I really dislike mucking around inside anything too, due to a large dose of utter cack-handedness, but I have changed focus screens before with no problems (although admittedly on my LX but the principle is the same).

K.

I rest my case (and am equally in need of therapy.)

Were you using Auto white balance? If so, how did the white balance value change between shots?

I have found auto-white balance strangely inconsistent with older glass but I am surprised that it has changed just by moving the aperture ring off A.

As to exposure, I'll assume you have the "allow use of aperture ring" set to on and are using manual exposure mode. Pre-A lenses cause weird metering. They are often OK wide-open, but get progressively worse towards the middle of the range then better again toward the other extreme. It also varies between lenses. The Vivitar 28mm close focus I have is consistently two stops over exposed, for example, whereas the 100mm f/2.8 starts out OK but gets worse in the middle range (where one would normally use the lens if the light is good). You just learn to use the histogram preview function consistently!

K.

Well it would temporarily solve your current dilemma but may be the beginning of LBA...

Also check to see if the light seals around the film door have turned to sticky black goo or not.

If you are planning to shoot slide film, exposure accuracy is vital as I am sure you know, so a good service might be worth the money.

K.

For mere mortals who cannot handhold long lenses without terrible camera shake lugging a tripod around helps a great deal. I also take my hat off to Mike! I take my tripod on cross country walks, up hills, down dales, packed in my luggage on the plane and (sometimes) around town too particularly if I am planning to take architectural photographs (much easier to get everything level with a tripod). I bought my first tripod a few weeks after my first camera (that one travelled the world with me for over ten years before it died in a fall from a luggage rack on a dodgy Romanian bus) and I now have four in various sizes and flavours.

Using a good telephoto would be better than a crop, but I guess cropping a photo taken with a good shorter length lens would be better than using a poor quality longer lens. It also depends on how big you intend to print your photos.

Best wishes, Kris.

Contrary to some here, I find the macro facility of the Tamron really rather nice to have even if it is "only" 1:2, and I find the fact that it is available at 180-300mm very useful (failing my finding a Pentax 200mm macro at a car boot sale for fiver...). Having said that, if I had the Pentax 55-300mm lens as well I would do as others suggest and sell both the other lenses and put the cash towards a longer macro lens. As nice as my Sigma 50mm macro is, I would miss the "almost" macro of the Tamron.

Best wishes, K.

Harrow Technical for a camera of this vintage. Johnson's aren't likely to deal with classic cameras.

I have used Robin at Harrow on many occasions and he does an excellent job. Others also recommend Asahi Photo but I haven't used them.

The MX is lovely. I was using mine in NYC on Saturday loaded with 400ASA slide film and fitted with my SMC-M 100mm/f2.8.

Best wishes, Kris.

I hope you do not mind (I'll delete it on request) but here is my take on your second photo. Note, as always, this is an edit of your low res jpeg so working from the original file would be better.

Best wishes, Kris.

I guess there is no PF as it isn't a very high contrast shot. As I have said before, for a 40 quid lens I am not complaining!

K.