Extension tubes, or screw-on supplement lens?

[Flyboy]

I would like to do some ultra close-up photography, using my 70-300mm AF P 4.5-5.6 lens, mostly for the extra stand-off distance. I think my two alternatives are: Extension tubes...higher end ones, because my experience with the "better, cheaper" ones has not been exactly pleasing; or a 2 element , screw-on supplementary lens like the NiSi. (Chinese) I can't afford another dedicated Macro lens, so can anyone give me their experiences with either or both of my choices?
Thank you

 

[DRwyoming]

I would like to do some ultra close-up photography, using my 70-300mm AF P 4.5-5.6 lens, mostly for the extra stand-off distance. I think my two alternatives are: Extension tubes...higher end ones, because my experience with the "better, cheaper" ones has not been exactly pleasing; or a 2 element , screw-on supplementary lens like the NiSi. (Chinese) I can't afford another dedicated Macro lens, so can anyone give me their experiences with either or both of my choices?
Thank you

I've used both those options as well as dedicated macro lenses. I'd personally recommend not using extension tubes with a zoom lens or if you must, try to become very disciplined about using just one focal length and not zooming when the tubes are attached. Zoom, focus and length of extension tube are all interconnected so if you try to focus with a tube attached and then change the zoom at all you can end up chasing your tail to try to regain focus and framing and it can end up being a very frustrating experience. But if you pretend the lens is just a 300m lens and don't zoom with the extension tube attached (or 70mm or anywhere in between as long as you keep it at the same zoom) then things behave in more predictable ways.

Personally I'd suggest a high quality screw on diopter rather than extension tubes for a zoom lens like your 70-300mm. Something like one of the Canon or Nikon diopters will provide high image quality and work nicely with that lens. I'd avoid the really cheap diopter sets you see around in favor of something like a Nikon 5T or 6T or Canon 500D with appropriate filter threads for your lens.

The downside of either approach (extension tube or diopter) is that you lose long distance and infinity focus. That's particularly true with the diopter installed as your usable focus range will be limited from very close to a few feet away. That can be a hassle if you're photographing something quite close like a Butterfly and another really nice one lands further away and is framed really nicely but you can't achieve focus at that distance without removing the tube or diopter. That's one big advantage of a dedicated macro lens. That said, it can be hard to justify a dedicated macro lens and it's one more thing to carry in the field so I've often just carried a set of tubes or a screw on diopter for use with one of my lenses and that solution works great as long as subject distance doesn't vary too much or too quickly.

 

[Gillholm]

Raynox DCR 250 is said to be a very good diopter, i havent tried it myself but you can find reveiws on Youtube and other media.

 

[dabhand16]

I'm not sure if extension tubes will work well with that zoom lens. Try some cheap ones to see for yourself. No difference between cheap and expensive manual ones - they are just tubes - if you want the ones with electric connectors in them, they will be dearer but even the cheap set I have for my little Fuji have the contacts in them so they talk to the camera and they cost IIRC way under 30GBP and have 3 tubes. The Fuji ones are around 60GBP for 1 tube. Manual ones can be as cheap as 15 GBP for a set of 3.

A guy on another forum used to get fantasic macro results with a bridge camera and a Raynox 250 lens.

 

[Woodyg3]

I use a Kenko auto extension tube on my old 70-300 G ED AF and it works well. I have no experience with the newer 70-300 models, though.

 

[Warren D]

I like the Vello ext tubes better than the Kenko's. I had maybe 3 sets of the Kenko's and they didn't get used very often. They all failed far sooner than they should have, each failure was loosing contact connection between lens and body. The Vello's have held up better. They appear to have a cheaper build in the website photos but I think they are built better. They have lasted better than twice as long as the Kenko's.

 

[GlenW]

I have a set of Kenko AF extension tubes (12, 20, and 36 mm) and a Nikon 5T close-up lens. I've had them for 20+ years and used them with many bodies and lenses, so I know they work.

To test the tubes, I used the 12 mm and 20 mm tubes with my D500 and 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-P lens. No problems with the operation of the tubes, but there is quite a bit of hunting for AF becasuse I'm not used to using them with this lens (see Dave's comments above). Of course, there is loss of light because the nodal point of the lens is farther out than normal.

The 5T close-up lens is a 62 mm filter thread; you have to use a 67- to 62-mm step-down ring. At 300 mm, the field of view is about 41 mm and focus distance is about 2 ft (pardon the measurement unit differences!). No loss of light through the close-up lens, of course, so it might be the preferable option.

I also have a PB-6 bellows, but let's not go there with this lens.

Glen

 

[GlenW]

One other option--buy a used manual focus macro lens for about the price of a really good set of tubes or close-up lens.

Two other methods for macro photography: use a reversed wide angle or normal lens attached to extension tubes or use a normal lens reversed on your zoom.

Lenzilla below, is an 80-400 with a 55 mm f/3.5 compensating-diaphram Micro Nikkor. The two lenses are joined via two Cokin filter holder adapters and gaffer tape.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

At 400 mm, the combination gives 7.3x magnification. The photo below is of a 0.5 mm pencil lead. Just don't hand-hold Lenzilla like I did for the photo.

Magnification = lens on body / reversed lens
Use lens on body to focus
Use reversed lens to control aperture
Lots of light loss