Metabones is bringing its TruePDAF Technology to Fujifilm cameras, and they have new products that completely replace the entire Canon EF to Fujifilm X Mount Speed Booster and Smart Adapter line-up. The company has announced the Speed Booster ULTRA II+ and Smart Adapter II+ series.
The four new products in the line-up are:
- EF-X mount T Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II+ (MB_SPEF-X-BT4)
- EF-X mount T Smart Adapter II+ (MB_EF-X-BT4)
- EF-X mount T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II+ (MB_SPEF-X-BT5)
- EF-X mount T CINE Smart Adapter II+ (MB_EF-X-BT5)
Metabones claims that these new products offer better phase-detection autofocus (PDAF) performance and in-body image stabilization (IBIS). It is claimed that internal reflections are reduced by utilizing ‘T’ true flocking, which is a process of flocking the entirety of the inside of the adapter.
So what is the difference between a Speed Booster and a Smart Adapter? A Speed Booster utilizes specialized optical elements designed to provide higher optical quality and effectively change the focal length and aperture of the lens to achieve a wider field of view and faster effective aperture. On the other hand, a Smart Adapter acts as a sophisticated electronic bridge between the lens and camera to maintain autofocus, aperture control, and IBIS communication, but it does not include the optical elements found in the Speed Booster.
Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II+
Speed Booster ULTRA uses an advanced 5-element/4-group optical design incorporating ultra-high index tantalum-based optical glass to achieve high optical performance with improved corner sharpness, distortion, and reduced vignetting. It has a magnification of 0.71x, and so it effectively reduces the crop factor of mirrorless Fujifilm X mount cameras from 1.5x to 1.07x.
The Speed Booster ULTRA is claimed to perform extremely well with f/2.8 zoom lenses such as the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 zooms by Canon to produce 17-50mm f/2.0 and 50-142mm f/2.0 high-speed zooms, respectively. High-speed fixed focal length lenses such as a 50mm f/1.2 will be transformed into a 35.5mm f/0.9 lens with claimed excellent contrast and resolution from the centre all the way to the edges of the image.
The Speed Booster ULTRA looks to be a good fit with Fujifilm X-mount cameras by making full-frame lenses one stop brighter, 0.71x wider, and increasing their MTF (modulation transfer function, a measure of lens sharpness).
Smart Adapter II+
The TruePDAF Technology acts as a bridge, allowing Canon EF lenses to work with select Fujifilm X-mount cameras by utilizing a database of lens profiles to optimize phase-detection autofocus. By transmitting native-like lens data to the camera, autofocus is claimed to be greatly improved, especially in challenging lighting, low-contrast shooting conditions, or when doing close focusing. The catch is, this only works with Fujifilm models like the XH series, XPro 2, or X-T2 and above.
Metabones states that they have reverse-engineered the Fujifilm communication protocol. This results in better IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) performance and more consistent autofocus across both supported and unsupported lenses.
The new II+ hardware shares the same processor as last year’s CINE Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II and CINE Smart Adapter II. For customers who have already purchased Mark II, a free firmware upgrade to version 1.70, which is immediately available for download from Metabones’ web site for Mac and Linux users and from Microsoft Store for Windows users, is all that is required to gain the benefits of new TruePDAF Technology and the fastest PDAF performance.
Pricing & Availability
The Metabones EF-X mount T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II+ will be available in September 2026 for $699 USD. The Metabones EF-X mount T CINE Smart Adapter II+ will cost $ 449 USD; the EF-X mount T Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x II+ is $649 USD, and the EF-X mount T Smart Adapter II+ is $399 USD.
Upgrades for Existing Customers
Metabones has released a scaled-down version of firmware version 1.70 that fits within old Mark I hardware, which is available for download from Metabones’ website (Mac/Linux) and Microsoft Store (Windows). This is claimed to provide a major autofocus performance improvement over the previous version; this comes despite reaching a hardware ceiling where no further autofocus improvement will be possible with old Mark I hardware. However, Metabones has stated that they will continue to release bug fixes by firmware update for Mark I in the foreseeable future.
Mark I customers can contact Metabones to inquire about their upgrade program to Mark II+ by writing to customer service ([email protected]). The existing housing will be kept, but they will replace the circuit board with a new Mark II+ circuit board.
