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Reader Experience: Fotodiox Fusion Lens Adapter for Nikon F to Sony E

See my Sony mirrorless wish list and other wish lists at B&H Photo.

I haven’t tested the FotodioX FUSION Smart AF Adapter for Nikon F Lens to Sony but reader Roy P has, and he offers this perspective.

Update: readers are also advised to web search for potential adapter issues. There seems to be some concern about electronic damage. I hesitate to post such things, but the claim is that of camera damage, so worth a read if considering and adapter like the Fotodiox.

THE FOTODIOX FUSION SMART AF SONY TO NIKON ADAPTER RUINED MY SONY A6300 CAMERA

FotodioX FUSION Smart AF Adapter
for Nikon F Lens to Sony E-Mount Camera

I had a bad experience a few years back with a Fotodiox mechanical Nikon to Canon adapter—it had to be destructively removed from a Zeiss prime.

I’ve never been a fan of electronic adapters though the Sigma MC-11 is very well made and worked successfully for me when I used it briefly with the Canon 11-24/4L.

...

Roy Pwrites:

Feedback on the Fotodiox Fusion adapter: I was hoping this adapter would finally give me a usable solution, but it is far from being ready to be marketed. They should not be putting out a product like this that is at best beta quality.

First, the good news: the build quality is good. It fit well on my Sony A7RM2 with my Nikon 105mm f/1.4 lens, with no wiggles, without being overtight. No issues with setting the f-stop from the camera or exporting EXIF data. After taking 200+ test shots of varying subjects, distances, and good/bad lighting conditions, it nailed the focus every time – surprisingly, not a single frame with my target out of focus.

The autofocusing is slow, and happens in jerky steps, until it finally gets to focus. Annoying, but I got used to it. It takes much longer to focus than with my Sigma MC-11 + Canon lenses - that combo is just about as fast as native Sony E mount lenses are on my A7RM2. The Fotodiox Fusion is 3-4 times slower. But to its credit, eventually, it did nail the focus every time, so I was willing to live with the slow performance.

But it has two fatal flaws: first, it sharply drains the battery in the camera. With a 100% charged battery, I could get only about 65 shots before the battery went totally dead. Even if you’re not taking a lot of photos, the adapter is consuming gobs of battery power, so unless you’re turning the camera off after every shot, you could be out of battery power in an hour or less. That is absurd.

I even briefly considered living with this headache, but the second fatal flaw, which was the killer for me, is that there is no USB port on this adapter. That means this is it – no firmware upgrades, no bug fixes or performance improvements, ever. Worse, if Sony comes out with a new camera next year, there is no guarantee this adapter will work with it optimally, or even work at all. That is totally unacceptable for a $370 adapter.

So I’m returning it, and I will keep looking for something better.

... and ads a day later:

I just read the comment by Michael R – thanks for the input about updating the adapter firmware via the camera. I knew the Fotodix Fusion was based on the Commlite adapter, and I was wondering if firmware upgrade was possible through the camera, but no one seemed to know the answer.

As for working with Nikon PC-E lenses, the Fotodiox did not work with my Nikon 45mm PC-E lens. The 45mm PC-E has an aperture ring that does not work unless the lens is powered, so I cannot use it with my non-electronic Novoflex or Metabones adapters.

With the Fotodiox adapter, I can set the f-stop from within the camera, but the problem is, all it does is to move the number from f/2.8 to f/32. But the diaphragm stays open, however. The aperture ring does not change the f-stop either. Worse, when I press the shutter release, there is no click and the camera simply hangs up. After that, the camera needs to be power cycled. Frankly, when I shut the camera off in this state, it makes a funny sound that is not very inspiring.

Net net, there are too many things still flaky with this adapter, and I don’t even know if adapter is totally safe for both the camera and the lens. One review on Youtube says this adapter killed an A6300. I just don’t think it is ready yet for prime time as a finished product.

DIGLLOYD: I have not tested these adapters (below); they are provided for reference.

CLICK TO VIEW: Nikon F to Sony E Mount Lens Adapters

Michael R writes:

I read the reader experience of this lens adapter. I also have his adapter and generally agree with the comments although I don't have a lot of experience with just how much the battery drain is accelerated. From what I can tell this adapter is physically and functionally identical to the Commlite adapter (except for the faux gold plating). This adapter, in fact, can be updated through a firmware download. The way it's done is to connect the adapter to the SONY camera and download the update to the camera. I have tried it on the Commlite and it seems to work well. Both adapters are running ver. 4.0 of the software so they work identically. (https://www.commlite.com/en/down.php)

I don't think these adapters will ever be a viable replacement for native lenses but I will be interested to see if they work with Nikon's new PC-E lens.

DIGLLOYD: I’m a big NON-fan of electronic adapters, and these two posts are best read stepping back out of the reality distortion field: Sony is all well and good, but native is better. And nearly $400 is better put towards buying a used Nikon D500 or similar.


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