MetaBones Adapter Report / Not Good

[Chris Harding]

Based on Steve's silence, I am also assuming that he is having little or no success from them either. Hmmm big hype and fancy reviews but in the actual marketplace it's not so good as it appears!!

If there is no support and the product is faulty you are basically wasting your time!!! The speed booster could give you the same issues too!!

Chris

[Adam Larsen]

Metabones adaptors seem manufactured well and the Speed Booster specs look amazing but there is definitely a disconnect when it comes to service. Most of the problems I notice others having with their adaptors are because of firmware incompatibilities (this was the case with mine). Easy fix if you could update the firmware yourself but unfortunately only they can do it - in Hong Kong.

[Bo-Ming Tong]

I just finished talking on the phone with Metabones about Mr Steven Digges' case. Let me apologize to Mr Digges and also to Mr Larsen on behalf of Metabones. Customer service is in need of improvement and I am working with Metabones on that.

Returning to the technical side of things, I have some questions for Mr Digges. Does the random failures stop when you do either of the following?
1, when the EA50 is powered by the AC adapter, or
2, turn on the power first, and then hold down the 'WO' button on the adapter while you attach the lens?

Did the random failures improve or remain the same when you do either 1 or 2 above? Thanks.

[Bo-Ming Tong]

For Mr Larsen, and about returning the adapter to the factory for firmware update in general: I was told that, after you have paid S&H by PayPal, Metabones would enter the tracking number into PayPal. So, you would see the tracking number in your PayPal S&H payment transaction. Is that the case, Mr Larsen?

[Adam Larsen]

Bo-Ming Tong,

Thanks for looking into this. I was communicating with someone named Mark. He said I didn't need to pay for the update - so I never received any tracking info through PayPal. FYI, my NEX to EOS II adaptor needed to be updated to the latest firmware to work with a new Tamron 24-70mm 2.8 VC lens. I mailed it to Hong Kong on January 9 via FedEx (tracking #899448903669).

[Steven Digges]

Mr. Bo-Ming Tong,

Thank you for your response. I have not tried the adapter when running on the AC power yet. I can try that Sunday. This has been a very busy two weeks past.

I have tried every combination of power on, power off, holding down the WO button etc. Nothing seems to fix it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Some times it starts out just fine, then it fails. Sometimes if I "wiggle" the adapter the display information comes back. Basically, I never know what it is going to do or if it will stay working. I will be happy to run any test you recommend.

Thank You,

Steve

[Steven Digges]

Mr. Bo-Ming Tong,

I tested the adapter with the camera hooked up to AC power and have exactly the same problems.

I never received a reply from MetaBones on my original e-mail so I e-mailed them again today requesting an exchange. I included a copy of my receipt.

Are you an employee of MetaBone? Would you like copies of my correspondence with them? I will work with anyone that can help me resolve my problems.

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Steven Digges]

Update. After e-mailing MetaBones on the 11th of this month requesting an exchange I still have no reply from them. My first e-mail was sent January 25th. I e-mailed them again today, this is my third attempt to communicate with them. The adapter was shipped to me January 16th and I have had absolutely no response from them.

Needless to say I am incredibly frustrated. The one and only time I make a purchase from a foreign manufacturer and I got burned. I have no retailer to back me up, no course of action to take except e-mails that go unanswered. I will never do this again! I may as well have taken the $400.00 and put it in the garbage.

There are posts in this thread from Mr. Bo-Ming Tong in Vancouver who did not identify himself further but apologized for MetaBones and said he talked to them on the phone about my case. He is registered here as a New Boot but did not register an e-mail address. I looked him up and it appears he is an engineer with Caldwell Photographic. They are partners with MetaBones in the development of adapters. Mr. Bo-Ming Tong, if there is any further assistance you can provide it will be appreciated.

I have been careful here to report only facts. If you have followed this thread it should be obvious to you that ordering ANY adapter or the new speed booster from MetaBones would be an absolute gamble. As far as I am concerned, MetaBones and Caldwell Photographic are no longer reputable companies in my opinion.

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

Any company that cannot provide even poor customer service shouldn't be in business. Yeah, I too have felt like I have tossed good money down the drain when there is no service or they cannot even be bothered to email you back and say "we are looking into your problem"

They could at least have confirmed receipt of the adaptor !! That certainly is a very poor state of affairs and you deserve to get your money back!! I always use PayPal for out of country payments..that way if the product is poor/never arrives/doesn't work I can get my money back!!

Chris

[Steven Digges]

I still have the adapter. I did not send it back because I am requesting an exchange. It is useless though. It has a mind of its own. I put it on and it might work for a few minutes or more or not at all. Then it goes crazy randomly changing weird stuff on its own.

[Bo-Ming Tong]

I finally got hold of someone with a NEX-EA50 and asked him to do me a favor and test the Metabones adapter for us, with a Canon EF 16-35/2.8L lens. In his tests, his adapter worked fine and he did not encounter any stability issues.

So, I think there is no inherent design issue with the adapter, but you have a defective unit. Sometimes this can be fixed by adjusting the electrical contacts on the E-mount side, by loosening the 3 screws on the black plastic shroud on the E-mount side and wiggling the electrical contacts positioning, and then tighten the screws again. Sometimes this adjustment would address a reliability issue. This is specific to the Mark II. The Speed Booster has redesigned electrical contacts which require no adjustments and we have not heard any problems in the field so far regarding contact reliability.

The NEX-EA50 was not in the supported camera list, and worst still it is not a very common camera that you could just walk into a store and buy. It means Metabones does not have access to the camera and there may be significant delays in troubleshooting the problem when you encounter some technical difficulty.

I am from Conurus, Metabones electronics supplier. I have a vested interest to make sure the electronics does work with the NEX-EA50 (I got a second opinion and it seems ok), and also to make sure that Metabones provides you with great customer service. I regularly gather end-user feedback like this, and suggest to them improvements in design and/or the manufacturing process. I am not able to directly serve any exchange or refund requests.

Something's gone wrong and looking back, I believe there were 2 things we did not do right: 1, your request on Jan 25 was not immediately brought to my attention and I only became aware you have an issue after you have posted about it on dvinfo, and 2, we didn't know exactly how to handle your case because we didn't have the EA50. From our perspective we must first narrow down whether you have a defective unit or we have a genuine compatibility issue, but we can't do that very efficiently when the camera in question is not on our supported camera list.

For 1, we made some immediate changes to the way we handle emails so as to prioritize after-sales service over presales questions. We will make further process improvements on customer service.

[Steven Digges]

Mr. Bo-Ming Tong,

Thank you for the response. I will gladly try to adjust the electrical contacts. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for when I made my first inquiry. I have the 16mm-35mm f2.8 lens. It is the least problematic of my lenses with your adapter. There seems to be a correlation between the weight of the lens and the problem. Most of my lenses are “L” series 2.8 zooms so they are quite heavy.

Sir, in my opinion, the biggest mistake MetaBones has made in customer service dealings with me was the total lack of communication. A simple acknowledgement of my e-mail would have gone a long way in letting me know some action was being taken. Silence breeds contempt.

I stated in my original post that I knew I was purchasing the adapter for an untested camera. If you or MetaBones would have made contact with me early on this would have become a positive post. I will gladly make any test or adjustment you suggest and report feedback to you. I have no problem with that at all. And I think many more DVINFO members would have been even more interested in following that post instead of listening to me complain about the service. I seek a resolution, not conflict. Thank you for interjecting yourself in this issue.

After my last e-mail to MetaBones on February 20 I got my first reply of any kind on the 21st:

HI Steven

Let me check and get back to you

Mark

So I am waiting for more information. I will gladly work with you in any way I can to resolve this. I purchased the adapter because it will be a great asset to me if we can get it to function properly.

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Steven Digges]

Mr. Bo-Ming Tong,

I tried your suggestion. Of course loosening the three screws does not do anything as they anchor a circular piece. Once removed the circular tube in the middle came out as did the pieces with the contacts. I reassembled it hoping something would improve. It did not. In fact it made the problem worse. Now I get the terminal failure more often. That means sometimes the camera will not finish starting up or shutting down and the adapter still does not work. In ether case I have to remove the battery to unfreeze the camera from where ever it is stuck.

I e-mailed MetaBones again yesterday. I expressed my frustration again at their lack of communication and assistance.

I also told them I appreciated your suggestions and that at least you were trying to help.

This situation has gone from frustrating to exacerbating. I spent $400.00 on a product from a company in China that seems to refuse to communicate with it's customers after the faulty product is shipped. In six weeks I have gotten absolutely no where with them!

You have attempted to be helpful and you don't even work directly for MetaBones. And I have no way of communicating with you except posting on this public forum and hoping you will come back some time to read it. This situation is not only frustrating, it is bordering on bizarre.

If you would like to communicate directly with me you can e-mail me at corporateshow at g mail . com

Steve

[Steven Digges]

Mr. Bo-Ming Tong,

More testing. Sir, since I re-seated the contacts this is what is happening. The camera appears to work in green mode some of the time. When I remove the lend and hold down the WOB to put it in normal mode the camera restarts itself. During the start up process it stops at the black screen with the word SONY in the middle of the screen. It looks as though there is a lens cap on but there is not. There IS an error message flashing "ND". Of course that brings to mind neutral density but that is not the case. It does this in very low light. Does this error code mean anything to you? It has done this before I opened it up. It did it most often the first week I had the adapter.

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

The really big issue is that IF the adaptor does lock up or even damage your camera Sony may not validate any warranty claim!

I can see you are getting absolutely nowhere fast and for all you know if you ever get a replacement (which seems very doubtful) it might also give issues. It's obviously a product with poor quality control especially for the price you paid. I certainly wouldn't risk trying any hairbrained mods any longer ..you could end up damaging a camera worth 10 x the adapter.

I certainly wouldn't consider using it on my cameras now!! Let's just hope you can get a refund..if you purchase via PayPal you can actually submit a claim and if the vendor doesn't communicate then you are refunded by PayPal. Worth it for overseas companies!!

Chris