My opinion is that better tools are more fun to use, sure you can get results with cheaper tools but it requires more work. Example, you can use extension tubes with SMC-M 50/1.4 on D with manual flash but then you have to press the green button, you can't quickly control magnification, you can't quickly focus to something 2 meters away or infinity, you don't have autofocus, you have to calculate flash exposure, etc... But the end result is probably the same as with real macro where you just compose and shoot. :)
Confusion will be my epitaph but I'm afraid the above makes no sense to me. Using extension tubes _is_ real macro. I can use them with M lenses and TTL flash and focus manually on what I want to be focused on. It is only the bigger DOF that allows digital autofocus to appear to work.
Define "better".
If you have more fun you will make more pictures, more pictures usually equals better pictures after you select few of them from the bunch.
There are more ways of having fun than pointing and shooting. That way leads to complacency and mediocrity. My opinion.
mike
