Using Canon 100-400 with Macro Extension tube forMacro Photography

[lianvh]

Good Day,
I am using a Canon 100-400 Lens with a Canon 7 D . I started recently with Macro Photography and purchased a Kenco set of Extension tubes . I attached all 3 to the Canon lens, but I was very disappointed as the lens keeps on hunting even if I moved the camera on a tripod either backwards or forwards. Eventually I set the lens to manual focus , but the results were not good. Any ideas ?
Regards.
Lian

[Leo Theron]

Lian

A lens tells the camera a lot of details about itself before it can focus. Now you go along and add an extention tube in the equation, effectively changing lens without changing the (lens) settings…

So - you should manually focus the lens.

You are already using a tripod, but focus is CRITICAL and you will have to have you tripod technique down to a fine art if you want good results…


Why do I know this? The same with a 300 f4 + extenuation tubes on my Nikon. SO: Focus carefully and make sure that your camera is perfectly still AND that your subject is also perfectly still. A combination like this does not allow ANY slack in technique.

[Forgiss - Sean Nel]

Lian,

Macro photography is a manual focus game! forget about AF, the depth of field is just too shallow!

secondly, you have to remove all possible movement from the camera... that 100-400 is a long lens with a lot of leverage... I suggest getting it onto a beanbag instead of a tripod, using mirror lockup with a 2 sec release and using your liveview zoomed to max for critical focus.

Remember, DOF on f/11 will be in the region of 1mm... ANY movement on the body will degrade the image drastically!