A week after releasing a firmware update for its Mark IV and Speedbooster Ultra EF mount to Sony E mount adapters, Metabones has released firmware update .52 which contains not just additional fixes but also an interesting change in default mode.
Metabones accompanied this update with a press release in which the company lauds itself on listening to customer feedback and making appropriate improvements based upon that feedback.
The Metabones adapters offer both what Metabones calls “Green” and “Advanced” modes. Most video users tended to set their adapters to the “Advanced” mode. Users of Sony mirrorless cameras with phase detect autofocus such as the a6300 and the recent A7 models found that phase detect only worked in Green mode. In response to mirrorless customers, Green mode is now the default mode subsequent to applying the firmware .52 update.
Metabones adapters may be switched from Green to Advanced mode either on a per session basis or by changing the default mode. Instructions for this are found on the Metabones website. For users, such as myself, who have both a Sony E-mount video camera as well as Sony mirrorless cameras, changing the default setting whenever swapping cameras is less than advisable since the adapter has a limited number (not specified by Metabones) or default changes. Rather, following the directions that Metabones provides, it is a simply task to switch on a per session basis between modes.
Now, to complicate matters, cameras such as the a6300, A7R II and A7S II offer continuous autofocus, called by Sony Autofocus-C. This only works in Advanced mode and according to Metabones has been improved with the .52 update.
There is also a fix for displaying distance with focus by wire lenses in manual mode.
I applied the firmware update to my Mark IV adapter and tested in default Green mode on a Sony a6300. Indeed, continuous focus did not work on any Canon or third party lens I tried but phase detect autofocus worked.
The newly-revised .52 firmware update may be downloaded from Metabones’ website.