AI lens extension ring set??

I just picked up an old 55 f/3.5 Ai lens and was looking on ebay and found a set of extension rings (5) that were marketed for this lens. These were vintage and appropriate for the lens apparently. My question is, are they worth the time and money, or are other aftermarket ones (low end) or Kenko (high end) a better idea? Having never used extension tubes before, I wasn't sure what to look for.

Thanks,

Scott

Oh, and here are the rings:

1.PK-13
2. Br-2
3.BR-3
4.BR-4
5.K-2

Looks like the BR rings are for lens reversal and the K and PK are extensions. Any good tutorials on best use with these?

Scott

Hi Scott

As long as they are AI or AIS they'll be fine. I use a set of cheap second extension rings with my 55 f2.8 on a D90.

Lizzie

Are the $10 ebay ones worth the trouble? I ended up bidding on the above rings and winning, and now am thinking I can get more extension for less money with cheapy rings?

Scott

I have the exact same lens (55mm f3.5 AI) and the PK-13 extension ring. That lens will focus to 1:2 magnification, the PK-13 allows it to go all the way to 1:1. You'll be crazy close to the subject though. Here's a pic of that lens + pk-13 extension ring on my D90. This is about as close as you can get, full magnification.



By using an extension ring you allow the lens to focus closer at the expense of infinity focus and light. Basically slap the extension ring between the lens + body and get in really close. End result:



Nice part is that the AI lens + extension ring are very inexpensive, far less than any of the AF micro nikkors. But they still produce fantasic images.

Nice! I did some careful research before I bought the lens and came to the exact same conclusion. For around $100 you get great images. Can't be beat in my book.

Scott

ScottaRose said:

Oh, and here are the rings:

1.PK-13
2. Br-2
3.BR-3
4.BR-4
5.K-2

Looks like the BR rings are for lens reversal and the K and PK are extensions. Any good tutorials on best use with these?

Scott

Click to expand...

The D700 manual at page 373 (Incompatible Accessories and Non-CPU Lenses) includes the K-2 ring in the list of items that can NOT be used with D700.
Pay attention.

Using D40. Not afraid to file.
Scott

ScottaRose said:

Looks like the BR rings are for lens reversal and the K and PK are extensions. Any good tutorials on best use with these?

Click to expand...

The PK13 is likely to be the most useful, as it was designed as part of a set with the 55mm Micro Nikkors. You just attach the ring between the lens and body and you get between 1:2 and 1:1 magnification. The lens may even come engraved with the magnification values for the lens plus ring combination.

The BR rings are helpful if you want to get into mounting reversed lenses. The BR2 can be screwed onto the front threads of a lens with a 52mm filter so you can reverse mount it onto your camera. The BR3 is almost the opposite. I mounts onto the F-mount of a lens and lets you attach a filter to it, which is helpful if you want to use a filter to protect the rear element of a lens you reverse mounted with the BR2. The BR4 lets you stop down the aperture of a reversed lens with a cable release, so you can focus at full aperture and stop down rapidly.

The K2 ring is pretty useless without the rest of the K ring set. It has a male F-mount bayonet on one side and a female 52mm thread on the other. Without the corresponding K3 ring (male 52mm threat to female F mount), you can't use it as an extension ring, and with a female thread instead of the male thread on the BR2, you can use it to reverse mount lenses on your camera.
--

As with all creative work, the craft must be adequate for the demands of expression. I am disturbed when I find craft relegated to inferior consideration; I believe that the euphoric involvement with subject or self is not sufficient to justify the making and display of photographic images. --Ansel Adams

If you have old slides or negative film strips, the 55mm micro AI + a PK-13 ring + a Nikon ES-1 copying adaptor, which screws into the 52mm thread of the lens, provide you with a very nice and easy operating slide copying unit. Since there are no built in optics in the ES-1, this setup is significantly better optically than those slide copying devices with mediocre optics you can buy from the far east. I have copied old Tri-X film that way, and the film grain comes out razor sharp. Just set the camera to auto WB, a low ISO, f/11 (DOF to compensate for bulging of film in glassless mounts) and matrix metering. Since the whole setup is firmly mounted to the camera, don't worry about shutter speed and camera shake. Just hold the slide copier up against a light bulb and check in the viewfinder that the slide is evenly illuminated, and yuo are ready to go.

The ES-1 is only meant to be used with mounted slides, but I filed openings in the sides of a glassless plastic slide mount and it then nicely holds film strips from my old negative archive.

The best solution for slide/film copying is probably still to use a film scanner, but a good quality unit cost > 10 times the price of the ES-1. Film scanners are also fairly slow to operate. I still remember film scanning as a very tedious task in my transistion from film to digital.

Awesome. I had forgot to mention that I bought an ES-1 as well for this exact reason. I have a couple of friends who need to convert slides, so this set up will be great for that.

Thanks for all the help!

Scott

Cool, post up your experience using the ES-1 slide copier. It's something I'd like to do as well, though I don't have a ton of slides worth digitizing. Hell if you're only going to use it for a while and want to sell the ES-1 slide copier setup after you're done, lemme know!

Can I use this setup (Micro 55mm + PK-13+ES-1) for 120 film? Or only 35mm film?
I have Canon 6D, can I use Ni-Ca adapter and use: Micro 55mm + ES-1 + PK-13?
Can I use Nikon ES-1 on Canon lens + extension tube?
Which option is the cheapest for me to scan film on Canon 6D?