EXTENSION TUBES

Closeup and macro photography are two amongst the most sought-after genres of photography.

- Rohinton Mehta

One does not have to travel to exotic destinations to pursue this genre – closeup and macro shots can be taken in your own backyard or at least close to your home. There are several ways to go about doing this.

• Closeup filters (also known as supplementary lenses)

• Lens reversal rings

• Extension tubes

• Extension bellows 

• Tele-extenders

• Macro lenses

• Stacking lenses

In this short writeup, we shall see how extension tubes help us to achieve our goal.

Advantages of extension tubes:

• Relatively inexpensive

• No loss in image quality

Disadvantages of extension tubes:

• Loss in illumination reaching the imaging sensor due to the extension

• Not as user friendly as compared to a macro lens (once attached, you cannot focus towards infinity unless you take off the extension tube/s)