Being able to focus all the way down to the front of the lens element isn't too useful unless you can get some light between the lens and your subject. Lighting is always a challenge in macro photography. The built-in strobes are useless because they're too close to the work and also in the wrong position. Backlighting is great if your subject is translucent. Otherwise, you have to back off a little to angle some light in there.
Depth of field is another problem.
The closer you get, the less you have. If you're photographing a 3-D object, you've got to back off a little and choose a compromise focus setting. With the digital cameras, you put as much light on the subject as you can and hope for the best. In my tests, the Ricoh had a bad case of barrel distortion, where straight lines appear curved outward, but the resolution and contrast were excellent. My camcorder had slightly less barrel distortion but less contrast.