Yep, guessed that might be the case! I was just trying to offer some pointers to anyone who came across the thread without previous experience of hill walking. You must get stories about people being fished off the mountains in shorts and T shirt by search and rescue teams after they've wandered up there on what looked like a summer day? I know we do in Wales!

Apparently there are also black squirrels about. The grey ones really do not like them by most accounts!

Thanks for that. I already have a nice example of the ERC with the low top (probably original to the SV, at least they came from the same ebay seller) so I'm really after the standalone meter case (which I've just bought one of) rather than the high top one.

Has anyone else had trouble with metal fatigue on the shutter speed dial of these meters? Mine had a couple of chunks of the knurled rim missing leaving rather painful sharp edges, I've just been repairing the damage with epoxy putty and will carve same to match the rest of the dial (and give a careful dab of black paint) in a few days when I know it's properly hardened. It only cost me £10 and it seems accurate, if a little shaky on the "low" setting so a repair is worth the effort.

As there doesn't seem to be anything about these on the web I thought I'd ask here!

I know there are two types of meter which fitted to the S1a, SV, etc, the earlier round type and the later square one. What I don't know is whether the cases were different? I have a later type meter and have just spotted a case but would like to know whether it's the right one before buying.

I've got something even older loaded with film now - an SV with the clip-on meter!

I was amazed how good some of the shots with the Spotmatic were. I wasn't at all sure about the light meter as it doesn't even agree with itself on occasion (1/250 at f4 should be the same as 1/125 at f5.6 right? The meter didn't agree!) but it seems that it was close enough for HP5.

I haven't had any of the scam "antivirus" calls yet, feeling left out!

Spotmatic worked rather well, just deciding which of the images are best for printing and hanging on the wall.

Well I wouldn't bother with a flare gun, but on a serious note if you want to take some survival gear then look at the Gelert "survival bottle" kits, you get enough in those to keep yourself warm and dry while signalling to potential rescuers.

Or alternatively as it's an organised trip with multiple participants just take a warm, waterproof coat, hat, and a couple of bottles of water. Food optional, I wouldn't usually bother unless I knew I'd be out all day but water can make things a lot more comfortable than having to hike back to the cafe for a drink!

As for gear, I keep it simple. K-m with 28mm f3.5 (will be 35mm f2.4 in a couple of weeks), spare batteries and SD card in Lowepro camera pouch, and a monopod which doubles as a walking/scrambling pole. Very light and simple, and I find that focal length works really well for wandering around.

Same here. I won't sell the body if I buy a camera for the lens, and I've even bought cameras specifically because I had other original bits to fit them (like my Spotmatic).

I'm not sure what Olympus buyers are like, but I seem to see Pentax lenses alone going for more than lens and body combinations.

Finally managed to stop my "new" slide projector from reeking of stale smoke, and got it to work properly too (replaced stretched drive belt with suitable yellow rubber band from pack costing 95p!). Got some interesting smoke patterns too from the incense I was burning near the fan intake to clear the pong.