Cheap Extension Tubes

krazy_horse

krazy_horse

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Hi Folks,

Just looking into purchasing some extension tubes for macro work, and have found some really cheap ones ont'ebay, some as little as £8 posted. I have also been looking at the Kenko ones which seem to be going for around £75-£85 second hand.

Before I potentially splash out on the Kenko ones, shall I give the £8 jobbies a go, or save the money and stick with Kenko?

These will be for Nikon and i will not need AF.

Anyone had any experience of these?

Cheers,

Jonathan
 
krazy_horse said:
Hi Folks,

Just looking into purchasing some extension tubes for macro work, and have found some really cheap ones on ebay, some as little as £8 posted. I have also been looking at the Kenko ones which seem to be going for around £75-£85 second hand.

Before I potentially splash out on the Kenko ones, shall I give the £8 jobbies a go, or save the money and stick with Kenko?

These will be for Nikon and i will not need AF.

Anyone had any experience of these?

Cheers,

Jonathan
Click to expand...

I bought the cheap ones from ebay any they were a PITA to use, the biggest problem is you lose aperture control from the body..if your lens has a aperture ring you will need to frame and focus with the lens set a f2.8 so you can actually see the subject then turn the aperture ring to f16 or so to get a usable DOF while not changing the framing,focus point and if you subject is a bug before it moves , and if your lens doesn't have a aperture ring your screwed.

There that much of a pain i didn't use them very much. Then i got the Kenko ones.........Excellent just use your camera as if there not there, simples.
 
If you don;t need auto then you're fine - as Paul says though if your lens has no aperture ring (like many more recent Nikon fit lenses) then you are stuffed because they (mine at least) are on f/22 when not attached.

Having said that I have the cheapie ones... depends on your level of involvement really, if you intend to do alot of macro then get the proper ones, if not then the cheapies are well worth having for now and then use.

Arthur
 
on the other hand, i used the £8 ones (they may have been a bit cheaper when i got them) and got results i was pretty happy with. wasnt difficult to quickly guess the correct exposure, work out what apeture you wanted to use and frame. focusing was a little more difficult and i was getting the odd few frames where i had slightly missed focus, but that was mostly because of the moving subject. to be honest for the price they're excellent. i only used them once for about 10-20 mintues quite a while ago (im not really into macro stuff so only really wantd to try them out), but you do get used to them quickly. it wasnt hard to get used to moving back and forth to focus and framing with a darker viewfinder. got the below shot with them (which was straight from camera apart from the border), which i was quite pleased with. bare in mind i only used one of the smaller extention tubes so it wasnt hugely magnified. plus its at iso 1000 ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamieconverge/3815248239/in/set-72157621854889493/
 
Think i'll give the cheap ones a blast, see how i get on then if i'm struggling i can always pass them on and get the Kenkos.

Cheers peeps,

Jonathan
 
I was thinking about a macro lens then I came across this thread. Does anyone know of any information which gives an idea of magnification depending on which tube is fitted? :)
 
krazy_horse said:
Think i'll give the cheap ones a blast, see how i get on then if i'm struggling i can always pass them on and get the Kenkos.

Cheers peeps,

Jonathan
Click to expand...

Be very carefully with them as they give of a very fine aluminum powder as they screw together and if that gets on your sensor you could end up with some serious damage when you clean it
 
chilliz said:
I was thinking about a macro lens then I came across this thread. Does anyone know of any information which gives an idea of magnification depending on which tube is fitted? :)
Click to expand...

From here

To calculate the magnification provided by extension tubes, divide the extension tube's length in mm by the lens's focal length. For instance, if you attached a 75mm extension tube to a 50mm lens, your magnification will be 75 / 50, which is 1.5x magnification.

Remember that magnification is multiplicative. If you are using extension tubes with magnification lenses, your resultant magnification is the magnification of the lenses times the magnification of the extension tube. For instance, combining the two above examples yields 1.5 x 1.5, which is 2.25x magnification.
 
Jessops used to make these - but I think they discontinued them - I picked a set up on ebay - which loses AF but keeps Aperture control. I find em OK to use, but they are a bit "stiff" when loading onto the lens and body.

Think they cost me about £12 - but you have to drop on.

Chilliz - if we meet up again on a meet and you want to have a go with these let me know before hand and I'll bring em along.

Ian
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
From here

To calculate the magnification provided by extension tubes, divide the extension tube's length in mm by the lens's focal length. For instance, if you attached a 75mm extension tube to a 50mm lens, your magnification will be 75 / 50, which is 1.5x magnification.

Remember that magnification is multiplicative. If you are using extension tubes with magnification lenses, your resultant magnification is the magnification of the lenses times the magnification of the extension tube. For instance, combining the two above examples yields 1.5 x 1.5, which is 2.25x magnification.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, very useful. :)

Fezman said:
Jessops used to make these - but I think they discontinued them - I picked a set up on ebay - which loses AF but keeps Aperture control. I find em OK to use, but they are a bit "stiff" when loading onto the lens and body.

Think they cost me about £12 - but you have to drop on.

Chilliz - if we meet up again on a meet and you want to have a go with these let me know before hand and I'll bring em along.

Ian
Click to expand...

Will do mate, thanks for the offer. :thumbs:
 
iv just got some cheep ones off of amazon.they are ok for the money.the problem i have with them is that you dont get much light in when your close up and that i have to turn the shutter speed right up to get a photo that can be seen.i`v got a sony and can only use it in the M setting as the body tells me no lens is attached. is this correct ?? or am i doing something wrong?
 
powell7 said:
iv just got some cheep ones off of amazon.they are ok for the money.the problem i have with them is that you dont get much light in when your close up and that i have to turn the shutter speed right up to get a photo that can be seen.i`v got a sony and can only use it in the M setting as the body tells me no lens is attached. is this correct ?? or am i doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately thats how they work - as there's no electrical contact between the body and the lens the body cant talk to the lens, as a result the lens is probably set at its smallest aperture which means very little light gets through the lens to the view finder.
 
How about £43.99 including postage for a set of three auto tubes from Poland?

I got a set for Canon, which arrived in just two-three days and they work fab. Foto-Tip is the company and they are Econo tubes. What great names to fill you with confidence! But fear not they are absolutely marvellous, plus they have all the auto functions of the Canon and Kenko tubes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180422733712

Sam-D
 
I bought a set for £6.49 off Amazon to use with my M42 manual lenses. I think they're great, work really well. I wouldn't want to try using them with modern lenses though, too much of a PITA.

For real magnification I used them together with a 135mm and a 58mm reversed. Not sure what magnification I got but the results are here.
 
The kenko ones are great as they have all of the electronic connections for the metering etc, using ones without is a pain. The af is very handy when they're used to reduce the minimum focussing distance on long lenses too
 
I use a set of the cheapy ebay ones, they suit manual pentax lenses a treat with an aperture ring. If you are using completely manual lenses they are fine. At the end of the day- a piece of tube is a piece of tube!!!
 
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