Extension Tubes & Flashes

NOJ75

NOJ75

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Jon
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Hello all,

I have just been looking at the Macro Gear set up thread and I have noticed that a lot of macro shooters have extension tubes on their cameras. I am very curios about these as I really like macro. I have a couple of queries though...

  • What do the tubes do? Do they add magnification to the lens?
  • How would you know what to get? For example, I have a simple Canon 1000D and an 18-135mm Canon IS. Are there generic tubes for that lens/camera?

Camera equipment can get so very confusing. I am also wondering what some of you would recommend to buy as a moderately priced off camera flash unit to a novice such as myself and what sort of price it would be.

Thanks in advance for your time :)
 
Excellent link thank you. I did not realize that the tubes had no glass and infact just seperated the lens further from the camera sensor!!
Great link to answer my question. Thank you again :)
 
Extension tubes don't give magnification but they do let you focus very close up so you can get your lens much closer to the subject and so end up with a bigger image of it.

You can get very basic ones which are literally just tubes with a lens mount on the end, or you can get ones with electrical connections with allow you to maintain auto focus and focus confirmation.
It's not such a big problem actually since a lot of the time you will be wanting manual focus (and even the slight movements of your camera in your hand will massively affect the area in focus).

The one area the expensive electrical tubes do win is the fact that they also allow your camera to control the lens aperture - at macro distances the depth-of-field is minute so you want to shut down the aperture quite a bit to maximise the DoF you've got available. I seem to remember that most lenses will stick at an open aperture otherwise which will give you zero DoF - or use an old manual aperture lens which you can adjust by hand.


Some people confuse extension tubes with something called a tele-converter (confusingly sometimes called an extender) - this also sites between the lens and camera body but does have optics in and does give you more magnification (although this costs you about a stop of light).


Flash-wise, you can pick up a second hand Jessops 360AFD for about £35 - it's pretty cheap and it's got some good features like TTL, zoom, bounce/swivel, manual mode and optical slave. Or you could look at one of the YongNuo line-up, a similar model with TTL would be the YN-468.


EDIT - Jon, where in Surrey are you? If you're not too far from me I'd be happy to meet up sometime to let you have a play with some extension tubes or the Jessops flash I mentioned. I shoot Canon too so it'll all work with your kit.
 
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incapete said:
Extension tubes don't give magnification but they do let you focus very close up so you can get your lens much closer to the subject and so end up with a bigger image of it.

You can get very basic ones which are literally just tubes with a lens mount on the end, or you can get ones with electrical connections with allow you to maintain auto focus and focus confirmation.
It's not such a big problem actually since a lot of the time you will be wanting manual focus (and even the slight movements of your camera in your hand will massively affect the area in focus).

The one area the expensive electrical tubes do win is the fact that they also allow your camera to control the lens aperture - at macro distances the depth-of-field is minute so you want to shut down the aperture quite a bit to maximise the DoF you've got available. I seem to remember that most lenses will stick at an open aperture otherwise which will give you zero DoF - or use an old manual aperture lens which you can adjust by hand.

Some people confuse extension tubes with something called a tele-converter (confusingly sometimes called an extender) - this also sites between the lens and camera body but does have optics in and does give you more magnification (although this costs you about a stop of light).

Flash-wise, you can pick up a second hand Jessops 360AFD for about £35 - it's pretty cheap and it's got some good features like TTL, zoom, bounce/swivel, manual mode and optical slave. Or you could look at one of the YongNuo line-up, a similar model with TTL would be the YN-468.

EDIT - Jon, where in Surrey are you? If you're not too far from me I'd be happy to meet up sometime to let you have a play with some extension tubes or the Jessops flash I mentioned. I shoot Canon too so it'll all work with your kit.
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Hi Pete,

Great explanation and very kind offer. I am in Pirbright near Woking.
 
Brachytron said:
Check that Kenko tubes are compatible with EF-S lenses like your 18-135mm. They used not to be. Otherwise you are restricetdc to Canon's 12mm (not so good) and 25mm (better) options.
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The set i have are compatible with EF & EFS lens so i presume the newer ones are compatible.
 
My Kenko tubes work perfectly with both EF and EFS lenses on both my 50D and 1Ds (saying that, I havent tested the EF-S lens on the 1Ds with the tubes.. Hmmmm)

Sam
 
incapete said:
Extension tubes don't give magnification but they do let you focus very close up so you can get your lens much closer to the subject and so end up with a bigger image of it.
Click to expand...

Isn't that exactly what magnification is?
 
SamHH said:
Isn't that exactly what magnification is?
Click to expand...

No... Magnification is getting a larger image from the same distance away, for example using a 200mm lens gives a more magnified image than a 50mm lens.

The extension tubes don't alter the magnification or field-of-view of a lens, they just let you focus the lens closer to the subject.

Both let you fill the shot with the subject but using very different approaches.
 
sam_cat said:
My Kenko tubes work perfectly with both EF and EFS lenses on both my 50D and 1Ds (saying that, I havent tested the EF-S lens on the 1Ds with the tubes.. Hmmmm)

Sam
Click to expand...

They should be fine - the kenko tubes have an EF mount at the camera-body end and have enough space in them to accept either EF-S or EF mount lenses at the other.
 
incapete said:
No... Magnification is getting a larger image from the same distance away, for example using a 200mm lens gives a more magnified image than a 50mm lens.

The extension tubes don't alter the magnification or field-of-view of a lens, they just let you focus the lens closer to the subject.

Both let you fill the shot with the subject but using very different approaches.
Click to expand...

That's not how most people seem to use the word. E.g. the Kenko link above says that they magnify the image.
 
SamHH said:
That's not how most people seem to use the word. E.g. the Kenko link above says that they magnify the image.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's odd that they describe it like that and I guess that most of what they say is true but I still think it's misleading to say they magnify anything.
Getting closer to a subject = subject appears bigger... That's fine and that's what tubes allow you to do.
Magnifying something = subject appears bigger... Also correct but tubes don't do this at all
 
I have a set of Kenko DG AF tubes for my Canon 1Ds II.

I got the set of three on here for about 50% of the normal price.

They would work perfectly with your camera and lens but if you want to get into macro a great cheap lens to couple with the tubes is the Canon 50mm f1.8.

To see the results of that combo look here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/

Many of the pictures on that page were taken with the 50mm f1.8 and tubes.

.
 
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incapete said:
Yeah, it's odd that they describe it like that and I guess that most of what they say is true but I still think it's misleading to say they magnify anything.
Getting closer to a subject = subject appears bigger... That's fine and that's what tubes allow you to do.
Magnifying something = subject appears bigger... Also correct but tubes don't do this at all
Click to expand...

To be fair they actually say

"Extension tubes are designed to enable a lens to focus closer than its normal set minimum focusing distance"

which is correct and

"Getting closer has the effect of magnifying your subject"

Which is also correct

lots of useful info - linky
 
I take it then that getting a set of those "tubes" would do the job for me?

Would you say they are really worth getting or would I just be better off getting a more expensive lens (bearing in mind I am a novice)?
 
If you want to experiment with macro photography then tubes are a good investment - there's no lens to be damaged so second-hand models are a safe bet. A dedicated macro lens is lovely but it's expensive.
 
That will do me Pete. Now just need to find some to buy and get shooting :)
 
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