I'm looking at getting some (cheap) extension tubes for my D40x and kit lenses (as described below - the 55-200 is a VR model), but I gather that without a means of continuing the electrical connections from body to lens, there will be some functionality lost... Is anyone able to qualify this?
My guesses are
- no autofocus
- no aperture control (no aperture rings on my lenses)
- no vibration reduction (where this is in the lens rather than the sensor)
If I have no aperture control - does that mean all photos will be taken with max aperture?
Does anyone know if Nikon make a set of tubes that DOES continue the circuitry, and therefore eliminates the issues?
Cheers,
Grumby
Additional:
Just did a bit of legwork during lunch...
Local camera shop (Ted's) only sells a Kenko kit, which supports autofocus (not sure about other functionality), and costs AU$300
ebay has same kit available for about $175
ebay also has numerous 'cheapos' for around $20-50 which have no electrical pass through.
Additional additional:
Is it
just the electrical connections between those contacts on the body and lens that need maintaining? I remember on my old Praktica SLR, there was a little thingy in the body that pushed against a little pin in the lens, that caused the iris to shut down when you triggered the shutter - but I guess that is all electronic these days...
I was wondering if I bought a cheapo set of tubes, and then hacked the Nikon specific mount parts by letting a small section of veroboard into each of them (carefully lined up with the contacts, obviously), and then ran a ribbon cable between the two (externally, so that I can still change the configuration of the tubes between the mounts), whether I could cobble together a cheap but fully AF compatible set of tubes? It seems that a hike from $20 to $300 is an awful lot just to provide 4 or 5 electrical connections between each tube!