Nicely done, Pete;

And congratulations on the nice additional kit for your Spotmatics. Yes, it is amazing what you can do with just a little Ultra Violet light with an older Thorium element glass lens. Yes, my older Minolta ROKKOR lenses will do that also. Then again, now we need to screw on and off a Y2 filter when using black and white film, and before setting the lenses out into the sun, we had one built-in.

How is the Weston Master III light meter? I do like the older Selenium Cell light meters. No, they do not go down as far, usually ending at about EV 5 or so, while the battery powered CdS and Silicon cell light meters may go down to perhaps EV -5. But if we are hand holding the camera, the Selenium cell light meters are fine.

Good Morning Ralph : well, I got some very hurtful comments about my SP F story on Flickr - the bloke said I was 'Gloating' and should 'feel guilty' and 'should have PAID the Old Gent' when in fact he tried to GIVE IT AWAY FREE firstly to an old friend from Barking Photographic Society he plays Golf with and my friend told him he has given up all his 'Film' photography but knew of a bloke who would 'give it a Good Home' -- that was ME ! I gave the Old Gent 6 rolls of film and he was SO PLEASED when I got his little MINOX 35 GT working ( I have one -- also 'given') and helped him with his Olympus Trip -- then I am going this week to take some nice portraits of the couple with the Spotmatic F gear so their Son can have a good record of his parents before they 'go' .
Then only last night I had an e-mail reply to some photos I sent of my Philippine trip to the gent who gave me his 1996 PENTAX MZ-5 saying " I am SO PLEASED I gave you my PENTAX"
Regarding the Weston Master III --- I did some tests with the camera meter and my other Weston Master V meters -- the III is OK but needs an ASA adjustment to agree with other meters -- I have an older 'Invercone' attachment for it in a cupboard but I have to find it !

I'm on a very broad-based forum called deviantART, where a lot of the members are teenage kids who have known only d******l. Interestingly, I've found quite a few who are discovering analogue with cameras (including Spotmatics) which they have been given by relatives (e.g. "My granddad gave me his old camera"). These kids are squeaking with delight at the fun they can have with all this old but perfectly functional gear, and many of them also really appreciate the functionality and ergonomics of 35mm film SLRs.

I think some of the griping is pure envy. In one case, I admit, I was tempted to join that side of it myself - a girl was given a Leica M3 plus lenses, after it had been sitting unused in a carton for may years. I got the impression that her family had no idea of the quality or value of their camera; to them, it was just an old camera.

It seems that in many colleges these days, art and media students are still being taught with (rather than just "about") mechanical film SLRs. So there's hope for the new generation yet.