I was very lucky with a K 28-50mm in that the filter had taken all the damage a previous owner inflicted.

Now if only it had been able to keep the fungus out too...

Interesting - they must have had them but not bothered to sign them from the cafe then.

It's an old hydroelectric turbine outside the Elan Valley visitor centre. I spend a fair amount of time up there and it's an interesting bit of engineering. It was removed from one of the dams when an upgraded turbine was installed - AFAIK Elan Village is still powered entirely from hydroelectricity with no connection to the national grid.

I found a really silly one on a related note at the weekend: M&S "Simply Food" with a cafe but apparently no toilets. Generally I thought it was considered good form to provide somewhere for people to empty the waste as well as filling the tank...

Really?

My K and M lenses meter perfectly down to f11 or so with the green button (in this case the exposure compensation button, but same function) on my K-m. If I want to use a smaller aperture then I can easily meter at f8 or so and then dial shutter speed and aperture down together.

Meanwhile M42 lenses in Av mode are a complete non-starter (underexpose all the time regardless of what I do). They might work if I just used it in manual and ignored the light meter, but I'd rather just buy K lenses and avoid fiddling about with adapters.

It really depends on how long the 20mm is - as I said, the 40mm is on the limit. It touches the lid when the box is closed and presses the camera gently into the foam (which has the added benefit of stopping it from rattling around).

I am still on the lookout for a slightly larger one of these boxes able to handle the 50mm. I have bought another since but it'll only take an M series/40mm lens and maybe a couple of rolls of film, so my spare MX body currently lives in there. The problem seems to be that this is the limit for sensibly priced boxes - you can buy larger but you're into Peli cases intended for divers and priced accordingly.

I can't find stock of the box I used in the UK at the moment, but it was made by "Outdoor Products" and it's the larger of the two they offer. The smaller case which can only take camera and 40mm lens is an Otterbox 2500.

My workflow with the Rondinax tank (if it's any help):

Place tank in warm place to bring it up to 20c

Mix chemicals - as it only used 200ml of each at a time I find it better to store them neat in the original bottles and mix up as required. I have three conical flasks for mixing and a couple of measuring cylinders.

Once tank is warm, load film according to instructions.

Pour developer in and watch the time - there should be a table on the inside of the film pack showing the developing time with different developers. Turn the knob on the tank half a turn every two seconds to agitate the film.

Empty developer when time is up and add stop bath. I tend to turn the knob continually for about ten seconds, then empty stop bath.

Add fixer and turn knob half turn every two seconds for recommended time.

Empty fixer, rinse, remove film from drum, squeegee it and attach film clips then hang in warm low-dust environment to dry.

Once dry I cut it into strips of six frames as my film scanner and negative storage file both take strips that long. Strips are scanned and then immediately placed in a pocket of the file to protect them - if I lose the digital scans I can get the negatives out and try again.

Just something I put together a few days ago and posted on Youtube about what I think makes an excellent film outfit for travel:

http://youtu.be/grbqx6uHP3k

Hopefully it's allowed, the video camera wasn't a Pentax but most of the gear on screen is!

I know there should probably be a fast 50mm in the box but it won't fit - I've yet to find any of these waterproof boxes with the headroom for an M series with a standard lens, the 40mm only just fits and touches the inside of the lid. An MX will fit in place of the ME Super if preferred.

I might be inclined to leave the 50mm/85mm out. The DA 35 Ltd already has shallow DOF and will cope well in low light (especially with the high ISO performance of the K5).

Wales might be safe providing you hide all the change. We charge over £5 to get in over the Severn Bridge now...

The musical might-have-been related to both: Elvis and Tom Jones were apparently great friends. Had Elvis lived, imagine how "Reload" (Jones' 1999 comeback album) might have turned out...