Extension Tubes for SLR Cameras

One of the most underexposed (pardon the pun) kinds of DSLR photography is macro shots. Often the cause is the inaccessibility of pricey, limited functionality macro accessories for shooting ultra close ups of potential shots. However, with the purchase of a Canon extension tube to your bag of equipment, lots of of your existing lenses are able to be transformed to possess macro functionality at a price tag of below $100.

For folks who've never heard of extension tubes, they are simply pieces of plastic and/or metal that fasten between the camera lens and camera body. They come approximately in 10mm, 20 and 30mm lengths and help to lengthen the focal length of the pre-existing lens. This serves dual purposes. Number one is enlargement. If you use a lens with a focal distance of 50mm and add a 25 extension tube, it can now work as a 75mm lens, hence a 50% greater magnification than the initial 50mm. The number two result from adding a macro extension tube is lowered minimum focusing length. While the math behind this is much more complicated, I've found that for a 50mm lens with a minimum focus length of 300mm, this can without difficulty be lowered to 100 mm or less with an extension tube, enabling one get exceptionally up close and personal with your subjects for photographs not at all before thought feasible.

an essential piece of info regarding extension tube equipment is whether you can get electrical wires in the extension tubes to preserve connectivity linking the lens and DSLR itself. If you have got them, you'll be able to keep f-stop & focus control as if the extension tubes weren't attached. Lacking this electrical contact, you will only have the ability to focus without the aid of the camera and will be required to set f-stop prior to attaching the macro extension tubes, and this can be a large nuisance and pretty annoying.

Another useful tidbit of data is the make of extension tube purchased in fact makes no difference, and that can be a surprise to a lot of you. A brand name macro extension tube at 12 or 25mm can be upwards of $120 for a single tube. Conversely, so called no name companies like Opteka or Zeikos will net you a trio of macro extension tubes that work equally capably for roughly 70 bucks, a much better use of money. And if the omission of electric connectivity does not worry you, vanilla plastic extension tubes can be purchased for just over 10 dollars. I highly recommend keeping your dollars and getting the Opteka ones, I've been enjoying them for months with excellent success.

There can be a couple shortcomings you need to be conscious of compared to choosing an actual macro lens (which will cost upwards of $500). Number one is the macro extension tubes only provide a very short DOF as a result of the amplified enlargement. As a result the aperture usually needs to be put a good deal larger, which allows in less light and could cause difficulties without the proper lighting environment and somewhat lower contrast or sharpness. Number two, not only do macro extension tubes lower the minimum focusing length, they get rid of the ability to focus past that to infinity. It's not out of the question that you'll only focus in a length of 100mm to 200mm, so you'll have to work quite close to the potential photo, eliminating the capturing of moving things (or those that bite) including bugs or pets.

In closing, for photographers shopping around to expand in the realm of digital SLR camera work, I very much suggest purchasing a set of macro extension tubes to seriously boost the range of pics you can capture.