DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Do any of your extension tubes mate with the Oly teleconverters?

Started Feb 23, 2021 | Questions thread
Peter 1745 Senior Member • Posts: 2,022
Re: Do any of your extension tubes mate with the Oly teleconverters?
5

WileEC_ID wrote:

Coming from Nikon FF land, one of the ways I got more from my 105mm macro lens was to add the 1.4x teleconverter to it.

I noticed that the Oly 60mm macro has no room to accommodate the lens of the Oly 1.4x TC, but wondered if my extension tube might accommodate that, and allow me to add it in - but the inner circle of my extension tubes (Movo brand, Amazon US) were too narrow.

So, if you have the Oly 60mm macro lens AND extension tubes AND the Oly 1.4x TC - will the TC fit inside your extension tubes? If so, would love to know the brand and where you got them. Bonus for if they were a set of three. Double bonus if AF works with all three. TIA.

The front lens element of the MC14 (Oly 1.4x TC) protrudes 6.4mm and is 25.9mm diameter.

On my set of extension tubes (Fotga 10mm & 16mm) the internal diameter of the 10mm tube is 27.2mm, so the MC14 fits without modification. However the 10mm length doesn't provide enough length clearance for the 60mm lens. Adding an unmodified 16mm extension tube to the 10mm tube provides enough clearance.

The internal diameter of the 16mm is slightly smaller at 25.2mm, which prevents its attachment directly to the MC14.

So with an unmodified set of Fotga extension tubes (10m & 16mm) the only working combination is:-

Camera+MC14+10mm+16mm+60mmMacroLens

If you want to attach the MC14 to the 16mm tube you need to file/grind off a small amount of the tube's internal baffle.

The material is plastic and easy to remove with a hand file. You could use a power tool (e.g. Dremel) but it would be easy to over do it. The procedure is easy. File a bit off, trial fit, file a bit more ...repeat until it fits. You only have to remove about 0.5mm all round.

Enlarging the hole doesn't affect the functionality of the 16mm tube in any other way.

Once enlarged the following combination is possible.

Camera+MC14+16mm+60mmMacroLens

Pixco extension tubes are similar to Fotga ones in their sizing and materials. The 10mm is wide but not long enough and the 16mm is long but not wide enough (in it's unmodified form) but the 16mm is easy to modify. Both brands offer pass through electronics so AF and aperture lens control works normally.

I got my Fotga tubes from Amazon UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fotga-Automatic-Extension-Olympus-Panasonic/dp/B076BC33Q9/

Pixco ones can be found on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pixco-Auto-Focus-Macro-Extension-Tube-Adapter-for-Micro-4-3-mount-M43-OM-D-GX7/221372792506

Kenko tubes have narrower holes and won't fit without modification, which is more difficult due to their metallic material construction.

Examples of the magnification that can be achieved in this post from OneofOne, who uses a modified Pixco 16mm tube.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64730309

-- hide signature --

Regards,
Peter
'Keep taking the photos'

selected answer This post was selected as the answer by the original poster.
Post (hide subjects) Posted by
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow