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Disclaimer :
Sorry people, this is a 'longuer than usual' post.
Feel free to ignore it unless you have plenty of spare time .😀
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My Hawks arrived yesterday. As I had already a Metabones Nex-M adapter, I'll try to describe the ( IMHO ) pluses and minuses of each of them.
The Hawks is lighweight compared to the Metabones; both feel solid.
The Metabones has better "looks" it's beautifully finished. The Hawks looks more industrial grade. This is of no concern if what it matters is performance.
Measuring the thickness of both adapters with a caliper, I obtained : 9.77 mm. for the Hawks; 9.62 mm. for the Metabones.
I knew that the Metabones focused a bit past infinity with the only M lens I own ( in fact a LTM lens plus M-LTM adapter )
Testing the Hawks ( making sure that the helicoid was at 0 ) infinity wasn't completely achieved ( camera on tripod, distant object, 14X magnif.)
Fortunately, as my lens is a LTM with adapter to M bayonet. what I did last night was to grind gradually the flat side of the LTM to M adapter ( previously 0,95 mm. thick ). I found that when the adapter was at 0.90mm. infinity seemed spot on with the Hawks. Of course, the Metabones focuses a bit more past infinity than before, but this isn't important
The helicoid on the Hawks works great, smooth but it won't move when you turn the focus ring of the lens. Certainly feels good.
Fitting the lens into the Hawks was a bit harder than expected but when it was in, not the slightest play or rotation when focusing. A perfect fit. The Metabones on his part allows an easier mounting but, at the same time. has a bit of play sideways when the lens is mounted.
My conclusion is that, while those two are high quality adapters, they seem to be built with different approaches. Metabones plays the safe bet. Making a thin adapter, they won't risk infinity problems with lenses or bodies a bit out of specifications. Not all lenses are Leicas in pristine shape. Many older units from several brands were built with less strict tolerance and years had made things worse, So, in that matter, Metabones option seems wise. Hawks on the contrary makes adapters exactly to specifications. This is a sign of good quality but, at the same time, risky. We might end up, as in my case, not reaching inf. focus if the lens is only minimally thicker than what it should.
The tight fit of the lens into the adapter is a good thing also but, again, if the bayonet of the lens, or the LTM-M adapter is not perfectly shaped, mounting it into the Hawks might be problematic.
Metabones played safe here also and isn't likely that we'll have any problem mounting the lens but the risk of play or wobbliness increases, because some lenses may have worn bayonets and some LTM-M adapters, specially the Ebay cheapies, are far from perfect.
All summed up I'm keeping the Hawks and selling the Metabones, mainly for the helicoid of course, but even if it hadn't that feature, I'd keep it too.
Be aware though, that the Hawks adapter isn't forgiving with sloppy or worn lenses and/or cheap LTM adapters.
