Macro set up - I have saved some pennies - what should i buy?

I have always enjoyed macro photos at the level of what i can afford, which to date has always been limited (7 year university, married with 3 kids .... etc etc), however i have saved up my pennies and i potentially have enough to upgrade my equipment when i come over to Canada and America in 9 weeks . i have about $1000 U.S. to spend.

I currently have a Canon 300D with a Cannon 18 - 50 lense and a Sigma 70 - 200.

I would ask for advice on whether to

1) purchase a good macro lense and extension tubes now and use the 300D and then over time upgrade my camera. - recomendations please

2) upgrade my camera to a higher spec and put the macro lense on hold for a couple of years. reason for this is i have seen AF extension tubes but they do not appear to be compatable with the 300D. is this correct?

I would like to go with option 1 as this will mean I will be able to start macro photograpy ASAP.

option 3 will be in the future, which is to purchase a macro flash for indoor macro work, or does this need to be higher up the shopping list for outdoor work also?

I also have a further question, in one thread Pete mentioned his lense for taking a photo was
"100mm macro, full set of extension tubes, and a 2xTC."
so what is a 2xTC ?

Thanks for your anticipated advice and sorry for the multiple questions

Cheers

Andy

slartibardfast,
I suggest your option 1, but a flash can really make more options available. Any external flash with an extension cord (or pc sync cable) will work well. I personally never use a macro flash, just my 580ex or previously my 420ex (some times my old Kodak flash with pc sync cord). If you don't use extension tubes your built in flash will give some help.
A 2xTC is a tele converter (Canon calls them extenders) when a 2xTC is used with a 100mm macro lens it makes it a 200mm 2:1 macro. However Canon TC's don't work with Canon 100mm f/2.8 lens unless you use a 12mm or more extension tubes, otherwise it can't fit.

Or you can go the cheap way and get a cosina 3.5F Macro 100mm for less than 100$ I think! It has a lot of downsides (cheap built, the AF version apparently is slow and noisy), but the plus side is that it has good optic and it's darn cheap.
And you could upgrade your body as well !

My first attempt was just posted, not too good, but I've seen amazing ones on this flickr poll:

http://www.flickr.com/​groups/cosina/pool/

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/tags/cosina100m​m/

Thanks both,

Of the 2 i think i will go with the Canon macro option, as i like to buy the best i can afford and wait for the next upgrade .... hopefully next year i will have some more spending money.

Andy

If you did want a TC option to go with your 100mm macro (if you decide to get it) you could perhaps try Canon's life size converter. Canon states it's only for use with the 50mm f/2.5 macro lens but many have point out on POTN that it will work with any EF lens (not sure about EF-S) and acts as TC and a 25mm (if memory serves) extention tube as well. It's about £170 over here so even cheaper over the pond...

which brings me to my second point, don't fancy picking me up a lens whilst your're over there do you (d/w kiddin) Our lens prices suck!! If it weren't for the import duty i'd buy from B&H.

Oh i've also just bought a raynox DCR-250 close up filter to go with my recently ordered Kenko tubes. It's only meant as a standby until i can afford the canon 100mm macro but i plan on trying it out on the 100mm with tubes so see how far it will go.

Check out the close up Lens / filter thread to see some pics taken with the raynox filter, I'm quite impressed with it.