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Metabones adapters are not very good.

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
So not only have I warned everyone of lose mounts to your lenses the back mounts are also lose. But compared to the Novaflex adapters its even worse. Novaflex adapters are solid metal mounts to the body and not a screw in mounts which with my Zeiss 135 F2 a heavy lens you can see the stress of the lens make the mount separate very slightly from the body, switching to the Novaflex its far better with that stress of the weight. Frankly looking at this I won't be buying the metabones adapters any more. Bottom line the more screws in a adapter the worse the stress factor of a heavy lens comes into play. If its solid metal on the rear of the adapter the stress factor is less. Now this very well could have a lot to do with shutter vibration look or at least add to the issue. What folks should be looking for from the top down if the lens is pulling down on the mount. Im very disappointed in the Metabones . My solution at least for now is put the metabones on the smaller lighter lenses like my Zeiss 35mm F2 and the Novaflex on my 135mm.

Folks you really should be looking at and testing your adapters for stress factors and lose mounts
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
We tried a Metabones with Sandys Cannon lenses and was very disappointed. While it looked like the 17-40 worked okay her mainstay the 24-70 didn't focus correctly and MF isn't something she wants to do or can do easily. The 135 and 300 were both disappointing as well. The Metabones was returned and a decision was made to go strictly with Sony glass.

Someone else tried the same setup and felt the adaptor added too much weight for too little advantage over using Sony glass. Too bad there isn't more FF glass in the E mount right now however we've got the 55 that's working well and have pre-ordered the 24-70 and waiting for the 70-200 to appear.

So in short (or as short as I can be) agree with Guy for a totally different reason.

Don
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
BTW I should add to this after screwing everything down far tighter i am still hitting the Nyquist limit of the 135mm and getting some moire which tells me that screwing these mounts has no space effect with the adapters. Remember moire is actually a good thing to let you know your lenses are sharp. So technically its a good thing.
 

conurus

New member
Guy, I wasn't sure if your Metabones adapter was the old style with 4 small screws. Last year Metabones switched to 5 or 6 big screws for better rigidity for exactly the reason you stated.

Now, as for why any screws are employed at all, instead of machining the whole thing in one piece, note that chrome-plated brass has the lowest friction of coefficient against stainless steel. Sony E-mount is made of stainless steel so the best material to rub against it would be chrome-plated brass, which is exactly what Metabones is doing. People don't want the whole thing to be shiny chrome so the adapter housing remains black anodized aluminum. So, there are two parts and they have to be fastened together - with screws.

In my humble opinion it is best to stick with the same construction as major camera and lens manufacturers whenever possible. Both the Zeiss 135/2 and the Sony camera body use screws to fasten the mount to the housing. It is not worth deviating from the norm here, if it implies using a suboptimal material for the job.

Out of curiosity I wonder what is the material used by Novoflex for their one-piece construction?
 

Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Well-known member
My problem with Metabones is excessive tightness! It's very hard to mount to the camera and very hard to mount lenses to it.

Sounds like they are made to too liberal tolerances. Eventually, like Goldilocks and the three bears, I'll find the right fit!

I'm ordering a Voigtlander VM which has been highly recommended in another thread.

Bill
 

pozzello

Member
I'm not too thrilled with the Metabones III for Canon lenses, my screws are tight but there's still some rotational play between the adapter and the A7R camera mount. I came across this on their FAQ and thought it might be of interest :

Why is the mount so stiff? It is hard to attach the lens!
Your Metabones® adapter is optimized for video work, and one very important requirement is for the mount to not wobble or move while the zoom and focus rings are operated. This means lens mounting is tighter than OEM. Unfortunately this leads to a slight inconvenience when mounting and dismounting the lens. You may want to disassemble the mount ring on the adapter and weaken the 3 leaf springs underneath using a plier if your application is still photography and you prioritize ease of use over solid mounting.
 

jimban

New member
Mine seems to fit pretty well on both sides for Canon lenses. Wish it interfaced better w non L lenses like the 50 1.4.

jim
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
Guy,

As I have posted before I had a Novoflex Nikon F to E mount and it performed miserably on my A7r. No comparison to the same Zeiss lenses (50 planar, 100 planar) mounted on my 800e. I recommend that everything be tested.... My Leica lenses with Voightlander VM adapter are just fine.

Victor
 

GrahamB

New member
Guy, I urge you to contact Metabones with your complaint. I'm sure they would appreciate having an opportunity to make this problem right with you.

Graham
 

kienchil

New member
Seems a bit hit and miss, my NEX to EF speedbooster was perfect oem fit on both the front and the back. The "free" Smart Adapter III I recieved with the A7r had pretty bad tolerences out of the box so I disassembled it and loosened a few screws, it is now much better, still more snug then the speedbooster but it was almost impossible to mount certain lenses previously. All my lenses are smallish and light so I don't have any separation issues.
 

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
Guy,

As I have posted before I had a Novoflex Nikon F to E mount and it performed miserably on my A7r. No comparison to the same Zeiss lenses (50 planar, 100 planar) mounted on my 800e. I recommend that everything be tested.... My Leica lenses with Voightlander VM adapter are just fine.

Victor
Victor,

I have had one bad Novoflex in the past 8 years...the original Leica M to m43 was unable to focus to infinity...they blew it...introduced a new one within a few months that was fine...I still have it.

At this point I have 5 Novoflex adapters including the Nikon G to E...which I used for recent posts on the fun with Sony A7r/A7 thread....Leitax 180, Nikon 105 F 2 DC and Zeiss ZF.2 50 Makro F2 all stunningly sharp....locked on tripod with mirror up but the adapter was fine.

I would suggest you return/complain and get a new sample.

I would use the N before almost any other adapter...except Leica brand...

Bob
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
The value premise of the A7r is based to a large degree on the usefulness of the adapters available.
So far, I am not impressed.
-bob
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I have had poor experience with Metabones adapters. Bought and returned two ... they didn't mount the lenses properly. Several others I've tried are similar ... quite variable tolerances and fit. That includes Kipon, Fotodiox, Cirrus, and RJ.

So far (four or five adapters for different bodies and lenses) I've had the best experiences with Novoflex and RayQual*mount adapters. Excellent, solid fit and perfect infinity registration with no slop on either end. I expect the Voigtländer adapters to be of similar quality. (BTW: Same excellent fit and finish goes for the Olympus and Panasonic FourThirds to Micro-FourThirds adapters.)

G
 

pozzello

Member
I've also discovered that the Metabones III doesn't line the lens up perfectly 'square'. For most lenses this isn't an issue but when stitching using the Canon 24mm TS-E the shift is slightly off center and not perfectly vertical (or horizontal) - the final stitch doesn't line up along the edges and you end up with empty space on the bottom left and top right and have to crop.

While I like having a 36MP sensor for my Canon glass I'll be glad to replace the Sony with a future hi-MP Canon replacement - too much f-ing around with adapters etc. Or maybe I'll just stick to MF film.
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
Forgot to mention that the locking tab between the adaptor and lens more often than not failed to engage. Almost lost a lens several times until I started manually pushing the tab to make certain it locked.

Overall I like the camera just don't care for the adaptor(s). I had thoughts of getting one for myself (Sandy has a hard time sharing :D) and using it with either Voltlander or Leica glass but need to stop and rethink the need.
 

jlm

Workshop Member
what i have found, starting with the Nex: the adapter or lens face is pressed into tight contact with the camera body by a steel spring located in the body flange that engages the tabs of the lens/adapter bayonet. the Nex was intended to be used with lighter lenses, so extending and or using heavier glass over-stresses the spring, compromising the tight flange to flange fit.

there is a similar spring engagement on the lens side of an adapter as well. so if using heavier glass, be warned.

a few adapters, instead of using a steel spring, create one by a clever slitting and bending of the flange material, generally not steel and therefore not as good imo.
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
This is turning into a very interesting thread. I have adapters from Fotodiox, Hawk's Factory, Kipon, Leitz, Metabones, Novoflex, and Phigmenttech for: R to M, R to E, R to MFT, M to E, M to MFT, Leitz V to R, Leitz V to M, V to Nikon F, F to E, Nikon G to M, G to E, G to MFT, G to X. Indeed I stopped counting them. Still waiting for the Leica R to M adapter though.

From one point of view the connection from camera to lens via the adapter needs to be strong enough so that it can carry with a sufficient safety margin the weight of the lighter component (Of course, there are other requirements that I don't want to get into right now).

So if the lens is lighter one could attach it to the camera and vice versa. The heavier component can then be attached to a tripod. Or both camera and lens supported manually.

As we all know some adapters also function as a tripod collar. Then they have to be strong enough to hold the weight of the camera and lens. That's one reason I prefer using the Novoflex adapters on the A7R as the Novoflex ASTAT-NEX fits tightly on a Novoflex adapter and functions as a tripod collar. It's then also convenient to switch between landscape and portrait orientation.


For much heavier and longer lenses I tried to use a rail in this fashion.


Please note the Leica lens and Novoflex adapter/collar are attached to the rail, but not the A7R camera. So it's still easy to switch between landscape and portrait orientation. Unfortunately mounting camera and lens in this way doesn't always avoid shutter slap, especially in portrait orientation.


Adding the camera grip doesn't always avoid shutter slap either.



So, I gave up on easy switching between the two camera orientations, removed the ASTAT-NEX, and bolted the A7R as well to the rail.


This configuration seems to have tamed shutter slap for my A7R combination up to at least 784 mm focal length. That's as far as I have checked.
Once I get an L-plate I will see whether I can also avoid shutter slap in portrait orientation. One has to be careful though.
As lens and rail don't run exactly parallel to each other some extra stress must likely be absorbed by the A7R lens mount.

Of course, shutter slap is not the only cause for vibrations. There are many other events that can cause vibrations, including wind gusts.
tsjanik posted his interesting Pentax setup here. http://www.getdpi.com/forum/sony/49470-a7r-why-im-keeping-4.html#post561917 post #174.
 
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