Bump for fortnightly competition 'Two'. Some good entries already, but I'd like to see more

Best wishes for a speedy recovery

Chris

I have a M 50mm f1.7 which I use with an Ashai Pentax 50mm extension tube. My understanding is that this tube was designed to be used with a 50mm prime to give 1:1, but can't find where I read this so someone else would need to confirm.

These are great Charlotte. The lens is a definite step up from before. Shame it's so expensive

A decent M 50mm 1.7 and a 50mm extension tube (or a set) will cost around the £50 mark. Perhaps not quite as easy to use as a proper macro lens, but certainly capable of decent results. All the macros on my portfolio are with a 50mm 1,7 and tubes. I'd prefer a proper macro lens obviously, but for the budget i doubt it could be beaten. Bonus is the 50mm is a great lens for normal photography as well, especially in low light.

A used Pentax or Tamron 18-250mm (not made any longer) is a good compromise. It's good quality across the whole range and will give you a chance to experiment with different focal lengths and see what you use the most. After some time you will have a better idea of the range you use the most and can then decide whether or not to upgrade to something more specialist (and expensive!).

A good used copy will cost around £250 and you won't lose anything if and when you decide to change it.

I don't think it really matters, but I always enter the focal length of the lens plus the tubes (or as near as you can get)

Hi Aleks

You aren't getting a contact between the tube and the camera body. It might seem that you are as the stop down metering appears to be working, but it won't be working accurately.

I'm assuming that the back of the tube is anodized black paint? That or you have a poor contact. You need to remove a small bit of paint to enable the contact. Catch in focus will then work fine and the stop down metering will be more accurate. You are right in assuming that the camera can't detect the lens. Even the fully manual tubes have to make some electrical contact for the camera to be able to use the tubes properly.

2nd post from the bottom shows the area you need to remove or clean.

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/help-needed-with-vivitar-auto-extension-t...#comm_273277

I had exactly the same problem with my Vivitar tubes and they work perfectly now.

Is the camera body set to AF? Needs to be AF, not MF for CIF to work. That's the only thing that looks obvious, everything else looks fine.

What lens are you using Alex? What make are the the tubes? Do they have a shiny metal base where they meet the camera or a black painted one?

Could be a couple of things, but is usually fixable!