Hi John, sounds like your going through the same process I've been going through for the last 6-8 months. Yes you can get some nice shots with the LX90 and the LX200, but IMHO its a fair bit of mucking about with the wedge, which is why I've gone back to EQ mounts. Also you need to get a separate weight set for them and they still need to be modified to effectively balance the system when you have a refractor piggypacking and shooting prime focus.
There are a lot of great relatively cheap eq mounts available atm, but my recommendation would be no less than an EQ5 (preferably HEQ5) or EQ6. I've just bought a third hand Losmandy GM-8 without goto and so far I'm wrapped in it. But if you want goto (Gemini controller) you can add another $1k to the price. (round about $3500 brand new) Carrying capacity is around 30 lb so with an 8" and an Orion ($695) and your canon your looking at about 22-23 lb (the celestron 8" is about 12 lb, the 9.25 carbon fibre is 20 lb (and mucho mucho more expensive) and the Meade 8" is around 19 lb ($1600)) These weights are just over the recommended 60% weight limit for astrophotography.
If you look in this months AS&T they have a review of some of the EQs available. My preference would be either the Skyscan or the Celestron CGE, both highly recommended mounts, both goto capable.
May I ask why your limiting yourself to only 3 minute unguided when with a web cam you can autoguide quite easily, for either the bright DSOs and the faint fuzzies. It only takes a few more minutes of setting up to autoguide?
Anyway, if your looking to spend around $4k then using the prices above as a guide you will have around $1700 for mount, guiding rings ($160) maybe microfocuser ($400-$500) . Hopefully this will help you and not add more confusion to the pot
Cheers