Kenko Extension Tube Set - First Impressions

The vagarities of product delivery dates, my weekend schedule, and the appearance of a family emergency allowed me a whole hour to try out the extension tubes from Kenko. This is not a proper review, but my first impressions and how I see using this product for shooting the photos posted on this blog. I'm going to be tossing around some camera jargon like aperture settings due to the nature of this post.

The three extension tubes come attached to each other. It makes storage easier.

I purchased the Kenko Teleplus DG Extension Tube Set as an alternative to buying a macro lens. All lenses have a minimum focusing distance. This means that most lenses won't get close enough to a small object for the subject to take up most of the image without getting too close and producing a blurry image. To put it another way, most lenses work fine when taking a photo of a field of flowers, but a photo of a single flower might get lost in the background or be out of focus. Macro lenses can focus on very close objects, but tend to be expensive. Extension tubes change the minimum focusing distance of an existing lens, allowing the lens to get closer to the subject.

All of these photos were shot with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens using the same settings: f/16, ISO 200. The images were cropped from 3:2 to 4:3 to fit this blog's format, but no other editing took place. All ranges were measured from the focal place mark to the subject.

For these test shots, I used a Reaper Chronoscope 50274 Sarah Blitzer, IMEF Sniper placed on top of a Warsenal Small Shipping Container. There was no particular reason for me to pick these as subjects. They just happened to be within reach in the short time I had to spare.

Lens only, 14 inches.

This shot is typical of the ones I've been taking for this blog for awhile now. It is good for shooting a scene or part of a game in progress. The shot is wide enough to show multiple figures with terrain. It is not suitable for showing off a paint job without cropping. It's not bad. A shot like this is useful for certain things, but I've been looking for a way to get the camera a little closer.

12mm extension tube, 12 inches.

Moving the lens a couple of inches towards the subject makes a significant difference. The figure fills more of the shot. Finer details of the sculpt are more clearly viable. Even the texture of the MDF used in the terrain piece is viable. This extension tube will likely see the most use.

20mm extension tube, 9 inches.

Getting in this close means the figure fills most of the shot. This is the equivalent of a close inspection of a miniature without picking it up. The details are clearly viable. So are any flaws in preparation, assembly, or painting.. I'll use this one when I'm feeling confident about the job I did.

36mm extension tube, 7 inches.

This is a little too close. I wasn't able to get the focus as sharp as I'd like - the auto focus refused to work outside of a narrow range and manual focusing was hit and miss. I'm not sure that I need a shot like this for this blog, but I'll keep playing with this as an option.

At this point, I have a rough idea of what each extension tube does. I'll be getting a better grasp of how to best use them as I shoot photos of upcoming projects for this blog. I'll share those more in-depth thoughts after I feel that I've gotten the hang of them.