In article <468ts9$nna@Vir.com>, denblack@vir.com says...
>What would be the brightest 100mm macro lens presently on the market?

About f2.5-2.8 (1/4 stop difference), but why care? DOF is an issue
in macro, and one would rarely want to use a faster lens wide-open.
(Virtually nothing would be in focus!) I like shooting limited DOF
close-up photos, but f2.8-4 is about as wide as I would want to go.
Also, a faster lens would be large and heavy, and would probably be
optically inferior to the f2.8's.
Hope this helps.