My NEX-6 with Lens Turbo Converter by Jason Wang

May 27, 2013 Accessories, cool links, First Looks, Gizmos, Guest Post, Just for fun, Mirrorless, Sony, User Reports 52

Hi Steve,

My name is Jason Wang and I live in Shanghai, China.

I write this mail to you because I am a fan of Mirror less Camera and I am a fan of you too! There is an optical factory in China they made their own Lens Convertor for Sony NEX system recently and this convertor is called ‘Lens Turbo’, almost the same like ‘Metabones Speed Boster’ which you might heard about it before.

The ‘lens turbo’ mounted between NEX and a SLR lens, it increases maximum aperture by 1 stop, increases MTF and makes lens wider by a factor of 0.71x. So if you mount a Nikon full frame lens on the NEX, it will make the NEX have the same angle of view and the same field of depth like a full frame Nikon camera. No 1.5X any more.

It is also at a very low-cost level, only about 130 USD here in China market. And after I tested this product today, I am very pleased for the image quality it brings to me!

Here is the image of my own NEX-6 + Lens Turbo + Nikkor 35mm F2D

DSCF3277

Check this images below of my test for this converter using Nikkor 35mm F2D & Nikkor 50mm F1.4D.

Two old enough Film Camera Lens. All of the pictures are OOC JPEG and did a little bit adjustment for the exposure only.

Two of my colleagues, 35mm F2, wide open @F2, finally I could enjoy this 3D feel on such a wide-angle lens. To be honest, even with Sony Zeiss 24mm F1.8, I could not have this 3D feel @F1.8.

BELOW: 35mm @F2 wide open in the restaurant, one of my colleague. I will show you the 100% crop next.

and the 100% crop – very sharp

BELOW: And mounted on the 50mm F1.4D, @1.4 it is soft, but could make the background blur enough

This lens converter really could make those SLR lens to be fully used on current mirrorless camera.

From my test, I found it only suffer a bit for the corner image solutions wide open. For normal use, it is really great and I really enjoyed to use it together with Sony’s peak focusing functions.

Have a nice day!

THX

Jason Wang

 

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52 Comments

  1. Hello sir,

    I have a sony nex 5R camera and my lens are Sony SEL 1650. One day my lens just stop functioning and it gives me that message “CANNOT RECOGNIZE LENS, ATTACHED IT PROPERLY”. I know its not the “enable (in the menu) the camera to shoot without a lens attached” option. Because its a Sony lens and it was working fine a few days ago. Tried many methods like cleaning dirt off lens contact point, unattaching and attaching lens again, on/off, remove batteries. Nothing worked. Any idea?

    Regards,
    Emily

    • Hi Emily, can you shoot the camera with a different adapter? Try that first, it will help with the troubleshooting. Basically we want to figure out if the problem is with the camera or the adapter (maybe it is accidentally touching the electrical contacts inside the mount so the camera thinks there is a regular Sony E lens attached.)

  2. I’ve found an even cheaper version in the Uk under the name of Camidox. Anyone using one?? For the nikon adapter it gives you aperture control on the G lenses.
    I am thinking of using one with my nikon pancake 50mm E series on my nex 6. The fact you can have such a compact setup with a full frame like output is very appealing. Has anyone used the E series pancake yet??

  5. I have the FD version. I’m having trouble mounting lenses to keep the aperture from opening all the way when I twist the lens onto the mount. Sometimes it works and I get aperture ring control, sometimes not. Any tips to get it mounted correctly? Also my FD 85 1.8 does not even want to seat flush onto the adapter. Anyone unable to seat certain lenses?

    • Okay, I figured out how to mount my FD 50 1.8 and 135 3.5 to get get aperture control, but still can’t seat my 85. Of course, this is the one I want to mount most, lol!

  7. Will Lens Turbo work with old Konica Hexanon AR lenses? They have a very shallow focal point compared to other old SLR lenses.

  8. Dear Sir,

    Sorry for this email, I needed help, I buy Mitakon for canon ef lens, and I attached it to my Nex5R, but everytime I want to shoot, camera said that “CAN NOT RECOGNIZE LENS, ATTACHED IT PROPERLY”.. what should I do Sir, needed software update or anthing else.

    Thank for your time and help.

    Best regards,
    Irwan

    • You need to enable (in the menu) the camera to shoot without a lens attached. The lens you are using has no electrical contacts for the camera to read, so it sees it as there being no lens attached.

  10. Just search for the Mitakon lens turbo on e-bay, you find all versions there, average price is 137$. Leica M to NEX is also available.

  11. I’m very interested in purchasing the Turbo Adapter for my NEX-6 camera.
    But since there is not much information available yet online, I have a question for the people who played with it already:
    I read somewhere that this is a completely passive adapter without electronic contacts.
    This would mean that autofocus, image stabilization, automatic aperture setting by camera body, storing EXIF information in photographs (like focal length, aperture, zoom range…) would not work?
    Is that assumption correct?
    I’m just asking since I’m also comparing the features with the Metabones Speedbooster.

  12. I bought my own adapter too, I am impressed with it a lot. I compared a normal adapter vs this lens turbo, it is really true that the adapter makes the images sharper and more contrasty (I pixel peep and yes it really makes images sharper wide open), it is 1 full stop brighter than without an adapter, I can’t believe this thing can do such wonders.

  14. Mine arrived today. I’m quite impressed by what it can do, although I think it’s going to be reserved for shallow dof photography – where the edges of the frames don’t really matter. The sort of thing you’d use a Sigma 30/1.4 for on a crop sensor DSLR. But this adapter is cheaper than a 30/1.4, even if you include the cost of a fast 50mm lens!

    The main drawback seems to be field curvature. If I get the centre tack sharp, the edges are soft. If I move the focus assist point to the edge of the frame and get the edge in focus, the centre seems to be back-focused. And this was at f11, on a Pentax 28/3.5 and 20/4, shooting my garden.

    But this adapter is cheap. I do not expect miracles. The shallow DOF possibilites it opens up – with cheap manual lenses I already own such as the 50/1.7, 85/2, certainly make it worth the current price to me. If you prefer everything tack-sharp, it may not be for you.

  15. how about Sony lens to NEX version? well…some of my old lens just converted to sony (alpha) mount

  16. I finally ordered it and added some Canon FD lenses for my new Sony Nex-6. It puts fun back to photography again. Thanks Jason for this great news.

  17. This is AMAZING! Too bad it’s not as effective on MFT (the resulting crop factor of 1.4x is barely smaller than the native crop factor of APS-C), but luckily I’ve still got my NEX-3 in the closet! 🙂

    I was close to selling my lovely Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.2 because it didn’t perform so well on crop sensors. But now I’m definitely gonna wait for an MD version of that adapter!

    • I bought the Minolta Rokkor version from Roxenn on ebay, I’m waiting for it to use iton my Nex-6 with some MD lenses that I have.

  18. Will this lens turbo converter fit straight to a Sony Nex 6? Is there a need for a separate E-mount adapter ring? Your response is appreciated.

  19. Hey Jason,
    Thanks for posting this! I’m glad that there’s an alternative to metabones pricey product.
    Could you (or anyone else) help me with one question?

    Does field curvature increase when using the adapter?

  20. Hi Jason

    Very helpful review and some great pics as proof to boot. So I’m interested to know how this effects ISO and noise. I’ve read so much on noise and ISO and sensors etc but in your practice with using this combo does noise increase or does the sensor handle this as per a normal e mount fast lens. I have good results to 3200 and often shoot through to say an iso of 12800 using the noise as grain for B & W but was wondering is there was an effect using the turbo adapter.
    Regards

    Garth

    • I’ll try to answer this without owning this adapter…
      It’s said that you gain 1 stop of light with the adapter. That would allow you reduce your ISO from say 3200 to 1600. That usually reduces noise levels.

      Otherwise, what you put in front of the sensor does not affect the noise performance itself. You’re still imaging on the same medium.

      • Hi Andre
        Yes that is what I thought, and yes ordinarily that should make sense, but arent you in fact asking the sensor to handle more image and more light and if so how does this effect the low light definition performance? I would like that to be tested as when the A65/A77 came out it had more pixel definition but noise after say 800. The sensor should be able to handle it on the Nex6 but if anyone who owns one could test I’d really appreciate it.

  21. Hi Jason,
    I’m also living in Shanghai, and I would like to know,..
    How did you get it in China market..??
    It is only for NIKON, PENTAX, CANON..? how about Leica M lenses to NEX..??

    Last thing…
    As far as I know the METABONES Speed Booster retains focus and aperture control, while the Zhong Yi Lens Turbo doesn’t. Am I correct..??

    Regards,

  22. How can the Metabones one be so expensive and this one not? Makes me think perhaps they are just “slightly” over pricing?? Or these ones will fall apart sooner than later =o] These images do look nice, gonna have to snag a Pentax version.

    • The “dumb” converters (just a piece of metal tube with 2 different mounts; no lenses, nor AF and other electronics passthrough) from Metabones already cost around $100 so there’s definitely quite some overpricing going on here.

  23. Hi Jason,

    Thank you for posting! Really love the look of the pics coming from this combination on your NEX 6. I also live in Shanghai and would want to pick up an adaptor for my Fuji X. Did you get this at the camera market on Xietu lu/Lubang lu? If so, which shop? Any specifics would be great! Would’ve contacted you directly but didn’t see any information. Hope you can help! Thanks in advance!

  27. Thanks for this. Mine is on its way from China – FD mount for me 😉 I look forward trying it with my lenses, especially the 24mm (and stop stitching…)

  28. I have bought one and expect it in a week or two. My main question was if the IQ would not deteriorate with a perhaps inferior optical element. But the images that I saw (and yours again) were very promising and the prise is very reasonable. So I gave it a try. If it works well, I’ll have like two camera’s in one! It’ll surely make any FF camera need to offer fabulous IQ to make me prefer it over my NEX-7…

  29. Brilliant! Thanks for letting us know about this alternative. I’m s huge fan of such wizardry! 🙂

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