When it comes to makes, there are a few options. The ones I have are made by Kenko. They're fully automatic and cost just shy of £100 off ebay for the set of three. They have electrical contacts in them so you are still able to use auto-focus and change the aperture setting easily.
You can get ones that aren't automatic for a hell of a lot cheaper but you lose the auto-focus (really not a concern with macro, you should be focussing manually anyway) and if you want to change aperture you have to put the lens on the camera, change the aperture setting, take the lens off without turning off the camera, put the tubes on, put the lens back on. Every. Single. Time. Not ideal really
Canon also do their own extension tubes. They're apparently not very different from the auto Kenko ones, except for the fact they cost the same (if not more) for one as Kenko charge for a set of three...
Combined with a true 1:1 macro lens (such as the Canon 100mm macro) a full set of Kenko tubes will give you anything up to about 2x magnification. Any higher than that and it's going to be MPE-65 time TBH (special lens, gives up to 5x magnification). You can use them with non macro lenses as well to increase the magnification - a lot of people use a set of Kenko tubes with the nifty, which gives a fairly effective, cheap macro solution (maximum magnification is about 1x I believe, so the same as a standalone macro).
As far as lighting goes, the ideal for macro is some sort of ringflash/ dedicated dual flash set up. Whilst a lot of people do use ringflashes, I've heard a lot of bad things about them, mainly related to the fact that they produce a very harsh light that is very difficult to diffuse (mainly due to the shape of the unit). I think the preferred method for serious Canon macro toggers is the MT-24EX which is a dual flash which fits at the end of the lens. Because it has two separate heads, rather than one continuous circle, it is much easier to control and diffuse. It's also very expensive though
Because I'm on a tight budget I'm stuck with my cheapy Yong-nuo 465 at the moment. With just the macro lens on, you can just about get away with having it on camera. With the tubes, it's just too far away and at the wrong angle to really be effective, so you have to get it off camera somehow. The preferred budget method (which is also used by a lot of people just using the macro lens with no tubes) is to get a ttl cable and a bracket that screws into the tripod hole of the camera and holds the flash nearer to the end of the lens. I haven't got round to getting one of these yet so I improvise.
As far as diffusers go, most macro toggers make their own, even if they are loosely based around an existing method. You can buy a variety of different types - there's the stofen type (which I use a slightly modified version of - I need to do a lot more work on it though) which is basically just a bit of frosted plastic that goes over the end of the flash. There's lambency/Gary Fong Lightsphere things, which are cone shaped and apparently quite effective. There's also a variety of mini-softboxes and the like. There's quite an interesting thread in the macro section of Talk Photography with pictures of various set-ups people have made. Lots of bits of milk bottle and the like in there, used very creatively. Basically you need some type of diffuser just to avoid blowing out large parts of (normally quite highly reflective insects)
All my shots were done during the day. Most of the time, to get a decent depth of field with the macro stuff, you're going to want to shoot somewhere between about f8 and f16. Generally you'll use low ISO, if nothing else to try and keep noise as low as possible, and a reasonably quick shutter speed (I tend to go no lower than 1/100) which means you have to use quite strong flash just to get enough light. At those settings you're basically going to knock out any ambient light which is why so much macro stuff has black backgrounds. For a lot of stuff it van be very effective. A lot of my moth shots, for example, were taken about 8 or 9 in the morning, but knocking out the background makes it look like they were taken in the dead of night. If you want to avoid it, you'll have to put something close in the background so it gets included in the shot. I know some people put large leaves or even coloured card in the background to give an out of focus green background, rather than a completely black background.
The only other essential part of my set up is a tripod. You can just about get away without one with the macro lens on its own, but with the tubes, it really is absolutely essential.
I think that pretty much covers everything, if there is anything else, just ask
I'll take a photo of my kit next time I've got it all set up
Edit: bloody hell, that's long
as the actress said to the bishop
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