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Metabones’ Devil’s Speed Booster turns Pentax Q cameras into ‘monster low-light machines’

10 Oct

Metabones—the company known for its lens adapters and focal reducing Speed Boosters—has released a new Speed Booster that ought to have Pentax Q users salivating a bit. It’s called the Q666 0.5x ‘Devils Speed Booster’, because it allows Pentax Q owners to mount Nikon F and G lenses and produce a working aperture of f/0.666 when a lens with an f/1.2 aperture is used wide open.

The booster has a magnification of 0.5x and produces a 2.8x crop factor when used with the Q and Q10, and a 2.3x factor with the Q7 and Q-S1.

Metabones has used six elements in four groups inside this new Speed Booster, and has incorporated what it calls a ‘long-throw clickless aperture ring’ for G lenses that has eight marked positions. The adapter is compatible with all Nikkor and Nikon-mount lenses except the Nikkor 2.1cm f/4 and the 20mm f/2.8 AI-S.

The idea for the adapter was launched in August, but this is the first version to emerge. Metabones promises one in a Pentax K mount as well.

The Metabones Nikon G to Pentax Q Speed Booster Q666 0.50x costs $ 490. For more information, visit the Metabones website.

Press Release

Metabones Devil’s Speed Booster Q666 0.50x

Caldwell Photographic Inc. and Metabones® is pleased to announce the Speed Booster Q666, a.k.a. “The Devil’s Speed Booster”, exclusively for Pentax Q series cameras. With its 0.5x magnification and world-record f/0.666 maximum speed it is crazy wicked fast. So make a deal with the devil today and turn your Pentax Q with its back-illuminated sensor into a monster low-light machine unlike anything ever seen in photography. Attach an f/1.2 lens and stop down a little to see how Stanley Kubrick made do with f/0.7 for filming those famous candle-lit scenes in “Barry Lyndon”. Or open up all the way to f/0.666 and probe the darkness in a way that no photographer has ever been able to do until now.

With an advanced 6-element optical design, the Q666 packs lots of optical horsepower in a small package. Sharpness is excellent even at f/0.666, and is downright superb if you stop down to f/1.0. Distortion is very low, with a maximum value of, naturally, 0.666%. And thanks to the back-illuminated sensor used in Pentax Q cameras, the full f/0.666 maximum aperture can be utilized with minimal pixel vignetting effects commonly seen in other cameras used with high-speed lenses.

Figures 2 through 4 below show MTF at 10, 20, and 40 lp/mm as a function of image height for output apertures of f/0.666, f/1.0, and f/2.01. At f/0.666 (i.e., with an f/1.2 master lens) the MTF is high near the axis, and only falls off gradually toward the corners. As the aperture is reduced to f/1.0 and then f/2.0 the MTF becomes very high and more even across the field. Figure 5 shows that there is less than 1 stop of corner illumination falloff even at f/0.666. And guess what – there is no vignetting at all after the output aperture reaches f/1.82. Figure 6 shows that rectilinear distortion added by the Speed Booster Q666 is negligible at less than 0.666%.

Like all Metabones Speed Boosters, the Speed Booster Q666 is optimized to fully account for the camera’s filter stack located near the sensor surface. This is especially critical at the record-setting f/0.666 aperture now possible with the Q666. As a result, an enormous range of optics, from vintage film lenses to the latest digital designs, will function flawlessly when adapted to any Pentax Q camera. Planned lens mounts for the Speed Booster Q666 include a Pentax-K version and a Nikon F/G version with the most advanced Nikon G aperture adjustment mechanism in the industry.

The Speed Booster Q666 will be available starting in Aug 2017 from the Metabones website (http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPNFG-Q-BM1) and its worldwide dealer network for US $ 489.00, plus shipping and applicable taxes and duties.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Deadly Pleasures: The Devil’s in the Details of These Dark Miniature Scenes

19 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Every dumb thing we humans do in this modern-day ‘civilized’ world is laid out in excruciating detail in these miniature scenes by artist Frank Kunert – not to mention our fears and anxieties. A row of public toilets is placed on a stage so strangers can watch you poop. A bride and groom poise at the end of a diving platform far too high above a pool, their friends and family watching below. A children’s slide empties onto a highway, and a bassinet is equipped with a desk so the little one can get to work as soon as possible. Pipes funnel human waste straight from the toilet upstairs into a television set, and a balcony projects into the path of a train.

Each of these works is a darkly humorous critique mocking us for contemporary habits and practices, from setting ourselves up for danger a la the Darwin Awards to creating cycles of consumption that kill us instead of satisfying us. Art museums are literally out of reach. The only living tree visible in the neighborhood is solely accessible via a dangerous staircase. A beautiful modern villa cuts off sunlight to the hovel below.

Some of the scenes look ordinary upon first glance, and it takes a moment to realize what’s wrong with them. Doors on the side of an apartment tower might lead into nothing but air, or a single chair at a formal dining table is placed out in the cold while the rest are cozy indoors.

Kunert painstakingly crafts each of these miniature scenes as part of his series Photographs of Small Worlds, and then documents them for his portfolio. He works on each one until it captures the mood and message he’s aiming for without any digital manipulation. You can see more of his work at his website, which offers much of his portfolio in photo book form, or in person September 10th 2017 through January 28th 2018 at Germany’s Museum Boppard.

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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The Devil’s in the Details: Macro Photography for Beginners

14 Aug

The world around us, that which we often consider mundane, if we consider it at all, is infinitely detailed. The carpet beneath your feet, the grass in your front yard and along the sidewalk you stroll down each day, the corners of your cupboard behind the cereal boxes, all of these places contain mind-boggling facets and edges and curves, if Continue Reading

The post The Devil’s in the Details: Macro Photography for Beginners appeared first on Photodoto.

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Devil’s Slide: Deserted Bay Area WWII Bunker Hovers in Midair

14 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

devil slide pillbox

Built on Devil’s Peak (along a promontory known as Devil’s Slide), this obsolete base end station was designed to spot, triangulate and radio in sightings of enemy ships approaching the San Francisco Bay.

devils slide mound

Rounding the bend along California’s scenic coastal State Route 1 from either north or south, it is impossible to miss the incredible bunker, which appears to float over the earth around it. While the area is fenced off, a parking zone nearby is used by some explorers as a place from which to venture closer to the structure, located just south of Pacifica and past a hillside highway tunnel.

devils slide

Though this is neither safe nor recommended, it is also possible to climb into the viewing slot on the first level then walk the stairs to the top – unofficially: the view is incredible. Meanwhile, the edges of the bunker have turned from supports to supported, cantilevered precariously over their surroundings, allowing you to walk up and sit under thousands of pounds of reinforced concrete.

devils slide cantilever

devils slide behind

While it looks like the work of nature, the apparent erosion surrounding the lone structure is reportedly a man-made effort designed to pave the way for further development, presumably by the military. At the same time, natural causes would not be too much of a surprise or stretch, considering that this section of highway has been known to close due to everything from earthquakes to landslides – the next disaster very well might take this abandoned building with it. The land and bunker are meanwhile owned by a private party and officially off limits (though with limited fencing).