The finishing ring is screwed into the filter thread and unscrews in the same way. This can be fun and games however - I've had some which won't unscrew! A drop of lighter fluid will sometimes unstick them and there are a few techniques to persuade them to unscrew without doing any damage. You need some sort of fairly solid rubber block which you can press against the ring to get a grip and turn it.

I definitely think something has happened with your lens, although I've noticed that hyperfocal distances don't seem to work terribly well on digital. I found that with the K 28/3.5 shots taken using the hyperfocal setting at f8 weren't as sharp as those taken with the lens set to infinity at f8.

You need a Spotmatic to go with it now!

It probably depends on the country then. I know Dad has been booked into a few while working away and hasn't a good word to say for the British arm of the firm!

"Holiday Inn" has always struck me as a rather odd name for the hotel chain in question. I doubt anyone on holiday would stay there voluntarily!

TBH the stop down metering really doesn't slow me down that much. How often do you shoot below f11 in a hurry anyway? I found that if I left the K 28/3.5 on f8 and just remembered to press the button before shooting the metering was pretty much spot on. Thanks to the depth of field of this lens it was focus free most of the time as well.

I bet if the internet and forums had existed back in the pre-DSLR era the same people would have been saying "Without medium format you can't even think about shooting weddings".

Look at the opinions of long-established pros in the days when 35mm film was just breaking through over medium or large format. They didn't think it was good for anything more than holiday snapshots. Jump forward a decade or so and the debate will probably be whether the latest EVIL can cope with weddings or if you need the full DSLR with APS-C sensor.

I do think there's a lot of groupthink in the pro world. They buy CaNikOny gear because it's what everyone else has and because they don't have time (or more likely don't want) to investigate what else is out there.

Not much, most of the time! I'm just pointing out that it's possible.

It can be useful if shooting moving subjects in low light with certain lenses. I used it with the 120/2.8 for a couple of stage shows as that way I just had to focus and press the button when something worth capturing was happening on stage. f2.8 looked fine from the distance involved.

Yep, but a wide(ish) angle lens like a 35mm doesn't need an especially long hood, so it won't take up too much depth in the lens body when retracted. If you look at something like the Pentax-A 200mm f4 the lens hood is a pretty long construction to have to find space for.

You can also use Av mode, but the lens will be held at the largest aperture regardless of what you set with the aperture ring.

I find the K-m is about on the money with K lenses down to f11, but underexposes horribly at smaller apertures. You can of course meter at f8 or so then calculate shutter speed manually (as in increase exposure length by a stop for every stop down of aperture).

Ah ok, for some reason I thought it had a screw-in hood!

There's a thought, how about bringing back the pull-out metal hoods on telephoto lenses? Much easier than having an extra hood to fit after removing the lens cap.