Firstly, imho, you should be able to get results that equal or exceed the Frontier lab results with your 32.5MP Canon sensor. I think that the lens is going be to your limiting factor here, a ‘macro’ zoom lens coupled with a teleconverter is probably not going to cut it at 1:1. There is a whole long thread on here about peoples’ setups and they use a variety of different lenses of course, everyone will have their own favourites. Personally I think the cheapest way in for APS-C will be a 50mm 6-element enlarging lens like a Rodagon via bellows or a combination of extension rings, though an old 55mm Micro-Nikkor in good condition via an adapter and an extension ring also gives very good results for not too much money, both entirely manual for aperture and focus of course. If you want to spend more then Canon also have their own dedicated fixed focal length macro lenses.
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