Hi friends, I have this ME-Super which I bought from Boz to compliment the LX as a "stealth" camera (compared to the LX it certainly is!), and as one which I can literarily bang around in any bag.
I would like the camera to be smaller and more streamlined, and easier to hold. I have therefore made few customizations to it and want to do few more, which I wanted to discuss first here. 1) removing of selftimer lever. It's just a nuisance as my fingers frequently set the timer just by gripping the camera. I capped the hole and glued the cap in place (but it can be removed if I need). Better solution would be a Leica style selftimer disk, which would be possible too with some metal tools, and maybe I will do it in future. 2) I want to remove the hotshoe, as it just catches on any clothing easily, making removing the camera from a pocket slower. It's all contact mounted, so no loose wires to cut. However, I will have to make a a square metal cap with holes to cover it. No problem. This camera will be loaded with 1600 film all the time, anyway, and on the rare occasion I will use flash I can use a bracket. 3) Making a grip like the LX grip. This would greatly improve the handling of the camera singlehandedly. I am thinking of making it of wood. Making a sort of bracket for the bottom of aluminium, ending in a screw secured to the wood, and the bracket screwed into tripod socket. The other end of the wood grip could be unsecured (like the grip on Winder ME/MEII is), or secured by running a screw trough the strap lugs hole (removing the old nut and strap lug). This is an operation I need some comments on. Of course I also considered just using a winder without batteries, but it's somewhat too big. If I get a broken winder ME, I might give it a thought. 4) changing focus screen. I would like to put there an LX screen for its better brightness and ease of focus. recalibrating the meter probably. I need more comments on this. The three screws accessible from the mirror box are for removing the screen in its frame, or are they springloaded screws for changing the screens position to calibrate focus? Is the ME-S's screen same "type" like the later interchangeable screens (that is, a combined fresnel/groundglass, probably "lasermatte" surface), or is it the older type consisting of several units (groundglass with or without fresnel, perhaps combined with condenser, and separate fresnel, like on earlier K bodies)? It's not clear to me from the PDF Mark Roberts put up on his service mans page. Thanks for any comments, insight, more suggestions for cusomizations, ... Upon finishing it more, I will put up a web page detailing it for other Pentax users out there :) Good light, Frantisek Vlcek
