From Telephoto to Macro?

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Doriantsai

sent on June 03, 2012 (22:58)

Hello Everyone,

I am wondering if it's possible to turn my 70-300mm f4-5.6L IS into a macro lens by putting an extension tube on it?

I find that I can almost always get closer than 1.2 m (approximately the minimum focusing distance of my telephoto lens), which forces me to swap out for my actual macro lens (Sigma f2.8 150mm), if I have it. The problem is that I don't always have my macro lens with me, and I don't always have my tripod with me. Extension tubes or some other sort of optics solution might be much easier to carry with me into the field, and although I'm sure there's an image quality loss, I'm starting to wonder if it might be a reasonable trade-off.

Cheers,
Dorian

Juza

sent on June 04, 2012 (9:36)

Yes, it is a good solution - even if you can not reach 1:1 and the image quality is not as good as a real macro, you can get interesting results.

Ronnie Gaubert was one of my favorite macro photographer, and he always used a 300mm with extension tubes: www.pbase.com/ronnie_14187/macro_its_a_small_world

Doriantsai

sent on June 15, 2012 (21:38)

Thanks Juza, I have ordered some very basic and cheap (10 USD) extension tubes to play around with for a little while and see how I like them with still photography. If all seems fine and dandy, I might fork over some cash to get one that retains auto-focus and aperture control.

Techuser

sent on June 16, 2012 (19:07)

I don't think its a good solution of you are looking for true macro.
tubes will work on big subjects like butterflies, but for 1:1 and beyond I recommend using a close-up. I have a non-L 70-300 and could reach 7:1 with a 1.4X and a +22 diopter, just for fun though, what I use most of the time is a +8 for magnifications around 2:1.

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