Zeiss Otus EF Lenses: Sony NEX-7 + Metabones EF Smart Adapters & Speed Boosters

[zerevo]

Hello,

Metabones' current V0.59 firmware[1] added EXIF Otus lens info (not just the 28/1.4) to their 4th and 5th generation Canon EF to Sony E-Mount products.

These have two operational modes[2]: Green and Advanced. The latter is always stopped down to the selected aperture whilst the former is wide open, only stopping down on shutter press, so I use Advanced Mode to avoid focus shift (I use manual focus lenses exclusively). However, Sony bakes inappropriate colour corrections into the RAW[3] in Advanced Mode, so I need to switch to Green Mode to take the shot.

I've shot ZE (Canon mount) Zeiss Otuses: 28/1.4, 55/1.4 and 85/1.4 as well as a Canon TS-E 90 on the following Metabones products:
CINE Smart Adapter[4]
CINE Speed Booster Ultra[5]
Mark IV T Smart Adapter[6]
Mark IV T Speed Booster[7]

The RAWs are in the appropriate Metabones folders here:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/dgh88hhv5a38o/Advanced_%26_Green_Modes

Only the CINE products report the correct Otus info, and only in Advanced Mode:

Code: [Select]

$ exiftool -ext arw -a -s -G1 -H "-lensID" Cine_SA/
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_Otus_28_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 ZE
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_Otus_28_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_Otus_55_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 ZE
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_Otus_55_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_Otus_85_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 ZE
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_Otus_85_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_TS-E_90_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8
======== Cine_SA/Cine_SA_TS-E_90_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)

$ exiftool -ext arw -a -s -G1 -H "-lensID" Cine_SBU/
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_Otus_28_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 ZE
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_Otus_28_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_Otus_55_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 ZE
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_Otus_55_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_Otus_85_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 ZE
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_Otus_85_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_TS-E_90_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8
======== Cine_SBU/Cine_SBU_TS-E_90_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)

Unfortunately, the Mark IVs are lacking the full Otus info:

Code: [Select]

$ exiftool -ext arw -a -s -G1 -H "-lensID" MkIV_SA/
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_Otus_28_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 28mm F1.4 G
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_Otus_28_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_Otus_55_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 55mm F1.4
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_Otus_55_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_Otus_85_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 85mm F1.4
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_Otus_85_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_TS-E_90_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 90mm F2.8
======== MkIV_SA/MkIV_SA_TS-E_90_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)

$ exiftool -ext arw -a -s -G1 -H "-lensID" MkIV_SBU/
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_Otus_28_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 28mm F1.4 G
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_Otus_28_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_Otus_55_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 55mm F1.4
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_Otus_55_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_Otus_85_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 85mm F1.4
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_Otus_85_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_TS-E_90_Adv.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : 90mm F2
======== MkIV_SBU/MkIV_SBU_TS-E_90_Grn.ARW
[Composite]          - LensID                          : Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM (SAL70400G)

I also note that the Mark IV T Speed Booster Ultra in Advanced Mode reports the Canon TS-E90 f2/8 as a f/2, unlike the CINE Speed Booster Ultra.

Without modifying the lens information for each file, is there any way to correct these issues?

[1] - http://www.metabones.com/article/of/EF-E_Firmware_Win
[2] - http://www.metabones.com/article/of/green-power-save-mode
[3] - https://verybiglobo.blogspot.com/2013/01/does-sony-nex-7-cook-raw-files.html
[4] - http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB-EF-E-BT6
[5] - http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPEF-E-BT3
[6] - http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB-EF-E-BT4
[7] - http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPEF-E-BT2

GNU/Linux
ExifTool Version 11.22

Regards,

[Phil Harvey]

Would it be possible for you to send me the full EXIF from your sample files?  ie) the output .exif files from this command:

exiftool -o %d%f.exif -all:all -ext arw DIR

My email is philharvey66 at gmail.com

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

I got the samples, thanks.  It looks like there is room for improvement in the decoding of the metadata for these lenses.  There are some unknown LensType2/LensType3 values in the files you sent.  Plus, it may be necessary to tweak the logic used for Metabones adapters.  I'll look into this and post back when I know more.

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

Wow.  Metabones is very inconsistent in the way they handle their lens identification.

Supporting these properly will require some (more) special logic added to ExifTool.

This is complicated by the fact that recent Sony models handle lens identification slightly differently.  It would be very useful if you could provide a set of similar samples for a recent Sony model (ILCE-6500, ILCE-7M3, ILCE-7RM3 or ILCE-9).

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

I got the samples, thanks.

And thanks to Jos Roost for analyzing these for me.

ExifTool 11.34 will improve things a bit, but due to inconsistencies in the way Metabones handles the lens information, ExifTool will continue to misidentify some lenses with these adapters.  I don't see any way around this.

- Phil