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I'm looking at an entry level way into macro work and wondered what sort of quality images I can expect from my nifty fifty with AF confirm extension tubes.
Thank you. Well worth a bash then!
Definitely - Just make sure you get the fully automatic one's otherwise you will lose the ability to control aperture from the camera.
If you want a preview just hold the lens in front of the camera by an inch or so and look through the viewfinderYou can't take a picture but you can see the magnification.
Be wary, the ones listed AF confirm, are usually not capable of changing the aperture.
Waffle
Manually set the lens aperture as required. Use large apertures for low light or when you want a defocussed background. Use small apertures in bright light for greater depth of field. Use the camera's Av mode for automatic exposure. You will need to set focus by hand. This takes a little practice as the modern viewfinders are not so easy to judge as the old split focus type. Using smaller apertures considerably increases your margin for error. For reliable pin-sharp focus select an AF Confirm adapter which will activate the focus lights in your viewfinder.
Can you clarify that this means I will have full control of both aperture and shutter speed whilst the camera will still confirm manual focus. I shoot almost exclusively in manual anyway.Those would be the jobbies that you have to use manually:
With those you'll lose aperture control from the body, so you have to use a lens with a aperture ring, You'll need to shoot wide open to get the light to see what your doing and no DOF, or steped down to f11 to get the DOF but the image will be so dark you cant focus it. I went for the cheap set to start with but didn't use them as it was just to much messing around - bought a set of Kenko's and used them all the time, now i have the MPE i don't use the as much though.
That's great, thank you. I'll probably just keep saving for the Tamron 90mm instead then.
You sometimes see the jessops ones on here for @ £50 which will give you aperture control, or the Kenko's @ £70, and there still worth getting as you'll get 2:1 when you use them with the Tamron 90mm.
The other thing that would be worth a look, instead of extention tubes, the Raynox DCR250. It's a triplet +8 Dioptres macro converter. Roughly you'll get 1x at 100mm and 2x at 200mm. If I've found the correct lens, with it's 62mm filter threads, you should be fine as it'll clip on to the threads of up to 67mm. I can post a couple of sample shots if it'll help. It's also very quick to convert back to telephoto without removing the lens from the body, and you retain full lens control, and IS if the lens has it. They cost about £40
You can manually preset a canon EF lens to the aperture you want so you can use it on cheap tubes.
Set the camera to say f8 press the depth of field preview button and keep it held... then take the lens off the camera and it will stay with the aperture at f8.