Using the MC-14 Teleconverter on the Olympus 60mm macro lens

JulesGo wrote:

Bookhambob wrote:

I have just bought a set of Fogta extension tubes. The 10mm fitted the MC-14 fine, I added the Kenko 10mm in front, it fitted OK, but there was no signal between lens and camera. After a bit of investigation I found that the 10mm does not connect to my EM1 mk2, but does connect at to the Fogta 16mm tube . The 16mm tube seems good however and connects to everything. So I measured the difference in barrel internal diameter between the two, it is about 0.3mm. I then removed 0.2 mm or so from the inside of the 16mm extension tube using a box cutter and emery paper. After a couple of tries the MC-14 fitted perfectly.

So my setup is :Camera, MC-14, Fogta 16mm tube, 60mm Macro lens. No need for a second tube.

It all connects up and focusses nicely. Magnification is impressive, stacking works so I will be off hunting insects tomorrow.

Thanks for the original tip and happy hacking!

Bob

Great idea. Wll try that.

Let us know how it worked!

Garnet sand grain on another grain of sand.  Garnet is .25mm wide

Bald Faced Hornet at 3.5x (raynox 250 used on this image)

I have seen all of your sand and insects work, great job and wonderful photos!
Actually it raised so much interest that I decided to try some macro and intended to buy the Fotga 10+16 extension which seems to be the most available from amazon in France to use at first with my new 40-150 pro which is said to be quite usable as a macro lens (don't remember exact ratio) and will later purchase the 60mm.
Do you think this will be usable:
Camera ----> MC-14----->FOTGA 10mm extension tube---->FOTGA 16mm extension tube-----> OLY 40-150 pro , then later Olympus 60mm macro ?

Thanks

Pretoret wrote:

I have seen all of your sand and insects work, great job and wonderful photos!
Actually it raised so much interest that I decided to try some macro and intended to buy the Fotga 10+16 extension which seems to be the most available from amazon in France to use at first with my new 40-150 pro which is said to be quite usable as a macro lens (don't remember exact ratio) and will later purchase the 60mm.
Do you think this will be usable:
Camera ----> MC-14----->FOTGA 10mm extension tube---->FOTGA 16mm extension tube-----> OLY 40-150 pro , then later Olympus 60mm macro ?

I think you should put the MC-14 on a 40-150 pro and than add the extension rings.

Pretoret wrote:

I have seen all of your sand and insects work, great job and wonderful photos!
Actually it raised so much interest that I decided to try some macro and intended to buy the Fotga 10+16 extension which seems to be the most available from amazon in France to use at first with my new 40-150 pro which is said to be quite usable as a macro lens (don't remember exact ratio) and will later purchase the 60mm.
Do you think this will be usable:
Camera ----> MC-14----->FOTGA 10mm extension tube---->FOTGA 16mm extension tube-----> OLY 40-150 pro , then later Olympus 60mm macro ?

Thanks

Just saw this.  I am really note sure.  Have you tried it yet??

Using my Olympus em1 mark 2 and the EM5 mark 3, I did some focus bracketing of Hoar Frost using the setup.  I would set the camera down next to the grass blades with hoar frost, use manual focus, and touch the screen to get the focus bracketing started.  I had it set on 180 images for each shot, at 1/10 for my step size.

The field of view on these shots is 3mm left to right or less if I cropped.

oneofone25 wrote:

Pretoret wrote:

I have seen all of your sand and insects work, great job and wonderful photos!
Actually it raised so much interest that I decided to try some macro and intended to buy the Fotga 10+16 extension which seems to be the most available from amazon in France to use at first with my new 40-150 pro which is said to be quite usable as a macro lens (don't remember exact ratio) and will later purchase the 60mm.
Do you think this will be usable:
Camera ----> MC-14----->FOTGA 10mm extension tube---->FOTGA 16mm extension tube-----> OLY 40-150 pro , then later Olympus 60mm macro ?

Thanks

Just saw this. I am really note sure. Have you tried it yet??

Not yet, fotga tubes are absolutely crappy, obviously quality issues so electronic contacts can’t be done. I had to return it and will try some other brand later.

i have bought the 30mm macro in the meantime, feel a little plastic but image quality is ok, of course not so huge magnification yet but I have some work anyway with classic macro issues such as steadiness, depth of field and light control! I realized that compared with my previous tampon+Nikon dslr you gain overall compact and lighter setup but it is a totally different feel. You have a feeling of playing with a tiny toy! For instance  I have not found yet the ideal tripod. At first I have tried a small gorillapod which is easy to set but is not rigid and steady enough. A slight mouvement and you get everything blurred. Second choice will be my big and massive sirui tripod which obviously will be oversized and not very practical for ground level shots !

I the meanwhil eon the G9 I canno put the setup working as I expected.

G9 + Oly 60 works (obviously)

G9 + 2 fotga 10mm rings + Oly 60 works as expected

G9 + MC14 +2  fotga 10mm rings + Oly 60...gives something not expected...

a screen appears saying :

focal length set

setting range 0,1m - 10000.0m

with some squares below to define the value...

no autofocus working anymore

some function I have to change in the setup ?

anyone tested the setup on any other Panasonic  ?

Here are some examples using the MC-20 coupled to the Olympus 60mm macro lens and Raynox 202 (I use the PIXCO 10mm extension tubes, two of them, to attach the MC-20 to the Olympus 60mm Zuiko macro lens).

oneofone25 wrote:

You thought it couldn't be done, right?

Well, prepare to be blown away! A friend suggested to me that he was able to use an off-brand extension tube to connect to the Olympus MC-14 Teleconverter, and that it gave him extra magnification on his 60mm macro lens. I had my doubts as I had purchased the amazing quality KENKO brand tubes back 8 months ago along with the MC-14 to try this, only to be shut down as the lens for the teleconverter did not (1) fit into the extension tube and (2) the locking mechanism never was able to work because there was a piece on the tele-converter that got in the way (after forcing the teleconverter into the tube).

I was told that the PIXCO brand extension tubes which come from China and have the electronic connections built in (albeit a very cheap plasticky feel to them) worked and so I ordered a set from China. I also ordered a set of FOTGA brand off Amazon as they shipped from the US and looked to be the same but with a different name brand on them. Both arrived the same day...

I ripped open the box for both and tried putting the 10mm FOTGA brand first onto the front of the MC-14 which was on my Olympus EM1 mark 2. Snap! Perfect fit! Now, my friend didn't have another set of extension tubes, but the 10mm just on it's own will not take care of the length of the teleconverter connecting to the 60mm macro lens. He added the 16mm to the setup as it's all he had. My concern with that is reducing light even more so as I know that the MC-14 will affect light by about a full stop and with some extension tubes space in-between the MC-14 lens and back of the 60mm lens, possibly more. So I grabbed the 10mm Kenko tube I had and used that.

NOTE: You cannot use the 16mm FOTGA or PIXCO extension tube to attach to the MC-14. It will not work. ONLY the 10mm works from those sets.

So, I have Camera ----> MC-14----->FOTGA 10mm extension tube---->Kenko 10mm extension tube----->Olympus 60mm macro lens.

Now, with the Olympus 60mm macro lens all on it's own you get a 1x magnification when you have the magnification set at the highest level. Here is a small dead fly I took a focus stack with of 70 images using the Olympus 60mm on it's own, with no tubes or Raynox or MC-14. Focus bracketing was used at 1/10 for the step size, 70 images stacked in Helicon:

Here is with the MC-14 added using the 10mm Fotga and 10mm kenko tube:

If I add one Raynox 250 macro filter to the front of the 60mm macro lens, I get this:

If I add another Raynox 250 on top of the first, I get this:

Since doing these two days ago, I have tried using only the Raynox 202 instead of any Raynox 250s and am getting great results with stacks at about 4.5x or slightly more. I do have to turn up the ISO to about 200-350 depending on the subject, but it is worth it!

edge of a United States dime:

Single garnet sand grain, 1/3mm wide:

tiny sample of sand from Bandon, Oregon

Frame is 2.5mm left to right

Great shots as usual. Are you sure that's a fly and not Jeff Goldblum?

Rene Weterings wrote:

didin19 wrote:

Em5II + MC-14+2x10mm extension tubes + Zuiko 60mm macro + Raynox dcr250.

Why do you need 2x 10mm? Isn't 1 tube of 10mm enough to bridge the extrusion of the MC-14?

not quite

jowkon wrote:

jcr4486 wrote:

I the meanwhil eon the G9 I canno put the setup working as I expected.

G9 + Oly 60 works (obviously)

G9 + 2 fotga 10mm rings + Oly 60 works as expected

G9 + MC14 +2 fotga 10mm rings + Oly 60...gives something not expected...

a screen appears saying :

focal length set

setting range 0,1m - 10000.0m

with some squares below to define the value...

no autofocus working anymore

some function I have to change in the setup ?

anyone tested the setup on any other Panasonic ?

@jcr4486 Did you get it to work?

I dont have MC14 but on all Gh's I had firs thing I did was to change one of the setting to No lens what in past enables no native lanses. It will probably no fix issue as it has to communicate first but I hope you fix this as Im going to use with G9

yes I did, it looks like it was some bad contact issue (isolated) so after proper cleaning went OK

federico82 wrote:

Super interesting post!

I'm wondering: given the same framing of the subject, with a TC the distance from the subject should increase, but tubes decrease it. With this combination, how is the working distance affected? Increased, decreased or same as with just the lens?

I made a quick test for you on a AA battery.

1- No TC 1/25 s. - f/2.8 - ISO 2000 - no flash - minimum focusing distance 8,2 cm from the front of the lens

2- 1.4X TC with 16mm extension tube - 1/25 s. - ISO 6400 - minimum focusing distance 7,0 cm from the front of the lens

3- 2.0X TC with 16mm extension tube - 1/25/ s. - ISO 6400 - exposure adjusted in LR - minimum focusing distance 7,0 cm from the front of the lens

minimum focusing distance 7,0 cm

look_a_cool_bug wrote:

Has anyone had issues with losing the electronics pass through when placing an extension tube between the teleconverter and the lens?

I’ve tested 3 different 10mm extension tubes (2 fotga and 1 pixco), all of which had no problem with electronics pass through when mounted to the camera body. 2 teleconverters. 2 camera bodies, one has not had the firmware updated since 2019 and the other has up to date firmware. 2 lenses (the 60mm macro and a pro lens so that I could test with only a single extension tube).

With all combinations, I always lose autofocus and aperture adjustment when the extension tube is in place after the teleconverter (but not when placing an extension tube on the camera body before the teleconverter, in the case of a pro lens).

It’s baffling when I know other people have autofocus with this setup and I have tested with so many different hardware/firmware combinations. The only thing I can imagine is that maybe the camera reads the the teleconverter’s lens identity data and doesn’t recognize a pro lens attached, the body discards the electronics pass through to avoid breaking an improperly identified pro lens by sending bad autofocus commands - but if this were the issue, I would expect the older camera firmware to be more likely to work.

Which teleconverter?  A single 10mm will not work - a single 16mm one will...but you would need TWO 10mm extension tubes after the teleconverter and before the 60mm lens