Blackmagic Forum

what is the best speedbooster for the BMPCC? thanks

The Metabones BMPCC Speed Booster was specifically built for,the Picket Camera and works well,with the Micro Camera. Comes in two models, one for Nikon F and the other for Canon EF lenses.
Cheers

Brain I think Danny is right, the speedbooster that metabones specially made to work with the BMPCC is really fantastic and the best choice. It sort of transforms your BMPCC sensor close to a (Canon) APS-C size sensor/field of view, but if you’re looking for a EF version they are IMO pretty expensive. If you’re looking for a Nikon version then they are more affordable, or at least that's the case in my country/Europe.

If you have a tighter budget then I suggest you maybe give the older Metabones MFT-EF speedboosters a search. You can pick one up for a decent price secondhand and with these you transform your BMPCC sensor close to a standard MFT sensor/field of view size.

IMHO I would stay away from the generic speedboosters cause that is just a lottery. There is practically no (image/glass) quality control on these items, some people have some luck and have a decent or even good quality glass version, and a lot of people are out of luck and then the quality is really poor.

Hope this helps, good luck with your search.

As a side note with speed boosters. While Metabones BMPCC .58x multipler is excellent, one of the wonderful aspects of speed boosters/ focal reducers is that one can effectively transform any lens, for a given mount, into the equivilent of multiple lenses for a fairly low cost. So, for example, picking up a Lens Turbo II EF-M43 with a .726x multiplier or a Viltrox NF-M43X with a .71x multiplier can effectively compliment the Metabones .58x speed boosters giving one 3 lenses out of each lens. In my opinion more field of view options isn't a bad thing. So they all are excellent if used to compliment your lenses.

The issue with the standard MFT type Speed Boosters, is they are designed for the 4mm sensor cover glass found on most MFT camera’s, including the Metabones x.071 MFT model. The BM cameras have a 2mm thigh sensor glass, and this throws off the FFD, and with fast wider angle lenses like the Sigma 18-35 zoom, you get a softer image wide open, and focus is hard to set. I used the original MFT SB before the BMPCC model came out, and tested this with both units. That said, you can still get a three for one lens, by using the BMPCC (x.058) the BMCC SB (x0.64) and a non Sbeen Booster straight adapter, no focal length correction. So a 28mm gives you a 16mm, 18mm and 28mm AOV on a Pocket/Micro Camera from a single lens.

Denny, your statement has me a little confused. The Flange Focal Distance (FFD) for micro four thirds is a fixed 19.25mm and is absolute on all micro four thirds cameras be it a GH4, GH5, BMCC, BMPCC or BMMCC. The crop factor, which effect the Field Of View/ Angle Of View (FOV/AOV) is effected by the sensor size, and thus a BMPCC or BMMCC will use a smaller portion of the lens to cover their sensor than a BMCC which is again smaller than the GH4 or GH5 (at least when shooting in 1080p); however the resolution of the resulting image for the sensor to capture is going to have more to do with the lenses resolution in combination with a focal reducer, and yes a focal reducer that has a lower multiplier will effect the image quality because of three things: First it will increase the FOV/AOV by the multiplier, Secondly it will increase the f- stop by the multiplier, and thirdly it will increase the effective resolution of the lens by the multiplier minus the quality of the focal reducers optics. It is the last bit that will cause the same piece of glass to look sharper on a .58 Metabones speedbooster (focal reducer) than it will on a Metabones .64 or .71 speedbooster or even the .75 DEC Regain), but this isn't the FFD. If the FFD were different on Blackmagic cameras then all Micro four thirds lenses would be unable to focus properly which simply isn't the case. Also as a final note, because nothing is free, all focal reducers do increase aberrations around the corners of the final image, but if it's a quality reducer it should minimise this. All the reducers I mentioned in my prior post have proven to produce very good results in the right hands.

With all that said, you are correct that the same lens will look sharper with quality focal reducers catered to a specific sensor size.

The issue with the sensor glass thickness, adds a kink to the SB, where it does nor effect MFT lenses. Perhaps FFD was a poor choice of terms, but the cover glass thickness effects SB performance according to Mr. Caldwell, who developed the Metabones optical block.
Cheers

Denny, where could I read Mr. Caldwell's statement about this, because I feel like I'm missing something? While I don't doubt that the sensor glass effects the light path, one would expect that Blackmagic already compensated for it's effect, and I can't see how it would act differently for a lens vs a focal reducer. If we look at Metabones BMPCC speedbooster compatibility chart at the bottom of their press release pdf they show all of their micro four thirds speedboosters work with the BMPCC, but just offer different multipliers.https://www.eoshd.com/uploads/metabones-sb-blackmagic-pr.pdf Also notice the BMPCC speedbooster says it won't work with other micro four thirds cameras, but the reason is because the rear flange of the .58x speed booster is so long it risks hitting mechanical bits like the shutter, or producing vignetting if the sensor doesn't crop enough. That said users have successfully used the BMPCC speedbooster on a GH4 in 4k by locking the shutter open, but they had to be very, very careful in how they set up the camera. Both these factors suggest the only focal difference would be the multiplier & glass of the reducer.

With the above said Metabones does have an adjustable rear element so users can compensate for an older lens whose elements may be out of alignment. I do believe this used to be a unique feature for the speedbooster, but recently other focal reducers like the Viltrox NF-M43x have added a similar adjustment feature.

Good bye