So as my girlfriend and I were discussing our potential kit for vacation (so as to take it out photographing now and get used to it) I picked up my LX for the first time in a long time to show her where things were on it. It's been on loan, and then getting overhauled, and I've been shooting mostly spotmatics for fun.
I'd forgotten how nifty the LX is. It's smaller and lighter than I remembered, and yet feels very solid and well built. The finder is very bright, especially compared to the spotmatics. Compared to the K2 and Spot F I was fiddling with earlier in the day the shutter speed dial is much easier to manipulate. Ironically the result of my girlfriend fiddling with the LX may be that this time SHE is going to carry the LX on vacation and I am going to carry the KX that I just ordered, with a ZX-M as joint back-up. The K cameras are too big and heavy for her, and the M and A cameras we have access to are just too beat up and unreliable. Have any of the spotmatic users here had a split-image focusing screen put into their spotties by Camera Repair Service of PA, or by somebody else? I'm finding low-light photography with the dark focusing screens and microprism-only focus aids of the spotmatics to be a real pain, exacerbated by the relatively small maximum apertures of many of the Takumar lenses. A brighter screen and split-image would be welcome, and those Fujica ST801s are hard to find! DJE
