The FotoDiox Pro FD - M43 EXCELL +1 was never given a chance as previous versions of this focal reducer were slated online. FotoDiox had rushed to market a poorly made focal reducer in competition with the "SpeedBooster" which was being sold for up to 10 times the price of the FotoDiox version. It was given such a bad reputation that FotoDiox abandoned the idea of producing any more focal reducers.

I have never had any problems with the copy I have but this version isn't mentioned very often so I can't tell if it is an improvement to what came before it. To see the kind of thing that was going on at the time have a look here:

FotoDioX Pro Canon FD - M43 EXCELL + 1

The images above showing different views and possibly the blue tint on the lenses. The adapter was advertised as a Canon FD to M43 adapter with built in lens. It was brand new, never been used and only taken out of it's box to photograph it for adding to their website. I won't mention the camera outlet that had it for sale but from what I could gather it was a new young member of staff who listed it.

Anyway, I read all these negative comments about FotoDiox where their products were absolute rubbish where these focal reducers were concerned. It was a deliberate attempt in my opinion to stifle competition in this market. I don't really know what was going on at the time but I wasn't interested in the M43 format when all this was going on.

I have quite a few older manual lenses and the only one I have ever had a problem with the FRA (Focal Reducing Adapter) is using my Canon FL 50mm f1.8 lens. The results are absolutely awful at the full aperture of f1.8. I have included some shots taken with the Canon FL 50mm f1.8 below, and looking further into the images it seems that the lens does not reach infinity focus as closer focusing, even though still awfully soft are still recognisable.

The following images were taken stopped down to f5.6, there is a noticeable difference in sharpness but nothing to write home about. The images are all SOC (Straight Out Of Camera) without any editing.

I'm sure that if the company weren't subjected to so much hatred at the time they may have come up with a decent Focal Reducing Adapter, there are quite a few decent FRA's available now at a much lower cost than the "SpeedBooster" and allowed lots of photographers to try these gadgets out. I sold my original "PixCo" FRA as it would not fit onto my E-M5 and it produced some great images on my other M43 cameras. Here is a self-portrait I did with the lens set to f1.8 and the FotoDiox attached to my E-M5 II.

From what I can recall FotoDiox remarketed it as a "Soft Focus Adapter" or something like that, it was a long time ago.

Now I purposely chose a mismatched lens to show how bad this FRA  can be shown to be. I had to remove the rear baffle to actually get the lens to mount, was this done on purpose all those years ago?

Here are some shots taken using the FRA attached to my Tamron 135mm f2.5 which shows it's not a bad piece of kit after all.