Extension Tubes for D810?

In an earlier topic on Kenko tubes, I stated that neither my D810, nor my D7200 will couple the autofocus properly with any lens I've tried. My elderly D300 works perfectly, as did my even MORE elderly D2X with EVERY lens I tried......

Which got me to wondering who DOES make an extension tube set that will work properly with the "current" generation of Nikon bodies and lenses.......

SO, I just sent an email enquiry to the following companies as their addresses were found on the Internet: Xit, Neewer, Kenko, Vello

I shoot Nikon. I have a D810 and a D7200. I'll be using these tubes on EITHER body, and with a variety of lenses: Nikon 70-200 VR ED and a Nikon 105/f2.8 VR. WILL YOUR EXTENSION TUBE SET ABSOLUTELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY couple the autofocus to the D810 and the D7200 using these lenses? And by couple I mean if the lighting is adequate and the distance is within the range of the autofocus, that the camera will focus, lock and MAINTAIN focus lock on the stationary subject?

I ask because I have seen entries on the Internet that people with "modern" Nikon cameras such as the D810, and now the D7200, are finding that supposedly "fully coupled autofocus extension tubes" will NOT achieve a focus lock with these bodies.

Again, I'm presuming that the metering will work accurately, stopping down the lens as necessary. My concern is specifically the ability of your equipment to achieve accurate focus lock in autofocus mode with the above bodies and lenses.

regards,

I'm making a possibly dangerous assumption - that ALL of these companies do quality control to assure that their products work across the entire line of the equipment for which they're stated to work...

If anyone has a recommendation for other (hopefully reputable, which the ones I emailed may or may not be) companies, let me know and I'll send them an email too.

Believe it or not, TODAY I got a PHONE CALL from Vello. The manager asked some questions, and decided he would go back to the people doing the development and QA and have THEM ACTUALLY TEST with current bodies (at a minimum the 810 and 7200) with various lenses to determine whether or not THEIR extension tubes couple. I'm awaiting their results. Haven't heard from anyone else - certainly not from Kenko. Again!

I received a voicemail from Vello today. They did some testing and found that their extension tubes work fine with "older" equipment, not so much with current equipment. They got hunting with current Nikon bodies (I'm not sure which bodies they tested, but I requested a D810 and D7200 be included), although some lenses appeared to suffer less than others (again, not sure exactly which lenses worked the best as the voicemail didn't list them). They told me they'd be talking to the factory to see about a firmware update, but in the meantime recommended not purchasing their extension tubes as they are unlikely to work properly.

I'm not sure if Vello is a unique extension tube as they appear to be similar to tubes marketed under some other names. If so, it looks like several of the brands I've looked at may be the same as the Vello extension tubes and may exhibit the same behavior.

GracieAllen said:

In an earlier topic on Kenko tubes, I stated that neither my D810, nor my D7200 will couple the autofocus properly with any lens I've tried. My elderly D300 works perfectly, as did my even MORE elderly D2X with EVERY lens I tried......

Which got me to wondering who DOES make an extension tube set that will work properly with the "current" generation of Nikon bodies and lenses.......

SO, I just sent an email enquiry to the following companies as their addresses were found on the Internet: Xit, Neewer, Kenko, Vello

I shoot Nikon. I have a D810 and a D7200. I'll be using these tubes on EITHER body, and with a variety of lenses: Nikon 70-200 VR ED and a Nikon 105/f2.8 VR. WILL YOUR EXTENSION TUBE SET ABSOLUTELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY couple the autofocus to the D810 and the D7200 using these lenses? And by couple I mean if the lighting is adequate and the distance is within the range of the autofocus, that the camera will focus, lock and MAINTAIN focus lock on the stationary subject?

I ask because I have seen entries on the Internet that people with "modern" Nikon cameras such as the D810, and now the D7200, are finding that supposedly "fully coupled autofocus extension tubes" will NOT achieve a focus lock with these bodies.

Again, I'm presuming that the metering will work accurately, stopping down the lens as necessary. My concern is specifically the ability of your equipment to achieve accurate focus lock in autofocus mode with the above bodies and lenses.

regards,

I'm making a possibly dangerous assumption - that ALL of these companies do quality control to assure that their products work across the entire line of the equipment for which they're stated to work...

If anyone has a recommendation for other (hopefully reputable, which the ones I emailed may or may not be) companies, let me know and I'll send them an email too.

Click to expand...

Just read Kenko may be starting to address any problems,they have launched a updated 1.4 converter,only in Canon at the moment but its sold with the HD tag,lets hope it moves across brand and onto tubes ecte.

It's been a while since an update, but here's where things are......... After conversations with technical support this spring, and assurances they would verify my problem with autofocusing on the D810 with the Kenko DG tubes, they FINALLY informed me (a few months ago) that "the microcode has been updated and the tubes will now work PERFECTLY with all of Nikon's cameras... You'll have to buy a new set of tubes for them to work, but they WILL WORK."

SO, at the end of June, I ordered yet ANOTHER set of the tubes. Got 'em. Absolutely expected them to work perfectly with my regular close-up lenses - Nikon 70-200 f2.8 AFS ED G <blah blah>.... NOPE. Still do EXACTLY the same thing. Try to focus, then sit there and jitter back and forth, jerking the focus point across a very small range. Tried several lenses, happens with all of 'em........ Happens on the D810. Happens on the D7200.

SO, I pulled out my cell phone, and made a video showing the focus display while it jittered back and forth. Then I stuck the cell phone camera to the eyepiece and videos what it looks like through the lens. Took picture(s) of what my setup was, what I was photographing, and so on.

Then I called Kenko AGAIN, got technical support, and told yet ANOTHER person what it was doing. AND sent the video and pictures. Got an email telling me it was EXACTLY what they needed to see what was going on. Then I got another email telling me they'd submitted everything to Kenko Japan and were waiting for a response. Then a bit later (7/19/16) I got a response telling me they were still waiting...

They're advertised everywhere as FULLY COUPLED, and WILL autofocus... Not on ANY of my equipment except my elderly D300, on which THEY WORK PERFECTLY......

Watching...

Still waiting... Contacted them again the other day, and according to Kenko USA they're "still waiting to hear"...

I was once again made very forcibly aware of just what a TOTAL pain in the ass it is to have to manually focus when you're using a zoom lens and chasing things that MOVE! Zoom, focus, zoom, focus... LOTS of misses 'cause the ^%$#@ extension tubes won't auto-focus...

Still waiting... Called Kenko AGAIN, and got a different person who had NO IDEA of the previous problems/discussion. I've certainly heard NOTHING from Kenko Japan, nor have I seen any "new" version of anything that would make me believe the extension tubes now work.