Need help... Tubes or Filter

Hello,

I am new to photography.... i recently bought a Nikon D40x with 18-55 and 55-200 lenses.

First don't hate about the nikon part.... I need some help, and ive been lerning on this forum for a while.

OK... now to the question.... for a cheep entry to Macro.... extension tubes or a filter (cannon 250, or 500)

what would work best.

Thanks,

joseph

if you had the standard 50mm f1.8 Nikkor lens then tube set would give you just over 1:1

These are the lenses I have:

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …5mm_f_3_5_5_6G_​ED_II.html

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …0mm_f_4_5_6G_ED​_AF_S.html

Any input will help.

There are a few Nikon owners on here, dont worry there a friendly bunch here ...

Action_Man wrote in post #4478033
There are a few Nikon owners on here, dont worry there a friendly bunch here ...

Agreed, Canon's POTN forums don't really care if you use Canon or not, we welcome anyone! Nikon's forums aren't as nice in that respect.

Anyways - I'd go with the tubes over the filter any day - less optical issues. Try the 18-55 with the Kenko tubes, with the lens set to 50mm. Might be some vignetting issues, give it's a zoom, rather than a prime lens though, hard to say without testing the setup myself. If you can, invest in a 50mm f1.8, they're not that expensive and would give better optical results with the tubes than your zoom will imho.

Oh, and the tubes/50mm will give you around 2:1 magnification, not 1:1.

Dave

I will be using this for mostly flowers and some bugs.... I would perfer to use the 55-200 lense, as it has vibration reduction. In addition I would like to have some DOF, not a paper thin one.

Can you use a canon 250d on a 55-200 lens?

Thanks,

Joe

any other input i neek to know what 2 buy

as for macro it is pretty tuff to have a good DOF.
as for you 55-200 does it have a good range for the nearest point.
here is a link I found in Vistek
http://www.vistek.ca …ID=CameraLenses​&cat=Macro

these are macro lens for Nikons
As I don't know what you have for budget.

other than that I have not checked what the other has posted.

Ps tske a look at this if you have seen it sorry.

https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=4486855#p​ost4486855

I've taken lots of shots with the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS using the 500D. The filter has the advantage of being able to screw it on and off in the field without worry about getting dust and gunk in the camera. You can shoot a bird or bug as the mood strikes you. As you certainly know already, both tubes and filters have the disadvantage of loosing infinity focus. Other advantages of the filters include no loss of light, which can be advantage if trying to shoot with natural light. I believe that you will find that there is no advantage as far as depth of field when using filters (diopters) vs tubes. If you use tubes or filters to obtain a 1:1 image of a subject, the depth of field will be identical. Working distance will be longer with the filter. The perspective of the two systems is also different. The tubes will give a perspective similar to a wide angle view in traditional photography while the filters will give a more telephoto like perspective. Many prefer the perspective of the filters to the the tubes as the background tends to be less busy or distracting because of the more narrow field of view. There is no arguing that the optics of a column of air is always going to beat a piece of glass. However, the glass will sometimes let you get shots that the air will not. Were this not so we would all be carrying pin hole cameras.

The cheapest way is to get hold of a reverse adaptor, they usually have 52mm thread, then get yourself a cheap 50mm or 28mm with 52mm filter thread, you can get these manual lenses via eBay for a few £/$. And you will need an flash, the pop-up just wont be suitable.

The setup i have cost around £30, and if i stretch it, i can achieve over 5:1 ...

I would love to use natural light..... so im leaning tword the 250D or the 500D.... which would be better..... I would perfer to usethem on the 55-200mm, but i also have a 18-55mm

any idea on how close i could get to by subject with these, or any examples with them.


Thanks,

Joe

supra8903 wrote in post #4481926
I will be using this for mostly flowers and some bugs.... I would perfer to use the 55-200 lense, as it has vibration reduction. In addition I would like to have some DOF, not a paper thin one.

Can you use a canon 250d on a 55-200 lens?

Thanks,

Joe

DOF is always limited with macro shots, not much you can do about it. All I can suggest is shoot at lower magnifications and then crop, or start stacking images like LordV and many others here do (using the CombineZ software).

Dave

ok... sounds good, what would be better for me the 250d or the 500d

thanks,

joe

i go with the 500 then again i think they only make them in a certain size only not sure have to look. was gonna suggest tubes but i see you wanted filter instead

Bill

ooops and welcome to the forum also

Bill