Take Macro Photographs on a Budget

Take Macro Photographs on a Budget

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Would you like to take some great macro photos without breaking the bank for some expensive glass? Or do you just want to experiment taking some interesting close ups once in a while? Have you ever considered macro extension tubes?

Extension tubes work by physically increasing the focal length of your lens. Because there’s no glass in the tube they cost way less than an equivalent lens. Hundreds of times less! Admittedly, you’re not going to get the same quality results as you would with an expensive dedicated macro lens, but you’ll still be able to have fun and take some decent macros.

Macro extensions are available with mounts for most of the popular digital cameras. They also come in 2 versions. The least expensive one is the very basic tube which includes the camera mount and lens mount as well as several different length tubes. This type costs around $15 USD on Amazon. You will also have to manually adjust the aperture on your lens, which isn’t a problem if you have a manual lens. For more money you can get the version which contains the electronic connections which allow your camera to communicate with your lens. This way you can adjust the aperture from the camera and receive the metadata from the lens. You can pay about $50 USD and up for this type. However, it’s still a lot less than the macro lens.

Here's my setup:

It the basic no frills least expensive extension tube for my Canon.

It comes in a 5 piece kit. 7 mm, 14 mm and 21 mm tubes plus a camera connector and a lens connector

The camera connector

The lens connector

I'm using an 85 mm prime lens. All manual

The total assembly

The assembly mounts easily and securely to the camera

What magnification can I expect from this set up?
Here’s the math:
First thing that you’ll need is the magnification factor for the lens that you are going to use. You usually can find that information on-line.
The mag factor for my lens is 0.08
Next you’ll need the length of the extension tube that you are using. I combined 3 pieces to give me a total of 49 mm.
To get the magnification that the tube adds simply divide the tube length by the focal length of the lens. In my case I’m using an 85 mm lens.
49/85 = 0.58
So I’m getting an increase magnification of 0.58 and the total increase is
0.08 + 0.58 = 0.66 lens plus tube.
Also my camera has an APS – C sensor with has a crop factor of 1.6 which increases the magnification as well.
0.66 x 1.6 = 1.05
This gives me a 1:1 subject to image ratio which is what you would expect to get from a macro lens.

Here are a few examples that I took a few days ago. For these shots I used an aperture setting of f/5.6 and set my camera to aperture priority. I think that I can stop down my aperture a bit more to increase the DOF. I'm still experimenting.

This is my entry in #macrophotography by @juliank and @photocontests daily photography contest.

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Enjoy!

Roger

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