Hello again Banjo, no the meter isn't easy to read in strong sunlight - probably the only failing I can think of with the MX. Not such a big deal here in the UK where some folks regard "strong sunlight" as little more than an urban myth...

I wear glasses and I find the viewfinder on the MX just fine

The Olympus Trips are great little cameras. Funnily enough, I've been doing some slide-copying experiments in the last 24 hours and the slides I've been using as tests were all taken with Trips (because of those razor-sharp Zuiko lenses) so I had one of them out yesterday for a play.

Having said that, an MX with a FA43 is still sharper - but not by as much as the price might suggest!

The MX does trump all others in the sheer pleasure-of-use stakes though.

John; you're probably right. I just thought that if I could make it work then I'd have a digital slide copier that was a lot quicker and easier to use than a dedicated scanner, whilst offering comparable quality for far less £££'s. But then I always was greedy...

Shim; let me know how you get on and you're right, I may as well get another lens anyway as I've bought the adapters now and it's not like I'll lose large amounts if I end up selling it on again.

I'd expect to pay about £50 for a nice one on eBay but I was impatient - that rather backfired...

Kris'll be taking me off his jammy buyers list!

Nope, you haven't misunderstood and I'm not sure I entirely understand the physics but casual observations made today seems to imply a slightly longer lens is the way to go.

Focal length changes *a lot* when focussing at those sorts of distances and to get the 35mm to focus it had to be virtually touching the slide (and even then wasn't quite in focus) so that was a non-starter. The 135mm I couldn't get far enough away from the slide without racking it back towards the camera, at which point it was focussing beyond the slide so that was no good. The 50mm's focussed perfectly but cropped the slide so I need a lens that can sit further back from the slide yet still be racked fairly well forward of the camera to retain the close focus.

The 75mm mark is a guess which is why I only want to pay Rokkor prices rather than Nikkor prices in case I'm completely wrong - it has been known!

If I buy a lens for £5 at a boot sale or auction I half expect it to be broken and I'm quite happy to take it apart and fix it. What annoyed me with this one was that I paid £49 for a lens described as "mint", was assured on the phone that it worked perfectly, and when it arrived the aperture ring would only move between f/1.7 and f/8 so the all-important "A" setting was unavailable!

The charitable part of me wants to believe that the fault "developed" while it was in the post, but the uncharitable side thinks that there's only two moving parts to check on a lens like this and someone wanted a sale...

As for letting anybody else use my Precious...

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought an A50/1.7 for my Dad on Tuesday from Ffordes - it turned up yesterday (quick delivery I'll give them that) and it had a broken aperture ring. I sent it back within the hour and asked for it to either be repaired or for my money to be refunded. Needless to say I haven't heard back yet...

If they can't fix it and nobody else has bought yours in the meantime then I'll have it in a heartbeat. I made the mistake of giving my Dad a Super-A body I picked up on Sunday - he's using my M50/1.7 at the moment but of course it doesn't have the A setting and he casually mentioned my FA43 on Monday so I need to distract him urgently!

Well between this thread and some Googling I've learnt quite a bit today

I think I'm leaning more and more towards an E-Rokkor. Four element design but seems to get glowing reviews from users and it's a *lot* cheaper than any of the six element stuff I've come across. If the focal length works and I get on with it OK I can always upgrade to something more exotic at a later date.

Just bought the M42-39 adapter you linked to and also a 25-39mm adapter so I can use the Componon. Now to sit back and wait for the postman...

Were these Neonons usually badged as Dursts? That's all that seems to come up when I search for Neonon (and they're not cheap either!).