Dumb Question

What do you mean by benefit?
They would take you to over 2:1 magnification. And yes, they are compatible with the 60mm, and will keep auto aperture control (and AF, not that it's much use).
 
squishy said:
What do you mean by benefit?
They would take you to over 2:1 magnification. And yes, they are compatible with the 60mm, and will keep auto aperture control (and AF, not that it's much use).
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Thank you. You have answered the question perfectly:)

Would you recommend the tubes over a superior Macro Lens?
 
Using extension tubes will cost you light. More specifically, they will reduce the effective maximum aperture of the lens. If your lens is say f/4 wide open and you put on tubes to double the focal length you will lose two stops, turning your f/4 lens into an f/8. Will you have enough light to cope with this, bearing in mind it's now a 120mm lens which will have consequences regarding the minimum shutter speed when hand held.

You don't get owt for nowt.
 
Stratman said:
Using extension tubes will cost you light. More specifically, they will reduce the effective maximum aperture of the lens. If your lens is say f/4 wide open and you put on tubes to double the focal length you will lose two stops, turning your f/4 lens into an f/8. Will you have enough light to cope with this, bearing in mind it's now a 120mm lens which will have consequences regarding the minimum shutter speed when hand held.

You don't get owt for nowt.
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So - before I fork out £149 for tubes. What do you recommend? Better lens, tubes or any other solution?

Thanks for info
 
I would never tell anyone else how to spend their money ;)

There are so many variables such as what subjects you shoot, hand held or tripod mounted, convenience versus cost and so on.

On a purely personal level, I would always buy the lens.
 
Stratman, I think you're confusing extension tubes with tele-converters

Extension tubes put more space between the camera and the lens to increase macro ratio rather than using optical elements to magnify the image.

You do lose a bit of light, but it isn't as simple as two stops, the light loss is due to the principal of smaller effective apertures at higher ratios

simply put, it's effective aperture = (set aperture/macro ratio) + set aperture
So at 1:1, f/2.8 becomes effectively f/5.6
So light loss depends on what magnification you're using the lens at (and since tubes increase mag, they increase light loss)

Superior macro lenses won't get you closer than 1:1 (bar the canon mpe-65). All true macro lenses go to 1:1 magnification. The advantages you get from more expensive ones is in working distance, build quality and possibly IS or VR and maybe to some small extent better image quality, but the 60mm is a very sharp lens, more expensive ones will only be a hair sharper if at all.

The only way to get over 1:1 (again, bar the mpe) is by using tele-converters, extension tubes (or bellows which work on the same principal as tubes), supplementary lenses like the raynox DCR-250 or by reversing and stacking lenses.
 
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