My New 20mm 2.8 & My Kenko's

Well,

Not wanting to spend a few hundred dollars on a dedicated macro lens I would only use less than 1% of the time, I decided to purchase a set of Kenko tubes so that I could get the occasional macro shot whenever I chose using my current lenses. I've only used an extension tube once before and I stuck it on the back of the Sigma 105 2.8 I had for my Canon (a 1:1 macro lens already, though I used it for portraits).

Anyway, I ordered them from B&H on Friday I think and they showed up yesterday. I ran a few tests, boxed everything back up, and will be heading over to B&H in a few hours to return the set. Here's why:

I payed the extra $90 for the Kenko set over a single Kenko tube thinking that the different tubes would allow for wildly varying degrees of macro capability. I picked Kenko over Nikon because the Nikon tubes will not allow for autofocus while the Kenko's will.

I sort of expected that with the smallest of the tubes on my 50, it would convert the lens into something that I could still shoot a head-shot with and also use to get a little closer up then I could now. And then, if I wanted really good macro capabilities, use the big tube or stack a few of them up. The problem came in right in the beginning ... that thing with the head shot. With the smallest tube attached to my 50mm, the lens no longer could focus on my son standing 3 feet from me. So I moved closer and discovered that it could no longer focus on him standing 2 feet from me either. Simply put, the smallest tube was just too much magnification.

For the hell of it, I stacked all 3 tubes together, threw the 50mm on the end and tried to see how close I needed to get to take a photo. In order to shoot my lens cap, I had to have the edge of the cap touching the bottom of the lens and even then, I had to rotate the camera around a bit to get it closer to the "N" in "Nikon" so that at least the N would be in focus. I was so close to the cap, the lens was blocking at least 60% of the ambient light that would have otherwise hit the cap. I refer to this as "absurd macro".

It took me a total of 15 minutes worth of testing to realize that I do not need this, so I'm going to take it back this afternoon, pick up a Nikon 8mm extension tube (with working distances this small, I can focus with my feet), and spend the difference on an extra memory card or two, some mini-dv tapes for my camcorder, and another 4-pack of rechargeable batteries.

 

Oh yes, I forgot to give you the pics from my new 20mm 2.8:







That's only some ... I've had very little time since getting this lens to do any post processing.

 

Oh my lord. So I just got back from B&H, I threw my new 14mm Nikon Extension Tube on, and realized that it doesn't work with lenses that don't have aperture rings. This prevents me from using it on my 70-200 but thankfully, I have 3 other lenses it will work for.

I'm still thinking I might go back and replace this with a single Kenko tube so I can use this on ALL of my lenses ... but we'll see how lazy I am.

Bill

 

Yes, the Kenko tubes do work with the 70-200 .... but I returned my Kenko set, picked up a single Nikon 14mm tube, and THAT doesn't work with the 70-200. Very annoying.

Bill