Megadap ETZ21 Pro Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Review

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[Music]
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hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to take a look at the mega dap etz 21
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pro adapter that allows you to use Sony
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e-mount lenses on a Nikon z-mount camera
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one thing I quickly found is that this
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is a very different experience from Old
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School adapters I've used a lot of
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adapters over the years
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often it's to take a DSLR Mount and to
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convert it into a mirrorless Mount
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either within a system or from one brand
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to another uh I've obviously used
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various adapters for old school mounts
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like m42 and uh various pin tax K mounts
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like that to again to adapt typically
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manual focus lenses this is a very
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different experience probably my
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favorite adapter of the Canon EF to uh
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Sony e-mount era was the sigma mc11 and
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so I'll just use that as kind of a case
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in point here the sigma mc11 which
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allowed you to use Canon EF on Sony Fe
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it was 26 mm in length and it weighed
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125 G so it definitely changed the
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nature of a lens both in its weight but
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then in particular in its balance point
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having to move it out and that
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difference that 26 mm was required for
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the difference flange distance to come
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from a camera mount with a mirror to get
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the optical path of the lens to a place
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where it needed to be for a camera
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without a mirror so I mean I I
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personally found that I tired of that
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process I didn't like the way that
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lenses looked or balanced and So
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eventually I just replaced my Canon EF
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lenses steadily with equivalents in
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either Canon RF or in Sony Emil so in
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this particular case I with this Mega
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dap adapter it is a completely different
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reality first of all the adapter itself
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is only 2 mm thick and it weighs is only
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on my scale 46 G and so basically it is
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the equivalent of just having a
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different actual lens mount there it's
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not like it's an adapter that adds any
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kind of noticeable thickness and in fact
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once you have it mounted on your camera
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the truth the matter is is that I
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suspect you won't even notice that it's
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there everything mounts stably without
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wobble in there and for the most part
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the adapter just works allowing you to
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use those Sony e-mount lenses from a
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variety of brands in this case which
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we'll explore more on the Nikon Z Mount
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cameras in this case I've tested on the
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Nikon Z8 but this does include apsc and
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MEAP claims at least as of this moment
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that they are the only adapter that
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allows you to do that I'm actually going
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to be looking at a few adapters this
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week so today I'm looking at the mega
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dap etz 21 Pro but I also look at a less
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expensive option from the popular brand
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newer the newer nwz adapter and then at
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the end of the week I'll do a
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head-to-head comparison between the two
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and let you know what your kind of
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gaining what you're losing by going with
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a more expensive adapter in this case
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the more expensive Mega dap cost about
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$250 so is it worth it well that's what
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we're going to explore in today's review
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let's start by talking about the build
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and handling first of all this is not
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only the second generation of their
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adapters they had an etz 111 to begin
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with now this etz 21 uh or et21 Pro
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replaces a older ET z21 and so what is
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different between the etz 21 and then
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the pro model well a couple of things
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first of all you now can do firmware
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updates in the camera just like native
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lenses and so that is obviously a
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significant Improvement it has a better
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mechanical fit and design to allow for
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more thirdparty lenses to fit properly
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and I did find I I tested with four
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different brands and I found that I had
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zero issues with the fit on any of them
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it also has a redesigned lens release
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button here on the side and then so
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obviously while I haven't used the
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previous one I can say that this current
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one works well I also did a little bit
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of research and found that in the year
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that this adapter has been the pro
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version has been out there have actually
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been five firmware updates so that's
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always important to me because you know
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you can say well it's firmware updatable
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but if you never offer up any kind of
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firmware uh obviously you're not really
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supporting the product it seems like
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Mead dap is doing that and as I looked
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through some user reviews it seems like
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some of the issues that people addressed
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along the way either having some
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compatibility issues after say on this
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Z8 after the firmware 2.0 some people
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had a compatibility issue that was
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solved via firmware obviously tested it
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on the Z8 without any kind of issue you
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know there's bugs that have been
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squashed through that they've improved
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the function and they've added
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compatibility to include Brands like vro
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for example which I'll do some vro tests
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today so as noted it is only 2 mm thick
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and so really really tiny it's made of I
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believe a a stainless steel product so
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it seems tough and durable from what I
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can tell uh I noted that lens mounted in
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what I would consider a good balance the
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tolerances are good there to where it it
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think lenses fit without me having to
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force them or to feel like I can't
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remove them but they also fit well
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enough to where I don't feel a wobble
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afterwards and so kind of that you know
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perfect medium that I'm looking for
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there so in this case pretty simple
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because it's so thin you have at the
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front of the adapter you have the
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contacts for the Sony lens to touch to
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and at the rear you have the contacts to
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communicate with the Nikon Z body and
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I'm assuming there's some kind of
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processor in between it's going to take
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the focus information from the Nikon
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camera and interpret it to the control
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of the focus Motors in the Sony ount
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based lens one thing I did note that
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I'll talk more about In the comparison
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review but relative to the newer uh
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adapter I did find that the MEAP is the
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one that produces proper XF information
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and so I found that lenses as I looked
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in the uh in Lightroom the excess
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information that it was properly
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reported which uh is is important
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obviously for sorting at a later date
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and so I certainly appreciated that so
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how about the actual autofocus process
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that's really what we're it's coming
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down to as you might expect or I hope
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you would expect the focus speed you're
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able to achieve with an individual lens
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really depends a lot on how fast it can
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focus on its native Mount so faster
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focusing lenses like Sony G Master with
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their multiple linear XD uh Focus Motors
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those are going to focus quite quickly
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and in fact here you can see that I
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adapted this this uh Sony 50mm f1.4 GM
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lens and I compared it to the Nicor 50mm
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f1.4 that I've just reviewed and I found
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that in fact the GM lens even adapted
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focused faster than what the Nicor lens
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did stands the reason we've got dual
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linear Focus Motors high-speed linear
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Focus Motors in the GM lens we have only
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a STM motor in the Nicor lens so if
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you've got a fast focusing lens on
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Native it's going to still Focus fast
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just a little bit slower I would say
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that what you can take as a rule of
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thumb is that autofocus speed is always
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going to be just a little bit slower
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than what it was on its native Mount
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remember that there is data conversions
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having to take place you know Focus
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algorithms from one platform being
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converted to the focus algorithms of
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another so there is going to be a little
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bit of slowdown in the pipeline but
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fortunately it if you have a fast lens
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to begin with it's still going to focus
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fast I did find kind of one consistent
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Quirk just in real world use and that
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was that when I was out shooting
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and I wanted to focus on a foreground
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subject it was typically the case to
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where the lens wanted to focus on the
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background rather than on the foreground
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subject and so in you know in that
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process I had to do kind of the typical
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thing that if I you know was focusing on
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something was just kind of enclos there
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I would actually Focus either down at
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the ground or at something that was a
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little bit thicker a little bit higher
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contrast and if I can move focus into
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that space I could then go ahead and I
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could get proper autofocus as you can
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see in this particular
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shot what I did find however is that
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when Focus was locked you know in the
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proper Zone that Focus was actually very
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accurate and I had no issues with uh
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getting accurate Focus even at wide
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apertures like
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f1.4 now interestingly I happen to have
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two lenses of the same or the same lens
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and two different mounts and so in the
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case of the vro af6 mm f1.8 I had both
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the Sony e-mount version and then the
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Nikon z-mount version so I could do some
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Direct comparisons what I found is that
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as you can see here the native zount
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version definitely focused faster um
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however I did find that Focus was fast
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enough you you know using the adapted
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emount version that in real world use
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was just fine uh but you will get a
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little bit more focused speed on the
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native lens as you would probably expect
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what I also found however is that there
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was uh as far as the the sharpness I
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didn't find like there was any kind of
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loss it was kind of like some give and
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take in the frame which to me points
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more to the sample variation between the
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two copies of the lens rather than any
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kind of adapter related issue so for
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example I saw that I got better Center
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sharpness with the z-mount version
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actually got better Edge performance
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with the uh Sony ount version and so
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again I there's not enough there to
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attribute to an adapter I also found
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that I didn't really see extra chromatic
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aberration flare resistance was about
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the same all of these things I basically
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expected because there is no Optical
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glass in this adapter it's just air
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going through there and basically all it
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is other than changing the focus is just
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a little tiny spacer to move everything
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you know that 2 mm forward where the
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optical path is correct for a Sony lens
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you know on a mounted on a z-mount body
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so anyway it basically worked the way
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that I I thought that it should the one
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thing I will say that popped up for me
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optically is that I found that in many
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situations I tended to get a little bit
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of underexposure using adapted lenses on
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the Z Mount body and I found that if I
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dialed in a third or even twoth thirds
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of stop of exposure it actually got me
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more into the right Zone I would say
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that on average I underexposed by about
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a half stop uh when using lenses on the
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adapter and in the head-to-head
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comparison they in fact did meter
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differently using the exact same lens
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you know one adapted one in the native
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Mount so just something to you know
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maybe think about for the future now
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another fast focusing third party lens
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was is the Tamron 35 to 150 mm with its
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vxd um you know voice coil motor and I
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found that autofocus was nice and snappy
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with that definitely very usable I did
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find however when Nala was trotting
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towards me and that kind of persistent
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action that the results were not bad
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it's not like autofocus wasn't moving
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but what I did find is a consistent mild
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back focus to where rather than being on
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her eye it was more like in the middle
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of her neck where Focus actually was it
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was close enough that the results don't
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look bad they don't look completely out
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of focus but they're not crisp either so
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I wouldn't recommend this combination if
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you're or really any of these adapted
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lenses if you're going to shoot
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high-speed action you need a native
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mount lens you're going to get better
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results in that regard but for most
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things and most situations Focus was
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just fine and it focused accurately it
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focused quickly and in general I was
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very happy with the results that I got
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so how about on the video side of things
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I found that with previous adapted
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scenarios video AF was pretty much
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garbage in this case it's actually
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fairly decent I found that Focus works
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for you know for example Focus you know
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purposely doing Focus pulls autofocus
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pools back and forth I found that
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there's a little bit more pulsing in the
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process as you can see and every now and
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then kind of a start of a backwards
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Focus rack uh just a little bit less
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overall Focus confidence again you know
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not unexpected in this
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situation for example when using a lenss
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with a a little bit slower autofocus
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scenario which would be like the sigma
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885mm f1.4 again a single STM Focus
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motor I find that as you can see here it
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focused fairly smoothly as I approached
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the camera using the mega dap adapter
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but what I did find is that when I
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ducked out of the frame and then duck
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back into the frame you can see it
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really didn't pick me back up I switched
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over to the Sony 50mm f1.4 again a more
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confident focusing lens and I found that
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it was able to you know fairly quickly
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and successfully pick me back up when I
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stepped back into frame so again here's
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your rule of thumb better l lenses when
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it comes to autofocus are going to
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produce better results when you adapt
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them if you're using older lenses or
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cheap lenses that didn't have a great
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autofocus system to begin with you might
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be disappointed with the results you're
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going to get if you're using good lenses
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with good autofocus then you're probably
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going to be generally happy with the
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results that you get so my conclusion is
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this if you have actually switched
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camera systems or more like myself you
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own multiple systems being able to
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fairly seamlessly use your Sony e-mount
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lenses on Nikon Z cameras is pretty
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fantastic you're getting that proper XF
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data getting proper information for the
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in camera VR you know all of these
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various things and autofocus works
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really well overall for uh when shooting
14:13
Stills and reasonably well even when
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shooting video so in general I was not
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at all disappointed with the results
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that I got I do know from experience it
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can be a very expensive process to sell
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off lenses in one brand One Mount and
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then replace them with new lenses is and
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another brand or another Mount and so
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this is a great way to save money
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particularly if you have a lens that you
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love you know for example there really
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isn't an equivalent of this Sony 50mm
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f1.4 GM on Nikon right now so the
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ability to use a really exceptional lens
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and use it quite well on Nikon is
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definitely intriguing I think above all
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what is going to make this more usable
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in the long term for people is the fact
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that the adapter itself is so Compact
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and it's so low weight that it really
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doesn't disrupt your shooting process at
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all and I suspect you're going to be
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happy with the results you're able to
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get and also happy with the overall
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usability because you've sacrificed so
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little in the adapting process and
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frankly for me that's often where things
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have fallen apart in the past I just
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kind of get sick of using the adapter
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and in this case it feels like that
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would be less of an issue overall time
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will tell as I move ahead but I
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certainly love the option of using my
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mini Sony E lenses and a variety of
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brands on my Nikon zount camera and I
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suspect you will do the same I'm Dustin
15:35
Abbott I hope that this has helped you
15:37
today if you want more information I do
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have linkage to my full text review in
15:40
the description down below there's also
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some buying links there if you'd like to
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purchase one for yourself as always
15:45
thanks for watching have a great day and
15:47
let the light in
15:49
[Music]

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Megadap ETZ21 Pro Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Review

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