I'm not sure whether the current range are up to the same standards but the old Metz 45s seem to go on forever even with heavy professional use. If all of their products are up to that level then go for it.

I might keep an eye out for one then, now I have a Spotmatic to use it on.

Which Jupiter would that be? They don't seem common in the UK and I don't fancy importing one and getting the inevitable ransom demand from Parcelfarce.

Lowepro's Facebook page has posted a link claiming this to be a case of misreporting. I didn't click it as it was lurking behind one of those link shortening sites which give no clue about the original URL, and while Lowepro are trustworthy you never know if an account has been hacked. Might be worth a rummage to check if it's true or not?

Our snow continues, although main roads have now been cleared so you have pretty scenery, untreated back roads to play with, but you can reliably get to places should you need to!

Having a difficult decision. See, my brother's bought me a Red Snapper tripod with the 3-way head (not had it yet but I'm expecting great things judging by reviews I've seen). Do I spend £50 on the ball head to go with it or do I spend the same on upgrading a couple of Marklin HO scale model railway locos to the latest digital control standards?

I think (not 100% sure) that the brass tab you've found is to stop the moving part of the lens from rotating when you turn the focus ring (assuming this lens design keeps the front element the same way up rather than rotating it?)

If that was worn or loose then I can see that the moving part could rotate slightly and therefore alter the aperture setting unexpectedly. Can you hold it steady with a fine screwdriver while turning the focus control (may need to enlist a helper for the extra hand) and see if the problem is still there? You may need to do some very careful gluing of the loose part to the pegs in order to sort it out.

The f2.8 (also written 1:2. version doesn't seem well regarded - I have seen comments that the older M 135mm f3.5 is a better lens. That said, the A seems hard to find and I've never had a chance to try one, so who knows.

A series primes aren't hugely common (apart from the 50mm and to a lesser extent 28mm) as by this stage many people were buying zooms instead. I think a lot of people bought an 80-200mm (ish) zoom instead of the classic 135mm prime to complete their kit by the time the A series arrived.

Of course, if they bought the SMC Pentax-A 70-210mm f4 then they didn't lose anything in image quality (this is reportedly not far off prime quality)!

I had a thoroughly odd moment with dust alert a while ago. On my 28-80mm and 35-70mm zooms it showed loads of the stuff around the corners (which wasn't there when I tried the white sheet of paper at f16 trick), swapping back to the kit lens saw a clean result again!

Ahh, ok, that would explain a lot!

My knowledge of using flash came from a K1000 where you just set the shutter speed to "X" (aka 1/60 on that model). Oddly enough I couldn't find any reference to what speed equated to "X" on the K-m, but the Dimitrov site quoted 1/180 which seems ok with my Metz 45.

Really can't afford that, my budget just about stretches to more screwmount bodies!

I seem to have managed to end up with "user" versions of the KX and MX which function perfectly but aren't 100% mint, as a result I'm quite willing to sling them over a shoulder and scramble up a hillside or two.

Ah, mine's the original film KX!

The only digital body I own is the K-m, and I'm always a bit uneasy about taking it out when it's raining or snowing as it doesn't have weather sealing. The old film bodies are less likely to have any trouble and if one does get wrecked it'll cost me a lot less to replace than the K-m.