So, I’ve been trying my hand at macro photography since receiving my extension tubes from eBay. I purchased a cheap set of Viltrox extension tubes that work with EF-S lenses. I am pretty impressed so far with how well they work, and I paid around fifty dollars including shipping to get them, which is much cheaper than any dedicated macro lens I could have purchased.

The least expensive dedicated macro lens I could find for my camera was the Canon EF 50mm f2.5 at a little over $300.

The Viltrox set that I purchased came with a 12mm, 20mm and 36mm tube. I am currently using the 20mm tube with my Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens and enjoying the results immensely.

One of the funniest issues is that my minimum focus distance had been reduced so much that the lens is constantly casting a shadow on what I’m trying to photograph. I am going to have to get some kind of flash system if I want to do a lot more of this type of photography.

I also laughed when I placed all three rings on my lens and the focus range was inside the lens, and I could no longer take pictures.

It is strange having to change the aperture in the opposite direction that I usually need to use to take beautiful looking shots. If you have your aperture set to something like f2.8, your focus plane is so thin, you almost don’t get anything in focus.

I am finding I am also constantly bumping my ISO much higher than I would like, and so I think you’ll see lots of black and white macro shots from me as I find noise in black and white photos isn’t as distracting.

I am so excited to play with this, and continue to find inexpensive ways to play with photography. Next up is definitely some kind of ring lens for macro photography. Either a bounce flash system for my big Canon 430EX II flash, or an LED flash system off eBay.

If you want to see the shots I’ve taken, head on over to my Flickr page.