Viltrox NF-M1 Autofocus Lens Mount Adapter for Nikon F-Mount to Micro Four Thirds Camera

I hesitate to be overly critical of this product since it's the only choice in F-Mount to Micro Four Thirds lens adapters that maintains the autofocus and VR functions of Nikkor AF-S G Type lenses and some other brand F mount lenses. I had high hopes for this adapter, envisioning how awesome my favorite Nikkor lenses and Sigma Art lenses would be mounted on the truly exceptional Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III. The multiplier for Micro Four Thirds focal length to full frame equivalent is 2, making lens choices really simple even in rapid shooting live. Since the Micro Four Thirds sensor is smaller than Nikon's DX (APS-C) sensor, one can use Nikkor DX lenses (the smaller cheaper ones) as well as Nikkor FX lenses. Many Nikkor lenses don't have VR, but the very effective IBIS of the Olympus camera fixes that issue. Sometimes older SLR lenses will have issues like backfocus, but since the camera is focusing directly from the image sensor rather than using a mirror, that too becomes not an issue. In addition to all these wonderful sounding advantages, this Vitrox adapter is made in the style of Nikon's own lens adapters like the popular FTZ adapter. It has no optics of its own; it's a spacer with electronic contacts and the appropriate bayonet mounts for camera and lens. It just sounds perfect, right? Well, yeah, but reality comes crashing into this lovely dream. The build quality of the product is OK, but not great. It's really tight on some lenses or cameras, and a bit loose on others. The locking mechanism on the front side, for the lens, a simple plunger and spring, is not particularly precise. The electronic contacts are similar - they are there, and they work, but one wonders for how long and how reliably. The end result is that the adapter functions as advertised on most of my Nikkor lenses, many of my Sigma Art lenses, and almost none of any other F mount lenses. Of course, one can turn off the AF and still use the lens with manual focus, and in limited situations like landscapes and macros, that is a viable option. Most of current popular photography is more demanding than that, social media and video being typical examples, so working autofocus is pretty necessary. Regarding image quality, which many people have little concept of these days, despite having no optics the adapter does degrade image quality a bit, producing slightly softer images, more or less like going from a professional lens to an inexpensive kit lens. Regarding functionality, the adapter is small and simple to use, but is largely limited to AF-S (single focus shooting) and rarely works in AF-C (continuous focus shooting). Sorry for the long review, but I wanted to make it as helpful as possible. Bottom line - The Viltrox NF-M1 is a decent product that works as advertised, mostly, on Nikkor brand AF-S G lenses, both FX and DX, with some degradation in image quality and restriction to single focus shooting. The build quality is suspect and I doubt that it would last long with frequent lens changes. It's priced about the same as Nikon's own lens adapter (FTZ), but it is greatly inferior in quality and functionality. Finally, the adapter will work on some third party F mount lenses, but not all, and definitely on a case by case basis.

The ONLY lens I actually wanted this to work with is the Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 Art, and it does. Not only does it work, it's by far the most consistently well-performing lens I've adapted. The Tamron 18-400 doesn't work reliably at all, especially at 400mm and from my previous tenure with this adapter the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 (Macro) wouldn't work well either despite both lenses being officially supported. You loose continuous AF, but I think it's well worth it.

I bought 3 adapter before this one. Unfortunately, it is the only one that has the ability to control electronic iris on Tamron lenses for Nikon cameras. Tamron lenses do not have a lever like Nikon lenses, so it can not be changed mechanically. It does not have support for all lenses. I bought it to be used with a Tamron 100-400mm but it only as the ability to change iris but it does no work with the stabilization system on this lens. I give it 4

I bought this adapter to use with the Tamron 150-600 lens (for Nikon mount) on a micro 4/3 Panasonic Lumix GH-5. The Viltrox is not the cheap piece of junk I expected it to be, but is metal where it should be. It goes off and on the camera easily, and I was surprised to see that the auto iris worked perfectly well. Tamron wouldn't say if it was going to work or not. The auto iris is why I bought this adapter. Unlike regular Nikon lenses that have a manual iris ring, either on the lens body itself, or built into the non-electronic MTF adapter that many people use with it, the Tamron lens has zero accommodation for manual aperture settings. You have to go with electronic, and the Viltrox seems to be the only one. (FYI the Canon setup has no manual aperture either.) The auto focus worked some of the time, but I don't use auto focus, so I didn't test it very extensively. I had one very big problem, not the fault of the Viltrox adapter. As you can see, there is a base to the adapter that sticks below the base of the camera. It has a hole for a mount screw, and that's OK except for two situations. 1. If you are using a heavy lens or a heavy camera on a tripod, the only contact with the tripod will be on the Viltrox adapter. That's a lot of weight for the lens/adapter/camera mount rings to have to handle all the time. 2. If you use a Zacuto Z-finder hood to shade your view screen. This was my problem. The base plate of the Z-finder, that the camera sits on, extends about 1/4 inch in front of the bottom of the camera. You can see that the Viltrox will not screw on if there is something protruding below the camera. So you can't use the Viltrox adapter and the Zacuto Z-finder at the same time on the GH-5 camera. I was able to solve the problem by buying a cheap part from Zacuto and cutting a gasket from a foam sheet (Michael's Craft Stores). It wasn't hard to do, and it keeps the Zacuto base plate from sticking out in front of the camera.

I am a wildlife videographer and use the Panasonic Lumix GH-5. The longest telephoto zoom meant for this camera is the Leica 80-400. If you want to go longer, you are looking at expensive prime lenses or a Sigma or Tamron zoom. The Tamron 150-600 is a good lens. The problem is finding an adapter. Tamron offers the same lens for Canon EF, or Nikon F. I prefer for Nikon because with a manual adapter, you have a manual iris (not in Canon). Unfortunately, and not publicized, the Tamron for Nikon does not permit any sort of manual exposure, no matter what adapter you buy. So you're stuck with an electronic micro 4/3 to Nikon adapter, and this seems to be the only one there is. It is reasonably well made, metal rings, good contacts, easy to take on and off, good price. It is of Chinese manufacture. All the electronic functions worked fine with a Nikon (50 mm) lens. But when I put the Tamron zoom on it it turned really funky. It worked when it was initially turned on, but any changes made in the camera such as switching from auto to manual and back to auto, or choosing a different custom preset, caused the auto focus and auto iris to stop working. Turning the camera off and on again brought back the functions, but making changes froze them again. Not what you want to see in the field. I have no idea why this happens. Perhaps third party adapters and lenses combined are just too much for the camera. So if you shoot wildlife and are looking for the same reach you had 10 years ago with the Canon EX line, keep looking.

Got this directly from Viltrox. I'll pass on the time it took them to deliver it (they ran out of stock, it was a joy). A few words to put things in perspective - the short story and the questions: - I consider the simple fact that there's an adapter out there able to AF with Nikon lenses AT ALL an amazing feat. So most of my five stars are for the feat of this thing being able to AF at all. - Tested on E-M1mk3 - AF is generally slow. You can absolutely forget about C-AF - it hunts forever. Tests done in S-AF. - No AF on non-motorized Nikon AF lenses. The bulge on the bottom of the adapter is for actuating the aperture, NOT an AF motor. - All info is passed correctly to the camera: lens focal length, aperture, etc. - Lenses tested: 200-500mm f:5.6, 28-300mm, Sigma Art 20mm f:1.4. The 28-300mm works the worst. AF hunts quite a bit. Quite a bit of false AF locks as well. Much more so at 300mm. The 200-500mm f:5.6 works better, in good light. You can maybe nail a bird in flight every now and then, and definitely decent for static wildlife. The Sigma Art 20mm f:1.4 is borderline decent. For Olympus users - if you go as far back as the 4/3 reflex times, here are a few references: - 28-300mm AF speed is like a non-PDAF camera body trying to focus one of the old Sigma 4/3 mount lenses with the non-silent AF motors. Think a 18-50mm kit Sigma or the 55-200mm kit Sigma in 4/3 on a first gen E-M5 or E-P something. - 200-500mm f:5.6 AF speed is like the Bigma 50-500mm in 4/3 mount on a first gen E-M1. - 20mm Sigma Art f:1.4 is like a 14-54mk2 (supposedly CDAF optimized) 4/3 lens on a late gen non-PDAF camera (like Pen-F or E-M1mk2). Bugs: - On the second day, 200-500mm f:5.6 would lock camera for as long as 5 seconds after turning on camera, taking a picture, etc. Didn't happen again. - Aperture actuation (mechanical one) is noisy and slow. With lenses with heavy aperture blades and/or having to close above say f:11, there's a delay between pressing the shutter button and taking the picture, sounds like the camera is waiting for the blades to close first. Behavior is similar to having a first electronic shutter curtain set to 0.3 seconds or something like that. - I am not at all sure what the correct settings (in camera) should be for the aperture not to go crazy, google lens rattlesnaking for that, but I suspect this will have a major impact on how this adapter performs. - The mechanism in the adapter that actuates the aperture is loud. That's about it. All in all - I don't regret my purchase as I already own Nikon lenses, but I wouldn't consider this purchase worth it when the plan is to buy a Nikon lens from scratch. Unless there are very specific requirements that only Nikon can fill. But I suspect in such a case a Canon lens (with its all-electronic aperture and silent motor AF) and a Viltrox Canon EF adapter will be the better choice.