Extension tubes for Christmas

[mc-cro]

My wife gave me a set of extension tubes for Christmas, and I finally got a chance to try them out and take a few pics this evening.

What do guys think? The extension tubes do make it nice to get up close shots, but it seems to make the DOF extremely thin. I also had to use my 55-250 lens to be able to get any range of focus. Maybe I didnt mess around enough? Any tips?

For these shots I ended up with a total of 65mm of extension tubes, and was usually 2-3 ft away from the front glass.

 

[tektite]

Extension tubes make the depth of field extremely shallow, no way around that other than closing down the aperture. 2-3 ft is actually pretty far for a focus point with extension tubes. With my macro lens, I usually can't get anything in focus that's over 1' away from the lens, stacked up the focus point moves even closer to the camera, with all 3 I can focus as close as a few inches away from the lens' end. Using the extension tubes will also magnify any imperfections in the glass of the lens, and the effects of distortion shooting through glass/acrylic.

Those shots are pretty good for your first time out with them! Tripod use, high light, small aperture, shooting as perpendicular to the aquarium side (or top down view box), all help get good shots with them.