Fotodiox has announced its new Pro Fusion “Smart” AF adapter for Canon EF to Leica L mount

Fotodiox has announced their new EF-L Fusion Smart AF adapter for Canon EF lenses to let you mount them to most L mount bodies. It guarantees infinity focus, full electronic communication and seems to offer full autofocus, aperture control and image stabilisation (with compatible lenses).

The EF-L Fusion Smart AF adapter is compatible with both full-frame EF lenses, as well as the APS-C EF-S lenses. Of course, you obviously won’t get full-frame coverage with crop lenses. It features all-metal construction, for what Fotodiox claim is a precise fit with “no play, gap or wiggling”.

The Fotodiox adapter joins Sigma’s own MC-21 and the Novoflex EF to SL adapter in a somewhat small club – none of which seem to offer the complete functionality of native L mount lenses, such as continuous autofocus while shooting video. Sigma’s MC-21 is also plagued by this issue, which is surprising considering they’re part of the whole L mount alliance. It seems that the Fotodiox also does not offer this feature, according to the notes on the product page…

• Fn Button: The function button on this adapter will turn off all electronic communication so that manual lenses can be used properly on L-mount cameras.
• Autofocus may be disabled for older Canon lenses and some third-party lenses (Sigma, Tamron and Tokina lenses).
• Third-party lenses like Sigma or Tamron lenses have more issues with autofocus.
• Auto Focus can be slow or even not function with varied model lenses and even different lenses of same model.
• Longer focal length lenses tend to have more issues with autofocus with the auto adapter.
• Not all Canon compatible lenses work equally well, dependant on: internal lens motors, firmware versions, lens age, etc
• Continuous AF and video AF are not supported as performance may be unsatisfactory.
• Switching between image and video can cause camera to freeze.
• Switching f-stops in video mode can cause white flashes in video.
• Certain video modes can cause the camera to freeze.
• To determine what the new ‘Crop Factor’ or ‘Equivalent Focal Length’ of the lens when used on your camera will be, please check the Fotodiox Knowledge Base article.

Yup, that’s quite the list of caveats. I’d be curious to see what the reviews are like once this gets in peoples hands and how it compares to the Sigma MC-21 in real-world performance, but it doesn’t look promising.

Amongst the list of compatible Leica bodies are the Leica T (Typ 701), Leica TL, Leica TL2 and Leica CL, although they specifically state that it does not (they bold and underlined it on their website, too) work with the Leica SL. For Panasonic, it works with the S1, S1R and S1H. Interestingly, there’s no mention of the Sigma fp at all.

It is quite a bit cheaper than the $249 Sigma adapter, coming in at only $179. So, if your only goal is to be able to mount Canon EF lenses onto L mount bodies and have control over your aperture (which would be most video guys using follow focus units) then this might be just the ticket.

The Fotodiox Pro Fusion Smart AF Adapter for EF to L is available to pre-order now for $179.95 and is expected to start shipping in the next couple of weeks. Find out more on the Fotodiox website.