Feeling a bit stupid now.....

[xxpinballxx]

I bought a very cheap set of extension tubes from ebay. 15 bucks! They work well for the price. You have to have everything set to manual but it does the trick. I use it with my 50mm f/1.8.
The stupid set in when I suddenly realized I can unlock the aperture ring!
Talk about feeling silly!
Now i am getting much better macros and liking the fact I don't need external flash like I thought!
LOL!
Just sharing my blonde moment!

[Manila_Joe]

Can you share the model/manufacturer of the extension tubes? I think Wulf mentioned a Raynox product for macro photography (I think it was the DCR-250). How is this product different from the one you just purchased?

[Taallyn]

Extension tubes fit between your camera and your lens. They extend the focal path, forcing the camera to focus closer than it does without it(them).

I have a set of Kenko extension tubes. They come in a set with 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm tubes. The nice thing is that they allow full metering and autofocusing with my D80. Basically, they give any lens you have "macro" capabilities. You can use one of the tubes, two of the tubes together, or all three tubes together. The more tubes you add, the closer you focus and the greater the macro magnification will be.

The downside is that they aren't as good as a true macro lens, and they eat some of your light. However, they are less expensive than a macro lens if you just want to try it out.

[wulf]

The Raynox DCR-250 is easier to use - you just clip it onto the front of your lens. That is much better if you are in a situation where you need to quickly go from macro to normal usage (for example walking round a garden and wanting to take close-ups of flowers as well as overall context shots of the plant).

The downside is that I found the plastic clip broke after about six months. A new one is on its way at last (albeit slowly) but I've had to hold it in place recently which is a pain because you no longer have two hands to steady the camera.

Wulf

[xxpinballxx]

here is the cheap set I got to see if it was something I wanted to get into....Im quite happy with them now though and have no problem with them. They are cheap but really do the trick!
cheap tubes

[Manila_Joe]

Thanks for the explanation guys. This is definitely something to think about.

[jdepould]

Sorry, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Glad you got it figured out though.

[inkista]

Wow. Those are super-cheap. I'm assuming that since you've lost auto control of the lens that this means you've also got empty EXIF fields, too, for focal length and aperture and that the tubes simply don't bother transmitting information between the lens and the body. But nice that there's a cheaper option than Kenko or Pro Optic.

Another tradeoff between tubes and diopters is that the diopter is an additional glass element which can (theoretically) degrade image quality, while extension tubes just have air in them and don't compromise the quality of the lens. But realistically? Unless you have a really extreme diopter (say +10), that's not an issue as much as the amount of magnification.

[xxpinballxx]

I thought I cant go wrong for under 20 bucks to see if it would be worth me getting anything more advanced. I even used the tubes with diopters just playing around and doing test shots....

[madhatas]

Hi Pinball,

Have you any examples posted on flickr yet?

Cheers

Tim