Macro Photography

[chrism_scotland]

Hi folks,

Looking for a little advice on macro photography, I've been asking around in regards to macro lenses for a Pentax DSLR and the usual suspect the Tamron 90mm and also the much dearer Pentax 100mm macro has been suggested.

However I have also had extension tubes suggested as a possible cheaper entry into macro photography, so my question really is what are extension tubes and what do they do?

Also what lenses and kit are people on here using for macro photos?

 

[Keenbfb]

Have a look in the Macro section there's loads of great advice in there, and they give the answer so much better than I could so here's a few links to set you on your way.

For an answer to the tubes look here http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=7761


If you want to see what kit people are using then here's a great thread for that
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=132158

Feel free to ask questions in there people are only to happy to help

 

[Stratman]

Extension tubes are tubes that go between the lens and the camera body, moving the lens further away. This has the effect of increasing the size of the image produced by the lens, but at one very considerable cost. That cost is light. By increasing the image size you're also spreading out the light over a bigger area. If you double the effective focal length, it costs you two f-stops or four times the shutter speed.