Canon may have a lot of catching up to do in the mirrorless market, which has seen photographers and video professionals flocking to cameras like the Sony A7s and the Panasonic GH4 for various reasons, whether it be 4K recording internal/external recording, low-light performance, or more compact camera bodies. But if there is one thing that keeps the Canon ship from sinking is the popularity of their EF and EF-S lenses. Those are still the most popular among photographers and video shooters by far, despite new lenses from Sony, Panasonic and budget manufacturers like Samyang. So, for Sony A7s shooters, especially those jumping ship from a Canon body and have a good selection of Canon mount lenses, the question becomes – which adapter to buy?
The choices are plenty, but the real options are generally reduced to Metabones vs. the rest. Metabones have cornered the optical adapter market with the enormous popularity of their Speed Booster line, which is quite a magnificent achievement nonetheless, but at prices that can make your heart sink.
Their build quality and optical performance is in my opinion unmatched by the competition, but things are not that “black and white” when one considers a non-Speed boosted smart adapter without optics. Dave Dugdale recently tested the budget-friendly Commlite EF to E-mount adapter against the Metabones variant. Check out his findings below, which may surprise you.
Despite costing about 4 x more than the $100 Commlite EF to Sony E-mount adapter, the Metabones EF-E Smart Adapter does not get you 4 x more performance. I wasn’t surprised to see Dave preferring the Commlite adapter and not just for the cost savings. The adapter does seem to perform very well and I can see why some would be hard pressed to shell out $400 for the arguably better built and more advanced Metabones adapter.
There are other options for more affordable Canon EF to E mount adapters, such as the one from Fotodiox, which Dave tested against the Commlite too in another test, which you can check out below.
So all you Sony A7s shooters out there, what do you use to adapter your EF lenses? Let us know in the comments below.
[via SLR Lounge / source: LearningVideo.com]
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I choose commlite over metabones because of all those reasons. and for the reflection problem, i flocked the inside with edmund optics tissue. works great
Would you please describe the procedure in order to get the adapter flocked? Thanks in advance!
hi, i just cut 4 parts (two rectangles for the sides, and 2 parts to fit the bottom and up), and sticked them! edmund optics tissue comes with integrated sticky part. it is in fact like a sticker. i actually cut 6 or 7 parts, because my first versions were not good enough. don’t worry about it, just buy the tissue, you’ll see, it works great. I also bought the paintpen, but it didn’t worked great. it was still reflective.
Hi Guillaume, do you have a link to the exact Edmund Optics tissue you’re using? Ore a more detailed description of the item? I can’t find anything suitable on their site… Thanks in advance!
I use a Metabones III, Commlite, King and several el cheapo (manual) Chinese adapters. I actually prefer the Commlite and King; they fit better than the Metabones which I find to be far too tight on both lenses and the camera body. The Commlite also accepts Hutech’s drop-in filter holder (MFA) which it really handy. The King is simply an inexpensive but good automatic adapter.
can you use variable nd filter or normal at least normal nd filter in Hutech drop in filter holder ?
Sooooo… What’s the verdict? Seems like you guys lean towards the Commlite. I just ordered the A7Sii and the Metabones IV. Hopefully this updated combo will have better results. Any thoughts?
Commlite adaptor fried my zeiss Otus lens I was using it on my sony a 6000. I was told by Zeiss that they had to change the lens chip. There are more reports comming out … so stay away from commlite far away….
what about the novoflex? i know, all manual, but that’s totally ok for me for filming…