Oh, I meant to say the 35-105 doesn't give that much more magnification with the tube in macro mode. The macro mode moves it a lot closer on its own, but with the tube on, it doesn't seem to gain much. I find this curious. I don't know much about tubes other than your are moving your plane of focus closer. Basically you are magnifying the image by moving it behind the sensor plane. If you reduce the flange distance, your close focusing ability diminishes and you will focus past infinity at the other end. I think extension tubes are a great addition to any kit. Especially 25mm. If a lens doesn't do all that great at its minimum focus distance, its not going to get any better if you magnify that. The FA 28-80 was kind of a dog with pretty awful bokeh. I haven't tried the kit 18-55, but imagine it wouldn't be much better since close focus on that lens is pretty subpar.
On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM, Zos Xavius <zosxav...@gmail.com> wrote: > One day recently I came across a Tamron 2x teleconverter in a cheap > bag of kit. So, basically free. After trying it and researching it, I > realized it was just an awful chinese TC that had no redeeming > qualities. K-R mount too, but the pin is rounded so it doesn't seat > into the screw drive fortunately. It does have A contacts and an > aperture lever. Hmmmmmm. After much whacking with a screwdriver and > hammer, the glass elements shattered one by one. I blew out all the > glass dust and voila! instant 25mm extension tube. I find it works > best with lenses that have good close focusing ability. The 16-45 > superb in its rendering in macro with a tube, but the working distance > is extremely short and is unusable below probably 30mm or so. The > 70-200 I have does decently and has nice OOF rendering, but just > doesn't get nearly as close. It gets better magnification at 70mm. The > 35-105 I just acquired does pretty well and can certainly reach 1:1 > when you combine with its built in macro mode, though it doesn't give > that much more magnification with a tube. > > I don't see the point personally in having AF. Your DOF is so paper > thin even at f11-f16 that its much easier and convenient to just move > back and forth. Catch in focus works well here when you want to just > grab something in the center. I find it best to just take multiple > shots, adjusting focus sightly back and forth. I find the 28-50ish > range seems to work best at getting towards 1:1, but you are pretty > much focusing a few inches away from your subject like this. I would > imagine a 100mm macro would give better OOF rendering and would also > give you better slightly better working distance, but even at 100mm, > 1:1 requires you to get pretty close. I haven't tried any primes. I > like zooms because you can use the zoom to quickly adjust focus and > working distance by zooming in and out. I have also tried close up > lenses that were good, but I didn't like how they OOF areas as much as > there was a pretty decent drop in IQ towards the edge of the frame. > They also weren't getting me close enough. The 25mm tube is pretty > good for large magnification. Now I just need to get a ring > flash.....just what I need...more things to lust after... ;) > > I'll post some pics with the tube a little later on here. It has > served me well, though I do get hotspots sometimes. I don't know if > the tube is reflecting (its all black inside) or if the rear elements > of my problematic lenses aren't coated. It does it with the 35-105, > which is likely coated on the rear element, so I'm thinking it might > actually be the tube that could use better paint inside. > > On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 3:50 PM, Bruce Walker <bruce.wal...@gmail.com> wrote: >> That's very cool, Darren. I've often thought I'd love to try macro >> with my 50-135. I figured that the SDM pass-through was not terribly >> useful as manual focus would most likely be required, but for $100 >> I'll keep an eye out for one of these things. >> >> >> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 2:16 PM, Darren Addy <pixelsmi...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Tripped across a piece of equipment that I was not aware of this >>> morning and (just in case others didn't know about it either) thought >>> I would pass it along. >>> >>> It is a AF extension tube that works even with SDM lenses. It is >>> called the Kenko Uniplus Tube 25 and it was once made for Pentax, now >>> extremely hard to find. As good fortune would have it, I no more than >>> learned about it and looked and there was one listed on ePray (from >>> Japan) that had only 9 views when I snatched it up (Buy It Now). >>> >>> I'm passing this info along because it can turn your DA* 50-135mm or >>> even your DA 40 XS into a superb macro lens. If you don't believe me >>> check out this French Pentaxian's work. If you only have time to look >>> at ONE, check this out: >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/15251430@N03/9168541564/ >>> >>> Here all ALL of his images tagged with Uniplus: >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fs999/tags/uniplus/ >>> >>> The macro shots taken with the DA 40 XS can be seen here: >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fs999/tags/pentaxda40mmf28xs/ >>> >>> Macros taken with the combo of the Uniplus Tube and the DA* 50-135mm are >>> here: >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fs999/tags/pentaxda50135mmf28sdm/ >>> >>> I don't own either of those two lenses. He tells me that the Uniplus >>> Tube works with anything over 20mm (with a 20mm the subject is just 1 >>> cm from the front of the lens). >>> >>> I'm curious to see how it works with reducing the minimum focusing >>> distance when used with the Bigma (and how much of the infinity end >>> you lose). >>> >>> If you really want to blow some time, FS999 has a lot of very engaging >>> sets on Flickr. >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fs999/sets/ >>> >>> -- >>> "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - >>> Peter Galassi >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> PDML@pdml.net >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>> follow the directions. >> >> >> >> -- >> -bmw >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
