Customer Reviews

Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG 12mm 20mm and 36mm Tubes for Canon EOS AF Digital and Film Cameras - AEXRUBEDGC

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've had these for a few years now. They're built really well, and in all this time they have developed absolutely no signs of wear.

Tubes are really pretty basic in construction. There are no glass elements, just mounts on each end and a pass-through for the lens data terminals. These are well-built, and as such they fulfill their intended purpose - that being that you now have an easy, less messy alternative to taping a cardboard toilet paper tube between your lens and camera body (and yes, you can do that if you want to go the low-tech route. Just make sure you seal the light leaks!) Any other issues are likely to be caused by a misunderstanding of the tube's purpose, not by the tube itself.

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding extension tubes, based on some of the reviews I've read. While it would be difficult, without diagrams, to explain exactly how an extension tube works and the effect it has on focus distance and magnification, I can at least try to help with some of the problems people seem to be experiencing in these reviews.

1) There are two distinct versions of these tubes. On the 36mm tube, you will see either "for C/AF" or "for C/AFs". The ones that say "for C/AF" do not support the Canon EF-S mount. They support only the EF mount. If any of your lenses are EF-S, then you will need the ones that say "for C/AFs". Functionally, they are equivalent, but the "C/AFs" models can mount both types of lenses. As of now, it is impossible for me to tell which version is being sold here. I have to assume that they are selling the "C/AFs" model.

2) Extension tubes do not "magnify", technically. They increase the distance between the lens and the sensor. Imagine a projector sitting a foot from the wall, projecting an image on that wall. Using a pen, you outline the outer edge of that projected image on the wall. That's the outline of your "sensor". The image fills the "sensor". Now add more distance between the projector and the wall (that's what an extension tube does). It's the same image, but now it's projected onto a larger surface, flowing over the boundaries of the "sensor". So now the "sensor" only records the part of the image in the very center, just enlarged due to the added distance from the projector.

3) Moving the lens farther away from the sensor alters the usable focus distance for that lens. Don't take these numbers as truth (it's just an example), but a lens that normally focuses from 3ft to infinity might focus from 6 inches to 2 feet, once the extension tube is put on. How drastic the change is depends on the length of the tube and the focal length of the lens (See the next point).

4) The lens focal length has a huge impact on the focus range, but not necessarily in the direction you'd think. Longer lenses (like 200mm or 300mm) won't see as much difference in focal range with the smaller tubes. While there is a difference, you still won't be able to get close enough to really improve the magnification significantly. Wider lenses show a more drastic change. I have used my shortest tube (least "magnification") on my 17-40mm f/4L. Even though it's the shortest tube, when zoomed out to 17mm, the camera will actually only focus INSIDE THE LENS. Meaning even if I lay a dime on the glass of my lens, it's still not close enough to be in focus. That's why so many people like to use their tubes with a 50mm f/1.8. It's a nice medium-length lens that can allow really close focus while still being usable.

5) There's no such thing as a free lunch! Remember the projector reference in #2? Well, just like the tubes, the farther that projector gets from the wall, the darker the projection will be due to light falloff. Meaning you will lose light when you use tubes. The amount you lose increases exponentially with the added distance from the sensor. So in many cases you will need to mount on a tripod or use external lighting. Also, any imperfections in the lens (aberrations, fringing, etc) will be effectively "magnified" just as much as the image itself. And the lens resolution limits will also be made much more obvious since the sensor will be recording a smaller section of the overall image circle provided by the lens. However, it's important to note that the benefits usually will outweigh the drawbacks, especially when the tubes are used within reason (i.e. I wouldn't do resolution-critical photos with all three tubes stacked together).

Hopefully this information is useful to someone. If I said anything confusing or if you see any mistakes, please let me know and I'll be happy to make adjustments/corrections/clarifications as necessary. But as far as the product itself goes, these are excellent, solid extension tubes with a great fit, no light leaks, and a nice light weight.

Got this yesterday, tried it with a Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras and Canon EOS 30D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)... With the first two extension tubes, the results are amazing; with that setup you need to be about 4 cm (1.6" for you non metric people) from the subject; we're talking iris closeups here.

I thought about this for a long time because of the price, but it's well made, sturdy, lets you use autofocus if the lens allows it: I was unable to focus with a wide angle Canon 10-22, but that's just 'em laws of optical nature, and I need to fiddle a lot more with it.

Highly recommended if you feel drawn towards macro but don't feel like forking over lots of $$ for a macro lens; lighting is certainly an issue as you're very close to the subject, but may not warrant a macro flash like Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite for 5D, 1Ds, 20D, 30D, G2, G3, G5, G6, Pro 1 & Rebel XT or Sigma Flash Macro Ring EM-140 DG for Canon SLR Cameras... And you will need to use a tripod.

Why not 5 stars? It's still a lot of money.

Update

These tubes have yet to let me down. I am now using them with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras and no longer need to be as close to subjects as with the Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras, which makes it much easier to get some light on the subject and even allows you to take macro shots hand held. The autofocus seems to work just as fast with these tubes as without.

Just like to point out the comment below about the tubes not working on a 50mm EF 1.8 are wrong. That comment almost made me not by them. I tried them in the store on my Canon EOS 400D and worked fine, as they do now after having bought them. If you buy them in a store make sure you get the right mount, there are different versions for Canon, Nikon and Minolta.

I was initially hesitant to purchase this simply because I had already made my own extension tube out of PVC pipe, a body cap, and a lens rear cap. Obviously, the one I made has some drawbacks (No autofocus, had to reset the aperture manually before attaching everything) but the question that kept occurring to me was whether or not these Kenko tubes were really worth the price, considering what a simple thing they are doing. The truth is, I'm still very glad I bought them. As simple as they are, you just aren't going to be able to reproduce the same functionality and build quality yourself for less money, and if you can then stop reading this and go do that. For the other 99% of us, these tubes are wonderful.

-Turn any lens into a macro lens. Get as close or as far away as you want, using the 7 effectively different combinations of the three tubes.

-Change aperture settings on the fly as you normally would do!

-Maintains the ability to autofocus in all but the most extreme macro situations.

-Great build quality! Even with all three tubes in use, the mount is very stable and holds very firm. I anticipated some play in them but cannot feel any wobble at all.

A great investment to make, since you will be able to use them in combination with ANY EF lens you have or will have in the future.

Check the image section for a couple images I took with my these tubes and my Canon 50mm EF prime 1.4f lens.

I've been reading over some of the negative reviews on these Kenko Extension Tubes, and I think some people have the wrong idea about what these things do. They get you closer to your subject...that's all. They don't magnify the telephoto end of your lens, like a 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter would. They just allow you to get closer, so your subject is bigger in the lens. What you give up for this is the ability to focus farther away. Plus your depth of field, even at f/16 or f/22, is going to be measured in fractions of an inch, not feet or yards. You also lose light, about 2 or 3 stops depending on how many tubes you use. What you retain is image quality, which in my opinion is the most important thing.

Kenko has made a nice product here. These tubes are well-built and fit snugly on my camera. When I used my 70-200mm f/4 L, I noticed no sag or play at all. All electronic functions worked as they should, including aperture and auto-focus. Don't expect auto-focus to work as quickly as normal, though, and I believe most people would find it easier to just use manual focus. That's normal with any extension tubes.

If you understand how extension tubes work, you won't be disappointed with these Kenkos.

I picked these up for the times I want to shoot in Micro. It's not something I do often, so buying specific glass for that wasnt something I wanted to do. I have used them on with my Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8"L" USM,
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8"L" IS USM & Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6"L" IS USM and am very happy with the results.

These extension tubes work great and they only cost a fraction of the price of Canon's tubes. As many reviews have said, Canon air is just as good as Kenko air... since there are no optics in extension tubes, the two do not differ in optical quality. I've used these tubes with EF 70-200mm f/4L and Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8 with no problems. They've allowed me to get right up to the subject and get some amazing macro shots without having to buy more lenses! This is a great item to have in your bag.

There are two kinds of this extension tube, the first one has no support for EOS AF, the DG marking tell you that this xtnsions has Auto-Focus support, you can stock them up anyway you want and the AF works.

KENKO DG is made in Japan, Canon has their own versions of extensions tube too, but all looks the same, finish and branding are not, but this are only tube, extension tube, no lenses, so for me, KENKO DG works fine, even perfectly.

Please remember, extension tubes are different fom extenders, like 1.4X or 2.0X, extenders got lenses on them and are made for you to shot longer distance, extension tube are made for you to be able to shot very close and has no lens. The 36mm extension can fill the entire frame with a penny.

Extension tubes are known to some as "the poor mans macro" - basically a (cheap-ish) way to get macro capability out of your existing lenses. If you've ever looked into a macro lens, you've seen just how much they cost (not cheap! Especially for a good one). If you just want to try it out before plunking down the cash, the Kenko tubes are the way to go.

Basically these are hollow tubes that fit between the lens and your camera and decrease the minimum focusing distance of your lens.

Lenses have a "minimum focusing distance" - a set amount that you have to be away from the subject for it to focus. If you've used a telephoto, you've probably seen how you need to be about 3 feet back for it to focus.. these greatly decrease that distance.

The set comes with 3 tubes (different sizes). Use 1, 2 or 3 at a time (the larger size (or more used) the closer you can get).

One big difference between these and a dedicated macro are that these don't focus to infinity. Macro can get VERY CLOSE or VERY FAR from the subject and focus - sort of like an "all around super lens" - the tubes let you get VERY CLOSE, but won't let you focus on objects far away (you need to take the tubes off to do that).

Now you've probably seen cheap tubes on some auction site - these cost about 5% of what the Kenko tubes cost, so why get these? the key here is that these have electrical contacts - that means you can adjust the aperture/autofocus with these tubes (whereas the others you can't - you need to do weird tricks to change the aperture on the lens). This change, while not seeming like much, makes a BIG difference.

With something like a 50mm 1.8 lens, you can literally focus within about an inch or two of the lens - this can sometimes be tricky because: (A) you'll create shadows and need to light them somehow and (B) subjects like bugs won't wait around for you. That's where this option has problems. You can get around issue (A) by using an off-camera flash (check out the "Rayflash" for your flash/camera - works great for these macro shots!) - for (B), you're kinda out of luck. If you're trying to get the crazy insect photos with live insects, you'll have a hard time.

One thing to watch out for is putting too many tubes on your lens. Wider-angle lenses will take less tubes than telephotos - if you add too many (adding all tubes to a 30mm lens, for example, you'll decrease the focusing distance so far that it's actually inside of the lens). So try it out and see what works for you. I've found the 50mm 1.8 Canon works best with the tubes (all 3 of them) and you can get some INCREDIBLE shots -- just learn the limitations and you'll be very happy. If you decide you want more, look into a nice dedicated macro lens!

These tubes are a nice accessory if you want to take macro pictures. The three sizes lend much versatility for anyone who is interested in taking macro shots. Paired with a 70-200mm Canon lens, these tubes are great!