Advice please on which Kenco tubes for Macro

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FrattonFreak

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Warren
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Hi,

As a late starter in digital photography I have enjoyed many genres of photography including macro. I use a Nikon full frame body with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8

As I explore this genre I've been amazed with some macro shots where the close up detail is amazing such as images showing the spiders eyes. I'm not going to get this at 1:1 but for those with experience what tubes should I be looking at?

I've mentioned kenco, perhaps there are other options. I'm haoppy buying 2nd hand, most of my kit is 2nd hand

Thanks,

Warren
 
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I use the ones with the contacts… a tad more expensive
but they make it a better and pleasant experience!
 
Kodiak Qc said:
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I use the ones with the contacts… a tad more expensive
but they make it a better and pleasant experience!
Click to expand...

Totally agree - the auto tubes are definitely worth the money because they never need replacing and work with many lenses.

You may find them at about 1/2 price in the classified section on here - I have bought almost all my gear on here and have never been disappointed or let down in fact I have 2 complete sets and used them with my 50mm f1.8 lens here:

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/harold-the-spider.637407/

and a lot of pics on my flickr using tubes and various lenses:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/sets/72157625975281497/with/6167099831/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157623911722582
 
I have never used them but petersmart's photos are quite good so I would get the same. It would be interesting to work out keeper rates for this set up/vs the Canon MPE 65mm or a different macro lens?
 
davholla said:
I have never used them but petersmart's photos are quite good so I would get the same. It would be interesting to work out keeper rates for this set up/vs the Canon MPE 65mm or a different macro lens?
Click to expand...

The MPE is a super macro lens but can only be used for macro, gives up to 5:1 on the sensor and many people on here use it and get incredible photos.

But at 5:1 magnification the focusing can be very tricky needing quite a complex ( and expensive) lighting set up, since the reduction in light is a product of the inverse square law - so a 5:1 magnification will result in the light will be reduced to 1/25 of the original at 5:1 magnification, which normally means you need supplementary lights for focussing apart from the flash.

The pics I took were at about 2.5:1 and because the 50mm f1.8 has a wider aperture than the MPE when focusing I was able to focus quite easily without needing extra lighting, apart from the flash for actually taking the shots.

In the case of Harold I actually had about 60% keepers which is significantly higher than my normal keeper rate on macros.

This was helped by the fact that he stayed perfectly still for about an hour or so, not sure why.
 
petersmart said:
The MPE is a super macro lens but can only be used for macro, gives up to 5:1 on the sensor and many people on here use it and get incredible photos.

But at 5:1 magnification the focusing can be very tricky needing quite a complex ( and expensive) lighting set up, since the reduction in light is a product of the inverse square law - so a 5:1 magnification will result in the light will be reduced to 1/25 of the original at 5:1 magnification, which normally means you need supplementary lights for focussing apart from the flash.

The pics I took were at about 2.5:1 and because the 50mm f1.8 has a wider aperture than the MPE when focusing I was able to focus quite easily without needing extra lighting, apart from the flash for actually taking the shots.

In the case of Harold I actually had about 60% keepers which is significantly higher than my normal keeper rate on macros.

This was helped by the fact that he stayed perfectly still for about an hour or so, not sure why.
Click to expand...
All good points you can use a cheap ring flash at 5:1 magnification and just use the ring flash light, 60% keeper rate is quite good.
 
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