I think if you want length you'll need an air release rather than a cable - these have a bulb on one end of a hose which you squeeze to fire the shutter.

Look for a K or M 28mm f3.5, absolutely brilliant old lenses (much better than the f2.8 version). The lack of AF isn't a problem as infinity focus comes up very rapidly on these. I just tend to leave it on f8, press the button for stop-down metering, and shoot.

I don't think it's a waste of time in terms of it being another free advertising medium. Flickr seems to be regarded a bit more highly than Photobucket by serious photographers (being professional is more than just getting paid, after all) and while there will be inevitable "look at my cute kitten" shots you'll find all sorts. I know I've seen loads of historical photos on there which make fascinating viewing, and quality will always attract a following.

I've had an experience where to this day I don't know whether it was ESP or me that kept the car off the barriers. Was doing about 50mph and touched a slush-covered white line, leading to a fishtailing slide. I was just pointing the wheels in the direction of the road rather than frantic opposite lock twirling and keeping the power steady (FWD car, so you do this to pull it out of the slide).

It settled after a bit of wagging, I know I'd turned traction control off at the time but don't know whether ESP is even fitted to 2006 Saab 9-3 TiDs.

My brother has a set of snow chains which I think he used about twice last winter - he was the only person at his office who was able to get into the car park without ending up in the wall as a result!

That's an odd experience with the Kangoo. I learned to drive in a Citroen ZX 1.9D with cheap tyres and it'd go pretty much anywhere providing the snow wasn't too deep, it probably had a similar power output, wheelbase and weight. No ABS, traction control, or stability assist so you learned to spot wheelspin pretty quickly.

To the best of my knowledge the 50/1.2s are still the old A series version with manual focus. I'm led to believe that they're available to special order, so I've no idea whether any shops would have them in stock or indeed how long the order would take to be fulfilled.

I'd still like one, but I'd prefer the K version for my KX...

What's Japan like for used gear? Just thinking there have been more than a few Pentax products which were only offered to the home market over the years.

Same here. Snow is the only time you can drift a Discovery with any degree of success, last time I didn't bother locking the centre diff because it'll turn in better if you don't.

I find snowchains/studs an interesting idea. See, I used to have BF Goodrich A/Ts which despite the name were brilliant on tarmac as well as on gravel, rocks, and less gloopy mud. Those, when new, made driving on snow just like driving on dry tarmac. You had steering and brakes and it'd go up anything, even the little concrete ramps into car parks which had normal cars slipping to a halt. I can't really see that snowchains or studded tyres would have been much of an improvement!

I don't think there are any service manuals, and I really wouldn't be inclined to fiddle with any new lenses either. IIRC John Riley mentioned that due to the quantities of plastic in new lenses they're assembled to precise torque settings allowing for the inherent flex in the materials, as opposed to the old metal ones where you could just tighten everything up a little more than finger tight and it'd be fine.

As I said before, my only successful fix on a modern (ish) lens was an 80-200mm zoom. I was lucky in that the mould was only on the very front element which could be unscrewed without much hassle and was fairly easy to adjust once refitted.

I'd previously bought a "spares or repair" 28-80mm with power zoom - let's just say I now have a selection of optical glass lenses and lumps of plastic as there were too many broken bits for me to figure out how to rebuild it! On the plus side its power zoom switch has been passed to an otherwise perfect example of the same lens.

I don't think the cemented elements can be helped on a DIY basis for the reasons people mention, they need a lot of precision when re-gluing.

Older lenses are easier to work on as in general the parts will drop into the correct alignment and then stay there while you tighten things a little more than finger tight. I've only fiddled with one AF lens (F 80-200mm f4.7-5.6) which had a bit of mould on the back of the front element. Luckily this part simply unscrewed from the filter thread and was easy to clean, I then had some fun resetting the infinity focus (you screw the front element in or out and then tighten a collar against it to lock it in place) but it seems to work perfectly.

Try not to disturb the infinity setting while regreasing - if you can get at the thread without doing this then it will save a lot of hassle later on. The best way I've found to set infinity focus if you do have to disturb that is to use a film body with split focus screen, mounted on a tripod and aimed at the furthest point you can find (I use a ridge about six or seven miles away). You can then tweak it until perfect.