Extension Tubes

[King_Boru]

Hi there,

Has probarbly been posted before but I have never really looked into the above and not entirely sure how they work. I have a general knowledge about them i.e allows for close focusing but not much else. I am considering one for my Nikkor 50mm 1.8 D. With a minimum focusing distance of 48cm's will using an extension tube allow for macro photography by improving on the that? And can you combine multiple tubes to achieve even better results? Does it have a huge impact on image quality? Also, what sort of tube would I be looking at?

Appreciate the help,...

King.

 

[RobertP]

There have been threads on the subject before so you will find the answers with a quick search here.

As to what it will do - just take the lens off and hold it away from the body about an inch or so and look through the viewfinder. Move towards (say) your monitor until you see focus and note the magnification.

 

[Matt]

i had some very cheap tubes from ebay, depth of field is tiny though!

 

[CT]

Yes, you can stack the tubes. As the lens gets further and further away from the body you run into the Inverse Square Law (of light) which means that the image at the sensor gets dimmer and your exposures get longer, but it's not often any real practical difficulty.

 

[SammyC]

You can get pretty close with tubes, this was taken with my Kenco ones:

Its the edge of a fine metal file.

 

[Marcel]

Burger me thats close.

I've been thinking of investing in the Kenco set for a while now...