Bellows or Extension tubes

[Severn Bore]

Hi

I have a Sigma 108mm macro lens, but want to get even greater magnification on occasions. I also have a 50mm prime lens (on a Canon EOS 7D or 400D). I do not want to spend a huge amout so am thinking of buying a set of manual extension tubes or bellows. The bellows appear to be the more convenient option, but would be grateful for any experienced views out there.
Thanks

 

[WeB52]

Extension tubes and bellows are not as effective on longer focal length lenses as they are on shorter lenses. You might find some bellows more effective on a 50 or 35 mm non-macro lens than they are on your 100mm macro lens.

With the weight of a 100mm lens hanging out in front, the extension tubes might be sturdier and give you more satisfaction, but you will need a lot of them. I think the equation would come out to 100mm extension tubes to double your 100mm lens.

I bought a used 55mm macro lens for tube work rather than trying to put my 150mm macro lens on them.
--
Bill
http://web52.smugmug.com

 

[cbkiyanda]

Bellows and extension tubes serve the same purpose, that is to add extension between the lens and the camera.

The obvious difference:

Bellows are more expensive, extension tubes are cheaper. B&H has a 900$ novoflex bellows for canon, where as a set of 3 extension tubes will cost you about 180$ (or 80-120$ for canon-brand extension tubes).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/197081-REG/Novoflex_BALCAN_AF_Auto_Bellows_for_Canon.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=canon+extension+tube&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

I'll refer to those products further down.

The actual (technical) differences:

For these, remember that your magnification is (roughly) m = amount of extension/focal length. Therefore 50mm of extension on a 50mm lens gives you 1:1 and 60mm of extension on a 180 mm lens gives you 1:3.

1) Minimum extension: Bellows are bulky and often the minimum extension you get is a few centimeters. The bellows unit above has a minimum extension of 1.97" = 50mm. This is typical. If you use this bellows with a 50mm lens, you'll always get more than 1:1. The smallest extension tubes are usually 12mm thick.

2) Maximum extension: Bellows can get you a lot of extension easily. The bellows above will get you 5.12"=130mm maximum extension. The usual thick extension tubes are about 36mm thick. A common set is 12, 20 and 36mm tubes. If you stack those together, you get 68mm of extension. If you want 1:1 with a 100mm lens, you'd need a bellows or more extension tubes. There are good reasons to try and get 1:1 with a long focal length rather than with a short focal length. Your working distance increases (for the same magnification) with longer focal length. That means you can be further away from what you're shooting. If you're trying to get live, moving insects outdoors, it's easier if you're further away.

3) Bellows are heavier and more fragile than extension tubes and, hence, more of a pain to carry with you. My extension tubes are pretty much always in my bag and I just throw them around the bag when they're in the way. I wouldn't do that with a bellows unit.

Given all that, I would suggest you start by getting a (cheap) set of extension tubes and play around. Unless you know exactly what you're always trying to photograph, I think you get more use out of those than a bellows.

Alternatively, there are other methods for macro you might want to look at: reversing lenses (on their own or on top of another lens), diopter lenses,...

I always suggest (and now I definitely am a broken record) the book "Closeups in Nature" by John Shaw. You can get a copy for less than 25$US and that's probably the best investment I could suggest to you.

Have fun!

 

[midi]

Bellows and extension tubes serve the same purpose, that is to add extension between the lens and the camera.

The obvious difference:

Bellows are more expensive, extension tubes are cheaper. B&H has a 900$ novoflex bellows for canon, where as a set of 3 extension tubes will cost you about 180$ (or 80-120$ for canon-brand extension tubes).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/197081-REG/Novoflex_BALCAN_AF_Auto_Bellows_for_Canon.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=canon+extension+tube&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

I'll refer to those products further down.

The actual (technical) differences:

For these, remember that your magnification is (roughly) m = amount of extension/focal length. Therefore 50mm of extension on a 50mm lens gives you 1:1 and 60mm of extension on a 180 mm lens gives you 1:3.

1) Minimum extension: Bellows are bulky and often the minimum extension you get is a few centimeters. The bellows unit above has a minimum extension of 1.97" = 50mm. This is typical. If you use this bellows with a 50mm lens, you'll always get more than 1:1. The smallest extension tubes are usually 12mm thick.

2) Maximum extension: Bellows can get you a lot of extension easily. The bellows above will get you 5.12"=130mm maximum extension. The usual thick extension tubes are about 36mm thick. A common set is 12, 20 and 36mm tubes. If you stack those together, you get 68mm of extension. If you want 1:1 with a 100mm lens, you'd need a bellows or more extension tubes. There are good reasons to try and get 1:1 with a long focal length rather than with a short focal length. Your working distance increases (for the same magnification) with longer focal length. That means you can be further away from what you're shooting. If you're trying to get live, moving insects outdoors, it's easier if you're further away.

3) Bellows are heavier and more fragile than extension tubes and, hence, more of a pain to carry with you. My extension tubes are pretty much always in my bag and I just throw them around the bag when they're in the way. I wouldn't do that with a bellows unit.

Given all that, I would suggest you start by getting a (cheap) set of extension tubes and play around. Unless you know exactly what you're always trying to photograph, I think you get more use out of those than a bellows.

Alternatively, there are other methods for macro you might want to look at: reversing lenses (on their own or on top of another lens), diopter lenses,...

I always suggest (and now I definitely am a broken record) the book "Closeups in Nature" by John Shaw. You can get a copy for less than 25$US and that's probably the best investment I could suggest to you.

Have fun!

What an excellent & informative post, cbkiyanda, thank you.

I agree about the John Shaw book, a very good read.
--
Regards
Dave Midi

 

[cbkiyanda]

Thanks for the nice comment. I learnt most of what I know about macro (and most of what I put in that post) from the John Shaw book, so really the credit should go to someone else.

Charles

 

[john_bmth101]

I just bought a set of extension tubes of amazon for £7 inc delivery.

You can get the same ones on amazon USA for $9.99 inc. They have no electrical contacts for aperture so just remember to set your aperture to what you want and press

DOF preview button as you remove the lens. They are solid aluminium and feel very sturdy.

(the £7 shop sold out but the same tubes are here for £7.99 a whole pound more)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MACRO-EXTENSION-TUBES-CANON-Camera/dp/B001CWZE6A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1316728957&sr=1-1

here for USA

http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Extension-Extreme-Close-up-Digital/dp/tags-on-product/B003Y60DZO

 

[cbkiyanda]

There's also a couple options for extension tubes with the electrical contacts.

http://www.doerrfoto.de/Produkte/index.html

http://www.tristatecamera.com/lookat.php?sku=KENAFETSDGP

 

[Perci]

My opinion about comparison of extension tubes and bellows are:

One very popular mean to getting lens to magnify to greater than 1:1, is via extension tubes, they simply sit between your camera and your lens and increase the magnification of any lens that you attach to them.

But, the biggest advantage to using a set of bellows is that they allow you to move the lens a lot further than a set of extension tubes will, the shot shows below the bellows extended about half their maximum distance.

 

[kjhants]

"john shaws closeups in nature" could not agree more this is probably the best book on the subject , certainly was for me.

 

[D Cox]

I would get tubes first.

Good bellows are expensive, but they are a long term investment. If you do get bellows, make sure you can focus by moving the camera rather than the lens. There is a cheap model around on Amazon etc nowadays which has movement only at the lens end.

Novoflex equipment is excellent, but very expensive.

The leading camera makers such as Nikon, Olympus or Canon used to make well engineered bellows for their film SLRs, and these can sometimes be found on eBay.

The best models have a focus rail built in. The best bellows I have is a Nikon PB-4, which is a fine piece of equipment, but really too heavy to use outside the studio.

My favourite lightweight bellows is the BPM, which is not too hard to find on eBay, at least in the UK. It takes lens and camera mount rings for a variety of mounts, but these do not (I think) include the current Canon mount.

You would normally put the camera on the moving panel and the lens on the fixed panel.

 

[paultr]

Another vote for extension tubes. I got a set after advice on here and have been very pleased as they are much sharper than I thought they would be.

Your user name suggest you may be from the UK so I would like to recommend my supplier as I think I got a good deal. There are a lot of generic brands on ebay and Amazon, some manual without the electrical contacts and some with. I noticed that some of the ones from HK had the Meike brand on them. There were a lot of other unbranded ones. As I was going to connect them to my lenses and camera I was nervous of poor quality quality control and bad tolerances (visions of horrible metal on metal grinding noises). Anyway, I found a guy on Amazon selling these Meike ones and I went online to find out about the brand. Meike have a large factory in Shenzhen in China and make a lot of flash units and general photographic stuff. This is not a fly by night operation just copying the more expensive branded tubes as so many are. The UK Amazon but was also a similar price to the other cheapo ones.

They arrived the next day and at first were a little stiff but after half a dozen or so mount/demounts they are silky smooth going on/off camera/lens. Nearly as good as the lenses themselves.

The supplier on Amazon is Andoer.

 

[dgumshu]

My opinion about comparison of extension tubes and bellows are:

One very popular mean to getting lens to magnify to greater than 1:1, is via extension tubes, they simply sit between your camera and your lens and increase the magnification of any lens that you attach to them.

But, the biggest advantage to using a set of bellows is that they allow you to move the lens a lot further than a set of extension tubes will, the shot shows below the bellows extended about half their maximum distance.

What brand and model number is that Bellows? Nice setup

 

[The shootist]

I use the Kenko DG Auto Extension Tube Set and it works very well with my Canon 100mm Macro Lens.

I also use them from time to time on other lens.

They have all the circuitry and mechanical coupling to maintain auto focus and TTL auto exposure

Amazon selling it for $138.00 Prime

 

[Perci]

Thanks for ur comment. It's an Studiohut macro bellows mounted between Tamron 90mm macro lens and Nikon D7000. More details here .