Anyone ever try a 100-400 with ET's for macro?

I have three lenses, a 28-135, 300 f-4 IS and a 100-400. I need to do a little macro of dragonflies.
I need a little reach. I am guessing extention tubes are cheaper then a long macro. : ) Would extention tubes work good with the 300 or 100-400?

Get yourself a 100mm f/2.8. Either is fine. Results will be much better than trying to manage a 100-400L sized lens in a macro project. Or maybe a 500D Close-up filter. Never used one but have heard praises. I do believe it comes in 77mm.

TSchrief wrote in post #14816186
Get yourself a 100mm f/2.8. Either is fine. Results will be much better than trying to manage a 100-400L sized lens in a macro project. Or maybe a 500D Close-up filter. Never used one but have heard praises. I do believe it comes in 77mm.

You would think that but actually using tubes and a 1.4x TC work very well on the 100-400l.

The 300mm f4 is fine for butterflies and dragonflies. It has a nice MFD to begin with and takes the tubes well.

I probably wouldn't recommend it. Even with tubes, you are not going to be able to get all that close with either of those lens. More importantly, the size of those lens are going to make it difficult to shoot macro. You are working with such narrow DoFs, that large lenses like these will be hard to manage.

I would look at either 100mm F2.8 Macro lens.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #14816298
You would think that but actually using tubes and a 1.4x TC work very well on the 100-400l.

Just curious.... Are you hand-holding that setup or using a tripod?

I have tubes, a 1.4X TC, a 500D and a 100-400, but don't use anything other than just the 100-400 when shooting dragonflies. Here's a sample shot taken with a 30D and 100-400:

1/250s f/16.0 at 400.0mm iso400 (also used my 580EX flash for this shot and it was handheld).

i have played with the setup and have some awesome results, here is one of them:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ehambrick/70399​09041/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ehambrick/68938​13718/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ehambrick/70399​08917/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ehambrick/70399​08517/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ehambrick/70399​76855/

inernets wrote in post #14816903
The 100-400mm super telephoto lens is the last lens you would think to use for macro, but if you pop on the kenko extension tubes you can get much closer to the subjects. The minimum focus distance on the lens is 6 feet, so with the tubes you can give more space between the lens and the camera body allowing you to focus at a much closer distance. Using the push-pull design on the lens, i set it to manual and moved the lens or body closer or farther away to frame and focus.

Impressive! Now I have to give that a try.

Sure, they'll work. Give them a try and be sure to post some images here.

i haven't really messed around with it since the frog photos, but it's worth giving a shot. I was trying to do some tests to figure out which lens i have would be best used with my extension tube set but i didn't have time to finish the tests.

With very little macro experience, it is kind of fun to use the push pull design. I just went outside with my 1d III and 100-400 with just 1 of the tubes on and tried taking just a few shots to see how it is and it's actually fun.

The reason it's fun:
with the 36mm kenko extension tube on, at 100mm you can focus at about 1 foot away instead of 6 feet away. If you zoom out to the 400mm range, your minimum focus distance is about 4 or 5 feet, BUT your DOF is so shallow.

You can use center auto focus on it, but manual is best. What i like to do is move closer or farther with my feet, try to get as close as possible to use the 100-130mm range of the lens, that is where you get the best close-ups. If your subject is skitish and flies off if you get too close, you can use a longer zoom like the 200mm range. So if your subject flies away back 1 foot, you can easily use the push pull design to stay where you are and focus forward. It is actually really neat. It kind of let's you "walk forward" without moving.. BUT the longer your zoom the harder it is to get the subject in focus, or a good small shot.

I would say if you love your 100-400mm and bring it everywhere and are in situations where you need macro, this lens, plus extension tubes PLUS a light setup could result in AMAZING photos like my frog one. I could have focus stacked that for a perfect image.

Dragonfly with 100-400, no ET or TC.

IMAGE LINK: http://kmartin.smugmug​.com …598375&k=mRS54G​2&lb=1&s=A