Davo,
what are you trying to acheive? I reckon for most the 1.25" barlow (or Powermate) is the way, but of late I have had that same nagging, and wonder if I should have tried a 2" instead.
For higher power use, (and that includes eyepiece projection with the ToUcam) I use a set of Zeiss orthos, from 4mm through to 25mm. University Optics orthos would be similar. I have on the odd occasion used them with the 2.5x Powermate, but usually I just use the eyepiece. The Powermates are for imaging (I have the 2.5x and the 5x).
The other eyepieces I have are a 12mm Nagler, and a 22mm Nagler, both obstensively for DSO with any of the scopes I have. Occasionally though I tried the 12mm and the 2.5x and quite like it, albeit it sits a fair way out, and looks/feels ungainly.
Point I make is that with a 2" Barlow (or Powermate) and a 2x at that I could then use both the 12mm, as well as the 22mm. I could also then use the orthos, via a 2" - 12.5" adaptor, and the 1.25" - .96" adaptor.
As an aside, before I got too heavily into imaging, I used a point and shoot, fixed lens digital. It is a Leica Digilux 4.3, and gives good general images. In adapting it to astro use I built an adaptor to fit it behind my scope/eyepiece combo. I tried all manner of eyepieces, and eventually settled on what was the ugliest eyepiece I owned (and still own), a Celestron 20mm Erfle. With a slight amount of optical zoom in the camera, and this eyepiece I gained what I considered very good afocal images, and am still amazed today at what can be acheived, some of these ar at
http://www.2fdesign.co.nz/zeissnut/p...un_updates.htm
Hope this rambling helps.
Gary