conurus

I am in charge of firmware at Metabones and I would like to give an official response with regard to GX80/GX85.
We do not expect any EF mount to be able to take advantage of Dual I.S. in the foreseeable future. Either OIS or IBIS should be used, but not both. Andrew reported that "They seem to both operate and ignore each other, leading to problems." We could confirm that it is indeed the case when we downgrade to 1.4 or before. This was fixed in 1.5 a long time ago (Feb 2015). It is easy to tell one way or another: if both OIS and IBIS are active simultaneously, vibration will be overcorrected by twice as much and there will be just as much jitter as no IS, which is indeed what we see with adapter firmware 1.4 or earlier. If you are seeing just occasional slow jitter, it is likely you are observing the result of the vibration exceeding OIS' capabilities of that particular lens.
We have a 50-100/1.8 on order, but before that arrives, the most likely hypothesis drawn from Andrew's and our own observations is that adapter firmware 1.5 and after breaks the 50-100/1.8 and the old firmware 1.4 and before breaks all IS lenses (no AF and double correction). If this hypothesis is correct, you are okay with the current adapter firmware except for the 50-100/1.8 and except for the fact that you will be always using OIS but never IBIS.
A new adapter firmware will be around the corner with which we expect the 50-100/1.8 to be fixed as well. There will be a new option to choose between IBIS and OIS on Panasonic in the next firmware, something that is just natural for Olympus but not yet possible for Panasonic. (On Olympus if you turn off lens IS, IBIS comes on, but on Panasonic the lens IS switch turns off both OIS and IBIS.) The procedure to turn off OIS and turn on IBIS on Panasonic is not going to be pretty, but it will be doable.
I enjoy reading Andrew Reid's very informative review and tests, we greatly appreciate his work and we are always listening to customer reports of any issue which might arise. However, we would like to advise our customers that writing to support@metabones.com is the only way to ensure a problem is looked into in a timely manner. I do read eoshd often, but it is not a reasonable expectation that just because something is reported or discussed on eoshd we must be working on it. We appreciate you informing us of any issue via the official support channel in advance. That would greatly expedite the fix.

I am in charge of firmware at Metabones and I would like to give an official response with regard to GX80/GX85.
We do not expect any EF mount to be able to take advantage of Dual I.S. in the foreseeable future. Either OIS or IBIS should be used, but not both. Andrew reported that "They seem to both operate and ignore each other, leading to problems." We could confirm that it is indeed the case when we downgrade to 1.4 or before. This was fixed in 1.5 a long time ago (Feb 2015). It is easy to tell one way or another: if both OIS and IBIS are active simultaneously, vibration will be overcorrected by twice as much and there will be just as much jitter as no IS, which is indeed what we see with adapter firmware 1.4 or earlier. If you are seeing just occasional slow jitter, it is likely you are observing the result of the vibration exceeding OIS' capabilities of that particular lens.
We have a 50-100/1.8 on order, but before that arrives, the most likely hypothesis drawn from Andrew's and our own observations is that adapter firmware 1.5 and after breaks the 50-100/1.8 and the old firmware 1.4 and before breaks all IS lenses (no AF and double correction). If this hypothesis is correct, you are okay with the current adapter firmware except for the 50-100/1.8 and except for the fact that you will be always using OIS but never IBIS.
A new adapter firmware will be around the corner with which we expect the 50-100/1.8 to be fixed as well. There will be a new option to choose between IBIS and OIS on Panasonic in the next firmware, something that is just natural for Olympus but not yet possible for Panasonic. (On Olympus if you turn off lens IS, IBIS comes on, but on Panasonic the lens IS switch turns off both OIS and IBIS.) The procedure to turn off OIS and turn on IBIS on Panasonic is not going to be pretty, but it will be doable.
I enjoy reading Andrew Reid's very informative review and tests, we greatly appreciate his work and we are always listening to customer reports of any issue which might arise. However, we would like to advise our customers that writing to support@metabones.com is the only way to ensure a problem is looked into in a timely manner. I do read eoshd often, but it is not a reasonable expectation that just because something is reported or discussed on eoshd we must be working on it. We appreciate you informing us of any issue via the official support channel in advance. That would greatly expedite the fix.

Sorry about that but I will have to discuss with our tech support about this. Something like "we are having engineering look into this" would have sufficed but I will ask them to reply even in situations where they don't have a real answer yet.
Yes you will be able to choose between OIS and IBIS with any IS lens. This is not final but the caveat is you can't change your election without powering down the camera and powering it on again.

I am in charge of firmware at Metabones and I would like to give an official response with regard to GX80/GX85.
We do not expect any EF mount to be able to take advantage of Dual I.S. in the foreseeable future. Either OIS or IBIS should be used, but not both. Andrew reported that "They seem to both operate and ignore each other, leading to problems." We could confirm that it is indeed the case when we downgrade to 1.4 or before. This was fixed in 1.5 a long time ago (Feb 2015). It is easy to tell one way or another: if both OIS and IBIS are active simultaneously, vibration will be overcorrected by twice as much and there will be just as much jitter as no IS, which is indeed what we see with adapter firmware 1.4 or earlier. If you are seeing just occasional slow jitter, it is likely you are observing the result of the vibration exceeding OIS' capabilities of that particular lens.
We have a 50-100/1.8 on order, but before that arrives, the most likely hypothesis drawn from Andrew's and our own observations is that adapter firmware 1.5 and after breaks the 50-100/1.8 and the old firmware 1.4 and before breaks all IS lenses (no AF and double correction). If this hypothesis is correct, you are okay with the current adapter firmware except for the 50-100/1.8 and except for the fact that you will be always using OIS but never IBIS.
A new adapter firmware will be around the corner with which we expect the 50-100/1.8 to be fixed as well. There will be a new option to choose between IBIS and OIS on Panasonic in the next firmware, something that is just natural for Olympus but not yet possible for Panasonic. (On Olympus if you turn off lens IS, IBIS comes on, but on Panasonic the lens IS switch turns off both OIS and IBIS.) The procedure to turn off OIS and turn on IBIS on Panasonic is not going to be pretty, but it will be doable.
I enjoy reading Andrew Reid's very informative review and tests, we greatly appreciate his work and we are always listening to customer reports of any issue which might arise. However, we would like to advise our customers that writing to support@metabones.com is the only way to ensure a problem is looked into in a timely manner. I do read eoshd often, but it is not a reasonable expectation that just because something is reported or discussed on eoshd we must be working on it. We appreciate you informing us of any issue via the official support channel in advance. That would greatly expedite the fix.

I am in charge of firmware at Metabones and I would like to give an official response with regard to GX80/GX85.
We do not expect any EF mount to be able to take advantage of Dual I.S. in the foreseeable future. Either OIS or IBIS should be used, but not both. Andrew reported that "They seem to both operate and ignore each other, leading to problems." We could confirm that it is indeed the case when we downgrade to 1.4 or before. This was fixed in 1.5 a long time ago (Feb 2015). It is easy to tell one way or another: if both OIS and IBIS are active simultaneously, vibration will be overcorrected by twice as much and there will be just as much jitter as no IS, which is indeed what we see with adapter firmware 1.4 or earlier. If you are seeing just occasional slow jitter, it is likely you are observing the result of the vibration exceeding OIS' capabilities of that particular lens.
We have a 50-100/1.8 on order, but before that arrives, the most likely hypothesis drawn from Andrew's and our own observations is that adapter firmware 1.5 and after breaks the 50-100/1.8 and the old firmware 1.4 and before breaks all IS lenses (no AF and double correction). If this hypothesis is correct, you are okay with the current adapter firmware except for the 50-100/1.8 and except for the fact that you will be always using OIS but never IBIS.
A new adapter firmware will be around the corner with which we expect the 50-100/1.8 to be fixed as well. There will be a new option to choose between IBIS and OIS on Panasonic in the next firmware, something that is just natural for Olympus but not yet possible for Panasonic. (On Olympus if you turn off lens IS, IBIS comes on, but on Panasonic the lens IS switch turns off both OIS and IBIS.) The procedure to turn off OIS and turn on IBIS on Panasonic is not going to be pretty, but it will be doable.
I enjoy reading Andrew Reid's very informative review and tests, we greatly appreciate his work and we are always listening to customer reports of any issue which might arise. However, we would like to advise our customers that writing to support@metabones.com is the only way to ensure a problem is looked into in a timely manner. I do read eoshd often, but it is not a reasonable expectation that just because something is reported or discussed on eoshd we must be working on it. We appreciate you informing us of any issue via the official support channel in advance. That would greatly expedite the fix.

I think the existing ULTRA 0.71x is adequate for the following reasons:
The "6" series has a 2-year cycle. 2 years later image processors will be faster and be able to do a full readout at 30p (The counter argument to this is, what if the sensor resolution increase more quickly than image processor performance increase?) There is no crop at 24p. The people doing cinematic work, which is Speed Booster's primary audience, are already happy. The crop at 30p is not as bad as it sounds. My calculations arrived at 1.9x, which after boosted becomes 1.3x. Canon 1D-C also has a 1.3x 4k crop. Do we HAVE to beat 1D-C up? If we do, there is always the A7RII S35 + Speed Booster, and for A6300 we have already done that at 24p (see 2). Dwelling more on point number 1, I conjecture something magical will occur at the next resolution increase. The horizontal resolution will become exactly twice UHD, i.e. 7680, for a 7680 x 5120 resolution (39MP). A simpler oversampling algorithm can be employed, and UHD 60p is not unthinkable, without consuming any more processing power. 39MP is the magic resolution which enables 8k. It is just a matter of time, if the industry is indeed heading towards what it says is heading.

Dumb with no electronics whatsoever.

There will be no electronics and no VR support for Nikon G. Pricing has not been finalized but is expected to be around $449.

The official position is that Metabones is contemplating that possibility, but could neither confirm nor deny whether there are concrete plans to do a medium format Speed Booster. Basically everything about the roadmap that can be disclosed is already in the FAQ section of the Metabones site. All the rest are "neither confirm nor deny". We are all ears to your ideas but your understanding is appreciated that we have to operate with a certain degree of secrecy but for various reasons not everything could be disclosed publicly.
 
If you would allow me to put down the official hat but just state my personal opinion, however, a medium format to full frame SB would not have rocked the world like the full frame to APS-C SB had. By that I mean, for APS-C there is no way to get a 17/1.0 other than 24/1.4 + SB. However, name any medium format lens, multiply both its focal length and aperture by 0.7 or thereabouts, and there is always already a full frame lens which could do its job. e.g. Mamiya 80/1.9 => 56/1.3, pretty close to a 50/1.4. There are no medium format lenses that I am aware of which were fast enough or wide enough for some breakthrough to occur in the full frame world.

The official position is that Metabones is contemplating that possibility, but could neither confirm nor deny whether there are concrete plans to do a medium format Speed Booster. Basically everything about the roadmap that can be disclosed is already in the FAQ section of the Metabones site. All the rest are "neither confirm nor deny". We are all ears to your ideas but your understanding is appreciated that we have to operate with a certain degree of secrecy but for various reasons not everything could be disclosed publicly.
 
If you would allow me to put down the official hat but just state my personal opinion, however, a medium format to full frame SB would not have rocked the world like the full frame to APS-C SB had. By that I mean, for APS-C there is no way to get a 17/1.0 other than 24/1.4 + SB. However, name any medium format lens, multiply both its focal length and aperture by 0.7 or thereabouts, and there is always already a full frame lens which could do its job. e.g. Mamiya 80/1.9 => 56/1.3, pretty close to a 50/1.4. There are no medium format lenses that I am aware of which were fast enough or wide enough for some breakthrough to occur in the full frame world.