Setting Aperture with Macro Extension Tubes
Posted by Avital Pinnick on November 17, 2009
I picked up this handy hack from a review of these macro extension tubes. (For some reason, these particular tubes are not available from Amazon.com, only Amazon.co.uk. That’s a pity, because they only cost £6, far less than Kenko and much less than a macro lens.)
- Set your aperture.
- Press the lens release button to remove your lens.
- Hold the button down while you put the extension tube on the camera body. When it clicks into place, you can release the button.
- Click the lens into place on the tube.
Very easy. Not rocket science. You get deeper depth of field, which is a good thing because focusing with macro tubes is not a lot of fun if your hands aren’t perfectly steady. These tubes have no electronic connections, so there is no autofocus.
This trick works with my Canon Rebel XSi (450D). I haven’t tried it with other camera brands.
Previous posting on macro extension tubes
This and That 
In the Pink « This and That said
[…] extension tube. I’m finally starting to get the knack for holding it straight! I used the aperture hack that I […]
A Closer Look at Peppercorns « This and That said
[…] I don’t have a macro lens. I used my cheap, white-box, made-in-China, no-name extension tubes. Because there’s no electronic connection between the body and the lens, the focus is manual and you’re kind of stuck with the aperture (= very shallow depth of field) unless you use a workaround. (I blogged about the aperture workaround in another posting, Setting Aperture with Macro Extension Tubes.) […]