How did they do that?

Shooting macros is fairly simple - a single 13 watt full spectrum folding Ott light is all that was used for these samples. A tripod helps, especially for critical work. Here's how we shot these sample macros:

If you want sharpness from corner to corner, 2 dimensional subjects like the note in these samples must be perfectly flat - we taped this one down. This becomes more critical as you increase magnification. Equally as important is to be sure the camera is square/parallel to the working surface and stays that way when you make height adjustments with your tripod or copy stand.

Attach your macro filter/lens to the adapter. You must use the LCD for macro work - the optical viewfinder is nearly useless at this range. Select "AV" or aperture priority on the mode dial. Then select f 7.1 or f8 which is the smallest aperture by clicking on the right side of the 4 way selector.

This will give you the most depth of field. DOF becomes very small as you increase magnification and you want as much as you can get. In fact, it's difficult to get both the dime and note in focus once you are near +7 diopters (the power of one macro set). If you're using lower powers such as +2, you might want a larger aperture (smaller number) to intentionally make part of your subject (say, a flower) out of focus. This would give you the added benefit of a faster shutter speed for handheld macro work.

Go to menu and turn the AiAF off - it's been the experience of most users that this focus mode does not work consistently. Then press the function button and select the appropriate white balance or set the custom white balance for the best accuracy. (It's easy, see page 81 in the manual.)

The next item in the function menu is the drive mode. In this case we simply want a 2 second shutter delay (last icon) so we're not touching the camera when the shutter trips.

Then select the ISO speed. We use 50 because it's the least noisy and since the camera is on a stand or tripod anyway, it doesn't matter if the shutter speed is slow.

Lastly, select the size you want. We used the largest (L) size, 2272x1704 and the least jpeg compression, Superfine. (Icon with S in pie shape, select by pressing set after selecting size.)

Zoom to full telephoto. This is the best focal length for macros for several reasons - it gives the most magnification, the least distortion, and gets the lens farther from your subject so it's easier to light.  Though the manual claims that the frame width at the wide angle setting is 2.2" and 3.6" at the telephoto setting, our own tests showed that the frame width at both settings were nearly identical at about 3 1/8".  We also observed barrel distortion and blurry corners/edges at the wide setting.  

For these sample shots we wanted to get as close as possible to our subject with a given macro filter. If you find that camera is shutting down too quickly on its own while you're arranging and composing, you can change this in the Setup menu - press menu, Setup (center icon), scroll down to "Power Saving", click right and either turn off the "Auto Power Down" or set the "Display Off" to more time. If you choose "Display Off", the camera "goes to sleep" to save power, and is revived by half pressing the shutter.