A few weeks ago, I found out that a Chinese company was offering the first (that I've seen anyway) extension tubes for Micro 4/3. I took a shot and ordered the set off of  ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170483712000 for 38.50USD.

I got them a lot quicker than I expected, as they actually shipped from Connecticut instead of Shanghai. They came in a box with no instructions or other papers. Build quality is good. The threads were a little rough and sticky at first but have smoothed up with use. The body and lens mounts fit well with no rattles or looseness.


Included are the mounts for body and lens as well as 3 tubes marked "1", "2" and "3". This seems to be roughly the size in cm.


The whole set adds about 9cm.


There are no contacts for autofocus, of course, so you need a lens that will allow you to set the focus and aperture manually. I'm guessing this rules out all of the m4/3 lenses. I used my beloved Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.4 with a Chinese "M" adapter. With all the tubes in use it's about 12cm in length.


I have an old 1854 "Large Cent" that I like to use when testing out macro gear as it has enough contrast and fine details/scratches to give me a good idea of how things are working. The normal close focus length for the Nokton is .7 meters, which gives you a shot like this of the coin.


I mounted my EP-1 on a macro focusing rail and a Gorillapod for the macro shots. All shots were taken at f/11. At f/1.4 the depth of field is so thin you only get a slice of the coin in focus when shooting at an angle like this.

Using only the body and lens mounts, with no tubes got me this close to the coin.


With the #1 tube alone:


With the #2 tube alone:


And with the #3 tube alone:


You can stack the tubes any way you want to get even closer shots. This is my strictly un-scientific sampling of the extension tubes for the benefit of anyone who was wondering how they are. I can say that they do work and they are pretty inexpensive compared to the tubes for my Canon EF system. I'm sure in the hands of some skilled macro shooters you can get some great results and of course, you can mount any lens that you can adapt to m4/3 on it.

If anyone else has used this set, please show some samples!

Nice, but a kit with electrical contacts will do better, I guess!

Adding this to the Lens Sample Photo Archive!


(technically not a lens, but I think it's fitting there)

Details

G1
ZM 50mm f/1.5 C-Sonnar
Just the adapters with no other extension tubes
It provides a perfect distance for small flowers and such.

With the two larger tubes in place

Nice, but a kit with electrical contacts will do better, I guess!

No doubt about it.  I dont care about focus but I sure would like aperture control!

The problem for me is that I have a GIANT investment in Olympus and Panasonic micro 4/3 and Canon EF lenses including the FABULOUS 90mm TSE lens that I use for macro.  The TSE is a full motion tilt and shift with manual focus which allows the plain of focus to be tilted to bring more of the subject into sharp focus.  If I could find an extension tube set I could use my existing micro 4/3 lenses for macro but better yet would be a canon to micro 4/3 converter with signal passing for aperture control!

A 12mm extension with the 14-150 would work at everything from about 1:1 out to closup distances for chasing butterflies around!

Quote

A 12mm extension with the 14-150 would work at everything from about 1:1 out to closup distances for chasing butterflies around!

The minimum focusing distance of the 14-150 is about 50cm and does not change dramatically when zooming. The biggest magnification it does is at 150mm, and I suppose this will be where one would like to use it due to the sufficient distance from the object. Bad thing is that at 150mm it has to be moved forward much more than 12mm, I guess at least 100mm. And then you will only have F/5.6 and the minuscule DOF associated with it. An auto-tube will allow some autofocusing and full aperture control.

To chase butterfly's with the 14-150, you will want a Close up filter... a +1 or +2 at 50mm-75mm or so, so you are not too close without "Spooking" the butterfly. I know a +2 at 150mm is too close (under 6"), you'll need to back off to about 2 feet, so try shorter focal lengths with a +1 or +2 to find a sweet spot. It will be hard to track them, so try to photograph them just after they land.. you have a few seconds to maybe 1m at best to get it. So knowing the general distance with the lens preset ahead of time will help on setting up the shot.