Extension Tube Quality?

[mccormick]

All very good suggestions. I have obviously gotten ahead of myself since I got my camera less than 2 weeks ago. As suggested I will simply play around with different types of shots and composition before I start trying to cut corners and get into a much more advanced form of photography. If I decide that macro is truly what I want to do then I will just have to wait until I can spend the money needed to get the correct gear to practice such shots.

 

Thanks all for your cooperation with my many questions and advice on what to do, it is all greatly appreciated.

[waltflanagan]

I suggest you buy a copy of John Shaw's Closeups in Nature. It will help explain the different macro techniques. It's hard to just answer small little questions since you don't understand the big picture but here's a few pieces of info. Compare a 60mm lens with a 60mm macro lens. If you focus on something 20 ft away the images will basically look the same with the 2 lenses. The difference is that the macro lens will focus on something 3 inches away while the normal 60 will just produce an out of focus blur. It's closest focus distance will probably be 2-3 feet away. To answer your question about the telephoto, you could have a 60mm macro lens with a 1:1 reproduction ratio and a 200mm macro with the same 1:1 repro. ratio. What is the difference? At 1:1 the 60mm lens will be a few inches away while the 200 will be 2 feet away. This is useful for insect macros, it's hard to get 3 inches away without scaring the insect away.

[robert_hooper1]

I'm reading some disparaging opinions on dpreview from people who have used the new DG Kenko extension tubes. They say the sloppiness of fit to lens and body soon becomes great enough with use that the electronic contacts are compromised. Is this the experience of anyone here?

[mccormick]

I am in the process of getting that book right now actually. After reading the Macro article again I realized that it was

indeed saying that extension tubes, reversal rings, and bellows are for when you already have a 1:1 and want to

exceed that (like Alex said), whoops. So until I can dish out the cash for another lens, I suppose when I play with

macros I will just have to zoom the best I can and crop the photos.

 

I apologize for any frustrating ignorance I may have, I have been doing all kinds of research on composition and gear

(as you can see sometimes get way ahead of myself) that I have a thousand questions (until last night I didn't even

know what an extension tube or reversal ring were). Instead of trying to make it a science perhaps I should just go

out and take some pictures, do whatever feels natural.

 

Robert, in <a href="http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00PtRc">this</a> thread the quality of Kenko tubes are

discussed, it may help to answer your questions.

[frank_skomial]

"the sloppiness of fit to lens and body soon becomes great enough with use that the electronic contacts are

compromised. " - yes.

 

I do not know how many tube/lens mountings it takes to destroy the camera/lens contacts, but mounting the Kenko

soulds like grinding and is very tight, or not easy to remove sometimes.

 

Use your older or less expensive camera for this. E.g. D70 will do great job.

[mccormick]

ugh, forgot I was dealing with html when separating the paragraphs in my last post.

 

Again, thanks for all your cooperation and help. I will continue to dabble in macro photography research and take a look at "Closeups in Nature" so I can try to understand the big picture without having to get you guys to spell it out for me.

[eric_bowles]

Let me share a couple of additions to the comments above.

 

Extension tubes work proportionately to the focal length of your lens. That means 25mm of extension on a 50mm

lens helps a great deal, but the same 25mm on a 200mm lens makes relatively little difference in your quest for

higher magnification. The Kenko tube set may have a small amount of play in it, but not enough to adversely affect

image quality. Most macro images are taken from a tripod due to the precise focus requirements, so a small

amount of play will not affect your images. A large amount of play would be a manufacturing or design defect. I find

it is helpful to have the metering and AF provided by the Kenko tubes.

 

The extension tubes may be extremely helpful to reduce the minimum focus distance. I was using my 70-200 lens

to shoot butterflies recently and added an extension tube to allow a closer minimum focus. For butterflies, I did not

want 1:1 magnification or anything like it.

 

The close up diopters or close up lenses that screw onto the front of your lens are another way to increase

magnification. Quality varies a great deal so stick with the Nikon and Canon brands. The Nikon 1T, 2T, and 3T are

for lenses with a 52mm filter while the 4T, 5T, and 6T are for lenses with a 62mm filter size. Canon makes a 250D

and 500D close up lens that comes in a variety of filter ring sizes and is not specific to Canon gear. The Canon and

Nikon versions both contain high quality glass - stay away from the others. For added magnification, you can stack

close up lenses. Most people today buy the Canon versions because the Nikon versions are very hard to find.

 

Eric

[User_502260]

There are some other possibilities. I have several versions (different names) of the Vivitar 100/3.5 macro lens. The AF version does not inspire confidence with its flimsy build quality but is supposed to be decent optically if you close down a little. All of the 100/3.5 lenses I have are manual focus types. You can look on eBay for a Vivitar (Promaster, Cosina, Phoenix, Soligor) 100/3.5 in Nikon AI mount. You will not be able to meter with this combination but other people have experimented with the exposure and had good results. Another choice would be a a 55/3.5 Micro Nikkor. I think the pre-AI versions would have to be converted for you to be able to mount them your camera. Even the 55/3.5 AI versions sell for very little. You would again have no metering but the instand feedback of the LCD screen (or the histogram) would be a good guide. You are not using a full size sensor so the 55mm focal length should still give you some working distance. I just bought a 55/3.5 Micro Nikkor 'K' lens for $25 with a PK-3 ring and the original bubble all in good condition.

[adriann]

If on a tight budget, also consider the Pro Optic extension tubes, sold for $84.95 at Adorama:

 

http://www.adorama.com/MCAETNKAF.html

 

I have the same set for Canon, and am very happy so far. You can check my gallery for some grasshopper pictures taken with such a tube + a 50mm/f1.4 lens.

 

Hope that helps!

[joseph_smith3]

Nick, you need some basic education. Read this tutorial on macro. http://www.photo.net/learn/macro/

Joe Smith

[wilfred_wong]

those cheap ext tubs and the nikon offerings does not have electronic contacts, not only you'll lose AF, Metering, TTL flash, VR etc.. but you can't use those tubes with G lens as well.

 

For the same price of the kenko tubes, you can get a 77mm canon 500D. I've both, and both gives good quality to me. But somehow tubes are easily to change (bayonet is easy than filter thread to me) , don't need to worry about filter size but on the other hand if you use long lens filter is easier to manage than adding a not-so-good built quality tubes to a long lens. Filters gives brighter image in viewfinder too.

[louise wilkins]

Nick,

 

I have the D60 and have added the Kenko extension tubes and the Cannon 250D close up lens to my 18-200 lens. I

am very pleased with: #1, the macro zoon, #2 the clarity. As a less expensive way to go, I'm very happy until I can

afford to buy a macro/micro lens for this camera.

[walterh]

Nick I do not want to stop your enthusiasm but your best low budget "investment" would be to go to a library and borrow a few books (perhaps for free?) on basics of photography and on macro photography. Without knowing the very basics you will get not very far in macro photography - independent of budget. After that you will be able to spend you money most efficiently.