So I bought some inexpensive Macro rings as well...

[rob200sx]

So, Like famas, I bought some extension tubes off ebay, total cost £8.50 (I think they're the same rings as well?)

Unfortunately I had no flies to test them on or willing enough to stay still so I had to make do with general everyday objects.

Here they are (the rings not the objects )

They come in the following lengths
9mm
16mm
30mm this excludes the EF mounting rings (5mm & 8mm)


Here's the setup with all rings attached, Camera is hooked up to the PC for tethered shooting.

Canon 400D + ST-E2 Transmitter, Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.8 Prime, 580EX II

The main drawback from using macro rings such as these is that you lose auto focus & aperture control from the Camera. For me this wasn't an issue, I'd rather manual focus when closeup anyway. However, when you lose aperture control, modern lenses stay open, which creates an extremely shallow DoF. So I used an old CZ lens from my Praktica MTL5, optic wise it's comparable to the nifty fifty and it means I can control the aperture, which means a better DoF.

Here's the lens, I use an M42 mount with this to attach it to the 400D

So, test shots

Using all rings requires the subject to be about 4-8cm away from the lens

I found using the 9mm + EF mounts was the optimum choice, allowing more of the subject to be in the frame but still stay close enough for a good amount of detail, distance here was about 12cm

Overall I'm happy with the rings, it saves on buying a proper macro lens for now.

 

[famas]

nice deailed post, good shots to. the rings look to be the same as mine.

i found i could get slighty more magnification with my tokina 100mm but slightly sharper images with my nikon 50mm.

for under a tenner i think there brill, with a bit of patients and a lot of trial and error you can get some great shots.

im looking to get into macro photography a lot more, so been looking at new kit, oh the wallet is going to take a hit again

 

[green]

Excellent thread!

I see you CZ lens has an aperture ring, very handy. I had a shot of a mates extension rings with a modern kit lens and struggled to get anything.

 

[rob200sx]

Excellent thread!

I see you CZ lens has an aperture ring, very handy. I had a shot of a mates extension rings with a modern kit lens and struggled to get anything.

I did initially try with the Canon 50mm but the DoF was ridiculous, I've also got a CZ 135mm Jena MC Prime, I might see how that works out with the tubes as well.