Mitakon Zhongyi Contax Yashica Mount Lens to Sony E-Mount Camera Turbo Mark II Adapter, 4 Elements/ 4 Groups

2016-05-18T09:19:04

I have owned a Metabones Speed Booster I for Contax Zeiss to MFT and recently upgraded to a Sony A6300 and was looking to find a speed booster for my Contax Zeiss glass to Sony E mount. I have now compared a few different boosters from budget Chinese manufacturers as well as the new Speed Booster Ultra. I shot test patterns and tested real world usability. The Turbo II honestly excelled at the test patterns, and I almost preferred it over the Metabones. It has less color cast, and is impressively sharp and well corrected even at F1.4 on my lenses (Contax Zeiss 28mm f/2.0, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4). I would have definitely kept this booster if it weren't for one MAJOR flaw. The booster uses an odd mounting system because the elements need to descend into the camera body and are actually shaped to fit the sensor. This means the booster is placed into the camera and, instead of rotating the entire booster, just a separate collar is rotated to lock the booster in place. On my Sony A6300 the collar would only rotate about 5 degrees and did NOT provide any form of reliable lock. Additionally, I actually marred the sensor surround trying to properly mate it which made me VERY frustrated. Even if the locking collar DID fit properly, I imagine you would need to be very careful not to do damage to your camera with this system. On the bright side, the Contax/Yashica mount was decently firm and accurate, which was NOT the case with the Metabones Speedbooster Ultra, surprisingly. Perhaps another Sony E-Mount camera would work with this, or perhaps there are just tolerance issues with the mount, and another Turbo II wouldn't have caused a problem. I returned mine and am still looking for a suitable replacement.

SPENCER B.