One of the things that you always hear about from Sony FE mirrorless pushers is that you can use your Canon EF/EF-S AF lenses on the Sony FE mount. While that is true, even a little research will show you the performance of that AF leaves a lot to be desired.

adapters

That being said, just having the ability to use those lenses on your A7 series camera is a great thing. But the prices of these adapters range quite a bit, and one wouldn’t be remiss for thinking that spending almost $400 on the Metabones would buy you better AF performance. But is that the case?

[REWIND: Sony FE 24-70mm F/4 Reviewed]

Dave Dugdale, from LearningVideo.com (Formerly LearningDSLRVideo), recently did a great comparison between the Metabones and the Commlite, pitting a $400 adapter vs. a $100 adapter, and the results may surprise you. Dave actually ended up preferring the $100 Commlite adapter over the more expensive Metabones one.

What about the other budget adapters? A very popular brand in the adapter market is Fotodiox, how does their adapter stack up to the $100 Commlite version? Dave recently put out another video comparing the Fotodiox to the Commlite, and the results were interesting.

It seems that no matter how much you spend on these adapters, the issues and results you get will largely be the same. Now, this is not the whole story; the Metabones adapter does have some more advanced features over the cheaper versions – but as Dave pointed out, as far as actual adapter performance goes, the adapters are largely the same across the board.

I have been looking into these adapters myself recently, mainly so I can use/review some Canon lenses without needing to borrow a Canon body. I had been thinking that I would save a bit and splurge for the more expensive Metabones, thinking that it would give me better results than the budget versions. However, I think now I am just going to go get the Commlite or Fotodiox version and save that extra money towards another native FE mount lens.

Those of you who were/are also thinking about getting one of these adapters. What are your thoughts on this comparison? Which adapter were you thinking you were going for, and which do you think now after watching these videos? Leave a comment!

[via Dave Dugdale]