I had it on my laptop for ages, but I've since reformatted it (replacing the terrible Asus-provided Linux with Ubuntu, so it works properly). I've had another rummage and I can't see it anywhere, so I have a feeling that I didn't bother to save it.

It took the form of a fairly lengthy illustrated document showing how to strip an MZ-50 down to replace the motor assembly that lurks behind the lower right hand side of the lens mount (as you hold the camera). I remember a lot about desoldering wires and capacitors, which luckily I didn't have to do.

I bought that MZ-50 hoping that it would be a simple fix (or that it would be fine - it was sold as "untested"). As I'd later bought a mint one with 35-80mm lens on the front for £10 I wasn't inclined to attempt to source a new motor and drive gear, hence the superglue. I've yet to run a film through it as it's nothing like as nice to handle as my MX, and the fact that it fully rewinds film makes it impossible to use with my daylight developing tank.

I've always been puzzled by the Takumar Bayonet 135mm lenses. At f2.5 or f2.8 they're faster than the Pentax-M, but why on earth did Pentax release them in their budget range (as Takumar became) without SMC coating?

What's the best way to do that - leave it on a windowsill with the lens cap off for a while?

I was about to say I'd put a spare UV filter on to protect the front element, but that would rather miss the point!

Edit, just emailed Alan for a quote. Even if it costs me another £50 I'm doing well. I paid £99 for the lens and the last one I saw on ebay was priced at £350 (admittedly by a well-known seller with an interesting idea of the value of lens caps, but still!)

I did have just such a guide (relating to stripping an MZ 50 to replace a cracked drive gear/motor) but annoyingly I can't find it or the site I downloaded it from!

In my case I just unscrewed panels until I could reach the motor, then used a bit of fine wire to drip a tiny amount of superglue onto the shaft before sliding the gear out from the motor and into place (did it this way to avoid getting glue in the motor bearing). Amazingly it worked - a £5 "spares or repair" MZ50 now lives!

Does the lens have an aperture control on it (a ring next to the lens mount)? If so, it needs to be set to "A" to work with a DSLR. It's surprisingly easy to accidentally hit the button and move it off the A setting, I've done it before now.

Yep, I unscrewed the front thing, but only the very front element fell out. At this point I decided to put it back together and leave well enough alone! Think I got away without much dust getting in. A few quick test shots showed no harm done.

The specks don't seem to affect image quality and the lens lives in a case with a bag of silica gel, so I doubt it'll get worse. If it does, I'll look at prices for a professional strip down and clean.

I've since bought a second case from Maplin - they had a special offer last month. Unfortunately it's already full...

I had a Compaq TC1000 tablet PC, and I have to say I didn't really get on with it. I never used the touch screen or the stylus as to be honest it was much simpler to type things in with the keyboard. It was also slow and prone to overheating.

Touch screens do have their place, but for proper input you need a mouse/touchpad and a keyboard. Correcting errors in handwriting recognition software takes much longer than simply typing it all in.

Some of the cheap polarisers aren't bad. I've got three of the "Green Filter" ones from Hong Kong (49mm, 52mm and 58mm) and I've had surprisingly decent results considering the price.

Another reason why I'm really glad my Eee PC runs Ubuntu Linux!

I just need to sit down and learn to use the GIMP properly now. To use a camera analogy, if Photoshop is a K7 then the GIMP is an MX - can do all the same things, but requires a bit more user input to get the desired result.