Neewer NW-ETZ vs Megadap ETZ21 Pro | Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Showdown
Dustin Abbott
November 29th, 2024
Neewer NW-ETZ vs Megadap ETZ21 Pro | Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Showdown
When I first started using Sony E-mount, I was coming off a period of more than a decade where I had used the Canon EF ecosystem exclusively. It was a delight to find that there were adapters that would allow me to use my Canon lenses on my Sony camera as well. I used and reviewed a number of popular adapters from brands like Metabones, Sigma, and Vello, but found that they all came with some serious limitations. Over time I tired of used my EF lenses adapted for two primary reasons: 1) size and weight. 2) Inadequate performance. My favorite of the adapters proved to be the Sigma MC-11, but it added 125g to the weight of every lens attached to it and added another 26mm in length. This was necessary to adapt a DSLR mount to a mirrorless design. The optical path needs to be in a completely different place, so the optics need to be moved further away from the sensor to achieve proper infinity focus. I found that there was a huge spectrum of performance, too, with some lenses working fairly well and others being very inconsistent. Video AF, in particular, was pretty rough where it existed at all.
But over a series of reviews, I’ve been looking at very different types of adapters that now adapt one mirrorless lens mount (Sony E-mount) to another mirrorless lens mount (Nikon Z-mount). The rules are a bit different this time. For one, the “flange distance” between the two mounts is similar, so now the adapter itself is just a few millimeters thick (2mm, to be exact), adding almost no additional bulk to lenses. There is a bit of weight, but, at 43g for the Megadap ETZ21 Pro on my scale and 46g for the Neewer NE-ETZ, it’s a third of what we dealt with the EF to FE adapters. In my tests, the Megadap EZ21 Pro (my review here) has a few advantages over the Neewer NW-ETZ that I reviewed here, but also costs about $100 more. So which is the better buy? Find out my thoughts by watching the head to head video, or you can see a quick summary in the article below.
Thanks to Neewer for providing a review sample of the NW-ETZ and to Megadap for providing a review sample the ETZ21 Pro. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
Both of these adapters have a simple premise – allow you to use Sony E-mount lenses – WITH AUTOFOCUS – on Nikon Z mount cameras. The claim includes transmitting EXIF data and information for VR (if your camera is so equipped). At their best, both adapters work really quite well, delivering some of the best autofocus I’ve seen from an adapted lens, though there’s always limits. Both add almost no bulk – just 2mm of additional thickness – and very little weight (43g for the Megadap, 46g for the Neewer).
So does they work? The answer is mostly yes, though with a few minor caveats which I detail in the individual reviews.
Reasons to Buy the Neewer NW-eTZ
Price – Costs $160 vs $250
Has a weather sealed option for $20 more
Provides focus confirmation for manual focus lenses even when they have no contacts (M42, M mount, etc…)
Reasons to buy the Megadap ETZ21 Pro
Better firmware process
Properly reports EXIF data
Provides more consistent autofocus performance
Works on APS-C/DX bodies
Works with more lenses
Conclusion
Both adapters have some unique strengths, but for most people I think the extra money for the Megadap is worth it. The Neewer shows promise, but it is a first gen adapter while Megadap is on the second variation of their second generation, and that longer development cycle shows. Megadap has squashed more bugs, and delivers a more consistent performance across a broader range of lenses. Megadap is an adapter company, period, and while Neewer has a great reputation for delivering excellent products at a strong value, their company is far more diversified. To me the Megadap adapter feels worth the extra $90, but it’s not my money to spend. It’s yours, and I hope the information in these comparisons has helped you make a more informed decision.
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
When I first started using Sony E-mount, I was coming off a period of more than a decade where I had used the Canon EF ecosystem exclusively. It was a delight to find that there were adapters that would allow me to use my Canon lenses on my Sony camera as well. I used and reviewed a number of popular adapters from brands like Metabones, Sigma, and Vello, but found that they all came with some serious limitations. Over time I tired of used my EF lenses adapted for two primary reasons: 1) size and weight. 2) Inadequate performance. My favorite of the adapters proved to be the Sigma MC-11, but it added 125g to the weight of every lens attached to it and added another 26mm in length. This was necessary to adapt a DSLR mount to a mirrorless design. The optical path needs to be in a completely different place, so the optics need to be moved further away from the sensor to achieve proper infinity focus. I found that there was a huge spectrum of performance, too, with some lenses working fairly well and others being very inconsistent. Video AF, in particular, was pretty rough where it existed at all.
But over a series of reviews, I’ve been looking at very different types of adapters that now adapt one mirrorless lens mount (Sony E-mount) to another mirrorless lens mount (Nikon Z-mount). The rules are a bit different this time. For one, the “flange distance” between the two mounts is similar, so now the adapter itself is just a few millimeters thick (2mm, to be exact), adding almost no additional bulk to lenses. There is a bit of weight, but, at 46g on my scale, it’s a third of what we dealt with the EF to FE adapters. In my tests, the Megadap EZ21 Pro has a few advantages over the Neewer NW-ETZ that I’m, reviewing today, but also costs about $100 more. So is the Neewer NW-ETZ and its $160 price a better choice if you’re on a budget? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Neewer for providing a review sample of the NW-ETZ. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
There will be some continuity between this review and another of the Megadap ETZ21 Pro, as I’ve spent time with both in an attempt to get up to speed as to which adapter works better.
There are two versions of the NW-ETZ adapter; a regular version (like the one I’m testing here) and a Pro version that costs about $20 more. The primary difference to the Pro version seems to be the inclusion of a weather sealing gasket, which is a negative point I raised about the Megadap adapter in my review of that lens.
For some reason, however, user reviews tend to be higher for the cheaper adapter without the rubber gasket. Perhaps the fit is a little better without it, as functionally these should be the same.
The premise of the NW-ETZ adapter is pretty simple – it interprets the focus algorithms from the camera (Nikon Z) and translates them to the language of the lens (Sony E), and carries EXIF data and focus information back to the camera. The byproduct is that you can get effective autofocus from Sony E-mount lenses on a Nikon Z mount body…and there’s a lot of great Sony E-mount glass out there!
So does it work? The answer is a little more complicated than what I saw with the Megadap ETZ21 Pro in my review, as I saw a wider variety of performances. Initially, I actually thought that it might work better for stills, as I found that autofocus with the first two lenses that I used (Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM and Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXDE) was arguably better than the Megadap.
But as I expanded out the pool of lenses that I used, I found that my results varied more widely. I’ll detail more about that in the review below.
Build and Design
As noted previously this is a pretty simple device in some ways. Essentially it feels like a metal lens mount detached from a lens.
At just 2mm thick, it essentially just goes onto the lens like a second mount.
You really won’t notice that the adapter is there once mounted, and I found that in the half dozen lenses that I tested with it, mounting and unmounting lenses remained relatively simple. The fit of lenses will vary a bit, with some being tighter than others, but I never felt like I really had to force things.The adapter is very, very thin. Always be sure to power down the camera before removing anything, however.
The release mechanism is different from the Megadap’s, as that release needs to be depressed while the NW-ETZ requires sliding the mechanism clockwise.
The magic of the adapter is the dual sets of electronic contacts front and back. On the backside you will see the electronic contacts for communicating with the Nikon camera. There is a second set of contacts that says, “Update” above it, and this is for doing firmware updates. There is an included cable that magnetically attaches to the larger circles and then data is transferred to the adapter. The other end of the cable is a USB-A connector.
I did do a firmware update, and found that the magnetic attachment wasn’t quite as strong as what I would have liked. You need to be sure that the cable doesn’t hang down in between the adapter and your computer, as it will pull the contacts away from having a firm connection. I actually held the cable tight to the adapter during the review.
The actual update was just a matter of dragging the firmware update file into the folder for the adapter that pops up once the connection is made. There isn’t really any kind of reaction, but if you let it sit for a minute, then eject the folder and reconnect, you’ll find that the update has in fact happened.
The front of the adapter has the pins that will come in contact with the Sony E-mount lenses.
Presumably there is some kind of processor hidden in there to do the focus algorithm conversions.
The Megadap adapter definitely bests the Newer in one regard: it accurately delivers the EXIF information, whereas the Neewer seems to try to find a Nikon equivalent.
Both of the images in the comparison were shot with the Tamron 35-150mm F2-F2.8 VXD, and the Megadap shows the proper lens designation (including A058, Tamron’s internal code for the lens), while the Neewer reported VR 35-150mm F2-2.8G, which is clearly not accurate (this is not a G lens, nor does it have VR). The Megadap also reported properly for the two Sony lenses I tested, the Sigma lens, and the Viltrox lens. The Neewer reported the Sony lenses as VR 35mm F1.4G and VR 50mm F1.4G, while the Megadap properly recorded them as FE 35mm and 50mm F1.4 GM, respectively.
Still, for a relatively low amount of money, you can mount your E-mount lenses on your Nikon camera and enjoy autofocus.
Manual Focus Aids?
The Neewer NW-ETZ has an additional trick up its sleeve that the Megadap lacks. If you attach manual focus lenses (even those without electronic contacts), the NW-ETZ serves to provide electronic communication, giving you focus confirmation and even allowing Nikon’s focus guide to work (which prompts you which direction to turn the manual focus ring to achieve proper focus).
I had a lot of fun with my Thypoch Simera 28mm F1.4 (an M-mount lens), but utilizing an adapter from M-mount to E-mount, and then using the NW-ETZ to complete the journey to Z-mount. It was easy to nail focus, and the focus confirmation proved very accurate.
You can see just how precise that focus was here:
Somewhat disappointing, however, is that even while my Z8 camera allows me to manually enter the EXIF information for a lens like this (and I went to the trouble to do so!), the adapter reported the lens as 50mm F1G – not correct in any detail!
But this was unquestionably a nice hidden feature, as this worked for any fully manual (no electronics) lens that I tried, whether it was E-mount, M42, or M-mount. Just use an additional adapter to E-mount (if needed), and the NW-ETZ provides the electronics. Pretty cool!
Stills Autofocus with the NW-ETZ
When reviewing the Megadap ETZ21 Pro, I found that my focus results were pretty consistent. Lenses with faster focus motors focused faster, obviously, and more confident autofocusing lenses worked better at the extremes. My findings are more nuanced with the NW-ETZ, as some lenses worked fantastically, while others didn’t really work particularly well.
I tested the Sony 35mm and 50mm F1.4 G Master lenses, the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro, 28-200mm RXD, and the 35-150mm VXD, the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN, and the Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 and 135mm F1.8 LAB.
What’s wild is that my results were not consistent within brands. Let’s start with the two Sony lenses. The 35mm F1.4 GM works pretty much like a native lens, with fast, accurate results.
The very similar 50mm F1.4 GM behaved very differently. It focuses slowly and gradually, and with close focus targets I almost exclusively got results like this:
I would have to use manual override (which works great on Nikon, by the way) to get focus in the right zone, where autofocus would mostly do its job, getting me this properly focused result.
So your perception of the adapter is really going to depend on which lens you have attached to it. My initial impression (based on the 35mm) was the Neewer adapter might be better than the Megadap, but when I switched the 50mm, I was changing focus options, checking connections, and wondering if I was using the same adapter.
So, on the positive list. Outside the 35mm GM, I had very good results with the Tamron 35-150mm VXD. We used the combination for a church service and baptism, and I got fairly similar results to what I would have gotten normally with the lens on a Sony body. Very slightly slower, perhaps a hair less accurate, but perfectly usable.
The Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro VXD also worked brilliantly, delivering results not far from what I would expect from a native lens.
I even found that I didn’t have the issues with focus not wanting to grab a foreground subject, so in this regard I found that it worked better than what I saw with the Megadap.
But when I put the Tamron 28-200mm RXD, I got absolutely terrible results, with focus basically not happening regardless of what I did to try to coax it along. I basically was resorting to manual override to get anything in focus.
In the case of Tamron lenses (at least the three I tested), it seems like the adapter likes the newer VXD motor, but doesn’t like the older RXD motor of the 28-200mm.
Ironically, however, the STM focus motor of the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN (definitely not the latest and greatest technology) worked fine, with the Sigma delivering good speed and precision.
Finally, the Viltrox 16mm F1.8 worked perfectly, delivering accurate results even against strong backlighting.
The new 135mm F1.8 LAB lens sports a VCM motor that is similar in technology to the Tamron VXD focus motor, but the 135 LAB refused to focus at all, instead emitting a whine and refusing to do anything.
In the video review you can see my formal tests with the 35GM and 50GM, and how radically different the result with these two similar lenses is.
In other words, the results were all over the map. When a lens works on the Neewer NW-ETZ, it tends to work really well, but results are obviously much more inconsistent. It’s still generally true that better focusing lenses are going to make the transition better. That makes sense, as really the adapter’s job is to send the correct communications from the lens to the AF system via the contacts, so a fast focusing lens should continue to be a fast focusing lens, with the only real slowdown being from the need to “reinterpret” the focus algorithms from one language (Sony) to another (Nikon). The wild card in the mix here is that a fantastically focusing lens like the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM isn’t really all that great via the Neewer adapter, but was pretty great via the Megadap adapter.
Now, to be fair, you could eventually get the focus results you wanted with most lenses (save those that just really refused to work), like this lovely shot with the 50GM below.
But in many situations I felt like I could achieve greater success with the Megadap adapter.
Video Autofocus
*These results will be easier to see in the video review for obvious reasons.
The good news is that if you have a lens that focuses well for stills, you will also get fairly decent video AF. I did a series of test with the two GM lenses, and found that AF didn’t pick me up at all as I walked towards the camera with the 50mm F1.4 GM attached via the NW-ETZ.
With the 35mm F1.4 GM the combo tracked me perfectly, and even quickly picked me when I stepped out and back into frame.
I then tested focus pulls with the more functional lens (35GM), and found that I could generally get decent focus pulse, but I found that I encountered more pulsing during focus pulls, which is generally a byproduct of focus not being confident enough to lock.
So, as before, you’ll get your best results for video AF when using more confident lenses. I wouldn’t call video AF “native” in performance, but I would call it good enough…so long as you are using one of the lenses that the adapter likes.
Conclusion
Switching to a new camera brand can be a daunting experience, as the sheer cost of selling what you have (typically at a significant loss) and then rebuying everything for the new brand is expensive. The Neewer NW-ETZ is an inexpensive ways to bridge that gap. You can keep using the lenses you love without adding any bulk and only minimal weight, and that weight is right up close to the camera where you won’t notice it anyway. I also really like the potential benefit for manual focus lenses and the idea of getting a focus confirmation chip as a free bonus.
After a stellar start, I was disappointed that I got somewhat inconsistent results as I widened my pool of lenses. On the lenses where the adapter worked well, it worked really well, delivering fast, accurate autofocus.
But in other cases, I was obviously much less impressed. The Megadap seems like the safer choice to me, though you will have to pony up an extra $100. Perhaps that’s because the Megadap is two generations in, while this is Neewer’s first shot. I think there’s a lot of potential here, because when it works, it works really well, but there are definitely some bugs left to squash.
Pros:
Love how compact the adapter is
Manual focus electronic confirmation is a nice bonus
Autofocus for stills (with lenses it likes) is generally very good
Was able to track some action during video capture
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Megadap ETZ21 Pro Sony E to Nikon Z Adapter Review
Dustin Abbott
November 25th, 2024
Megadap ETZ21 Adapter Review
When I first started using Sony E-mount, I was coming off a period of more than a decade where I had used the Canon EF ecosystem exclusively. It was a delight to find that there were adapters that would allow me to use my Canon lenses on my Sony camera as well. I used and reviewed a number of popular adapters from brands like Metabones, Sigma, and Vello, but found that they all came with some serious limitations. Over time I tired of used my EF lenses adapted for two primary reasons: 1) size and weight. 2) Inadequate performance. My favorite of the adapters proved to be the Sigma MC-11, but it added 125g to the weight of every lens attached to it and added another 26mm in length. This was necessary to adapt a DSLR mount to a mirrorless design. The optical path needs to be in a completely different place, so the optics need to be moved further away from the sensor to achieve proper infinity focus. I found that there was a huge spectrum of performance, too, with some lenses working fairly well and others being very inconsistent. Video AF, in particular, was pretty rough where it existed at all.
But here we are again looking at a new type of adapter, in this case adapting one mirrorless lens mount (Sony E-mount) to another mirrorless lens mount (Nikon Z-mount). The rules are a bit different this time. For one, the “flange distance” between the two mounts is similar, so now the adapter itself is just a few millimeters thick (2mm, to be exact), adding almost no additional bulk to lenses. There is a bit of weight, but, at 43g on my scale, it’s a third of what we dealt with the EF to FE adapters. And the performance seems to be better, too, with even some usable (though not flawless) performance for video. So is the Megadap ETZ21 Pro worth a $250 investment? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Megadap for providing a review sample of the ETZ21 Pro. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
There will be some continuity between this review and another of the Neewer NW-ETZ adapter, as I’ve spent time with both in an attempt to get up to speed as to which adapter works better.
I’m reviewing the more recent ETZ21 Pro. There was previously an ETZ21 adapter as well that some of you may already own. What’s changed from the standard adapter to the Pro adapter?
There are two significant improvements. One is that rather than having to do firmware updates through a separate process, you can now run firmware updates through the camera body just as you would a Nikon lens. The second major improvement is to the mechanical design to allow for a better fit for Tamron lenses (and other third party lenses as well). There’s also a redesign to the lens release button to allow for a smoother mount/unmount process. Megadap repeatedly emphasizes that the performance of both adapters is the same, so this isn’t going to change the autofocus performances in any appreciable way.
In my research, I found that Megadap has released 5 firmware updates in the past year, which is encouraging, as that shows an ongoing commitment to improving their product not just via new releases. Improvements include squashing bugs with certain lenses, improving function, adding compatibility with new brands, and helping to eliminate issues like battery drain.
So does it work? The short answer is “yes”, and in many situations autofocus is remarkably ordinary. The shot above was taken with the ETZ21 Pro allowing my Sony FE 50mm F1.4 G Master (a beautiful lens!) to work on my Nikon Z8. And how precise is that focus at F1.4? Take a look here:
So let’s dive a little deeper.
Build and Design
As noted previously this is a pretty simple device in some ways. Essentially it feels like a metal lens mount detached from a lens.
At just 2mm thick, it essentially just goes onto the lens like a second mount.
You really won’t notice that the adapter is there once mounted, and I found that in the half dozen lenses that I tested with it, mounting and unmounting lenses remained relatively simple. Lenses fit well without any wobble. I prefer to remove the lens from the camera before removing the adapter from the lens, as there isn’t much left to grab from the camera mount once the lens is removed. The adapter is very, very thin. Always be sure to power down the camera before removing anything, however.
The improved release mechanism works nicely, and isn’t hard to depress for removing lenses.
The magic of the adapter is the dual sets of electronic contacts you can see at the back of the adapter. One is the backside of the Sony contacts, while the most prominent contacts (on the top of the image below) are the Nikon Z-mount contacts.
The front of the adapter has the pins that will come in contact with the Sony E-mount lenses.
Presumably there is some kind of processor hidden in there to do the focus algorithm conversions, though I wasn’t able to find any information on that.
The Megadap adapter definitely bests the Newer in one regard: it accurately delivers the EXIF information, whereas the Neewer seems to try to find a Nikon equivalent.
Both of the images in the comparison were shot with the Tamron 35-150mm F2-F2.8 VXD, and the Megadap shows the proper lens designation (including A058, Tamron’s internal code for the lens), while the Neewer reported VR 35-150mm F2-2.8G, which is clearly not accurate (this is not a G lens, nor does it have VR). The Megadap also reported properly for the two Sony lenses I tested, the Sigma lens, and the Viltrox lens. The Neewer reported the Sony lenses as VR 35mm F1.4G and VR 50mm F1.4G, while the Megadap properly recorded them as FE 35mm and 50mm F1.4 GM, respectively.
Megadap reports that at the moment their adapter is the only one to work with Nikon DX (APS-C) cameras, though that will almost certainly change in the future.
One final observation – you will be covering the weather sealing gasket on your Sony FE mount lens, if so equipped, and the adapter itself has no gasket, so there is some possibility that your weather sealing may not be as complete with the adapter in place, so bear that in mind.
Stills Autofocus with the ETZ21 Pro
I’ve been interested in seeing how these adapters work with good Sony lenses, including the 35mm and 50mm GM lenses, but also how they work with some third party lenses, including popular lenses from Tamron, Sigma, and Viltrox.
Let’s start with a practical test. I took the the Sony 50mm F1.4 GM on a hike using the ETZ21 Pro on my Z8, and also had an inexpensive Yongnuo YN 33mm F1.4 mounted on a Sony body. Both combos, in theory, shake out to about the same thing, as the YN 33mm is an APS-C lens, leaving a 50mm equivalence. Autofocus in bare form would obviously favor the GM lens, which has multiple XD (Extreme Dynamic) linear motors whereas the Yongnuo has a more basic single STM focus motor. In many situations the adapted Sony lens worked about as well as the Yongnuo (which actually focuses quite well), with one exception that stood out to me. When attempting to focus on a close subject, the Megadap combo would often stick on the background, requiring me to try to find a more obvious (bigger, higher contrast) subject in about the same focus distance I wanted and then going back to the desired subject. If I didn’t do that, focus looked like this:
The correct focus (which I achieved by pointing the camera basically at the ground first and then returning to correct subject. Focus would lock accurately then.) looks like this:
It’s worth noting that the Yongnuo in shooting the exact same shot immediately locked on the correct focus point.
Now clearly the GM lens delivered a superior looking image than the cheaper lens, but it does go to show that even an inexpensive native lens is going to autofocus a little better than an adapted lens in this situation.
Still, however, I was able to get all the shots that I wanted on my hike, and the end results were accurately focused. Shots like these ferns that still provided a pop of green in the mid-November death of vegetation.
Or this bare branch with just enough moss growing on it to provide a nice subtle color contrast against the background.
These shots were all at F1.4, but I also had good results when shooting landscape shots at smaller apertures.
So, I think I can safely say that autofocus accuracy is not a problem. At the margins, however, I think you’ll find a few places where autofocus doesn’t quite match what’s possible with a native lens.
What’s interesting, however, is that if you have a high speed autofocus system on Sony, you will continue to get fast autofocus on Nikon via adapter. I compared the focus speed of the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 lens and that the of Sony 50mm F1.4 GM lens via adapter back to back on my Z8, and there was no question that the focus speed (and arguably confidence) in this test actually favored the GM lens.
That makes sense, as really the adapter’s job is to send the correct communications from the lens to the AF system via the contacts, so a fast focusing lens should continue to be a fast focusing lens, with the only real slowdown being from the need to “reinterpret” the focus algorithms from one language (Sony) to another (Nikon). So a faster focusing lens (Sony GM) bests a slower focusing lens (Nikkor Z 50mm) even if there is a slight slowdown due to focus algorithms.
But what about the same lens? I had a unique opportunity to compare the Z-mount version of the Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 with an adapter E-mount version of the same lens since I happened to have both of them on hand. In a pure focus test, I definitely found that the Z-mount version focused faster, with the adapted E-mount version being a little slower. Both would be fast enough for real world use, however.
I was also interested in seeing if the adapter affected the optical performance. In theory, it shouldn’t really affect sharpness, as there is no optical elements in the adapter themselves. No elements should mean no effect upon sharpness. As far as what I actually found, I don’t think there is any optical degradation. When I did a side by side comparison between the E-mount and Nikon Z-mount version of the Viltrox 16mm I found that there was just some give and take. I found the Z-mount version was a little sharper in the center…
…but the corner favored the E-mount version:
In other words, no consistent difference. I shot at different apertures and got similar results.
What I did find on a practical level was that when I was using the adapter I tended to get a bit of underexposure. I saw this when I compared the Viltrox 16mm lenses (the adapted lens metered at 1/400th, while the native mount lens metered at 1/250th), but I also saw it when just shooting during my hike. I ended up using exposure compensation for the second half of my hike and found that using 2/3rds of a stop of exposure compensation actually produced what I considered accurate exposure.
I didn’t see any kind of additional issues with flare or aberrations.
I was able to successfully use the Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM (fast focus due to being a fast focusing lens), and got good results with the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD (fast, but not GM level fast), with good but slightly slower results coming with the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN due to having a single STM focus motor.
Bottom line: the autofocus speed for stills you’ll get will depend a lot on the initial autofocus speed of the lens you’re adapting. Everything is slightly slower, but the better focusing lenses are fast enough that they are still fast even if you slow them down a bit.
At the same time, I wouldn’t want to rely on this combination for tracking fast action. Even with Nala trotting towards me at a moderately fast pace, I found that photos were fairly close but almost always backfocused a bit.
I think it is important to stay realistic about what adapted lenses can and cannot do. For most tasks, autofocus is plenty good enough. For fast action, with long telephotos, or for things like birding, I would say that using a native mount lenses is a smarter choice.
Video Autofocus
*These results will be easier to see in the video review for obvious reasons.
The good news is that you can still get autofocus during video capture, though there is a bit less confidence overall. I found that I encountered more pulsing during focus pulls, which is generally a byproduct of focus not being confident enough to lock. It would do a quick micropulse in the wrong direction sometimes.
I did a few tests walking towards the camera, and found that the results varied a bit. I did spot one principle difference with the Neewer NW-ETZ adapter, as I saw A) more reliable subject tracking with the Megadap adapter and B) seemed to get profile corrections in video with the Megadap but not the Neewer.
Using the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN and its slightly slower autofocus motor I found that I got fairly decent tracking even at F1.4 as I walked towards the camera. Autofocus moved mostly smoothly with me and footage looked great. When I stepped out of frame, however, and focus moved to the background, autofocus did not pick me back up when I stepped back into frame.
I switched to the faster 50mm GM lens, and it was much more successful at picking me up when I stepped back in the frame.
So, as before, you’ll get your best results for video AF when using more confident lenses. This is definitely a far cry from the video AF experience I got back in the day adapting Canon EF lenses, though just know that if you put these adapted lenses in demanding situations you may be a bit disappointed, but for most work you’ll be just fine.
Conclusion
Switching to a new camera brand can be a daunting experience, as the sheer cost of selling what you have (typically at a significant loss) and then rebuying everything for the new brand is expensive. The Megadap ETZ21 Pro is a great way to bridge that gap, however, if you happen to be coming from Sony E-mount to Nikon Z. You can keep using the lenses you love without adding any bulk and only minimal weight, and that weight is right up close to the camera where you won’t notice it anyway.
Or perhaps you just have certain lenses that you love on E-mount but there isn’t an equivalent lens on Z-mount. The Megadap is a great way to use a favorite lens on two systems, or just keep an old friend to enjoy on a new platform.
Either way, this little adapter seems worth the money. It works effectively for stills other than not wanting to focus on a close subject periodically, and it even works surprisingly well for video, too, though perhaps not quite as seamlessly. My expectations were largely set by experience with former adapters, and I would say that the the Megadap ETZ21 Pro easily exceeded those. It’s a better adapting experience than any that I’ve personally experienced, matching even what I saw when adapting Canon EF to Canon RF mount using a Canon adapter. The fact that a third party adapter has pulled that off is pretty impressive, and I’ll personally enjoy using some of my favorite E-mount lenses on my Nikon camera(s) moving ahead.
Pros:
Love how compact the adapter is
Seems to enjoy a certain amount of first party support (firmware updates, lens profiles).
Improved lens release button makes adding or removing a lens easier
Autofocus for stills is generally very good
Was able to track some action during video capture
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