Quick look at the FOTGA autofocus macro tubes

So, let me start by saying that I am in no way a good photographer, not even a decent one. If I take a thousand pictures I might get one that I'm happy with, and then I'll most likely accidently delete that one beacuse i have absolutely no clue what I am doing.

With that said, I still enjoy taking pictures and I will more often than not have at least one camera on my person at all times. As of late my camera of choice have been an Olympus E-PM2, most of the time fitted with the 14-42 kit lens. One problem with that combo though, is that quite often i find myself wanting to get real close to ugly bugs and weird looking flowers as i explore the vast wilderness of my back yard and the evil lens just wont let me.

What to do, what to do? A quick look on my not so local local camera store's website reveals the the cheapest option from there would be Kenko's automatic macro extension tubes. But at US $255 I'd have to sell my house to afford those and then I would have no back yard to explore anymore  There has to be a better way? So off to Google, which leads me to Ebay, where i find the FOTGA tubes for about a fifth of the price, or US $54. Worth a try was my first thought, and today they arrived.

So, after several minutes of unprofessional testing, what are they like?
Well, extensive research, i.e 45 seconds of googling, shows that the function is the same as the more expensive tubes. The electronics in the lens work like normal.

There are two tubes, one 10mm and one 16, they can be used one or the other or both together.

The build quality seems nice, the mount parts are metal and the body plastic, feels sturdy enough and connects to the camera and lens with a snug fit.

How are they to use? well, everything works just like it normally does with the only difference being you get a lot closer to your subject. With both tubes and the 14-42mm at 42mm the minimum focus distance is around 50 mm or just under 2 inches and the max distance about an inch further away.

Worth the money? I'd say yes, you get very decent macro capabilities for 50 bucks, I dont know any other way to get closer for less money  Only complaint so far is that I get enough to see how filthy everything in my house is.

Questions? feel free to ask, I will answer what i can.

Time to round up with some pictures, right? All ooc jpeg's, somewhat resized with a few 100% crops taken in a dimly lit room in the middle of the night.

The beautiful packaging almost made me want to make an unboxing video...

Here they are.

the insides.

more insides.

Millimeters.

a not so giant bird.

100% crop, a little closer.

100% crop, even closer.

Random bird.

random old lego dude.

hindesite wrote:

Thanks for posting this.

Your photos don't show if the inside of the tube is treated to reduce reflections - either with a matt black coating or the use of annular grooves, or otherwise shaped. Can you provide any extra information?

I have the Viltrox equivalent, which are absolutely useless - don't work reliably or at all; poor connections.

here is what the inside looks like.

I posted some information on the Fotga tubes a few months ago:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51450718

Six months later, I no longer use them, their aluminium mating surfaces have grown increasingly unhappy with the stainless steel surfaces of my lenses...  One time (the last time!) I wasn't sure I was going to be able to take the tube off the lens without damage, about 3 minutes of slowly increasing panic!  The tiniest drop of penetrating oil left for 20 seconds did the job.

hindesite wrote:

lester11 wrote:

I posted some information on the Fotga tubes a few months ago:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51450718

Six months later, I no longer use them, their aluminium mating surfaces have grown increasingly unhappy with the stainless steel surfaces of my lenses... One time (the last time!) I wasn't sure I was going to be able to take the tube off the lens without damage, about 3 minutes of slowly increasing panic! The tiniest drop of penetrating oil left for 20 seconds did the job.

Thanks, that is useful information - is it really aluminium? Does it just have poor anodising?

I'm not a metallurgist, though I do handle common metals from time to time.  It *looks* to me like it is aluminium, it seems it is that kind of "soft".  I don't think it has any anodising.  My guess is that it is plate, rolled to give a "reasonable" finished surface.  I'd also guess that it is a particular grade of harder aluminium alloy, perhaps a well-tempered aerospace 7068 or 7075.

I did think about leaving the tube on the lens rather than demounting it every time to minimise the chance of the surfaces seizing, but the problem there is that aluminium and stainless do interact electro-galvanically, there is some gap between them on the galvanic chart.