Why Pentax? Because the Rollei died, of course. But seriously … I started with a 6x6 Dacora Royal folder, and went through several SLRs to end with a Rollei SL35e. The Rollei died in the middle of the 1996 Farnborough Airshow (Auto-exposure contacts failed – not bad for 25 years) and I bought a cheap Cosina K-mount body and a M42 to K adapter so I could use the M42 stuff in my bag (already had an adaptor for the Rollei). Added another K-mount lens, replaced the Cosina with a Program-A (nice tool, shame about the fiddly controls) and added bodies and lenses. P3, MZ-M, MZ-50 (and that took me into autofocus). When my MZ-50 shots of a daughter’s wedding turned out better than the so-called Pro could deliver with his Hassle-something, I figured I knew where to go next. When the Nikon digital had problems, I opted for a K100Dsuper. The MZ-50 and P3 will stay, and the rest is being rationalised. Quite a simple story, really.

PM returned

I have an MX body.
The focussing screen is damaged (looks like someone tried to clean it with a handkerchief), the prism housing has a dent on the top (does not seem to have damaged anything critical) and the self-timer does not work.
I bought a lens and the body came with it!
Anyone who wants can have it for the postage cost (or collect from West Wiltshire).
Geoff

For what it is worth ...
I use a lot of Ni-MH in AA size. K100DS,a Panasonic, motion detector lamps, flashes, etc. All are in the 1200-1400 mAh range, and all are rated as 1.2 volt. When fully charged, they are all over 1.4 volts, and when the K100DS rejects them as too low, the voltage is always over 1.2V (the part-charge warning seems to come on at around 1300mV. The manual says that Lithium AAs are OK to use, but I have never needed to.
I do see the need for a small multi-meter though.
Geoff