Naah, you are doing pretty well with what you have Mike. I doubt the MP-E65 and canon would add anything more to what you are already getting.
Having said that I have a small confession to make though, there is an MP-E65 lens ear marked with my name on it in the post office for delivery with my name on it for next week .
Soon it arrives I am moving my address to "Stockers lake" in Rickmansworth

Nice ones Mike. As usual your macro shots shine and these are worthy to be included in the PPG.

Alex, I am really sorry to say this but if those were the shots of birds you submitted I wouldn't be surprised they were not accepted. Although they cannot be considered bad but definitely not to the standard for PPG. Heck there are some stunning shots of winged creatures there so I am not surprised the selection criteria is really high.

Please do not take this as a reflection of your standard of photography. This is just my humble opinion regarding the above shots and its only my personal opinion. But hey, I could be wrong, after all I am just a newbie still trying to learn the intricacies of this beautiful art

I agree 10M is way pushing it.
I didn't say the 300mm would replace the macro lens by the way but its way convenient to take the occasional close up shots when you are out shooting birds and do not want to carry a macro with you to keep changing it.
Unless of course you have two bodies, or three . I personally hate keeping on changing lenses while on the field. Often used to carry the macro along with the long lens and it would never come out from the bag.

At its MFD which is 140 cm and MM of 0.24x I can assure you the eye balls of the insects can be fantastically clear and the shots are stunning. And insects such as dragonflies and butterflies look pretty good for AF even. You will not have any problems looking at them through the eye piece. They are big enough for you to even choose the areas you want to focus in.
Five meters seem to be stretching though, but if you are lucky to be between 2 and 4 meters you can see that lens come to life for shots of these insects
Stick a TC on it for extra magnification and you will start to forget the Macro lens at home. And if you are in a confined space where you don't need to chase the insects in the wild (a butterfly house for example) you will not even need the TC.

You can get some fantastic shots of these "butterfly/moth/insects" with the 300mm, just like Tyr demonstrated. What you need is to perfect the technique and the great thing about the DA* 300mm f/4 is that the AF is pin sharp and rarely you need to use AF. Stick it on a tripod and use MF and you could pinpoint the eyes of the insect and get stunning images.

Hello David, its nice to be back . Missed the forum while away in Africa.
Yup, these are amazing pics. Following his tweets while he was in space was amazing.

Trying to catch up with the forum now, so how are things around? I notice a few new members who are quite active, that's nice .

Some amazing pics taken in space by an astronaut who is a also a photographer. Thought I would share with you all.
Enjoy

That's a very nice shot of the heron. And love the way you managed to capture it while the head was leaning, gives the impression of searching for its own reflection .

Over this side of town near Stockers lake during the season when herons are around they usually are quite good. Some of them are so comfortable that they get within couple of meters of people. On one of my walks by the canal last year the boatman showed me a picture of a heron that was used to come and eat within a few feet of his boat, he used to feed it, and he snapped a polaroid of it hardly a meter away from him.

Some houses by the lake that have fish ponds in the backgardens owners have to cover it with nets because herons come and gobble the fish lol

Thats a stunning shot Donovan. These are really hard creatures to snap. You did really well on this one.