Extension tubes advice please

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ep82

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Hi everyone

I am thinking in getting some for my borther as a present, but neither of us know much about the techincal side of photography.

So. Can anyone tell me if these extension tubes are actually worth buying?? It's just a little something to go with his main present.

Anyway, hs has a canon 400D with a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens.

Can anyone tell me if the tubes will give him more zoom/focus with this lens or should he use the tubes with the factory 18-55mm lens?


2 other thing. can someone recommend me a good set of tubes? or are they all the same as I saw some on ebay for £10.
and the most important. will he loose auto focus with the tubes on?

thanks in advance :)
 
Extension tubes decrease the minimum focussing distance of the lens at the cost of losing infinity focus. That means they let you focus closer so gain higher macro magnification but you lose the ability to focus on further away objects.

If your brother wants to photograph very small things then on the 60mm macro, a standard set of tubes should let you frame an area about 1cm across. But with the tubes on you can't focus on any larger objects. You'd also also lose light and the DoF would be very thin as a result of the higher magnification, so lighting and technique would be even more critical (with the tubes on flash would be nigh on essential, or you'd need a solid tripod if you're shooting stationary subjects but you can pretty much forget shooting natural light handheld).

All tubes are not equal.
For a start, a lot of them won't even fit on the Ef-s mount 60mm or 18-55mm because the EF-s bayonet a bit different to the EF bayonet. Some companies do make EF-s compatible tubes though.
Then the is the issue of electronic contacts. The cheap sets you see on ebay will be purely mechanical, they do not have the contacts needed to keep the lens electronically connected to the body, which is crippling with all current canon lenses because they have no way to set the aperture apart from electronically*. This means the lens would be shooting wide open which is useless for high mag macro. You also don't get AF without contacts.
So your option would be tubes with contacts, which are a lot more expensive. Kenko make a set that is very popular for somewhere over £100, you can get cheaper ones with contacts on ebay but I've not yet seen any reviews of those so the build quality could be questionable. But you'd have to make sure you get an EF-s compatible set remember. A set with contacts would keep AF.

Hope that helps

*You can get around this by setting the desired aperture with the lens mounted without the extension tubes, then dismounting the lens while holding down the DoF preview button, which fixes the lenses aperture at what it was set at until it is remounted with contacts, but this is difficult to work with as the aperture is fixed stopped down the viewfinder will be very dark
 
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I use my set of Kenko tubes on my 100 f2.8 L macro and it certainly makes for a closer image. You need a set marked C/AF to maintain connection from body to lens and as Adam says you need a set that is EF-S compatable.
A set on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW...aphy_Lens_Extension_Tubes&hash=item336ea83bc9 should be what you want and the 9, 16 and 30mm tubes can be used in any combination to get the length you require.
You do lose some light while using these tubes but as long as you have good light or flash you shouldn't lose much if anything in IQ. It's definately worth the extra investment for the AF tubes as it makes adjustments so much quicker and easier.
My set cost around £85 but are only EF compatable and not EF-S.
 
I think their is some confusion here regarding ef / efs mounts?

I thought ef was compatible with all EOS cameras? Whereas EFS protrudes further into the camera body and is therefore not compatible with EF? I stand to be corrected though!
 
Splog said:
I think their is some confusion here regarding ef / efs mounts?

I thought ef was compatible with all EOS cameras? Whereas EFS protrudes further into the camera body and is therefore not compatible with EF? I stand to be corrected though!
Click to expand...

All EOS cameras are EF mount, but EF-s mount is only for the 1.6x APS-C crop cameras (anything that isn't a 5 or 1 series).

EF-s lenses do extend further back, because of this the bayonet is made slightly different so they only physically fit on the cameras that that made compatible with them so they can't be mounted on camera where they would hit the mirror so potentially cause damage.
That's the issue with extension tubes, some are not made to be compatible with the EF-s bayonet.
 
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squishy said:
All EOS cameras are EF mount, but EF-s mount is only for the 1.6x APS-C crop cameras (anything that isn't a 5 or 1 series).

EF-s lenses do extend further back, because of this the bayonet is made slightly different so they only physically fit on the cameras that that made compatible with them so they can't be mounted on camera where they would hit the mirror so potentially cause damage.
That's the issue with extension tubes, some are not made to be compatible with the EF-s bayonet.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks. I did say there was some confusion ;)
 
modchild said:
I use my set of Kenko tubes on my 100 f2.8 L macro and it certainly makes for a closer image. You need a set marked C/AF to maintain connection from body to lens and as Adam says you need a set that is EF-S compatable.
A set on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW...aphy_Lens_Extension_Tubes&hash=item336ea83bc9 should be what you want and the 9, 16 and 30mm tubes can be used in any combination to get the length you require.
You do lose some light while using these tubes but as long as you have good light or flash you shouldn't lose much if anything in IQ. It's definately worth the extra investment for the AF tubes as it makes adjustments so much quicker and easier.
My set cost around £85 but are only EF compatable and not EF-S.
Click to expand...

£100 for manual focus ones??!! They're having a laugh surely? :clap:
Identical ones on there for £20! :lol:

According to the listing those ones are manual focus but with AF confirm so half press the shutter, turn the focus ring until the camera beeps to confirm focus.
There are others that appear to work fully with autofocus such as these, they have contact pins running through them.

Looking at getting a set myself and I believe the Polaroid ones are pretty good from what people say on here.
 
Wow. thanks for the indepth reply guys.

Im unsure what to do now. the £100 ones are abit too much for something he prob wont use that much. Plus the £54 one seems to sound better as they make the focus beep.

has anyone tested any of the ones mentioned above?
 
Those Polaroid ones I mentioned give FULL autofocus, not just a confirmation beep so at £60 they seem by far the best value.
A forum search sows that a few members have them and seem to rate them every bit as good as more expensive ones. ;)
 
BTW to answer your earlier question, tubes would work better with the 60mm macro lens. They tend not to work very well with zoom lenses because zooms are less able to accommodate closer focussing and still maintain image quality.
 
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