Enter The World of Small Things

Two days ago, I’ve got myself a new toy. It’s a Kenko extension tube. It’s a little bit plasticky and very light. It comes with three sets of tube, 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm. It can be stacked. So you can get an effective 68mm of tubes. First I try to attach it to my Tamron 28-75mm. It doesn’t work on small focal length, my experiment shows that you need a minimum of 40mm to 50mm to get it work. Fun comes when I extend it to 75mm. I can get approximately 1:1 magnification, but the object must be 2cm from the front element :-(. Automatic focusing is hard, it’s hunting a lot, so I turn to manual and rely on my eyes for manual focusing.

Next, I try to attach it to my Canon 70-300mm. I’m a little bit worried whether the extension tubes can hold my glass. Because It’s a lot more heavy and longer than my Tamron. But It holds and fit nicely. The problem is, it’s heavy, because the center of weight is much further in front. After 5 minutes of hand holding using my right hand only, I feel cramp is creeping into my arm.

July 17,2009, Canon EOS 40D, f/8 1/30s at 100mm

This is a picture of Shisha key chain. I put it into stacks of paper clip. The depth of field is challenging, I think it’s only 1 or 2cm at f/8 aperture. The lens stabilizer helps a lot, because I only use available light that comes from the window.