[philzucker]

I acquired a set of extension tubes for my Q7 recently and got interested in trying out the different options they offer. I posted some in-depth tests at dpreview in this thread with full rez examples - see here Macro with the Q7 - a visual test: Pentax Compact Camera Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review - and about working distances and magnifications here - Quick test: Q7 + all Q lenses with extension tubes: Pentax Compact Camera Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review. For details you can go to those threads, but for the essence here my condensed findings:

01: No macro here.

02: You sort of have a chance with the 02 and a 10 mm extension tube, but working distance (from lens to subject) is only 10 mm. Not easy for lighting setups.

03: No real macro here ...

04: The 04 works really good without tubes (and sadly without flashes) for "FF-1:1-style" magnification shots - that means an object around 32 mm wide fills the frame. Some de-barrelizing necessary, depending on the subject. Working distance is okay, but external flash can't be used. EDIT: no manual external flashes or flash triggers can be used, P-TTL flashes should work.

05: If you combine the 05 with 10, 16 or 21 mm extension tubes it works surprisingly good for macro shots with large magnifications. Caveat: border regions shouldn't be of utmost importance. And as with the 04 the 05 sadly doesn't allow the use of an external flash. EDIT: see my edit at the 04 entry in this list concerning flash use.

06: Works rather well at 45 mm in combination with 10, 16 and 21 mm tubes with really good working distances (e.g. 150 mm with a 10 mm tube); delivers a solid performance stopped down to f7.1. If you want a sharp center only you can also use brighter apertures without problems. Use of external flashes is possible, which is a great bonus. Other focal lengths with the 06 not recommended - you'll fast run into border sharpness problems.

07: Can be used with a 10 mm tube for macro work – if only the center of the shot has to be (reasonably) sharp.

08: No macro here ...

And what's the benefit of using a Q7 for macro work compared to a FF or APS-C DSLR with a dedicated macro lens? Size and especially weight! The Q7 and any of the tube / lens combinations mentioned here weigh next to nothing compared with DSLRs, and using combinations of macro rails and tripod heads with a Q7 is much easier – especially if you use unusual angles and positions and want everything to be stable and easy to handle in spite of that.

For more details and samples see the dpreview threads mentioned above.

Any questions welcome also in this forum of course!

Phil

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Last edited by philzucker; 01-06-2017 at 12:08 AM. Reason: Corrected info about use of external flashes with 04/05

[Mikesul]

Thanks, Phil. Your results are very interesting. Any chance you could post some shot in the Macro lens club?

[barondla]

Amazing results! The extension tubes performed well with the 05 & 06 lenses. Thanks for the pointers.
Thank you for researching and sharing,
barondla

[caliscouser]

Excellent work! With the 04 and 05 now apparently being closet macro lenses maybe we don't need that 09 Macro lens after all.

Can you explain more about not being able to use an external flash with the 04 & 05? My AF-540 works in P-TTL in the hot shoe when using the 04.

[philzucker]

Thanks, Phil. Your results are very interesting. Any chance you could post some shot in the Macro lens club?

Thanks very much, Mike!

I have looked up the Macro lens club (didn't know it existed, thanks for the info!) - and I think I might post something there in the future if and when I have some other stuff than those boring test shots of the banknote. :-)

Phil

---------- Post added 01-06-2017 at 07:58 AM ----------

Amazing results! The extension tubes performed well with the 05 & 06 lenses. Thanks for the pointers.
Thank you for researching and sharing,
barondla

You're welcome! Thanks for your comment.

Phil

---------- Post added 01-06-2017 at 08:04 AM ----------

Excellent work! With the 04 and 05 now apparently being closet macro lenses maybe we don't need that 09 Macro lens after all.

Well, still would come in handy I guess, but hopes that it will ever surface are slim, I guess ...

Can you explain more about not being able to use an external flash with the 04 & 05? My AF-540 works in P-TTL in the hot shoe when using the 04.

Thanks for pointing that out. I tend to forget that P-TTL flashes work with the electronic shutter of the Q's, but since I only use external manual flashes I'm not so lucky to benefit from that. So I have to qualify: 04 and 05 sadly don't work with manual flashes and hot shoe flash triggers ... with P-TTL it does work, and another albeit complicated workaround is to trigger external flashes with the internal one - but the external ones have to be able to ignore the pre-flash(es) of the internal one. Not all can do that.

I edited the original post of this thread to include the info that P-TTL flashes work.

Phil