In my experience, macro exposures tend to be short. Subjects like flowers and insects do not stay perfectly still long enough, unless they are either dead, indoors, or there is no air movement. The problem with using a tripod for macro work is that it involves far too much fine-tuning and adjustment to obtain precise focus, by which time the subject may have moved. Thus, if you do use a tripod, a macro rail--or a lot of patience--is a must.


A monopod will help stabilize the camera while still permitting positional flexibility. This is the main reason why some macro shooters use monopods. However, this still does not solve the problem of subject movement at high magnification (e.g., 1:1 or greater). If you want to shoot with greater DOF and low ISO, this is where you get a macro flash. This is really the only solution. With flash lighting, handheld macro is a far more attractive option.


Here is an example of a macro shot of a soap film @ 1:1. No crop, 5D2 + EF 100/2.8L macro IS, 1/125s @ f/4 @ ISO 640. I used continuous lighting for this, although it wasn't bright enough for me to stop down more. The liquid in the film is moving quite rapidly, which makes motion blur a real problem. Tripod or monopod would have been useless.