Disclaimer: Although both products I bought have serious design flaws I have tested only one copy of each, bought in June 2017. The design may have been corrected by the time you read this post.
Recently I wasted my money in buying two products branded Commlite. They are more expensive than equivalent products from other Chinese brands sold through eBay. The packaging is very nice, and includes a printed manual and warranty card, and the products themselves look well finished and of better quality than the usual cheap Chinese photography accessories. But there is a catch, the two accessories I bought have gross design flaws. Apparently, some do not work at all, even out-of-the-box (those I bought), others based on user reviews I found in the internet, suffer from early failure problems.
-
- COMIX extension tubes
-
- COMIX FT-MFT adapter
The products look great and sometimes seem initially work as expected as several on-line reviews are very favourable, I guess because the items have not been tested in actual use or only very casually. In contrast many photography forum posts and user reviews are not that pretty.
The first thing I did after noticing the problems was to contact Commlite support through the e-mail listed on the enclosed warranty card, support@commlite.com. However, they have not answered yet after several weeks. The eBay seller was not able to supply return labels, and was not willing to pay for tracked mail for the return. As parcel postage from Finland is expensive, I decided not return the Commlite accesories and instead test them thoroughly and write reviews. My aim to save others from fall into the same trap. In addition the reviews will serve as examples of what can of problems some third party photo accessories may have.
First review, is ready, and is a comparison of automatic extension tube sets for micro four thirds: Kenko DG (100 to 140 USD), Commlite (25 to 35 USD), and Pixco DG (20 to 30 USD), done in three instalments: Macro extension tubes (description), Macro extension tubes (glare), Macro extension tubes (lens mount). A future review will compare Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds adapters: Commlite FT-MFT (45 to 75 USD) and Olympus MMF-3 (190 to 230 USD).