Use of FD Bellows: EOS or FD system best?

I have an EOS3 with some lenses (no macro) and an A-1 with standard lens. I have recently acquired a Canon FD bellows unit plus slide duplicator and would like to use it to make negatives from my slides to print (this is not critical work, since I usulally do this through a large format internegative, but I would like reasonable quality).

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I have two questions:

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1. Is there any advantage in using the EOS equipment for this purpose? I do not have the macro adaptor to fit EOS body to bellows at present)and unless EOS system gives me definite advantage I would prefer to use FD system..

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2. What is the best light source, flash (I have several speedlites) or natural light. If flash, how do I calculate the exposure?

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Thanks in advance for your help.

Enrique, you asked about a possible advantage of the EOS system over

FD. Since you're interested in macro photography, there is in fact one

huge advantage: Your EOS gives you TTL flash control, your A-1 won't.

Flash is *the* light source for close-up and macro photography, and

TTL flash is a godsent gift for this application. Get a TTL extension

cord for your flash, set the desired aperture and let the camera do

the rest. No need to calculate exposure. A combination of ambient

daylight and fill flash also looks very nice and natural.

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BTW: A bellows is fine for higher magnifications (exceeding 1x or life

size), but for everything else I'd recommend a good macro lens. Using

a 50 mm standard lens on your bellows is a compromise. These lenses

simply are not designed for high magnification work. However, at least

the center should be rendered with sufficient sharpness. You should

also think about using the lens reversed. Finally: How about an

enlarging lens? These lenses are much better macro optics than every

standard lens that's optimized for 'infinity'.

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However, if you're still interested in how to use flash manually

(maybe in order to find out the limits for automatic TTL flash) I

recommend John Shaw's "Closeups in Nature".

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Dieter