Sorry again... I botched the terminoligy in my last post! The 'Russian' lenses that I tried are actually 'preset lenses.'
I found this after posting: http://www.aohc.it/tak00e.htm ... and it brought back some of the things that I used to understand.
Rgrds,
Owen

I have another question about the meter in this Spotmatic F. I've tried a couple of 'Russian' lenses, on the camera body, that do not have any metering pins or arms and the meter is definitely not operational with them... even with the cameras stop down lever set in the 'up' position for 'stop down lens' metering. For this camera model, does the usage of the term 'stop down lenses' (in the manual) refer solely to earlier non-automatic Pentax lenses?. I ask because when the stop down lever is activated (up position) the bar in the bottom of the cameras mirror box extends, like it wants to make contact with a 'lens-pin.' Or does 'stop down lenses', as per the manual, mean any of the lenses that we generically refer to as stop down lenses?... like the lenses having two rings (one for setting the desired aperture and the other for opening the aperture full wide to focus... then move to the desired aperature afterwards). In short... should the Spotmatic F be metering with the 'Russian' stop down lenses? Sorry for the confusion... it's been a few years since I've used my old Spotmatics and I do not remember much if anything about their use. If someone can set me right again, I'd really appreciate the help.
Regards,
Owen

Thank you for all of this great information, Kim! The 'interslice-kits' look like a 'must have', to me. I really do appreciate you taking your time to share all of this with me!
Many thanks,
Owen

Hi Kim,
Thank you for everything that you wrote! This is my very first 'F' model Spotmatic (I've owned many of the earlier Spotmatic models) and thanks to you I now understand what the user's manual was saying by 'remove lens cap and the meter is on'. I'm waiting to hear if your meter behaves like mine, with the lens off. I've played with the body a bit more and when I make it really dark, with my hand in front of the lens opening, I can see the meter fluctuate... so I've nearly convinced myself that it is working normally. It would be great to hear your findings though before I begin buying auto-lenses for this body. Yes indeed, I'd very much be grateful to know of a reputable source of repair/cla's here in the US or Canada (North America.)
Thank you and Regards,
Owen

Sorry... I wasn't logged in when I posted!

Owen