Extension Tubed

I’ve recently bought a few extension tubes for my Hasselblad off a good friend, Carl. So far I own the 80mm and the 150mm lens for the Blad but always got a little frustrated when it came to shooting closer to the object. With both of these lenses the minimum focusing distance is 0,9m. While generally I get a tighter shot with the 150mm lens sometimes I really want to get closer and fill more of the frame.

But lugging two lenses around with that massive camera already has left me partially immobile on my bag-carrying side. As a result more often than not the 150mm stays at home and I keep on shooting the same type of picture with my 80mm lens. These little rings are the perfect solution. They have more than halved my minimum focusing distance and the result is a creamy focus concentrating narrowly on only one spot. The focal range itself has become extremely short which makes it a more challenging task to actually get what you need. As if I needed to make it more challenging!

You may remember these little guys from before. It was the first time I’ve used the extension tubes and I am very happy with the results.

I like how the narrow focus really makes one detail stand out, become more important. These two following shots were taken with my 80mm lens plus the 8mm extension tube at f/5.6 on Portra 800 iso film (which explains the grain in the out-of-focus areas). I really want to practice portraits with these some more which means I’ll need lots of volunteers who can stand still for a considerate amount of time.