richg101

As a general rule, the bigger the rear element of a WA adaptor, the poorer the IQ will be on bigger sensors.  A WA adaptor will be typically designed for a specific fov and a specific light transmission requirement.   If it does well on wide lenses it normally wont do well on tele.
a smaller rear element on the WA attachment wont always result in hard vignette,  It'll simply reduce the light transmission.  hard vignette is almost never associated with the diameter of the rear element but more the field of view the attachment is designed to cover.  
 
the best comparison is the Isco 30, Isco 36 and Isco 54.  
the 30(pre 36) and 36 have no difference in fov capability.  but on Full frame the 36 will transmit 50/f1.4 and the 30 will only go to 50/f2.  the pre36 is moderately better IQ than the 36. 
 
54 doesn't provide much of a increase in field of view either, despite being way larger.  However a 54mm rear permits transmission of a lot more light - at the expense of even worse IQ. - the 54 has worse resolution and colour correction than the pre36 and 36 so fringes more, but in non contrasty environments the advantage of being able to transmit over twice the light that the 36 can, it has it's purposes.
 
Zoom through adaptors are Afocal meaning when attached to a lens set to infinity the focus remains at infinity.  Non zoom through usually have an effect on the focus distance meaning you can only use for closer shots.  This makes sense since typically a WA adaptor would be used in confined spaces.  IQ is also usually worse.   
 
 

Very promising.  I find the SL a very beautiful system.  Big is beautiful.  A full size HDMI connector sold it for me.  Their promptness to approach Andrew rather than a typical 'still photography ambassador' for opinions on video functionality is very promising. 
 
 

Yes definitely. Arri should be Leica's benchmark for the SL. Take it to the max!
Unfortunately they had feedback from some pro shooters in the US that 8bit was their preference and they didn't want to deal with 10bit file sizes.
In fact ProRes is much easier to edit than H.264, runs more fluidly. H.264 is not an editing codec. It's a consumer television / internet codec.
I think 10bit ProRes is a much better match for a camera of this calibre than 8bit H.264 personally!
Or at least the option for it internally, without having to add the recorder.
It's not just a Leica problem though, it is time Sony and Panasonic all stepped up their codecs in stills cameras. Why is it only Blackmagic giving 10bit ProRes for under $7k, indeed under $1k with the Pocket cam!

Very promising.  I find the SL a very beautiful system.  Big is beautiful.  A full size HDMI connector sold it for me.  Their promptness to approach Andrew rather than a typical 'still photography ambassador' for opinions on video functionality is very promising. 
 
 

I expect the development budget for a high end lens from zeiss, canon, nikon, sigma etc doesnt come close to what this muppet is estimating for a lens that could be auto designed with a cracked copy of Zemax and manufactured at $25usd a piece in China.  
 

exactly.  though I interchange from true full frame or aps-c with a 0.7x speed booster and get very similar dof/fov with both, i'd always go full frame if I could.  the intricate step between in and out of focus is a lot more refined from a larger sensor.  If there wasn;t a benefit, pro's wouldnt be investing £25k+ in Phase1's and 80/2.8's.  they'd be shooting full frame and 50/1.2., closed down to f2.  Also, I wouldn't have spent money developing FORBES70, building a set of good quality MF glass,  I'd have grabbed fast modern 35mm lenses and spent the money on going on an expensive holiday. 
 
problem is, it's only the real pro's that realise that a MF 80/2.8 wide open has more refined defocus rolloff, and better overall performance than the canon 50mm L closed down by 2 whole stops! And the real pro's don;t have time to enter into this debate - their too busy shooting.  
 
Roll up to shoot a automotive commercial with a 5dsr instead of a medium format setup and you'll be turned home by the creative director.
 
 

The whole point of going crowdfunding such as kickstarter / indiegogo is to generate the seed money without sacrifice ownership to angel investors or pay interest on a business loan.   Therefore, sensible projects can presell their stuff at a much cheaper price considering all the savings.   Does the CM33 worth $800 retail?  Perhaps, and if there is an actual product there, we will know that $800 included the risk premium.  However asking $800 now?  well, that is just greed and stupidity juxtaposed in a full fontal display of absurdity.   I bet you those CM33 guys even factored profit in their pricing to arrive at that $800 cute number.  Please do not insult peoples intelligence and please dont use crowdfunding as a source of revenue, it just wont work!  
Price the unit for the doners at cost, if your CM33 is really that good, you can then sell at $800, or even $900 retail!  at that time, the buzz will be there to sell them like PANCAKES!

This is exciting.  I highly doubt this unit will have optics of quality good enough to make investment in decent medium format glass worthwhile.  ie, even my Hasselblad 40mm/4, 50mm/2.8, 80mm/2.8 110mm/2 and 150mm/2.8 and this adaptor will only result in a set of lenses equating to:- 28/2.8, 35/2, 56/2, 77/1.4, 105/2.  
 
This will be a formidable set no doubt, but at around £3000 for the hassy lenses (at current ebay prices) and probably £500 for the adaptor, as well as each of the hassy lenses being upwards of 1kg each! the excitement is damped since for £3500 you can get an incredible set of 35mm format lenses that will likely match the look, with moderately better image quality.
 
Now, if metabones are watching and create something like this but with optics at the level of the SB ultra, then the hassle will be worth it (for resolution).  Unfortunately there aint enough fast (f2.8 or faster) medium format lenses like the shutterless hasselblad lenses to make the act of developing a truly superb focal reducer worthwhile in marketing terms.
That said, I'll definitely be getting one of these.  my hassy's will deliver pretty good resolution and squeezing the lp/mm tighter with this (providing optical performance is good) will make the 110/2 a badboy!   

Six, Hundred, Thousand, U, S, Dollars!  Madness.  

Six, Hundred, Thousand, U, S, Dollars!  Madness.  

I think you may be right.  Contax 645 lenses will definitely yield more of a benefit from this than 6x6 hassy's.  Been examining that photo of the unit and the optical element doesnt look big enough to trasmit what would be required from the 110mm/2.   The 645 80/2 might be a little beaut on this, but still...  for the price of this adaptor and the contax 80/2 you could get a sigma 50mm/art and get the same look and obliterate the resolution.
 
If metabones made a 0.55x unit for 6x6 lenses with 80mm+ image circles with sb ultra performance and apo correction for the hassy F lenses on digital sensors then we'd be cooking!  the 50mm/2.8 would result in a 28mm/1.6 with great mtf.  the blad 50mm at 2.8 on full frame almost matches the c/y 50/1.4 at f2.8 when compared for resolution on a7rii.  compressing the resolution by almost twice would be amazing in resolution terms. 

The benefit of a FF-APS-c speed booster is a lot greater since the availability of fast and wide lenses for FF is pretty good.  
In medium format terms your point is very valid though since there are still limitations on how you could go about trying to replicate a 150/2.8 for medium format, when using a FF lens.  on paper you;d need a 105/2 lens for full frame in order to match a MF 150/2.8 and this 0.7x focal reducer (assuming the focal reducer is actually delivering good performance).  HOWEVER, you'd actually need a 105/1.4, stopped down to f2 in order to obtain both the dof/fov ratio as well as the image quality you can obtain from the 150/2.8 MF lens wide open.  There are NO 135mm format lenses that will replicate the balance of IQ and dof/fov that is achieved by a 150/2.8 on medium format.
The OTUS line of lenses somewhat bridge the gap.  The new 28/1.4 at f2 on FF will likely outdo my Schneider SA 40/3.5 on 645 in terms of resolution, while providing similar fov/dof.    But at £3000 per lens they become less viable.  You can get 3 of the schneider 40/3.5's for the price on a single otus.  This brings an interesting point, in that if you look at the optical diagrams of the otus lenses they are infact not that far removed from a high end MF lens with a focal reducer stuck on the back.  
 
 
Since OTUS lenses are the only real option for wide open shooting with superb IQ on FF, these would be the closest direct comparison against high end lenses on medium format.
 
OTUS 28mm at f2 on the A7Rii will probably be a close match to a 40/3.5 wide open on a 6x4.5 frame of portra400, drum scanned. 
 
if this focal reducer squeezes the image onto a smaller frame transparently then in some cases and with the best medium format lenses bought at good prices you'll have a poor mans OTUS.   
 

 
 
 
 

This is exciting.  I highly doubt this unit will have optics of quality good enough to make investment in decent medium format glass worthwhile.  ie, even my Hasselblad 40mm/4, 50mm/2.8, 80mm/2.8 110mm/2 and 150mm/2.8 and this adaptor will only result in a set of lenses equating to:- 28/2.8, 35/2, 56/2, 77/1.4, 105/2.  
 
This will be a formidable set no doubt, but at around £3000 for the hassy lenses (at current ebay prices) and probably £500 for the adaptor, as well as each of the hassy lenses being upwards of 1kg each! the excitement is damped since for £3500 you can get an incredible set of 35mm format lenses that will likely match the look, with moderately better image quality.
 
Now, if metabones are watching and create something like this but with optics at the level of the SB ultra, then the hassle will be worth it (for resolution).  Unfortunately there aint enough fast (f2.8 or faster) medium format lenses like the shutterless hasselblad lenses to make the act of developing a truly superb focal reducer worthwhile in marketing terms.
That said, I'll definitely be getting one of these.  my hassy's will deliver pretty good resolution and squeezing the lp/mm tighter with this (providing optical performance is good) will make the 110/2 a badboy!   

size and weight difference is pretty big.  if cheaper gimbal and drone use is important then raven would be more preferable I imagine

This is exciting.  I highly doubt this unit will have optics of quality good enough to make investment in decent medium format glass worthwhile.  ie, even my Hasselblad 40mm/4, 50mm/2.8, 80mm/2.8 110mm/2 and 150mm/2.8 and this adaptor will only result in a set of lenses equating to:- 28/2.8, 35/2, 56/2, 77/1.4, 105/2.  
 
This will be a formidable set no doubt, but at around £3000 for the hassy lenses (at current ebay prices) and probably £500 for the adaptor, as well as each of the hassy lenses being upwards of 1kg each! the excitement is damped since for £3500 you can get an incredible set of 35mm format lenses that will likely match the look, with moderately better image quality.
 
Now, if metabones are watching and create something like this but with optics at the level of the SB ultra, then the hassle will be worth it (for resolution).  Unfortunately there aint enough fast (f2.8 or faster) medium format lenses like the shutterless hasselblad lenses to make the act of developing a truly superb focal reducer worthwhile in marketing terms.
That said, I'll definitely be getting one of these.  my hassy's will deliver pretty good resolution and squeezing the lp/mm tighter with this (providing optical performance is good) will make the 110/2 a badboy!   

They have just made this -
http://stkb.co.jp/info/?p=2679
Medium format look on your A7S II?

I've been doing inkjet. But now ordering a book from Blurb. It's 8x8". 
Here's some tests, but these are all from Prores HQ.
EDIT; Wow shitty autofocus from the iPhone, the measure tape is in inches.

Well I think the footage looked superb.  Each shot was clearly thought out to show the cameras capabilities.  Surely the idea is to show the camera in its best light.  This ain't a toy, its a c-camera/drone camera for professionals who want to see what the camera will do when lit/shot and processed to the best it can be.  If the camera was m4/3 mount allowing use of a speed booster, as well as having the need and budget for such a camera I'd be ordering one straight away.  
well done to RED for getting this at the price point it is!  

Well I think the footage looked superb.  Each shot was clearly thought out to show the cameras capabilities.  Surely the idea is to show the camera in its best light.  This ain't a toy, its a c-camera/drone camera for professionals who want to see what the camera will do when lit/shot and processed to the best it can be.  If the camera was m4/3 mount allowing use of a speed booster, as well as having the need and budget for such a camera I'd be ordering one straight away.  
well done to RED for getting this at the price point it is!  

Well I think the footage looked superb.  Each shot was clearly thought out to show the cameras capabilities.  Surely the idea is to show the camera in its best light.  This ain't a toy, its a c-camera/drone camera for professionals who want to see what the camera will do when lit/shot and processed to the best it can be.  If the camera was m4/3 mount allowing use of a speed booster, as well as having the need and budget for such a camera I'd be ordering one straight away.  
well done to RED for getting this at the price point it is!  

They'll stick their crappy F mount on there and kill any chance of the camera being popular with lens heads.  I love to think they'd make a mount with an ffd of 20mm or less and then sell f-mount adaptors to those who want to use nikon glass with electronic contacts.  the short mount would allow metabones to manufacture a suitable speed booster as well as adaptors for almost every lens ever made.  M4/3 and e-mount are where it's at.  Sony even do a e-mount to a-mount adaptor.  copy that and you;re onto a winner.

They'll stick their crappy F mount on there and kill any chance of the camera being popular with lens heads.  I love to think they'd make a mount with an ffd of 20mm or less and then sell f-mount adaptors to those who want to use nikon glass with electronic contacts.  the short mount would allow metabones to manufacture a suitable speed booster as well as adaptors for almost every lens ever made.  M4/3 and e-mount are where it's at.  Sony even do a e-mount to a-mount adaptor.  copy that and you;re onto a winner.

if low light is your main shooting scenario I'm certain the bmpcc and speed booster 0.58x has the edge - particularly if you want deeper dof.  a native iso of 800, increasing to 'quasi 2500iso' when used with the speed booster is only matched by the a7s - which IMO doesn't touch the bmpcc for out and out image quality.   The pixels are rather large on the bmpcc - almost as large as those found on the a7s as it happens.  add the incredible 275% gain in transmission from the speed booster and it's a no brainer.
 
zeiss 35mm/1.4 on pocket + speed booster will provide the same fov and double the dof as a 5dmk3 with a 50mm/1.4.  but the 5d will need to be running at 2500iso in order to match the bmpcc running at its native 800iso.   even pushed to 1600, the bmpcc holds up.  to match this a 5dmk2 will need to be running at 5000iso.  if a 5d user wants to match the dof of the bmpcc setup above he'll need to close the aperture down to around f2 meaning iso needs to be ragged to 10,000iso!  
 
when you start adding the sigma 18-35/1.8 into the equation, the bmpcc literally kills anything a 5D user would need to use in order to match the out and out usability of the bmpcc+sigma+speed booster in a real low budget shooting environment.    
 
The bigger the sensor, the longer the lenses, the shallower the dof, the higher you need to push iso, or the more light you need.  since this is not a forum full of guys with budgets to light for the 5dmk3 at f4-f5.6.  The BMPCC + SB0.58x is definitely the best low light camera at the moment  
 

I so often see worries from people regarding AF capabilities on the A7 range.  Personally I think when you have a camera with the capability to punch in (auto punch in with sony FE native lenses) then AF is completely pointless.  Ask anyone who uses the loxia zeiss lenses (35mm, 50mm and now a stellar 21mm), completely manual focus, and someone who has invested time into learning how to do things properly, they'll take the loxia over any oversized, flawed canon lens - flawed and bigger than it needs to be due to needing to be designed to avoid the mirror box.  
I do believe the sony 55mm fe lens outdoes the sigma art in every respect when we're getting to the nitty gritty and actually using it on the stunning 42mpx sensor.
Conversely I often look at the price of the FE lenses and am amazed how well priced they are..  the 28/2 is a perfect example.  The A7R2 and that 28mm will smoke anything on offer for canon use on a canon camera.  
   

if low light is your main shooting scenario I'm certain the bmpcc and speed booster 0.58x has the edge - particularly if you want deeper dof.  a native iso of 800, increasing to 'quasi 2500iso' when used with the speed booster is only matched by the a7s - which IMO doesn't touch the bmpcc for out and out image quality.   The pixels are rather large on the bmpcc - almost as large as those found on the a7s as it happens.  add the incredible 275% gain in transmission from the speed booster and it's a no brainer.
 
zeiss 35mm/1.4 on pocket + speed booster will provide the same fov and double the dof as a 5dmk3 with a 50mm/1.4.  but the 5d will need to be running at 2500iso in order to match the bmpcc running at its native 800iso.   even pushed to 1600, the bmpcc holds up.  to match this a 5dmk2 will need to be running at 5000iso.  if a 5d user wants to match the dof of the bmpcc setup above he'll need to close the aperture down to around f2 meaning iso needs to be ragged to 10,000iso!  
 
when you start adding the sigma 18-35/1.8 into the equation, the bmpcc literally kills anything a 5D user would need to use in order to match the out and out usability of the bmpcc+sigma+speed booster in a real low budget shooting environment.    
 
The bigger the sensor, the longer the lenses, the shallower the dof, the higher you need to push iso, or the more light you need.  since this is not a forum full of guys with budgets to light for the 5dmk3 at f4-f5.6.  The BMPCC + SB0.58x is definitely the best low light camera at the moment