Cheap ebay extension tubes

Bex, I've used mine a few times. Personally I prefer to use my 55-250 with my Raynox, but if I want to get in closer, I have used the tubes as well. Much harder to use as you can't control the lens in the normal way, and I've only had success with static targets and tripod mounted.

This was shot with my ebay tubes and the Raynox on my 55-250 f32... it's the head of a pin.

IMG_9301.jpg
 
I bought a set of cheap tubes from Amazon £6 - these ones: http://www.amazon.co.uk/MACRO-EXTEN...ZE6A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250207051&sr=8-1

They work fine, except they are fully manual with no lens-to-camera couplings. The big problem is that you can't close the lens aperture. With Canon, the only way to do that is to fit the lens to the camera first, close the aperture down with the DoF button and hold it while removing the lens. It will then stay at the set f/number, which makes the image very dark for focusing, and if you want to change it you have to repeat the routine. It's a right pain. Not sure if you can do the same with other brands. Renders the tubes useless IMHO.

I then got some Kenko tubes, fully coupled. A lot more expensive, but 100 times better.
 
Thanks Gavin and Parkmoy. I agree with Hoppy, which is why I don't use them very often. When I originally got them, I was using a fully manual OM mount lens, so the stopping down of the lens was very easy and the tubes worked fine like that.
 
i took this last friday with the cheap tubes, completely straight from camera except adding the border and a resize for web.

3815248239_d03fa46c81.jpg


to be honest, for the price im not bothered by the fact they're fully manual and with manually closing down the apeture. i find the image adequetly bright at f5.6 (which is what i took this at, i think, with the smallest of the extension tubes) although working at anything smaller for a moving target is fairly useless. static object you can open up to compose and focus, and close down when you need to shoot (im using nikon)

focusing wise i didnt have much of a problem, but for something moving like this ladybird its best to blast off a series of shots rather than try to frame up one, i was at high iso (1000) so was particularly being careful about shutter speeds. it didnt need more than 3 or 4 frames to get a pin sharp one, and out of the 20 or so shots i took (limited by a card capacity) i got a few that are useable.

ive not used the tubes more than 2 or 3 times since i got them, they just sit in my bag waiting. but to be honest if you've got good camera technique it shouldnt be a problem and for me im not willing to shed out more for something im not using regularly. yeah its a bit of a hassle to use them, but you can still get pretty good shots.

i realise this might not be too helpful for canon users, but i thought id still give my opinion for any nikon users.

edit: i think mine were £4 on ebay
 
The benefit of the raynox, it gives you the lens control, so you can use f16 or so to get some dof, and still be able to see to focus and focus confirm still works which with the cheapy tubes you don't get.
 
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