PM sent - AF540FGZ flash, FA 135mm

Thanks for that. Looks like it might be the same company. I found them on the 'net now.

None taken. When it comes to choosing, I guess a compromise is inevitable if IQ and weight are given equal consideration. My choice is always IQ first. If it's too heavy, get somebody else to carry it

I've ignored that. Most often, using the right tool for the job gets the job done. Compact, more often than not, doesn't get the job done.

Remember the "Titanic"? It sank because somebody compromised on the quality of the rivets used to hold it together. Those rivets did not get the job done, and it sank. If the correct grade of steel had been used instead of cheap 'pig' iron, it might still be afloat today and 1500 souls would have enjoyed their grandchildren.

DOI? It's not an acronym I'm familiar with.

Now you can see that extremes of aperture do not produce the best results.

Whilst I'm sure you are pleased with these results, and justifiably as it's only your second attempt, the images are not sharp. DOF is good, thanks to the small aperture, but try f8, f11, or f16 next time.

It's perfectly acceptable to have parts of the image out of focus (OOF) as long as the parts that should be sharp (the eyes), are really sharp.

When you choose the "Edit in Photoshop" option, tick the box at bottom left, "Stack with original". When you have finished editing in Photoshop, save the file as a .PSD/.TIFF/.JPG and it will be placed in the same folder as the original.

Sigma DG IS HSM 150 - 500mm gets my vote. At under £600 from various sources, it's a steal.

Welcome to the miniature world that is - macrophotography.

"What DOF?" - to get a deeper DOF, you'll know that you need to use the smaller apertures, f11, f16, and even smaller, but that reduces the amount of light hitting the sensor. To achieve those smaller apertures you need to increase the light hitting the sensor some other way. Longer shutter speeds are really out of the question, especially for hand held shots. Higher ISO's introduce noise to the extent that the image is unusable. The answer - light, light, and more light.

Dedicated macro ring flashes can be expensive. Whatever you chose, you need to chose something, either a ring flash or a hot-shoe flash. The on-board flash simply will not be powerful enough.

For a first attempt, I think your images are very good indeed. The aphid stuck in the web is good by itself, it would have been even better had you waited for the incy wincy spider to show up.

Huh