What are the biggest differences between Reversal Rings, Extension Tubes and Macro Lenses?

Question

As far as I understand all three options help you do macro photography but are their other reasons for having the three different items? I figured reversal rings and extension tubes were just for the low cost but with additional more expensive features being added to the two options it seems there may be certain situations for each type? What are their biggest differences and advantages over each other?

• Are there situations where you would have one over the other?
• Do all three options have the same "wafer thin" depth of field?
• Do they all suffer from the same light loss?
• Do any of them affect your photos more negatively than the others?
• Can I achieve the same magnification with rings and tubes that I can with proper lenses?
• Would you ever combine these options together or would there be no need for that?

I ask because I recently bought a cheap extension tube and reversal ring and I'm trying to get a better overall understanding of each. I tend to use the extension tube a lot more, because I can put it on my 70-200 and have a workable distance between subject and lens.

This photo was taken with 49mm of extension tube on the 70-200 I believe which may be greater than 1:1. Would it be sharper with a macro lens?

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Asked by Vian Esterhuizen

Answer

Depth of Field

Reversing a lens will produce a very shallow DOF. You may also get distortion and vignetting and have difficulty focusing, as you can only focus at a very narrow range of distances. From memory extension tubes have less DOF than a macro lens, but I am not certain of that.

Light Loss

You will lose 1-2 stops of light using extension tubes. You can argue that macro lenses at 1:1 lose some light (mine reduces from f/2.8 to f/3.5). I don't know about the loss of light with reversed lenses, but it would would seem clear that the light gathering ability of the lens would be reduced when reversed, given that the aperture opening tends to be quite a bit smaller than the front of the lens.

Magnification

You can achieve 1:1 with extension tubes with say roughly 50mm of tubes and a 50mm prime lens. Reversing a lens you can get greater than 1:1.

Quality and Ease of Use

You will lose sharpness in reversing a lens or using extension tubes. You may lose metering and AF capability with a reversed lens (and some tubes), although some reversing rings and extension tubes have metering capability.

An important difference to me is that macro lenses can focus from their min distance to infinity (other two options have a narrow range of focus ability, so the camera and subject must be a certain distance apart). So once you reverse your lens or put on some extension tubes, you will be locking in a certain magnification and subject-camera distance, where a macro lens you can move closer or further away from your subject to compose the shot.

Reversing a lens, or sticking it at the end of some extension tubes, you are not using the lens for what it was originally designed and optimised for, so you wont get the same performance as a dedicated macro lens.

But both options do a good job considering the relatively low cost.

Re: your new question about using them together. Yes, you can use an extension tube or teleconverter with a macro lens to increase magnification, or to give you more working distance for the same magnification. With more working distance and the same magnification, because you are focusing at a greater distance, you should end up with more DOF as well.

Answered by MikeW

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Has anyone successfully mounted other lenses on Ricoh GR II?

Question

I've been given a Ricoh GR II to play with — sort of a long term loan really. Lovely little camera. In the past I've messed about with Olympus film and digital, and Nikon compacts and SLRs with other manufacturer's lenses using converter rings and reverse mounts (for super macro effects).

I'd like to try something similar, but I can't see any evidence that others have tried this online, and can't find any converter rings or etc.

Any thoughts? The GR II is so good in terms of features and the 10MB ccd etc, I'd love to hack it a bit in terms of optics.

Asked by Mere Development

Answer

The Ricoh GR-II is not an interchangable-lens camera. So the only alternative/additional lenses you can use with it are the conversion lenses GW-1 (wide, 21mm) / GT-1 (tele, 40mm) and the GH-1 hood adapter.

I'm not sure which other lens adapters will fit the GH-1. Perhaps your camera manual specifies the thread size for the GH-1, which will allow you to figure that out.

Answered by James Youngman

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How important is auto focus and aperture control in a macro setup?

Question

I'm thinking of starting some amateur macro photography, and I'm not sure I want to go with macro lenses, due to their price.

I currently have the following lenses:

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
• Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

And I was thinking of buying either:

• Macro Extension Tube
• Reverse Adapter

My questions are:

1. What is the difference between the tube and the reverse-ring if I want to use one of my lenses for macro?
2. How important is auto-focus in macro-photography?
3. How important is the ability to change the aperture macro-photography?

Answer

The answer to your first question is answered here. Both are good low-cost ways to get started in macro photography.

Autofocus is not very effective as you near 1:1 magnification. Most AF systems will struggle to find focus, you have such a narrow DOF anyway that holding focus is very hard. With anything that is not moving, you are far better to set up a tripod and use live view to focus, if you have it. Or manually focus, then move the camera to and fro to get the subject in focus.

If you have a macro lens, you may not use it at 1:1 as often as you think, in which case AF can be very handy. I use it when shooting bees - it's very hit and miss, but for me slightly more successful than manual focus.

If you use extension tubes or reversal ring, you will be forced to be a certain range of distance from your subject (you can no longer focus over a wide range of distances), so AF is not really useful at all.

Aperture is important. You have a very narrow DOF, so you will often want to stop down in order to get as much DOF as possible. Or if you are shooting hand-held you may need a wide open aperture to avoid blur. If you reverse a lens, or have manual extension tubes and aren't able to control aperture, it's not a killer blow, but it isn't ideal.

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