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Thought this might be of interest to some of you.
1. the flash is mounted on a generic vidcam light bracket that I drilled through the top fitting and mounted a small ballhead on. The off camera flash cable fits on the ballhead. This allows me to move the diffuser/flash head to the end of the lens no matter what lens combo I have on at the time (I've successfully used it with a full set of ext tubes (65mm) and a reversed 50mm lens on the end of the macro lens).

2. For stabilisation in the field (actually my garden) I use a bean pole I simply grip the bean pole in my left hand at the required height and also grip the flash bracket handle (this does work even if you do not have a flash bracket). I've successfully used this method for shots upto 4:1 magnification (with an MPE-65). The bean pole is of course very fast to set up unlike a tripod or even a monopod.

3. Fitting a flash bracket to a camera solves any problems with the size of the camera and being able to hold it easily.

4. Focus is achieved by fixing the required magnification on the lens and then gently swaying back and forth and firing the shutter as you pass through focus (ie completely manual focus). Moving in this manner and not trying to hold focus prevents camera shake.

Brian V.