Opteka 52mm 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for Nikon
 

Has anyone any experience or views on this? It suits me on price but is it worthwhile?

you thought about extension tubes peter?, duncan and alex suggested them as a cheaper way of doing macro. Bought a set for under a tenner on ebay and turns your lens into a macro lens without any loss of image quality. have a look at the thread!

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...ead.php?t=5930

Brilliant Lee! £7.98 and free postage from pixlamb on E Bay. I've done a little reading just now and understand the limitations (challenges?)but if there's one thing I've got it's time to work on them. Thanks very much for directing me to the thread, really helpful. It's my birthday Saturday, maybe they'll turn up then:)

your welcome peter, i am in the same boat as you. I think i have bought the exact same tubes from the same seller. Havent recieved them yet, hopefully get them tomorrow. Maybe we could compare notes...

Hi peter

Got the extention tubes today and they are amazing. Not sure what lenses you have but i can only really use them with my nikon 50mm 1.8 as this is the only lens i have that has an aperture ring. This seems to be the only way to change the aperture with the tubes fitted as it wont let you do it in camera.

Hi Lee - I've got confirmation that the tubes have been shipped so maybe I'll get 'em tomorrow. I'm planning to use them with my D60 in full manual mode and set the aperture that way. Have you tried that with your D90?

Peter, if you've bought the basic tubes, without any electrical contacts, and your lens doesn't have an aperture ring, then you won't be able to vary the aperture.

Oooooooooh Hell :eek: Now - too late - I realise the motor's in the lens!!! Thanks Duncan, it's so blindingly obvious I'm kicking myself. Hmmmm I'll worry about it for a while:o

Not something i realised until i tried them with my 35mm 1.8 that doesn't have the aperture ring. I guess you could sell them on and get the ones with the contacts. About a hundred quid i guess. or you could buy the 50mm 1.8 for a hundred, which will work with the manual tubes. cheaper than buying a macro lens and those tubes are pretty good with it. You would also have a dam fine 50mm fast prime lens. you would only be able to manual focus with it though on the d60 mind. Tough decisions.....:)

hope this helps.

Thought i would just post a couple of samples using the nikon 50mm 1.8 and the extension tubes for you to see peter.

Save yourself the stress Peter, it's not as though you've blown a fortune on these things.
It will still be usable, but you'll always be at the same aperture, either wide open or fully stopped down, I don't know enough about the Nikon system to be able to say which.

Thanks fellas - I like your images Lee. This is entirely my fault but, as you say Duncan, I've not lost a fortune. I'm going to wait for them to turn up now and have a play. I'm sure I'll get something out of them. If not I won't lose too much sleep. It's good tho' to share the experience, one of the great benefits of this forum.

im pretty sure the aperture is fully stopped down, because the view finder is really dark, you would just have to make sure you have plenty of light.

I agree Lee if I take it off the camera I can see it's stopped down, the motor opens it up, you can watch it through the lens in good light. So yeah I'm thinking maybe flash will help - scare the bees tho':) Whatever it'll be something to play with.

you could shoot with sunlight and us a reflector too.

Yes I was thinking of that too, thanks Lee. The good news is I came across a 50mm f1.8 AI-S lens from a local lad at £50:) so along with the tubes I'm now waiting for that. I know the lens sounds almost too cheap to be true but I'll write more when I've tried it.

sounds like it could be idea..... my 50mm AFD was only £100 new so it might be ideal....fingers crossed huh...;)