# My Mini-Studio Setup



## Jonmurgie (Mar 5, 2007)

A few of you have asked what kit I use so I thought I'd post some details 



















*Kit List*
Canon 30D
Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MkII
Generic Extension Tubes (13mm, 21mm, 31mm)
Interfit Stella 150 Lights with Soft Boxes
Wireless Flash Trigger/Receivers
Fiberglass Cove
Background material as required

The 50mm lens is used on it's own for shots like the following:




































While I use the 50mm lens with 65mm of extension tubes for shots like the following:

Full image resized









100% crop









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100% crop









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100% crop









Complete galleries inc. the macro shots can be found here:
OCEAN7 LM-7
ROLEX SEA-DWELLER 16600
PRECISTA PRS-22 SPEEDBIRD III
PRECISTA PRS-2 DREADNOUGHT - coming soon!

Thanks for looking and I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments


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## kiwidj (Sep 24, 2007)

WOW! Very professional looking set up. Looks like you really can't go wrong with that arrangement...:-!


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## kav2 (Feb 22, 2006)

You don't like saturation, do you? ;-)


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## Jonmurgie (Mar 5, 2007)

kav2 said:


> You don't like saturation, do you? ;-)


Not sure what you mean... are you being sarcastic?

I don't touch saturation levels, they are as-shot.


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## GuySie (Jan 14, 2008)

Jonmurgie said:


> While I use the 50mm lens with 65mm of extension tubes for shots like the following:


Wow. I thought extension tubes added 'some' additional zoom to the lenses, but never thought it'd be this much. Getting some tubes for my 50 instead of a macro, stat!


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## SquishyPanda (Mar 13, 2008)

GuySie said:


> Wow. I thought extension tubes added 'some' additional zoom to the lenses, but never thought it'd be this much. Getting some tubes for my 50 instead of a macro, stat!


me too


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## kelvinward01 (Dec 26, 2008)

wow those are fantastic pics and nice set-up..


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## SquishyPanda (Mar 13, 2008)

I notice the generic extension tubes have no electronics in them. Does the lens default to wide-open? It looks, from the very shallow depth of field in your photos, that this is the case.

And are those first few photos cropped? My 50mm 1.8 doesn't focus that close.


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## GuySie (Jan 14, 2008)

SquishyPanda said:


> I notice the generic extension tubes have no electronics in them. Does the lens default to wide-open? It looks, from the very shallow depth of field in your photos, that this is the case.


I checked these out on Dealextreme and it seems that you can set the aperture by setting it on the camera with the lens attached, hitting the preview button (bottom left on our canons, I think) and then detaching the lens. The lens won't budge as there's no electronics in the tubes, so put the extensions in between and go. It's rather jury rigged, but if I pay $10 for extension tubes I'm willing to put some effort in


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## Jonmurgie (Mar 5, 2007)

SquishyPanda said:


> I notice the generic extension tubes have no electronics in them. Does the lens default to wide-open? It looks, from the very shallow depth of field in your photos, that this is the case.


They do have contact points running through them so the lens can still use the autofocus, however it it utterly pointless that that level of extension so it's a case of being on manual focus and moving the camera/lens to get the focal point where you like.

As with any extension tubes, the light is reduced depending on how many you use, therefore you are usually required to alter the aperture to compensate. I personally prefer the shallow depth of field though I could crank the flash/iso to get a greater DoF if required.



SquishyPanda said:


> And are those first few photos cropped? My 50mm 1.8 doesn't focus that close.


Yes, the first ones of the whole watch(s) are cropped.


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## SquishyPanda (Mar 13, 2008)

Jonmurgie said:


> They do have contact points running through them so the lens can still use the autofocus, however it it utterly pointless that that level of extension so it's a case of being on manual focus and moving the camera/lens to get the focal point where you like.
> 
> As with any extension tubes, the light is reduced depending on how many you use, therefore you are usually required to alter the aperture to compensate. I personally prefer the shallow depth of field though I could crank the flash/iso to get a greater DoF if required.
> 
> Yes, the first ones of the whole watch(s) are cropped.


Which brand of tubes are you using? Can you post a link? All the ones I'm seeing on Major Online Auction Site have no electronics in them, and specifically say that there is no way to use auto-focus or adjust aperture.

Guysie: If that works, then $9 shipped is totally worth it, but if Jon has ones that will allow me to control focus the normal way, it may be worth a few more bucks. Depending on exactly how many more bucks, that is


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## Jonmurgie (Mar 5, 2007)

They were just some cheap own brand tubes sold by Jessops here in the UK, can't find them on their website but it would be something like these, you can see the metal pins for the electronics:

http://www.jessops.com/online.store...n Tube Set 12-20-36 CANON Fit-73453/Show.html

The ones I bought were about £20... a bit of a bargain really!!


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## GEODE HUNTER (Oct 2, 2007)

*Very nice setup!!!*


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