As I mentioned in a previous post, I love macro photography. A macro lens opens up a whole different world and I love exploring that world. So much so that I own a number of macro lenses. I have the Nikon 60mm macro, the Nikon 105mm macro and the Nikon 200mm macro. But there are other options for capturing macro images other than macro lenses.
Options for Macro Photography
I understand that not everyone may want to spend a lot of money to purchase a macro lens. Fortunately, there are other options for people who want to focus closer and capture macro images. One of those options is extension tubes.
Extension tubes are hollow tubes that fit between your camera and lens. They allow you to focus much closer than your lens would normally allow. Extension tubes are relatively inexpensive (my set is around $130). They usually come in a group of three different sizes that can be stacked together or used separately.
One of the things to know about extension tubes is that your camera will no longer be able to focus on subjects in the distance. Also, when you add extension tubes, the light needs to travel further and so you will get a slower shutter speeds than you would without the tubes. You also need to get your lens very close to your subject to get your subject in focus.
The extension tubes that I have are Kenko brand and they allow you autofocus. However, sometimes the autofocus can be slow or the camera may have trouble focusing so I often use manual focus when using the extension tubes. The set of Kenko tubes come with 3 different size tubes: 12mm, 20mm and 36mm. The more the extension, the closer you can focus. When you stack them all together to get 68mm of extension.
Comparing Extension Tubes and a Macro Lens
So if you can use extension tubes with a lens you already have, why would you buy a macro lens in the first place?
I wanted to try to go out in the real world and do a direct comparison. For this challenge, I decided to use extension tubes with a lens that comes in a kit with a consumer level camera: the Nikon 18-140mm lens. I used this lens with a Nikon D5600 and also brought along my Nikon 60mm macro. In every situation I captured separate images of the same subject. I used the extension tubes with the 18-140mm and then using the 60mm macro lens. Because I was using the same camera, I could compare the quality of the resulting images and experience of each option.
I need to mention that I didn’t use the most popular kit lens that comes with cameras, the 18-55mm lens. Not all focal lengths or lenses will work with extension tubes. A wider angle like 18mm simply will not focus with extension tubes. So you should try out your lens with extension tubes before purchasing some. As a general rule, longer focal lengths like 70-200mm will work well with extension tubes.
Ability to Capture Macro Images
Both the 18-140mm lens with extension tubes and the 60mm macro allowed me to get close and capture close up macro images. The amount of magnification was actually very similar. There were a couple of key differences though.
When using the 18-140mm lens with extension tubes, I had to be VERY close to my subject. I was literally just a couple of centimetres from my subject. This meant that I couldn’t really use this setup for capturing something like an insect that might be skittish and move away. The 60mm macro lens allowed me to be a bit further away and was what I used when trying to capture images of insects.
The photo on the left is captured with the 18-140mm lens with 3 extension tubes. The image on the right is captured with the Nikon 60mm macro lens. The 60mm macro captures a slightly closer perspective, has a blurrier background and is sharper than the image captured with the 18-140mm lens and extension tubes.
Advantage: Tie – Both options allowed me to get close and capture macro images.
Focus
Focusing in macro photography is critical. When you are trying to focus on something very small, there is very little depth of field and it can be difficult to get the part of the subject that you want in focus. Tiny little changes can mean that your subject is in or out of focus. If you have a moving subject, capturing a sharp image can be very challenging. It can take time to get the focus and patience is key.
Even though the Kenko extension tubes have the ability to autofocus, I usually manually focused with the 18-140mm lens. Using the focus ring didn’t actually do a lot so I actually used a combination of zooming the lens and physically moving closer and further from the subject to try to get the subject in focus.
The autofocus on the 60mm macro lens is excellent. The fast autofocus allowed me to capture variety of images quickly and for those images to be in focus. It was also great for any moving subjects like insects. When using the 60mm macro lens it took me a lot less time to get images of the same subject that I had just photographed with the 18-140mm with extension tubes.
The 60mm macro lens worked best with moving subjects like this ant. Check out those mandibles!
Advantage: 60mm Macro – Fast focus, quick and easy to use.
Flexibility
Although extension tubes allow you to focus closer to your subject than you normally would be able to with your lens, they are not built for flexibility as quickness. If you want to vary the amount of magnification, you can start by zooming your lens. If you need more or less magnification you can increase or reduce the number of extension tubes that are between your lens and camera. The set of three extension tubes adds flexibility because you can vary the amount of magnification. But it means you have to add or take away extension tubes to explore and try to get the magnification that you are trying to get for your image.
One of the best things about the macro lens was that I can capture normal images and macro without changing anything. There was no fiddling around. Whatever magnification amount that I needed, I just moved forward or backwards and focused the lens.
The 60mm macro lens allowed me to quickly and easily capture this series of images. When using the 18-140mm lens with extension tubes, I couldn’t capture the whole seed pod without taking off extension tubes and experimenting with different magnifications.
Advantage: 60mm Macro – The flexibility to focus on something in the distance one second and a macro subject the next second made the macro lens the clear winner.
Cost
As far as photography equipment goes, extension tubes are relatively cheap. They can be purchased for around $130 USD new. If you are find them on the used market, they are even cheaper.
A 60mm macro costs around $500 USD new – three times the cost of a set of extension tubes.
Advantage: Extension tubes – an inexpensive option for macro photography
Sharpness
Extension tubes don’t have any glass in them. So when you put them between your lens and camera the light has to travel further but it doesn’t travel through anything else. When extra glass is put between your lens and camera like with a teleconverter, it will degrade the image. This degradation doesn’t happen with an extension tube.
However, when I compared images captured with the 18-140mm lens using extension tubes and the 60mm macro lens, the 60mm macro lens images were sharper. Why is that?
The extension tubes will magnify your subject but they will also magnify the good or the bad of the lens that you are using with them. The 18-140mm lens simply isn’t as sharp as the 60mm macro and so when magnified, the difference in sharpness was clear. The qualities of the lens also affected the colours in the images. The colours in the images from the 18-140mm lens with extension tubes were more muted than those captured with the macro lens.
The image on the left was captured with the 18-140mm lens with extension tubes. The image on the right was captured with the 60mm macro lens. There wasn’t a lot of light and the 18-140mm struggled a bit with sharpness and colour. Using an aperture of f5.6 and I had to use a higher ISO contributed to these issues. The 60mm macro did an amazing job.
I also tried using the extension tubes with the 60mm macro lens to allow me to focus even closer. The resulting images were sharp because the lens is very sharp.
The image on the left was captured using the 60mm macro. For the image on the right, I added the extension tubes to get even more magnification.
Advantage: 60mm Macro – The sharpness of your lens really matters when using extension tubes. The 60mm macro is sharper than the 18-140mm lens. So when used with extension tubes, the images captured by the 60mm lens was sharper. Your lenses will give different results. Try them out.
Overall Verdict
So, what is the best option for macro photography? Part of the answer comes down to you. How much of this type of photography will you do? What type of macro photography will you do? What is your budget?
After all I have just said, you might think I would say you should get a macro lens instead of extension tubes to use with your current gear. But it is not that simple.
If you are just starting out, don’t have a huge budget for new equipment and are not sure about macro photography, then try out extension tubes. They are an excellent way to introduce yourself to macro photography. Remember that there are some limitations. You will need to get your lens very close to your subject and focusing will take some practice. When there isn’t a lot of light, you will need to use a higher ISO to get a usable shutter speed.
In addition to that, the quality of your lens matters. If you have a 18-70mm kit lens, you may only be able to use the extension tubes at the 70mm end of the zoom. Also, kit lenses don’t tend to be as sharp as other lenses so take that into account if you are using extension tubes with a lens.
Sample images from 18-140mm lens with extension tubes
If you love macro photography, then I would highly recommend getting a macro lens. It is much easier to use than extension tubes and gives you fantastic results. If you are interested in capturing images of insects or something that moves, I would recommend getting a macro lens. Using extension tubes with a fast moving subject can be very frustrating.
One of the other benefits of a 60mm macro lens is that when used with a crop sensor body like the D5600, it acts like a 90mm lens. A 90mm lens is a great focal length for portraits. So a 60mm lens would allow you to capture portraits of your subject and get in close and capture details like the eyes of your subject. This is something I will cover in a future photo challenge.
Sample images from 60mm Macro lens
In fact, if you love macro photography, you might want to get a macro lens AND extension tubes.
You will need patience for macro photography. When I look back at the videos that I capture for different challenges, the longest videos I captured were the ones when capturing macro images. You need to be patient and steady when getting close to your subject. It is a good idea to fire a burst of images when you achieve focus because little changes in distance away from your subject will make a big difference in focus. Macro photography on a windy day can be an exercise in futility as your subject may constantly moving.
Check out my video below from the extension tube challenge.
