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"Electronic Flash" is very bright as it excites Xenon-gas in a tube.... however it is difficult to control once triggered, so there are snubbing circuits that discharge the storage capacitor and this extinguishes the light.... my understanding is that's the effect of TTL control -BUT you need a dedicated flashgun and then it needs to be small enough for macro-work.... this is a tall order since the macro-lens is normal-size and the ring-flash tube needs to be protected. In the past these set-ups were quite big, but the pictures were stunning as folks hadn't seen before.
Nowadays, with LEDs you can have either flash ( mimicking Xenon, but most likely to freeze action, as in sport / scientific ).... -OR- as a continuous light which means you can get the "pose" correct, - and focus ( always difficult in Macro ).
LEDs can be pulsed and their Tech-spec may give details - but it will be for a short duration.... this means an electronic circuit to control and with such a short duration, this is a flash.... i.e. not continuous at all. If you want LED lighting for other reasons ( e.g colour temperature )- then an array of modest LEDs won't be very large - and moderately cheap. In a ring different colour would be rather "Arty" - but beware that some colours are not the same efficiency - their brightness may disappoint!
The difficulty is that each situation/need is different - so without seeking a ready-made light it's almost impossible to say what the brightness will be. HOWEVER, the LED unit may be small enough to get closer to the subject - whilst this has "exposure" difficulties with fall-off - by enclosing the "bug" in aluminium foil the light should bounce about, giving a more-even exposure. Because it is much closer, it should be bright and if lit for a few seconds only, the effect on the LED junction should ( That's "should" ), be minimal and may even allow the lens to get closer . . . . after all it is the picture that's the real issue.
Whilst I might take a small bet the electronic tube will be brighter than a LED - the relative placing/proximity maybe evens-out the practicality . . . . Perhaps you can tell us what exposure you'd be using if this was lit by the sun (i.e set-up outside )? This would be interesting as fill-in flash used to be electronic/Xenon but now almost all ( really?), digital cameras use LEDs. These can be seen in bright daylight, so my guess is they are almost equal . . . but a flash is going to be far brighter than any continuous source; excepting maybe the sun.
jradley's received his flash, - whilst some "subject" pictures will be informative, it would be useful to see the set-up ( e.g. a side-view), to discover what the relative sizes/distances are.
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