Chinese manufacturer Venus Optics has just released a new lens adapter called the Laowa Magic Format Converter. With it you can use your existing full-frame Canon or Nikon glass on the mighty sensor of the medium format Fujifilm GFX 50S camera. Let’s have a look! The Laowa Magic Format Converter The Medium Format Fujifilm GFX 50S Camera is Finally Here and Shoots Video. That was the headline of our first article about this stunning medium-format beast from Fujifilm (check out the article here). Unfortunately, that superior sensor has a major downside built right in: it’s sheer size renders your existing full frame glass useless since the smaller image circle would produce massive vignetting. The solution? Well, meet the Laowa Magic Format Converter by Venus Optics. You might think of calling it a Speed Booster, but that is not quite the case here since it’s actually more of a Speed Shrinker. A Speed Booster will shrink the image circle produced by a full-frame lens in order to fit, say, a Super 35mm sensor, acting as a magnifiyng glass which is why the image becomes brighter. As a a result, you gain an extra stop of light hitting the sensor. Conversely, the Magic Format Converter is designed to increase the size of the image circle a full-frame lens is capable of rendering, allowing it to cover the huge medium-format sensor of the Fujifilm GFX 50S camera. The downside is a decrease in incoming light because the same amount of light needs to be spread out over a larger sensor area. As a result, you’ll lose one stop of light. Image Quality Although the Magic Format Converter isn’t quite ready for shipping, the results already look very promising! There’s no visible vignetting and the overall sharpness seems to be very decent. Oftentimes, the peripheral image sharpness gets pretty degraded when using low quality adapters. No vignetting! Read all about this new Magic Format Converter over at venuslens.net. You can find lots of comparison shots there and you can even download the RAW files for further inspection. Pricing and Availability Pricing hasn’t been set yet but the Magic Format Converter should be ready soon, and is expected to start shipping in July 2017. The Adapter will be available in two versions: Canon EF to Fujifilm G and Nikon AI to Fujifilm G. Several Laowa lenses on the Fujifilm GFX 50S using the Magic Format Converter. Also, the engineers over at Venus Optics seem to be eager to improve the adapter even more. Therefore, they are seeking Fujifilm GFX 50S owners in order to gather feedback: We are currently inviting volunteers who owns a Fujifilm GFX 50S to test and jointly make this adapter a better one. If you are interested, please send us more information about yourself via email. marketing@venuslens.net What do you think? Is it time to jump on the medium format train? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Lens attachment manufacturer Zunow have unveiled their latest wide angle lens attachment at IBC 2016: the WCX-100 for fixed lens cameras. Achieving wide angles when using a fixed lens on a 2/3 inch or 1 inch sensor video camera can be difficult at times. Zunow have a family of 5 lens attachments that widen the field of view by 20% with very low distortion. This video features the WCX-100 model. You are able to fully zoom through on the fixed lens from wide to telephoto with the attachment on, which is an advantage for shooting ENG style news reporting. The WFK-95 is for 4K cameras like the Panasonic DVX-200 and widens the field of view by 0.8x, which makes the image 20% wider. It has a front filter thread of 72mm for use with conventional filters, with a short length of only 35mm. The other lens attachments in the family include – WCX-80 which is compatible with 62/72mm size lenses. WCX-100 wide angle conversion lens which is compatible with 72/77/82mm size lenses. WCX-200 wide angle conversion lens which is compatible with Sony EX Bayonet mount. SWA-06 is a super wide angle attachment, increasing the field of view by 0.6x, compatible with 72/82mm size lenses. The lens attachments are available to purchase now from CVP, with prices ranging from from €536.00, and B&H from $449.00. What do you think of these lens attachments, and would they work for you? Let us know in the comments.

Aputure is about to raise the bar once again, this time with a DEC VariND version of their popular line of lens adapters. This thing is capable of bringing the functionality of Sony’s FS5-style electronic ND filtration to any E-Mount camera. The DEC VariND Lens Adapter We just have discovered another very interesting device, this time at the Aputure stand at this year’s IBC. The new version of their lens adapter, the DEC VariND works just like the DEC Lens Regain focal length reducer, but instead of a lens they’ve put in an electronic Variable ND filter. This allows you to smoothly dial in just the right amount of ND reduction for any given shot. It works quite similarly to the vari ND built into the Sony FS5 camera, where liquid crystals are used to achieve the smooth transition without the weird colors and cross-effects caused by manual variable NDs. With this adapter, you can upgrade any E-Mount camera to support a variND filter, which is very cool indeed. Plus, it also allows you to control focus and iris with most EF lenses, just like with the other versions of the DEC adapter. You control the DEC VariND with the included wireless control grip or, if you’re using it on a shoulder mounted setup, you have controls directly on the adapter itself. No need to use the wireless control unless you want to do so. To me this is a really straight forward product which bridges the gap between the very innovative electronical VariND of the Sony FS5 and other cameras still lacking it. It will be available in about 2 to 3 months and it will be around $650. For more information, make sure to visit Aputure’s website and watch out for updates. UPDATE: I’ve forwared your questions regarding the DEC adapter to Aputure’s Ted Sim. Here are his (very promising) replies: 1. On release there will be two versions: an EF to E-Mount and EF to MFT Mount. 2. You are able to control the adapter without the remote control. There is a wheel on the adapter itself to control everything except focus, which can be adjusted just manually. 3. There’s an On/Off switch. 4. At the minimum setting, there will be 1 stop of ND applied. However in the future we think we can make it so the ND is removable when needed. 5. Battery life: 4 hours for the receiver/adapter, about a week for the remote control handgrip. The adapter can be charged via 5V USB, even while in use (you can use a gimbal for charging it while shooting, for example).  

By now, almost everyone might have heard of the Metabones Speed Booster, a brilliant adapter that allows you to achieve a full frame look on a cropped sensor (APS-C or Super35) camera – particularly Canon EF lenses on Sony E or Panasonic GH2/3/4 cameras. The Speed Booster uses high quality glass that “compresses” the full frame image from the full frame EF lens to the smaller imaging area of the sensor, thereby even gaining over one full stop of light. In essence, it makes your lenses effectively “wider and faster”, which is nothing short of amazing. My Metabones Speed Booster Ultra “lives” on my Sony FS7, on which I can use my ZEISS Compact Primes or any Canon EF L lenses using the Speed Booster Ultra and the aforementioned benefits. Following a similar concept in a higher-end package, the newly announced IB/E S35 x FF Expander does something similar to the Metabones Speed Booster, but exactly the other way around: It’s meant for S35 lenses that are used on larger sensor cameras, like for example the RED Epic/Weapon. It’s a fact that many higher-end professional film lenses are S35 only, because they were created to expose the S35 negative of film stock, which is about half as big as the “full frame” 35mm from photo stills cameras (first used for filmmaking with the Canon 5D Mark II, most popular nowadays with the Sony A7 series). However now there are also higher-end cameras like the RED Epic on the market, which offer a sensor that is larger than S35. While the RED offers a crop mode at lower resolutions, in order to utilize the full resolution of the sensor you had to use “full frame” lenses so far. It makes a lot of sense to introduce that concept to the higher-end market, because this adapter further increases the compatibility of lenses to cameras. IB/E Optics created the S35 x FF Expander to facilitate common PL mount S35 lenses, and as we can hear in the video, the “camera side” offers an interchangeable mount which effectively also makes this a PL adapter for all your cameras (however please be aware that there will be flange distance related issues on some camera and lens combinations, meaning you cannot always achieve back focus with all lenses on all cameras – this needs to be tested before you set your eyes on a particular combination for a project!). More details on the Band Pro website. It will be available in December and sell for $6900.