Extension Tubes and Macro Photography: Part 2 (Coral Pictures)

For part 1 of this article series, please select the following: Extension Tubes and Macro Photography: Part 1 (Process & Practice)
Please share any comments about this article in this discussion thread.

Oregon blue tort around 6 inches 15 cm from front glass.
50 mm


50mm with 50% crop


50mm +10mm ext tube


50mm+ 16mm ext tube


50mm+26mm Ext tube
Camera couldn't focus

105mm


105mm with 50% crop


105mm + 10mm ext tube


105mm + 16mm ext tube


105mm + 26mm ext tube



Branching Cyphastrea is around 6 inches from front glass
50 mm


50mm with 50% crop


50mm +10mm ext tube


50mm+ 16mm ext tube


50mm+26mm EXt tube
Camera dind't focus
105mm


105mm with 50% crop


105mm + 10mm ext tube


105mm + 16mm ext tube


105mm + 26mm ext tube



Bubble tip couple of inches f5 cm from front glass but expands around 10 inches 25 cm tot he back .
50 mm


50mm with 50% crop


50mm +10mm ext tube


50mm+ 16mm ext tube


50mm+26mm EXt tube


105mm


105mm with 50% crop


105mm + 10mm ext tube


105mm + 16mm ext tube


105mm + 26mm ext tube




Slime ball anarcopora at around 20 inches 50 cm away from front glass.
50 mm


50mm with 50% crop


50mm +10mm ext tube
Camera Didn't focus

50mm+ 16mm ext tube
Camera didn't focus

50mm+26mm EXt tube
Camera didn't focus


105mm


105mm with 50% crop


105mm + 10mm ext tube


105mm + 16mm ext tube


105mm + 26mm ext tube
Camera didn't focus

Lobophylia 3 inches 7.5 cm away from front glass.

50 mm


50mm with 50% crop


50mm +10mm ext tube


50mm+ 16mm ext tube


50mm+26mm EXt tube


105mm


105mm with 50% crop


105mm + 10mm ext tube


105mm + 16mm ext tube


105mm + 26mm ext tube
Camera didn't focus

Looking at all the above, be it the physics of things, the magnification ratios, the ability or non ability of the camera to focus at specific distances with different lens/extension tube combination... Also adding to that the diversity of tank dimensions, frag tank depth, amount of light available, ability to support the camera to avoid handshake as well as what corals one is taking pics of (swaying VS non moving corals.... it is very tricky to come out with objective conclusions that will work for everyone.
I do own multiple tanks and frag tanks with different dimensions as well as a decent collection of lenses and the extension tubes, so here are my observations for different abilities/limitations when taking pics of ones tank, which I hope will help reefers make a more informed decisions when choosing a camera/lens/ext tube setup.

Starting with tank setup, how deep from front to back is the tank or how high is it in the case of a frag tank where most shots are top down... The answers to those questions might guide you more towards a 90-105 macro lense VS a 50mm prime or a 60mm macro.
how much lighting do you have, as without very good/strong lighting pictures with 16-26mm extension tubes would be very difficult as you would end up havingt to shoot wide open which with extension tubes will make for non usable depth of filed. Using flash and not washing out colors isn't always possible and High ISO might end up causing noise in your images based on which camera you use.
Looking at the picture sets above the direct conclusions you get are:
Extension tubes have little to no value on a good macro lense, it already focuses close enough, magnification ratio is already high and I didn't see an increase in magnification that justifies the loss of light, shallower depth of field, and added motion you get when you add tubes.
-50 percent crop of a picture taken with 50mm lens if your camera has a high Megapixel count allowing cropping is close to adding a 10mm extension tube and without the associated light loss or the reduction of your DOF. the added advantage of the tubes is the ability to focus closer when needed.
-50 percent crop of the pictures taken with a 105mm lens is roughly equal or more magnification than 16mm tube based on subject distance, without loss of light or added motion, lens focuses close enough so the added benefit from closer focusing is negligible.
Based on tank depth or where corals are in your tank it might be beneficial to add Tubes on a 50mm lens for corals 2-15 inches far from glass, I see no real value for having more than 16mm extension tubes as 26mm tubes over 50mm lens did not allow focusing for multiple corals in this experiment.

Another question to ask is what is the purpose of the macros you are after, I realize in certain applications like insect photography, ultra high magnification ratios are desired. yet in coral photography we still want to see a larger portion of the coral rather than 1-2 inches of it when we have 16-26mm tubes and have to be very close to focus. The article above allows you to view what sort of results you will get in your pictures and allow you to make a more informed decision on what lenses and tubes to invest in, factors to look at would be:
-Magnification desired
-Size of the coral in the picture
-depth of field, realize many are after creamy bouqueh or blurred backgrounds behind the subject in many types of photography, yet is this really the case in tank photography and to what percentage of your pictures? many times I want to have a nice closeup showing a colony or a large portion of the colony for people to get an idea about the gorwth pattern and color, or is it that we want extreme closeups of less than 1 inch of the corals to look at polyps.
one last factor to discuss is an advantage to digital cropping that we found during processing pictures for this article. While we always thought that digital cropping or any digital manipulation takes away from the quality of a picture vs getting it right in camera, we saw that newer cameras with higher Megapixel counts made it easy to crop without visible effects on pictures, especially pictures to be used for online viewing on PC screens or mobile phones or tablets... cropping gave the following advantages vs pictures taken with a 50mm or a 105mm with tubes:
-No loss of light
-No reduction of depth of field
-no limits with focusing distances.

On top of those aspects the real advantage to digital cropping was the ability to focus on composition and framing much more than in camera. normally focusing on framing in camera is a bit of a learning curve and a habit, it is however made much more difficult when on a macro focusing rail and with tubes and limited ability to focus where moving the camera a few millimeters to the front or back kills the possibility of locking focus and the attention moves to locking focus and securing the shot VS a nice composition.
I'm from the school of the less digital manipulation and the more of getting things right in camera is better so this came as a complete surprise to me. Maybe experimenting with 50mm and only 10mm of extension tubes and then cropping in post processing and adjusting framing and composition to what works best would be a nice compromise between all the techniques above.

Another financial aspect that caught my attention was the following for Nikon, where the price of the new extension tubes for mirrorless cameras and lenses is around 220 usd for 2 Tubes (10 and 16mm) vs 120 usd for 3 extension tubes non mirroless cameras and lenses (12-20-36). In line with that I also discovered that the 50mm 1.8 which was always a lower cost good quality prime lens is selling at much higher prices now: 550 usd for 50mm 1.8 for nikon mirrorless vs around 175 for its canon counterpart. both the Nikon and canon 50mm 1.8 used to sell for around 150 usd. I am sure there has been improvements on the 50mm 1.8 from Nikon to support the price and I will be doing a review on it for aquarium photography yet looking at the price of a 50mm 1.8 (doubt it can be found used as it was recently released) and the tubes you are already at around 750 usd which would easily buy you 50mm, extension tubes and Tamron 90mm or Nikon 60/105 mm all used and for non mirrorless nikon cameras. I don't shoot Canon but believe price wise canon 50mm and tubes won't be anywhere near this price.

Conclusion
Does this article answer the question which camera/lense tubes to get for any scenario (tank corals fish choices....) ?
Clearly not and i doubt anyone or any article can get there. of course with compromises any of the above choices aline or combined with extension tubes, will work and quality pictures can be acquired for fish or corals using the 50mm or 105 mm with or without tubes.
other intermediate solutions like the Nikon 60mm and the Tamron 90mm or the canon 100 mm especially ones for non mirrorless cameras used on mirrorless cameras with adapter or on non mirrorless camera without adapter might be worth considering.
In the end I go back to a scenario we mostly face in photography and at the risk of being perceived as a photography snob which I'm definitely not, i feel that photography like reefkeeping or maybe even more is that these are not hobbies where we can cut corners.
Slowly building your lenses arsenal and going with quality choices and preferably new lenses will go a long way. I remember buying my old 50mm 1.4 more than 20 years back and I only sold it now after I upgraded to full mirrorless and got an Ok buy back amount on it. Lenses and cameras if well taken care of will last you years to come and will justify the somewhat heavy initial investment if you are really into photography.
For just getting a camera and lenses for decent quality pics any older non mirrorless camera and a 50mm coupled with either a 60mm or a 90-105 macro depending on how deep your tank is, as well as a set of extension tubes will not cost much and will allow excellent image quality for our purpose for years to come. Having multiple.lens choices abd tubes will allow you more versatility facing different scenarios in your tank l, where distance lighting, colors, magnification needed.... Will require ever changing lenses and camera setup.


Please share any comments about this article in this discussion thread.