How to use a 300mm lens for proxiphotography

[@BugBobsWildWorld]

Nicely done, right to the point. Was this filmed during your last visit or did you again visit California? Next time you're here, drop me a line and and I'll introduce you to great hummingbird and macro spots in southern California .

[@rivieramacro5240]

Hi ! Thanks ! it was a quick and dirty job though... Not much time. This one was filmed in April during second visit. We'll be going back yearly from now on. Would be great to know about more macro spots around the Bay area. Probably no freedom to travel south unfortunately. You can reach me on Facebook / messenger / IG and by email too. Cheers

[@finestjazz-cgn]

Hello Pierre, you mention that you can even combine the telephoto lens with an extension ring AND a teleconverter. In what order would you then assemble the parts on the body? Body - extension ring - teleconverter - telephoto lens? Or: body - teleconverter - extension ring - telephoto lens? Thanks for the reply, thanks for your great videos!

[@rivieramacro5240]

Hi Joachim, and thanks for the kind words. The effect of the extension ring is to decrease the working distance and increase magnification, so yes I would normally set Body-Ring-TC-lens so that the effect ot the ring(s) apply to the combo lens + TC. Actually since the ring length has an effect depending on the focal length, for a 300mm + TC I would probably have to add another ring. Though it becomes unwieldy and also too long I think. I have never tried TC-Ring-Lens, not sure what the optical path becomes. But the whole point being about getting the max distance to a shy subject, it is more logical to extend the focal length to 510mm first and then add a ring to increase magnification somewhat

[@snoogly]

Can you tell the specific Kenko tubes you used? I just tried with a (I think) older set of Kenko rings, but I got an error message.

[@rivieramacro5240]

I bought them a long time ago, but Kenko still sells them: kenkoglobal.com/product/extension_tube_set_dg_for_nikon_f/#description You need rings with contacts. They also work fine with the Z bodies and FTZ adapter

[@jimfarrow3036]

Thanks for an excellent video, I recently used my D500 with 300pf at a local butterfly house and had some great results. I also use the 1.4 TC alot

[@rivieramacro5240]

Thank you Jim ! Yes the 300mm PF is fantastic. I strongly recomend that you try an extension ring. You will get nice portraits of the butterflies while staying at a reasonable distance. Great for dragonflies too. There is some image quality loss with the TC1.7. I have not yet acquired a TC 1.4 which should be better

[@AMGOSUK]

Hi Riviera - another great informative vid -- I was going to ask have you used the 300pf or 500pf with extension tubes/rings (chipped)? Well YES 3 mins in you show us how !!! I am trying mine with Z-mount versions of the rings - I paired both my 300pf and 500pf with a 62mm long stack of extension rings. This worked and I was able to autofocus much closer with both lenses. The minimum focus distance of the 500pf is 3.0 m (9.8 ft) from the focal plane and 1.4m for the 300pf - adding 62 mm extension tubes certainly reduced this - but I was not sufficiently scientific to measure precisely how much this changed the MFD😀.

[@rivieramacro5240]

Hi ! Thank you. As described in the video I use the 300 PF with the Kenko rings which have contacts. So all EXIF info is transmitted, diaph is controlled and AF works. I do not own the 500 PF but I don't see why it should be any different And do NOT buy Chinese-made cheap extension rings. Mounts may be poorly machined and no contacts