Stan, Frank, and Boris, thanks for the welcome. I also appreciate your encouragement about posting pictures, or "Art" as Frank put it. Maybe I'll see who scans in negatives here in Duluth -- that aspect of photography is completely new to me and about all I now know is that it can be done. I don't know how one crops a digital image or anything, but perhaps my local camera store can fill me in on that.
I read the recent critiques re the MX with interest. I can believe that the MX is harder to fix than the Spotmatic, and perhaps the Spotmatic is more robust, but (knock on wood) my MX bodies are doing fine thus far. Thanks again, Aaron