📸 Capture the Unseen - Macro Magic Awaits!
The Fotodiox 52mm Macro Reverse Ring Filter Kit is a versatile photography accessory designed for Nikon F-Mount cameras. It allows for extreme macro photography by reverse mounting lenses with a 52mm filter thread. The kit includes a mechanical aperture control adapter, a UV filter for lens protection, and a cap, ensuring you have everything you need to explore the intricate details of your subjects.
G**O
Great value for the price -- with some drawbacks
For the price, this is an exceptionally great value. It is well made and very well thought-out. The "macro" kit provides spacers, from 16 to 65 mm in steps of 7 mm, between a lens and a camera body to allow closer focusing on a subject. This is achieved by means of (1) an adapter from the camera body mount to a private screw mount, and (2) an adapter from the screw mount to the lens mount. Together these adapters are about 16 mm. In addition there are 3 threaded tubes of lengths 7, 14, and 28 mm. One uses none, one at a time, or any combination of the tubes to cover the whole range. This progression is completely rational. Many other extension tube sets offer odd-ball spacers that do not combine in rational ways, perhaps leaving gaps in the focus range. There is a drawback to all extension tube sets, even the fanciest: There is a certain minimum spacer that restricts the range of focus for "normal" lenses. For example, with a 16 mm minimum, a 50 mm lens would need to be able to focus down to about 275 mm (subject to film distance shown of the lens focusing scale) in order not have a gap in working distances. An 85 mm lens needs a close focus of about 640 mm, and a 105 mm lens needs about 920 mm. Translation: For clean macro work, a medium telephoto lens is needed, or there will be gaps in the focusing distances. There are other fancier extension tube sets that have a smaller minimum distance, such as 12 mm, but they are substantially more expensive and have the irrational tube lengths mentioned above. Here are the drawbacks of this system: (1) With whatever lens is used, there is a fundamental problem due to the screw mount of the tubes: The rotational alignment of the lens with respect to the camera is lost. That could mean that with the camera level, the "infinity" mark lens is not at 12 o'clock but perhaps a substantial angle away. This is because it would require very precise machine work to start the threads to ensure engagement preserving the angles. Even the old fashioned screw-mount Leica accessories of yore would not do this. The user must just live with it. (2) There is no communication at all between the lens and the camera. That means (a) totally manual focus, and (b) need to open up the lens to focus and close down the aperture to shoot. The manual focus itself is not so bad, but the need to open up and then close down, without a preset, is error prone. Of course, an "Aperture preferred" exposure mode of the camera will work with the lens stopped down to the working aperture. (3) There is an oddity in design: The instructions say that one should use the lens at its maximum aperture for best images. Focus, yes, but shoot, NO. One must stop down to get a useful depth of field. Also, essentially no normal lens is designed to work as well at very close distances as at longer design distances, and stopping down is the user's only defense. (4) There is a pin in the lens adapter that PREVENTS stopping the lens down; turning the aperture ring does nothing. The cure for this is to unscrew the pin and place a piece of black tape over the hole on the inside of the adapter. I do not understand this part of the design of the kit! There are several fancier and substantially more expensive extension tube sets available that can maintain the alignment of the lens to the camera by using the native bayonet system instead of the screw mounts. They may also offer partial or even full communication between the camera and the lens. If you do a lot of macro work this way, they may be worth the investment. However, I have not found any that have rational tube lengths that can be combined. Epilogue: I bought this kit to use with a Nikon F2 film camera with its native, traditional lenses for a specific job. This kit with an 85 mm lens was ideal for that work. The greater working distance of the 85 mm lens was preferable to a 55 mm macro lens that could have done the job by itself. As it turned out the 85 with tube set at a reproduction ratio of 1:4 was significantly sharper than the 55 macro.
M**N
Very cool product that allows you to take extreme closeups, BUT you need to know how to use it
Edit 4/7/2015 - I still stand behind that this product is better than many of the reviews listed here state, in that these are capable of really nice macro shots, but as I've used them more with other lenses, I have to subtract one star due to how poorly they hold heavier lenses. With a 50mm f/1.8 lens, they stay attached pretty easily, but if you try with a heavier lens, they barely stay attached to the camera. You should not use these with a heavy lens without the lens being constantly supported. No matter how tight I try to make the connection, it separates very easily from the lens. The locking pin doesnt seem to do much.Otherwise, for the price, if you need a quick fix for a macro shot, or just want to play around with macro before investing large sums of money in a real solution, this is worth it. Just be very careful to not allow your lens to fall off your camera!----------------Edit 7/19/2014 - I uploaded 4 sample photos I took today using this exact product taken handheld with a Nikon D7000 with a 1978 50mm f/1.8 lens connected to the Fotodiox Nikon Macro Extension 14mm Tube.----------------I see a lot of negative comments for this product by people who clearly either had the wrong expectations for this, or simply don't know how to use it.This is a lens extender which allows you to take any lens you have and turn it into a Macro lens (Nikon calls it 'Micro' but its the same thing). Essentially you can get a LOT closer to your subject and take some really extreme closeups. Although this technically will work with any Nikon SLR, and with any lens, you will get much better results if you use it with a "non G" lens.When a Nikon lens has a "G" in the model name, it means it does not have a manual aperture ring. This means that the aperture of the lens must be set electronically by the camera. This extender does not pass the electronic information from the lens back to the camera, so in essence, your camera does not have any control over the lens whatsoever. That means that neither autofocus or automatic aperture adjustment will work, you must do it manually.All Nikon lenses have a manual focus ring, but only 'non-G' lenses have a manual aperture ring. Most DSLRs sold today come with G lenses, meaning that if you use them with this extender, the lens will be fixed at its narrowest aperture, which is usually f/22. While this will work, you will get extremely dark pictures, so in order to compensate for it, you'll need to leave the shutter open longer, which increases the chance of blurry pictures without a tripod. If you ever hope to use this extender and shoot hand-held pictures, you really need to find a non-G lens.The good news is that used non-G lenses are super cheap online. A really good one is Nikon's 50mm f/1.8 lens. This lens is available in D and non-D variants, both will work. The important thing is to make sure it does not have a G in the model name. Search your favorite auction site or classifieds site and you can usually find these used for under $100. Nikon has made many different variants of this same lens over the years, so you can actually find ones from the late 70s or 80s which will work just as well.There are many other lenses you could also use, some with zoom capabilities, and others with a longer focal range. They will all work as long as they have a manual aperture ring (non-G lenses).So assuming you have a proper non-aperture lens, you can connect it to this extender and it should connect to your camera easily. Since the lens cannot communicate with your camera, the camera will assume that there is no lens attached, so the only way to use your camera is to either use it in Aperture Priority (A-Mode) or Full Manual (M-mode). Your camera will not work in any other mode.Its also worth noting that you can use either a DX or FX camera. I own a Nikon D7000 which is a DX camera. I guess I should probably add that although this could work on a film camera, I wouldn't recommend it, since shooting with this ring involves a lot of trial and error to get nice pictures, so you'd waste a LOT of film trying.This product is actually three different rings all connected together. I don't recommend using them all at the same time or even the 28mm ring, because although this will give you EXTREME close-ups, your depth of field will also be extremely small, plus you would need your subject to be literally less than an inch from your lens, which will introduce lighting problems. I've found that I get nice results with just the 7mm or just the 14mm ring. You can use them in any combination you want, but like I said, the more you use, the more extreme the magnification.Now that you have your camera with the ring and your non-G lens attached to your camera, you have to decide whether you want to use Full Manual or Aperture Priority mode. I strongly recommend Aperture Priority mode as you can still benefit from the camera's internal auto-exposure detection. In order to do this, you need to go into your camera's Setup menu. On the Nikon D7000, the setting I need is called "Non-CPU Lens Data". I imagine its called the same or similar on other Nikon DSLRs.Go in there and pick the first lens number if youve never used this feature before. For focal length, set the focal length to whatever the focal length is of the lens you plan to use. Nikon makes DX and FX DSLRs. The FX models are also called "full-frame" cameras and are more expensive. Since most (possibly even all, I'm not sure) non-G lenses are FX lenses, you need to make sure you set the correct focal length here. If you have an FX camera and an FX lens, then just input whatever the focal length of the lens is. If you have a DX camera (like my D7000) and you are using an FX lens, you need to adjust the focal length by 70%. So if you are using a 50mm lens (like I am), you need to actually input 35mm here. If you have a 105mm lens, you put in 74mm.The next setting in here is "Maximum Aperture". You can play with different settings, but I recommend f/11. Whatever setting you choose here, you must also have the manual aperture ring on your lens set to the same thing. Getting these two numbers to be the same on the lens itself and in the camera setting is important if you want your exposures to be accurate.Once you have entered your focal length and your maximum aperture, save your setting and get out of the menu.Now, you are ready to shoot. A couple of more tips while shooting is that I recommend doing this in brightly lit areas. Shooting plants, insects, or flowers is easy to do in direct sunlight. I do not recommend trying to use a flash as chances are the camera itself will be in the way of the light.Shoot a couple of test photos of whatever you're trying to shoot to make sure things look ok. Don't worry so much about the manual focus of your lens. You'll find that you have much greater control over focus by simply moving the entire camera to keep the image in focus.Get used to contorting your body and moving the camera around to compose your shots and get them in focus. As I mentioned earlier, using this product involves a lot of trial and error, but once you get a little bit of experience using it, you can get some GREAT results!So, in summary, I think this is a great product that allows you to shoot some great closeups with lenses you may already own. Even if you have to go online and find a used 50mm non-G lens, the combined price of that lens plus these extender rings is still FAR cheaper than buying a dedicated macro lens.This extender is made entirely out of metal, is easy to use, inexpensive, and when used properly, works very well. I honestly can't think of any reason not to give it 5-stars, and for those who did, I truly believe they didn't understand what they were buying.
R**A
Shoddy manufacturing, but does the work well
This is shoddy workmanship at its best. The threads feel very rough when the sections are screwed together but it does bayonet mount snugly to Nikon F lenses and accessories. Unlike the misleading sales photo, the labeling of the numbers indicating the length of each tube (7mm, etc.) DO NOT LINE UP, which can be a time-waster as you rotate and rotate to see the length of it. The biggest issue is that internally, although the tubes are ridged, the internal ridges are shiny instead of matte, which will produce internal reflections that degrade contrast. How significantly contrast is affected is partly determined by whether you use a lens hood or not, and whether your lens is multi-coated or not. If light is entering the lens directly it WILL degrade contrast significantly. My comparison was to original Nikon F extension tubes which have a totally matte interior. One fix is to buy a small roll of black velvet ribbon and glue it to the inside of the tube that is closest to the camera body (the order of the tubes can be switched). Overall these FotodioX extension Tubes are great value for the price. Remember that the tubes are FULLY MANUAL without any EXIF or aperture connections. Generally however, since a lot of macro work is best done in Manual Mode, it is not a major drawback.
A**O
Excelente qualidade.
Sem queixas.
A**E
Good product, Good price
Serve it’s purpose as supposed!
J**S
Bargain that works
This set of extension tubes is very basic and does not allow any lens to auto focus. But the lens is held securely and manual focus is straightforward. There is no aperture follower so that must be used as fixed aperture or use an older non "G" lens on Nikon.However, despite all the above; these extension tubes are an absolute bargain for a few pounds instead of the multiple hundreds for the oem versions. Highly recommended.
J**5
Good
Works as intended. Feels good, easy to remove lens and from camera body. Unlike other brands which has a small latch that is hard to hold down while removing the attached lens.
M**U
使い勝手も精度も申し分ない
使いたいレンズの持ち味をきちんと生かしてくれるアダプターでフォトライフの幅が大きく広がりました。
Trustpilot
5 days ago
2 weeks ago