lens is used. For example, a 50mm f/1.2 becomes a 32mm f/0.80, which is the fastest aperture available for full size Micro Four Thirds format.
Optical
Electronic
Other
Description | Quantity |
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D-Res 20AW case | 1 |
Front Cap | 1 |
Back Cap | 1 |
Monopod Mount (with two allen bolts) | 1 |
Limitations
Supports only Panasonic GH5, GH4, GH3, G3, G5, G6, G7, G10, GF3, GF5, GF6, GX1, GX8, GX80/GX85, Olympus E-PL7, PEN-F, Blackmagic Cinema Camera with Micro Four Thirds mount**, Pocket Cinema Camera*** and Micro Cinema Camera***
Speed Booster XL can be used with full frame lenses only. Cropped lenses are unable to cover full-sensor-width readout + in-body image stabilizer (IBIS)
EF-S and third-party DX lenses do not cover the full Micro Four Thirds sensor in still photo and FHD video (but will cover 4k video mode on GH4, GX8 and GX80/85).
No video AF for Olympus
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/5.1 after boost.
AFC (continuous AF) and AFF (flexible AF) modes are not supported, except on Olympus OM-D E-M1.
Panasonic video AF may hunt more than a native lens or have unsatisfactory performance.
Some Tamron lenses may have unsatisfactory AF accuracy.
No support for Focus Stacking and Focus Bracketing on Olympus.
On Olympus, other than E-M1, you may move the single AF point among any of the 81, but you may not multi-point AF. There is no restriction on E-M1 and Panasonic.
Very early Olympus models (e.g. E-PL1) have no autofocus support.
EF-mount lenses are not silent but may make audible click noises during autofocus operation and iris changes which may be picked up by the built-in microphone of the camera. An external microphone is recommended for video.
Use of Canon Cinema Compact-Servo lenses such as CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 L KAS S for still photography is not supported.
Iris changes are in 1/8 stop steps which may be noticeable in video recordings. Programmed exposure mode and shutter priority exposure mode should not be used for video. This limitation does not apply to Cinema EOS lenses which permit fine resolution iris control, such as CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 L IS KAS S.
No support for in-camera correction such as peripheral shading, CA and distortio
NB: Not suitable for EF-S (cropped) lenses.
NB: Currently no autofocus functionality with the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.