Firmware Friday: Metabones adds autofocus support for Canon EF lenses on Panasonic cameras!
posted Friday, July 24, 2015 at 2:47 PM EDT
Great news, Micro Four Thirds fans: You can now autofocus Canon EF-mount lenses on your Panasonic mirrorless camera, courtesy of new firmware for several Metabones Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster models! That's makes our Firmware Friday roundup this week quite a doozy, even if there's no new camera firmware since our last update.
The new Metabones version 1.7 firmware update is available immediately on both Windows and Mac OS platforms, and supports four different Metabones adapter models. These include the Canon EF to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster Adapter (model MB_SPEF-M43-BM1), Canon EF to Micro Four Thirds Speed Booster S Adapter (model MB_SPEF-M43-BM2), Canon EF to Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster XL 0.64x Adapter (model MB_SPEF-M43-BT3) and Canon EF to Micro Four Thirds T Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x Adapter (model MB_SPEF-M43-BT4).
As well as the new autofocus function, the firmware also resolves a lens recognition issue with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, and also fixes a problem that could cause Panasonic cameras to lock up after double-tapping on the touch-screen.
We've not got a Metabones adapter handy to test the new autofocus function ourselves, but Jaron Schneider over at Resource Magazine has already done so, and he reports that autofocus is both reliable and reasonably swift, if not as fast as a native Micro Four Thirds lens. (His setup paired the Panasonic GH4, Speed Booster S adapter and Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens. Read more in his article here.)
Want to update your Metabones adapter(s) to the latest firmware, and gain the ability to autofocus Canon EF-mount lenses, as well as fixes for the aforementioned bugs? Grab the firmware at the links below, depending on your chosen operating system:
(Camera parts image courtesy of Kelly Hofer / Flickr; used under a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license. Image has been modified from the original.)