| Author: | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Saguenay, Qc, Canada Posts: 182 | | Review Date: June 22, 2019 | Not Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 1 |
| Pros: | It does Auto-focus and housing is struby | | Cons: | Drive shaft, mount | |
I won't repeat what the other reviewers mentioned. The only positive thing I have found is the electronic contacts work properly on my two tubes.
If you don't want to throw them in the garbage you can remove the drive shaft and the aperture ring tab and use it as a data communicating tube.
On my part, both tubes found there way to the garbage can. I have rated them 1/10 because it is impossible to rate them 0/10.
My recommendation: PLEASE DON'T SPEND HARD WON MONEY ON THIS.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2013 Location: Sydney Posts: 844 | | Review Date: May 4, 2017 | Not Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 2 |
| Pros: | Not many, if any. | | Cons: | Only useful for quick shift AF or manual focus lenses. | |
I think I was the first pentaxian on this forum to take the plunge, and at the time I said I was not impressed.
The build quality in the mount is terrible. It just does not mate nicely to any Pentax k mount lens I have, aside from K or M lenses. If you have an AF lens that doesn't have quickshift, then simply do not mount it! If you want to use manual focus, the grinding mechanism on your FA limiteds will terrify you.
If you have a quickshift lens, and you luck into a copy that can mount it without being terrified that you've just trashed a DA limited, it's not terrible (well, it is if I'm honest!).
If they improved the mount so it actually mounted lenses properly. If they removed the AF linkage, and left the metering contacts, it would be worth the money. With the AF linkage, he'll no!
Find yourself a manual focus tube, but with the A contacts. You'll appreciate that more than you will this.
I give it 2 out of ten. Fix the mount so it actually works with k mount lenses, remove the AF screw drive contacts, and I'd give it 8 out of 10.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 2,032 | | Review Date: April 26, 2017 | Not Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 3 |
| Pros: | Err - its cheap and available | | Cons: | Appalling build quality only available in 25mm | |
I knew I was taking a gamble when I ordered this as it only cost around £20. I wanted an extension tube that would work with my DA 50mm f1.8, a lens I really like both for its IQ and its focal length on APSc.
When it arrived this morning I was initially pleasantly surprised as it came quite quickly direct from China and it was in a neat pouch to help protect it. Pleasure turned in to being underwhelmed once I had it out of the pouch, as apart from the electrical contacts and screw drive it seems to be entirely plastic.
I thought I better try mounting it on an old film body first to see what would happen. It was stiff to mount and when taken off there was scoring to the mount from the camera's body. There are not enough screws in the right places to swap out the mount with an old Pentax one either. It was also very difficult to mount the DA 50 on the tube. I eventually got tube and lens attached to my K3 and at least the set up did work. But i have no confidence of not damaging either the lens or sensor with any extended use. I think I'll be putting this item in the bin and will have acquired a rather expensive pouch!
The only way I could see this working is if you were to attach a DA 35 or 50 to it and accept you don't ever remove it again. Not something I am prepared to do.
The other issue for me is not the fault of the tube itself, but I would have found a 12 or 13mm tube more useful.
The quest for a cost effective occaissional macro solution for my K3 continues!
| | | | | Loyal Site Supportaxian Registered: September, 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 503 | | Review Date: December 5, 2016 | Not Recommended | Price: $28.00
| Rating: 1 |
| Pros: | Inexpensive. Works with SDM and DC Lenses | | Cons: | Awful qualiity, Risk damage to body drive motor, obstructed tube, Risk stuck on body.. | |
Since folks here and elsewhere have had issues with these, I made a detailed video that should explain everything:
Video Review of issues with KK-P25
- High force mount / unmount.
- Shaft does not engage unless wiggled.
- Shaft binds, stress on body motor
- Aperture lever binds with any lens
- Difficult to remove from body
- Shaft never engages with some lenses.
Mounting and unmounting from camera bodies:
K-01, K-01, P30: Rough and unpleasant, took too much force.
*ist DL : Got stuck on the body, took much work to remove.
Aperture stop down lever:
Binds. Makes the diaphragm lazy or just plain stuck.
Aperture read lever:
Binds. not as issue on most bodies as this feature is no longer used.
Optical:
It has no glass, but do note that there is an inner tube inside that will obstruct the light cone of lenses that have anything but very small rear elements.
Mounting and Unmounting Lenses:
Very rough, but none became stuck.
Screw drive:
The shaft does not line up with the body and the lens correctly - There are three problems. 1. The screw drive will not engage the shaft without wiggling the lens around. 2. When the shaft engages it is severely bound. The camera body is bound up and the drive motor sounds labored. 3. Some lenses like the FAJ 18-35 the shaft never engages. I think this is a bad risk and I don't recommend you use this for screw drive if your sample has the same binding issue. This issue happened with all 3 bodies I tested and with 3 different screw drive lenses (FA50 1.4, DA35 2.4, XS40 2.8) so this is definitely an issue with the mechanism in the Kooka.
DC Lens:
Yes, Finally our first good news: It worked great with the DA 18-135 DC lens. No issues other than rough mounting mentioned above.
SDM Lens:
Worked fine with the DA 60-250 SDM.
Conclusion:
This item is downright awful. Based on the fact that two reviewers and at least one other person in a discussion thread have had trouble with these, I conclude that I didn't get a single defective one, and instead that most or all of these are bad. A risky proposition with possibly getting stuck on a body, and excessively binding the screw-drive system. I strongly recommend against.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2013 Location: Melbourne Posts: 2,551 | | Review Date: August 22, 2016 | Not Recommended | Price: $25.50
| Rating: 1 |
| Pros: | It does auto focus | | Cons: | aperture does not work , lens fitting is difficult to impossible | |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO-q0B05fK8
I just don't know what to say , I was very impressed by the Canon version . This Pentax version has issues , and the reader may chose to stop reading right here as I don't recommend this one at all . The auto focus does work , but what does not work is the aperture , and this is kind of a deal breaker for Macro in a big way .
The first set of pictures is from my K20D and the second set is from my istD , and as can be seen even though a certain F stop is reported there is no actual physical result of the change in the aperture . This is a real shame I have to say , because Pentax fans have wanted something like the Kooka Tubes for a long time .
Now unfortunately things don't end here , another issue is installing a lens to the tube . It can be extremely difficult , and in some cases not possible at all . In fact I completely failed in my attempt to install a Pentax 18-55 kit lens , it simply refused to go on .
The two lenses that did go on were a Sigma 28-80 and a Sigma 50mm , and both lenses were extremely fiddly to get on the tube . The tube to body fit was not nearly as tricky , and was comparably easy compared to installing a lens . Funny thing , with the tube in the body I was not able to get any lens on . I had to install the lens before putting the tube on a camera .
I can in no way recommend this product , and I would rate it as being in BETA , and it may take some time for the manufacturer to iron out the issues ( if ever ) . So if you are desperate for a cheap AF tube that works , you may wish to switch over to Canon cameras as the Kooka tube for Canon I tested works really well .
So there you have it , interesting but very disappointing .
And just in case you were wondering , in no way shape or form do I recommend the Kooka Tube for Pentax .
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