Meet Metabones - The Adept Adapter

At some point, every dSLR owner had to commit to a brand. It's big step to stake your reputation and all future gear purchases on one manufacturer knowing that all your eggs - from your favorite 2.8 lens to your speedlights - might one day be in an obsolete basket. Add to that the reality that each manufacturer now introduces a new and often ground-breaking dSLR or lens more than yearly, and you're faced with the daunting proposition that today's obvious choice as the best brand may not be tomorrow's. Case in point: Sony's recent unveiling of the a7 had even the most loyal Canon and Nikon shooters taking note, even wishing they could have one in their bags. Alas, it would be useless in the company of all those proprietary lenses that just couldn't play with or talk to it. Or could they?

Enter the Metabones Mark III (no correlation to the Mark III demarcation on the Canon 5d - yeah - this will be fun at the sales counter). Shown here, it's the link between a Canon 17-35 and a Sony a7. Our in-house motion photography guru , Craig Cartier completed with a Vocus matte box, Schneider filter and Socom rail, into this near-Utopian example of equipment collaboration for a cause. So the form of the old teleconverter has been reborn into a cross-platform adapter that, without the limitations of a dSLR's mirror, can mate two once-foreign pieces.

It's sister product, the Metabones Speed Booster will pair, for example an old Minolta MD lens to micro four-thirds mount while "boosting" the minimum aperture by a stop. The combinations are almost limitless, as are the growing assortment of products now shipping from Metabones to the Precision Camera showcases. With each new arrival, another old obsolete lens is razed back to usefulness, or a brand loyalist gets to give the 'other guy' a try. Are you ready to step outside your brand-box?

- Chris Dolajak | Precision Camera, Austin TX