MetaBones Adapter Report / Not Good

[Steven Digges]

New MetaBones Smart Adaptor II, Sony NEX E-mount to Canon EF Lens mount

Sony EA-50 camera to Canon “L” series glass. A not so perfect world.

Two days ago I received my new adaptor. Knowing that I was going to use it on an untested new camera system I opted for the standard version instead of the even newer Speed Booster model. Judging from Metabones information on their website the firmware in the two adaptors is not only similar; it may be exactly the same.

Bottom line: It does not work with my lenses. I am incredibly frustrated because it does work sometimes so I can see the benefit but at any given point it fails. There are intermittent electrical communication problems between the camera and adapter.

I have spent many hours trying to come up with a solution by trying a large combination of settings and lenses but I always get the same result. I think it is going to work and then at some random point it fails. The failures are a bizarre combination of weird effects taking over the lens. For example; with all auto focus functions turned off on the camera and lens it would suddenly refocus the lens all the way to the infinity side of the range. I would manually refocus and at sometime between 0 and 30 seconds later it would spin the focus again. It did this with two different lenses for about an hour and then quit doing it for now. It does the same thing with other functions, like aperture. You have everything manually set up, it looks good, and boom, it starts stopping itself down. Intermittent electrical issues are always frustrating, you can’t fix it when it is working, and when it is working you never know when it will become possessed and fail. The single greatest failure so far was a total camera freeze. It would not even turn off; I had to remove the battery to shut down the camera. That happened early on and has only happened once.
I believe my problems are two fold;

1. The age of my glass. I have five Canon products I am trying to use. Four lenses and a 2X doubler. It is all Canon “L” series which means it is their highest level of quality they offer. I probably acquired these lenses between 1995 and 2001. These lenses do not have a manual aperture ring so as far as I know the MetaBones was my only hope of making them work because of the need for electrical communication.

2. MetaBones is a third party manufacturer trying to make a complex electrical product work for a wide range of cameras and lenses. This is a Sony “NEX system” to “Canon EF” mount adapter. The possible combinations are countless. MetaBones makes no specific claim that it will work with my brand new NEX EA50 model. They do claim it works with other Sony models.

All I have been trying to do is get everything to work in full manual mode. I do not care about AF at all, these are good glass and a dream to focus. This is important; MetaBones says Canon lenses made around 2006 or later will AF. Iit does not even try to focus my glass except when it randomly spins all the way to one end or the other. I do not care about auto anything, but the other auto functions has the same result, works sometimes. My Canon glass is great lenses; all of them are brighter than the kit lens and cover a wider range.

Firmware changes or upgrades are the one place I can really fault MetaBones for. The adapter has a port on it that looks like mini USB but it is NOT. It is proprietary so for ANY change you must send it back to China for what they call a nominal $50.00 charge.
Suggestions anyone? Do you think I have a faulty adapter since it is intermittent? I am so close but so far away!

[Robert Moran]

I would think MetaBones should produce a passive speed enhancer as I have many Nikkors that focus wonderfully. I use this glass all the time on the 50 and having an adapter giving me the speed hit and full frame via the lens in the adapter would be fine. If they did this and charged $50 for it, they would make a fortune. No doubt other vendors will do this as simpliciy rules with tech like this. Just a thought.

[Steven Digges]

Hi Robert,

You missed the part about electrical communication is mandatory for these lenses.

Also, I forgot to mention I e-mailed MetaBones. I will keep you guys posted.

Steve

[Robert Moran]

I did not know that. I thought the glass would provide the imaging transform without power. Thanks for the info.

[Steven Digges]

I am saying my Canon lenses need power. There in no manual aperture ring.

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

That is really a bummer!! Considering the price you pay for the adapter you would at least think it would work!! Focus control one doesn't really expect but without aperture control the unit is useless since the lenses have no aperture ring.

Maybe return it anyway..All the reviews tend to indicate that it's a magic piece of gear and nothing weird like your experiences ...At a wedding that sort of action would be a disaster!!

Hope you get it sorted!

Chris

[Robert Moran]

Oh, so if you had manual lenses like ancient Nikkors, a passive tube with a-reducing lens as per the Metabones could work as old glass is just that. Back in the day, I used a reduction glass to look at the paintings I did to see how they would look at a distance. Cost about $3.00. The principle's the same for the adaptor as passive adapters are just tubes made at the right length to enable old lenses to work with systems like the 50. If this is the case, a passive adapter with a reductive lens would work, something to consider if I were a metabones developer or some other company wanting to get in on the action. For me, I don't care about the power, I care about the rest. Just a thought.

[Steven Digges]

Robert,

With all due respect, I have no idea what your talking about. Alright, I do, but there is more to this than that.

Steve

[Noa Put]

One would expect the metabones to work with any nex camera as on their site only the vg900 is stated not to be supported. Apparently Sony build the ea50 different again, maybe to push people into buying Sony lenses. Also thx for sharing this info as this is very helpful for anyone thinking of investing in such an adapter.

About the metabones speedbooster, this one I would get regardless if Canon glass would work or not. But then only to get a near full frame view and some gain in low light sensitivity. My main lenses do have a iris ring so I don't necessarily need the build in electronics. My wife has some canon lenses I"d like to use as well if needed so I hope Metabones will provide a firmware. Pls let us know what their reply is.

If they would respond that the ea50 is not supported you always could get a simple adapter and set the iris on a dslr first before attaching the lens on the ea50. That's how I did when using a macro lens that had no iris ring.

[Steven Digges]

Hi Chris,
Yes it is a big bummer. Especially since the problem are intermittent. The first thing I would love to try is reloading the firmware in my adapter. I think it is ridiculous that to do that it requires $50,00 and shipping it back to China. I have a large amount of money ivnested in those Canon lens.

Robert,
I hope I did not stymie you. I enjoy your posts.

Noa,
I will keep you guys posted. You can not set the aperture in advance. Mounting the lens requires holding down the wide open button when you twist it on. Otherwise it defaults to what they call green mode.

[Noa Put]

Oh, wasn't' aware about that, I really thought you could dial it in on a dslr and it would stay there when you would take the lens of. The only lens I tried this with so far was the 90mm macro f2.8.

[Steven Digges]

Glimmer of hope. I have used the adapter here on a test shoot for the last two days. The thing that has bothered me the most is that the problems are intermittent. That means I am close but so far away and frustrated. Now I have hope that I may have a defective adapter. It is well machined and tight. But a couple of times now, when I loose my F-stop reading and I wiggle the little bit of play that is there it came back. Of course I had tried that many times before with no result but now it has worked three times over two days.

I can't wait to hear from MetaBones, no reply yet. If the solution is an exchange I will be very happy.

Steve

[Steven Digges]

It has been 7 days since I e-mailed Metebones. No reply. I described my problems and hoped to hear something from them.

Now I am going to scan my receipt and request an exchange. We will see where that gets me. For a company that just made big news for themselves I expected at least some kind of customer service. It is not there. I am really hoping I have a defective adapter because my problems are intermittent. I may never know if they won't respond. That is exactly why I try to do business with reputable retailers. In this case ordering it from the factory was my only option at the time. Buyer beware.

Steve

And I am not trying to burst any ones bubble because they think they are going to "get a whole new set of lenses from the speed booster". I am being careful to only state the facts about my new standard adapter.

[Chris Harding]

That's a real bummer Steve and not exactly a good advert for Metabones either.!!

At least they should have emailed you and said "we are looking into your problem" .... bad publicity like this would hurt them but it seems they are not concerned.

Keep us up to date if they actually bother to respond at all...I'm sure this will at least stop some from buying the adapter until they find out what the issue is???

Chris

[Adam Larsen]

I am incredibly frustrated with Metabones also. I sent a EOS to NEX adaptor back to them (Hong Kong) for a firmware update on January 9. Communication was OK initially and I was told it would be a two day turnaround. One month later, I still haven't gotten my adaptor back and heard nothing from them despite multiple emails. I was interested in the Speed Booster but can't imagine purchasing anything else considering their complete lack of customer support.