Hi and welcome to the forum - we thrive on questions

While I agree with George that it's doubtful it'll ever be an "official" import over here, the joy of the Internet means I can get a deposit down at a Japanese store just as easily as a UK one

As you move the aperture ring on a working lens you'll feel a series of "clicks" as you go from one position to the next. The underside of the ring itself (the bit you don't see when the lens is all together) has a short serrated section - where this section lines up with the inner barrel there will be a tiny hole in which is sat a very small spring and a ball bearing (usually 1mm). The spring pushes the ball bearing into the back of the aperture ring's serrated edge and that's what causes it to "click" into position.

Getting this lined up when you but the lens back together is one of the fiddliest parts of the job - I usually find several attempts and lots of swearing is required...

I've never taken one of these lenses apart and I've never had the luxury of a diagram on those I have, but from general experience once you take the back off a lens any piece that's loose / out of place is usually quite obvious. I'd be tempted to follow the pictures in the link Tony posted and not to worry too much about the exploded view.

SRS do it for £189: Link

Not if it's the same finish you get on the silver Limiteds - mine seem to be pretty scratch-proof so far (touches wood)

Rather than spend a few minutes on each photo I tend to leave the vast majority exactly as shot (in RAW) and just concentrate on the odd one, on which I may spend several hours. The ratio is quite large, probably somewhere in the region of one shot in several hundred actually has time lavished on it in Photoshop.

I never did any darkroom work of my own but I watched my Dad as a kid and I've been an avid Photoshop enthusiast since version 3.0 (that's 15 years now - where's the time gone? )

Sometimes I'll go back to an old RAW file and see what I can make of it; for example this was a scrap shot:

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd37/hefty1969/IMGP0566.jpg[/IMG]

which I revisited for a competition here to make this:

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd37/hefty1969/ferraris.jpg[/IMG]

Before the competition it had sat untouched for nearly a year and now the finished version is a print.

You need to just find a system that suits you.

Gorgeous! Somebody wants me to spend some money!

Excellent videos!

I'm sure these folk could build you something: Camera Bellows

It does look like a crack - they're not particularly well protected under the top plate so if it's been dropped at some point..?

The prism's just a chunk of glass and glass can indeed crack! I've got a spare MX prism, perfect condition, already removed from a camera - PM me if you need it.