K100D mods (am I nuts?)

So I have a K100D and generally, I'm happy with it. However, it's a bit tricky with manual focus lenses.

I found out that the focussing screen can be replaced by one with the classic indicator thing. You can buy them for $100USD but I have a Pentax ME body here that's doing nothing... Does anyone here know how hard it would be to trim this screen to suit the K100D? (it's bigger than what the K100D needs)

Since the ME has a prism (instead of mirrors), I have been thinking about the possibility of getting it out and putting it into the K100D. I guess the biggest problem would be if the cavity in the K100D is smaller than what the ME has. Would this have any hope of working? Would it give me a bigger image in the viewfinder? Am I nuts?

Is there a culture of hardware hacking in the [D]SLR world?

I know some people are hacking canons to remove the ir filter.
trouble is, unless you have the tools and experience to work with inredible percision, there's little an average person can do.
I'm playing around with a homebuilt lens that uses a bodycap, a bag/bellows of neoprene, a focus rail, and a motorized car door mirror mechanism to make a controllable tilt/swing lensboard for the front lens. the other mirror will eventually be used to tilt/swing the camera body.
I certianly wouldn't try hacking the body.

Well I don't have any tools and I certainly have no experience. I'm still interested in the focussing screen idea but I'll probably end up just buying one from katz eye unless it turns out to be easy to trim the one from the ME.

You could end up doing a lot of damage that could be expensive to have repaired.

My view is that the inside of modern cameras is the field for experts with the right equipment to open, repair and recalibrate.

Cameras are precision devices.

Changing a screen should present no problems IF you know what your doing (does the K100D have interchangeable screens?)
However IMHO, assuming the ME screen is the same thickness (and if it isn't dont even consider the idea) you'll probably damage it beyond use when you try and trim it down, these things are extremely delicate, thats assuming its plastic, what if you rip your ME apart and find the focusing screen is ground glass? I cant see you trimming that down very easily.

I have seen screens on ebay for the istD, complete with the "tweezers" for changing them, did I do it myself? did I hell, I got Pentax to do it when I had myD cleaned, it cost me £50, including the £8 for the cost of the screen.

Do yourself a favour and contact Pentax and see what they cam offer.

Someone (either here or at DP review, I forget which) posted that MX screens will work in the K10D (and presumably the K100D). Anyone know anything about this?

I don't know about changing screens between models but if the K100 screen is fitted in the same way as the one in the DL (most likely is), then it is certainly removable. It's quite a fiddly job and I managed to scratch mine when I removed it to clear away some dust.

Don't even attempt it unless a) you're confident that you'll be successful or b) you don't care about the risk to the existing screen.

For viewing purposes, I find the penta-mirror to be perfectly adequate but the fact that the entire assembly is somewhat poorly sealed (at least in my DL), means that dust is a real problem and I know others have experienced it too.
Obviously it's a cost-cutting exercise but I don't think Pentax have done themselves any favours by employing the mirror system and perhaps should have designed it out when upgrading the DL to the K100!

Try here for some pointers to modifying an old Pentax screen (some way down the page):

http://greyhoundman.blogspot.com/

Or buy one from ebay, they come up from time to time for £15 or so.