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Megadap ETZ21 Pro Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Review | Effective Autofocus
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Nov 24, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of the Megadap ETZ21 Pro Sony E to Nikon Z adapter. How well does it work? | Upgrade Your Workspace with flexispot! Enjoy Up to 60% Off This Black Friday! Enter code 'C750' and save $50 on the C7(or C7max)! Shop now! Flexispot C7 ergonomic chair: US: https://bit.ly/3Z2pro4 or Canada: https://bit.ly/3YWyFlT | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Mega ETZ21 Pro @B&H https://bhpho.to/3AN4xRO | Adorama https://howl.link/892tdaxz7rm79 | Amazon https://amzn.to/48YAxzi | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4r843 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/48YAxzi Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents:
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to take a look at the mega dap etz 21
0:16
pro adapter that allows you to use Sony
0:19
e-mount lenses on a Nikon z-mount camera
0:23
one thing I quickly found is that this
0:25
is a very different experience from Old
0:27
School adapters I've used a lot of
0:28
adapters over the years
0:30
often it's to take a DSLR Mount and to
0:33
convert it into a mirrorless Mount
0:36
either within a system or from one brand
0:38
to another uh I've obviously used
0:40
various adapters for old school mounts
0:43
like m42 and uh various pent tax K
0:46
mounts like that to again to adapt
0:48
typically manual focus lenses this is a
0:51
very different experience probably my
0:52
favorite adapter of the Canon EF to uh
0:56
Sony e-mount era was the sigma mc11 and
1:00
so I'll just use that as kind of a case
1:01
in point here the sigma mc11 which
1:03
allowed you to use Canon EF on Sony Fe
1:07
it was 26 mm in length and it weighed
1:10
125 G so it definitely changed the
1:13
nature of a lens both in its weight but
1:15
then in particular in its balance point
1:17
having to move it out and that
1:19
difference that 26 mm was required for
1:21
the difference flange distance to come
1:23
from a camera mount with a mirror to get
1:26
the optical path of the lens to a place
1:29
where it needed to be for a camera
1:31
without a mirror so I mean I I
1:34
personally found that I tired of that
1:36
process I didn't like the way that
1:38
lenses looked or balanced and So
1:40
eventually I just replaced my Canon EF
1:43
lenses steadily with equivalents in
1:46
either Canon RF or in Sony emount so in
1:50
this particular case I with this Mega
1:52
dap adapter it is a completely different
1:54
reality first of all the adapter itself
1:56
is only 2 mm thick and it weighs is only
2:00
on my scale 46 G and so basically it is
2:04
the equivalent of just having a
2:06
different actual lens mount there it's
2:09
not like it's an adapter that adds any
2:11
kind of noticeable thickness and in fact
2:13
once you have it mounted on your camera
2:15
the truth the matter is is that I
2:16
suspect you won't even notice that it's
2:18
there everything mounts stably without
2:21
wobble in there and for the most part
2:23
the adapter just works allowing you to
2:25
use those Sony e-mount lenses from a
2:27
variety of brands in this case which
2:29
we'll Explore More more on the Nikon Z
2:31
Mount cameras in this case I've tested
2:33
on the Nikon Z8 but this does include
2:36
apsc and mega dap claims at least as of
2:38
this moment that they are the only
2:40
adapter that allows you to do that I'm
2:42
actually going to be looking at a few
2:43
adapters this week so today I'm looking
2:45
at the mega dap etz 21 Pro but I also
2:48
look at a less expensive option from the
2:51
popular brand newer the newer nwz
2:54
adapter and then at the end of the week
2:56
I'll do a head-to-head comparison
2:57
between the two and let you know what
2:59
your kind of gaining what you're losing
3:01
by going with a more expensive adapter
3:04
in this case the more expensive MEAP
3:06
cost about
3:08
$250 so is it worth it well that's what
3:10
we're going to explore in today's review
3:12
today's episode is brought to you by the
3:14
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3:18
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3:20
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3:22
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3:24
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3:27
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3:31
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4:19
today so let's start by talking about
4:21
the build and handling first of all this
4:23
is not only the second generation of
4:25
their adapters they had an etz 11 to
4:27
begin with now this etz 21 uh or et21
4:32
Pro replaces a older ET z21 and so what
4:37
is different between the etz 21 and then
4:39
the pro model well a couple of things
4:42
first of all you now can do firmware
4:44
updates in the camera just like native
4:46
lenses and so that is obviously a
4:48
significant Improvement it has a better
4:50
mechanical fit and design to allow for
4:52
more third-party lenses to fit properly
4:55
and I did find I I tested with four
4:57
different brands and I found that I had
4:59
zero issues with the fit on any of them
5:01
it also has a redesigned lens release
5:04
button here on the side and then so
5:07
obviously while I haven't used the
5:08
previous one I can say that this current
5:10
one works well I also did a little bit
5:12
of research and found that in the year
5:14
that this adapter has been out the pro
5:16
version has been out there have actually
5:18
been five firmware updates so that's
5:20
always important to me because you know
5:21
you can say well it's firmware updatable
5:23
but if you never offer up any kind of
5:26
firmware uh obviously you're not really
5:28
supporting the product seems like Mega
5:30
dap is doing that and as I looked
5:31
through some user reviews it seems like
5:34
some of the issues that people addressed
5:35
along the way either having some
5:37
compatibility issues after say on this
5:40
Z8 after the firmware 2.0 some people
5:42
had a compatibility issue that was
5:44
solved via firmware obviously I've
5:46
tested it on the Z8 without any kind of
5:48
issue you know there's bugs that have
5:50
been squashed through that they've
5:51
improved the function and they've added
5:53
compatibility to include Brands like vro
5:56
for example which I'll do some vro tests
5:58
today so as noted it is only 2 mm thick
6:02
and so really really tiny it's made of I
6:04
believe a stainless steel product so it
6:07
seems tough and durable from what I can
6:09
tell uh I noted that lens mounted and
6:12
what I would consider a good balance the
6:14
tolerances are good there to where it it
6:16
think lenses fit without me having to
6:18
force them or to feel like I can't
6:20
remove them but they also fit well
6:22
enough to where I don't feel a wobble
6:24
afterwards and so kind of that you know
6:26
perfect medium that I'm looking for
6:28
there so in this case pretty simple
6:31
because it's so thin you have at the
6:33
front of the adapter you have the
6:34
contacts for the Sony lens to touch to
6:37
and at the rear you have the contacts to
6:40
communicate with the Nikon Z body and
6:42
I'm assuming there's some kind of
6:44
processor in between that's going to
6:46
take the focus information from the
6:48
Nikon camera and interpret it to the
6:50
control of the focus Motors in the Sony
6:53
e-mount based lens one thing I did note
6:56
that I'll talk more about In the
6:58
comparison review but Rel ative to the
7:00
newer uh adapter I did find that the
7:02
MEAP is the one that produces proper XF
7:05
information and so I found that lenses
7:08
as I looked in the in Lightroom the
7:11
excess information that it was properly
7:13
reported which uh is is important
7:15
obviously for sorting at a later date
7:17
and so I certainly appreciated that so
7:20
how about the actual autofocus process
7:22
that's really what we're it's coming
7:23
down to as you might expect or I hope
7:26
you would expect the focus speed you're
7:28
able to achieve with an individual ual
7:29
lens really depends a lot on how fast it
7:32
can focus on its native Mount so faster
7:35
focusing lenses like Sony GM with their
7:37
multiple linear XD uh Focus Motors those
7:41
are going to focus quite quickly and in
7:43
fact here you can see that I adapted
7:45
this uh Sony 50mm f1.4 G Master lens and
7:49
I compared it to the Nicor 50mm f1.4
7:52
that I've just reviewed and I found that
7:55
in fact the GM lens even adapted focused
7:58
faster than what the Nicor lens did
8:01
stands to reason we've got dual linear
8:03
Focus Motors highspeed linear Focus
8:05
Motors in the GM lens we have only a STM
8:08
motor in the Nicor lens so if you've got
8:11
a fast focusing lens on Native it's
8:13
going to still Focus fast just a little
8:15
bit slower I would say that what you can
8:17
take as a rule of thumb is that
8:19
autofocus speed is always going to be
8:21
just a little bit slower than what it
8:22
was on its native Mount remember that
8:24
there is data conversions having to take
8:26
place you know Focus algorithms from one
8:28
platform being converted to the focus
8:30
algorithms of another so there is going
8:32
to be a little bit of slowdown in the
8:33
pipeline but fortunately it if you have
8:36
a fast Lin to begin with it's still
8:37
going to focus fast I did find kind of
8:41
one consistent Quirk just in real world
8:44
use and that was that when I was out
8:45
shooting and I wanted to focus on a
8:47
foreground subject it was typically the
8:50
case to where the lens wanted to focus
8:53
on the background rather than on the
8:54
foreground subject and so in you know in
8:57
that process I had to do kind of the
8:58
typical thing that if I you know was
9:00
focusing on something that's just kind
9:01
of enclosed there I would actually Focus
9:03
either down at the ground or at
9:05
something that was a little bit thicker
9:06
a little bit higher contrast and if I
9:08
could move focus into that space I could
9:11
then go ahead and I could get proper
9:14
autofocus as you can see in this
9:15
particular
9:17
shot what I did find however is that
9:19
when Focus was locked you know in the
9:22
proper Zone that Focus was actually very
9:24
accurate and I had no issues with
9:26
getting accurate Focus even at wide
9:28
apertures like
9:30
1.4 now interestingly I happen to have
9:33
two lenses of the same or the same lens
9:36
and two different mounts and so in the
9:38
case of the vro AF 16mm f1.8 I had both
9:41
the Sony e-mount version and then the
9:43
Nikon z-mount version so I could do some
9:45
direct comparisons what I found is that
9:47
as you can see here the native zount
9:50
version definitely focused faster um
9:53
however I did find that Focus was fast
9:55
enough you you know using the adapted
9:57
emount version that in real world use
10:00
was just fine uh but you will get a
10:02
little bit more focused speed on the
10:04
native lens as you would probably expect
10:06
what I also found however is that there
10:09
was uh as far as the the sharpness I
10:12
didn't find like there was any kind of
10:13
loss it was kind of like some give and
10:15
take in the frame which to me points
10:17
more to the sample variation between the
10:19
two copies of the lens rather than any
10:21
kind of adapter related issue so for
10:23
example I saw that I got better Center
10:26
sharpness with the z-mount version
10:28
actually got better Edge Edge
10:29
performance with the Sony e-mount
10:32
version and so again I there's not
10:33
enough there to attribute to an adapter
10:36
I also found that I didn't really see
10:38
extra chromatic aberration flare
10:39
resistance was about the same all of
10:41
these things I basically expected
10:43
because there is no Optical glass in
10:44
this adapter it's just air going through
10:47
there and basically all it is other than
10:48
changing the focus is just a little tiny
10:51
spacer to move everything you know that
10:53
2 millimeters forward where the optical
10:56
path is correct for a Sony lens you know
10:58
on a mounted on a z-mount body so anyway
11:02
it basically worked the way that I I
11:04
thought that it should the one thing I
11:06
will say that popped up for me optically
11:08
is that I found that in many situations
11:09
I tended to get a little bit of
11:11
underexposure using adapted lenses on
11:13
the Z Mount body and I found that if I
11:15
dialed in a third or even twoth thirds
11:18
of stop of exposure it actually got me
11:19
more into the right Zone I would say
11:21
that on average I under exposed by about
11:24
a half stop uh when using lenses on the
11:27
adapter and in the head to head
11:29
comparison they in fact did meter
11:31
differently using the exact same lens
11:33
you know one adapted one in the native
11:35
Mount so just something to you know
11:37
maybe think about for the future now
11:40
another fast focusing third party lens
11:42
was is the Tamron 35 to 150 mm with its
11:45
vxd um you know voice coil motor and I
11:49
found that autofocus was nice and snappy
11:51
with that definitely very usable I did
11:53
find however when Nala was trotting
11:55
towards me in that kind of persistent
11:57
action that the results for not bad it's
12:00
not like autofocus wasn't moving but
12:01
what I did find is a consistent mild
12:04
back focus to where rather than being on
12:06
her eye it was more like in the middle
12:08
of her neck where Focus actually was it
12:11
was close enough that the results don't
12:13
look bad they don't look completely out
12:15
of focus but they're not crisp either so
12:17
I wouldn't recommend this combination if
12:19
you're or really any of these adapted
12:22
lenses if you're going to shoot high
12:23
speed action you need a native mount
12:24
lens you're going to get better results
12:26
in that regard but for most things and
12:28
most situ ation Focus was just fine and
12:32
focused accurately it focused quickly
12:34
and in general I was very happy with the
12:36
results that I got so how about on the
12:37
video side of things I found that with
12:40
previous adapted scenarios video AF was
12:43
pretty much garbage in this case it's
12:45
actually fairly decent I found that
12:48
Focus works for you know for example
12:50
Focus you know purposely doing Focus
12:52
pulls autofocus pulls back and forth I
12:54
found that there's a little bit more
12:55
pulsing in the process as you can see
12:57
and every now and then kind of a start
12:59
of a a backwards Focus rack just a
13:02
little bit less overall Focus confidence
13:04
again you know not unexpected in this
13:07
situation for example when using a lens
13:09
with a a little bit slower autofocus
13:12
scenario which would be like the sigma
13:13
885mm f1.4 again a single STM Focus
13:16
motor I find that as you can see here it
13:19
focused fairly smoothly as I approached
13:21
the camera using the MEAP adapter but
13:24
what I did find is that when I ducked
13:26
out of the frame and then duck back into
13:27
the frame you can see it really didn't
13:29
pick me back up I switched over to the
13:32
Sony 50mm f1.4 again a more confident
13:35
focusing lens and I found that it was
13:37
able to you know fairly quickly and
13:39
successfully pick me back up when I
13:41
stepped back into frame so again here's
13:43
your rule of thumb better lenses when it
13:46
comes to autofocus are going to produce
13:48
better results when you adapt them if
13:50
you're using older lenses or cheap
13:52
lenses that didn't have a great
13:53
autofocus system to begin with you might
13:55
be disappointed with the results you're
13:57
going to get if you're using good lenses
13:58
with good autofocus then you're probably
14:01
going to be generally happy with the
14:03
results that you get so my conclusion is
14:05
this if you have actually switched
14:06
camera systems or more like myself you
14:09
own multiple systems being able to
14:11
fairly seamlessly use your Sony e-mount
14:14
lenses on Nikon Z cameras is pretty
14:17
fantastic you're getting that proper XF
14:19
data getting proper information for the
14:21
in camera VR you know all of these
14:24
various things and autofocus works
14:26
really well overall for uh when shooting
14:29
Stills and reasonably well even when
14:32
shooting video so in general I was not
14:34
at all disappointed with the results
14:36
that I got I do know from experience it
14:38
can be a very expensive process to sell
14:40
off lenses in one brand One Mount and
14:43
then replace them with new lenses and
14:45
another brand or another Mount and so
14:48
this is a great way to save money
14:50
particularly if you have a lens that you
14:52
love you know for example there really
14:54
isn't an equivalent of this Sony 50mm
14:56
f1.4 GM on Nikon right now so the
14:59
ability to use a really exceptional lens
15:02
and use it quite well on Nikon is
15:05
definitely intriguing I think above all
15:07
what is going to make this more usable
15:10
in the long term for people is the fact
15:12
that the adapter itself is so Compact
15:14
and it's so low weight that it really
15:16
doesn't disrupt your shooting process at
15:19
all and I suspect you're going to be
15:21
happy with the results you're able to
15:23
get and also happy with the overall
15:25
usability because you've sacrificed so
15:28
little in the adap in process and
15:30
frankly for me that's often where things
15:31
have fallen apart in the past I just
15:33
kind of get sick of using the adapter
15:36
and in this case it feels like that
15:37
would be less of an issue overall time
15:39
will tell as I move ahead but I
15:41
certainly love the option of using my
15:44
mini Sony ount lenses in a variety of
15:46
brands on my Nikon z-mount camera and I
15:49
suspect you will do the same I'm Dustin
15:51
Abbott I hope that this has helped you
15:53
today if you want more information I do
15:55
have linkage to my full text review in
15:57
the description down below there's also
15:58
some buying links there if you'd like to
15:59
purchase one for yourself as always
16:01
thanks for watching have a great day and
16:03
let the light in
16:05
[Music]