Macro extension tubes (1 Viewer)

[John In Ireland]

I have been dabbling with some cheap extension tubes I had for ages. I recently tried them with my Canon 100-400 and was quite happy with some results. I see now that some of these extension tubes come with electrical contacts that allow auto focus and aperture etc. Has anyone tried them and are they any good. They come at quite a reasonable price which makes me wonder.

 

[Vernon Barker]

Yes John, I have used a very basic set (made in Poland) on my Canon 100-400 zoom for getting close ups of dragonflies and they work perfectly. They are made of plastic so they will probably wear out quicker than aluminium ones but for occasional use they are OK.

 

[John In Ireland]

Do yours have the electrical contacts Vernon to enable AF etc.?

 

[Vernon Barker]

Yes they did.

 

[Graham Osborne]

I Have a set of Kenko tubes for Canon which work fine.

 

[John In Ireland]

Ah that's good, thanks for that Vernon. Hi Graham, do the Kenko ones have a metal or plastic body? I read somewhere that the little screws holding on the connection plates to the body screw into plastic and some folk have experienced the whole lens pulling away. Don't know if this is a common problem though.

 

[Graham Osborne]

The bodies are indeed plastic but the mounting rings at either end are metal. I suspect that there is a risk of the fixing screws coming loose but this would only seem to be likely if you were to let a heavy lens hang off the end (which I am sure is not recommended!) With proper care I don't think you should have a problem with them.

 

[Vernon Barker]

The only advantage of the plastic rings is that if you drop the lens and camera (as I did once) then the cheap plastic breaks rather than the expensive metal on the lens and camera.

 

[outnabout]

Used the Kenko tubes for years great set, no issues whatsoever.