Scott, one thing to remember in all the profusion of equipment and
confusion of mind is that all this has been worked out before.
Folks with money to work with have tried it all and settled on those
solutions. that give the best and most reliable results. The Oly Macro
Photo Group is as good a model of those solutions as you will find. As
long as you are using DSLRs, you can pretty much bet that the further
you move from that model, the less likelihood of top notch results.
As others have pointed out, some non-interchangeable lens digicams have
quite amazing macro modes. They all have pretty noticeable barrel
distortion, but that is easily corrected. As you have noticed, lighting
is a real issue with very short focal length, like the lenses in these
digicams.
The Canyon S3, for instance, will focus on a bug crawling on the front
of the lens. But how do you light it? Notice that the examples are all
backlit <http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3is/page5.asp>.
In answer to something you mentioned earlier about leaving the bellows
home, I have been known to be seen toting around an OM-4 with bellows
and macro lens hand held. Awkward, but hey, whatever it takes.
Moose
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