I like the Lowepro Stealth Reporter bags. I use a D 100 AW (mainly as I had a load of their lens cases and it was heavily reduced on Amazon at the time), it isn't bulky or especially obvious. You get a shoulder strap and a sort of belt thing to keep it snug against you. Extra lens cases/pouches can be strapped on the ends of the bag, if you buy a set of the cinch straps you can attach a tripod too. I doubt this particular model would suit your needs but they do make larger versions.

I just wish they didn't have such ridiculously long names!

The yellowing only affects certain M42 Takumars IIRC - anything K series or later is not radioactive.

From what I understand the radiation levels are not enough to do you harm, providing you don't carry the lens around all the time and/or sleep with it under your pillow.

I can only assume that Pentax designed their DSLRs to work well with whatever glass you put in front of them. Apparently the Sony owners forum won't touch Takumars because they "weren't designed for digital", meanwhile I have a K 55mm f1.8 (effectively an SMC Tak with a K mount) and it's one of the sharpest lenses I own with very natural colour rendition.

I suspect that it'll end up in another display case as an investment. Pity really, cameras are made to be used!

I'd rather have a slightly scruffy but perfectly functional LX than a mint one, as I'd just be less worried about using it.

These old mechanical bodies really aren't hard to work on, assuming that it isn't jammed and that the meter and shutter speeds are accurate. If you buy the light seals package from that ebay link you'll get all the tools you need, although I'd also suggest a spray bottle of screen cleaner (the stuff Staples et al sell for cleaning monitors) as this is excellent for using on a cotton bud to remove grime from odd corners of the camera body.

Don't try to brush that lump of foam goo off the focusing screen as it will smear, to remove it as cleanly as possible use a pair of tweezers to very carefully grab it.

The muck you can see in the viewfinder may just be on the back of the eyepiece, I know most of my old film bodies had a lot of dust on there. Screen cleaner and a cotton bud will remove it perfectly. It is also possible for dust to find its way between the eyepiece and the prism, in which case you need to take the top plate off and blow it out with a puffer bulb.

If you don't fancy doing this yourself then there are still places that can do a full service on these old bodies, providing that the camera is complete and mechanically sound.

I thought there was a ready supply of parts to rebuild Merlins? I guess the stock of rebuildable engines must be getting a bit low, as pretty much every real Spitfire seems to be returning to flight!

I've heard that phrase "coatings not designed for digital" several times from a Sony owner and it completely baffles me! My older K lenses work perfectly on digital, no colour casts at all. The colour rendition is different in that images look cooler than those taken with new glass, but I've never had a colour cast from a healthy Pentax lens.

Might be worth checking your white balance?

That really isn't helping my occasional urge to buy one of these!

I get mine from an ebay seller in the USA, the £7 ish I quoted was for a kit that will refit a pair of cameras. Look for the seller "camerasealkitsandmore", they offer kits for all Pentaxes so you just say what type you have when you order.

I've replaced the seals in six or seven bodies now, it really isn't difficult. Need to order another pack in fact as my newly-acquired KX and my old K1000 could do with new seals.

So the 42mm equivalent I get with a 28mm on my K-m is perfect then!

I just like the way the M 28mm f3.5 behaves. Infinity focus comes up pretty rapidly and it shows very little distortion. I usually leave it on f8, focus, take a meter reading, and shoot.

I had a day off from babysitting builders (new bathroom is being installed so someone needs to be in to deal with any problems), so I went into town to buy more slide film and over to Hereford where my wallet was attacked by a rather nice N scale model of a German diesel hydraulic/gas turbine loco.

The slide film (Boots finest) led me to a number of conclusions:

There were four rolls on the shelf. One had a sell by date of February 2011, the rest were dated March 2011. My previous three rolls have had the Feb 2011 expiry date.

So in other words, Boots keep four rolls on the shelf. As I bought three earlier in the year, they ordered another three. So I'm the only one buying slide film in this town!

They also had APS film, good to know as I've been slightly tempted by a lot of Minolta Vectis APS SLRs and lenses. I sense APS may become more valuable in years to come as it never sold in huge numbers, so buying cheap mint gear now may be an investment.