#SONY 90MM MACRO EXTENSION TUBES FULL#

You’ll only see differences in you look carefully from up close at a very large print or at high magnification (1:1) on a computer screen. If you put the extender first, then the tube(s) are extending a much longer lens (as in the previous example).Īt “normal” viewing sizes, it’s not surprising that you don’t see any difference between a macro prime and a high quality zoom. You can combine a tele extender with extension tubes, but to get the most magnification you need to put the extension tube(s) between the main lens and the tele extender. It’s pretty standard that if you really like macro then you will eventually want a dedicated macro prime, but lots of folks like some close-up work but not dedicated macro. If you are unlikely to want more than 1:2 (or 1/2 life size) than either a close-up filter or extension tubes will work well. What that means is that much of your initial decision depends on how much magnification you want. You cannot get that close to that with a high quality shot using any of the other approaches. The main advantage of a prime macro lens is its ability to get you to 1:1 or even 2:1 magnification. For example: adding a 36 mm extension tube to a 180 mm lens means that you increased your magnification by 20%, (36/180), while adding that same 36mm to a 100 mm lens gives you a 36% increase. With extension tubes, the amount of magnification gain depends on the ratio of the extension length to the focal length. The effect also gets worse as you push for more magnification. With close-up lenses, you lose resolution around the edges that becomes especially noticeable when you go to small f-stops. I’ve worked extensively with all three suggestions above. Yes you will need to have some distance, but it can work really well for close up work.Īnyway…whatever you choose, have fun with it. I’ve done that (if you search tiger beetle here on NPN, you’ll find an example). How about renting the lens you want to buy? That might help you with how big/heavy it is and whether you want to lug it around.Īnother idea is to use your long telephoto as a macro.

#SONY 90MM MACRO EXTENSION TUBES FULL#

Another consideration is how much macro photography do you see yourself doing? If you’re not sure, extension tubes might be the way to go provided they give you full connectivity with your camera so you can do nifty things like focus bracketing (if your camera does it) for focus stacking.

I have used extension tubes with macro lenses to get even closer. If you want to get 1:1, you’ll be best served with a true macro lens. Well I think it comes down to a couple of things - do you want to do real macro or just close ups? Some wide-angle/short telephoto lenses can focus remarkably close and will do for some subjects. Best of luck in whichever direction you end up going. I should say that my macro work is pretty much flowers (Iris, Dahlias, Tulips) so I don’t need a lot of versatility.Īnyway, one person’s opinion. I eventually sold it and now use a 250mm lens with two extension tubes for my macro work. My current kit is a Fujifilm medium format one and I used to have the Fuji 120mm macro. You can use the zoom in addition to the focus to change your focus point and in some cases the size of your closeup subject. But they would really work nicely on the 100-400. The tubes should work with the 24-105 (better at the 105 end).

And depending on how much extension you use, your area of focus can be quite small.

The result is that you can focus more closely, but you lose the ability to focus out to infinity. Extension tubes on the other hand change the optics of the lens, by setting it further from the sensor. So it can double as a semi longish landscape lens. A macro lens is more versatile, because you can focus close as well as out to infinity. The answer may depend on the type of macro work you’re interested in doing.įor me, I have had both. Hi Pat, I am sure you’ll get a lot of great opinions here.

Sony 90mm macro extension tubes