Old tech being adapted to cameras, Celestron used to make a "Rich Field Adapter" which would halve an eyepieces focal length and widen the field of view. I dont know whatever became of them.

Do they say whether it will be a 0.67x or a 0.5x converter for m4/3?

A 0.5x and a Sigma 50/1.4 with AF actually sounds surprisingly attractive... Though I suppose the new 35/1.4 and a 0.67x could work too...

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Here's a notable paragraph from their white paper:

"Although we feel that the most “magical” thing about the Speed Booster is its ability to speed up any lens by a full stop (hence the name!), its ability to increase the field of view of a lens used on a crop format sensor is also very interesting. For example, the widest lenses currently available for Micro Four Thirds format are the 7-14mm zooms offered by Olympus and Panasonic. However, by attaching a Speed Booster to a Sigma 8-16mm DX fomat lens you wind up with a 5.6-11.2mm zoom that covers Four Thirds! So, in addition to providing the fastest possible lens in many focal lengths, the Speed Booster can also provide the widest possible lens for certain formats."

Note that the Sigma 8-16mm f4.5 to 5.6 then becomes a f3.2 to f4.

Very interesting, though of course my adapted lenses are all Pentax and Minolta and it will not support those. :P

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Pax,
Richard
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I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything. ~John Steinbeck

+1. $599 is way high for lunch, lads and lassies; way way too high for this boyo, anyway. Doesn't mean I don't want one.

Sell a few or many "?"

Why not $200 and sell a boat-load?

Win me one (:?-)

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nope, that was the whole text from them to my question about the release date. I didn't ask them about the reduction factor ... but i wish for a 0.5x that takes m43 to 35mm world :)

$600 sounds high on the surface, but if it actually does what it is supposed to do, with decently quick AF and no compromise to IQ, then that price suddenly sounds quite reasonable to me.

$599 sounds like a lot, but if you think about the 'dual' focal lengths of your current lenses (if you have a crop sensor) that are opened up to you, it's definitely worth it. also, look at the other products metabones makes, they are not exactly in the 'budget' market; their c-mount to m4/3 adapter is $65. i just checked their website, and they have product info for the speed booster up now. $599 is the most expensive for the ef mount, while other 'dumb' adapters are in the $399 range.

i just hope when they make the m4/3 version, it is also a m4/3 mount for the taking lens, and that you can use your typical m4/3 adapters on top of the speed booster; looking at their product range at the moment, it looks like you will need to get one for each mount. but i suppose that makes sense, from a physics standpoint

the glass element on the focal reducer doesn't reduce image quality?

Check out their white paper. The quick answer is no, it actually improves image quality in many respects. It works exactly the opposite as a teleconverter.