I've an LX with intermittent board issues affecting metering. When it occurs (as I've learned over time) the meter is visibly affected, e.g. when pointed at static scene and the system misbehaves you can watch the metering change though the scene has not changed. Over time, because I know it will not be sorted by CLA (and my issue was attempted to be sorted by Eric Hendrickson at his shop on two separate visits over half a year's time about 4 years ago), I've learned that switching out of auto-mode and then back will sort of "jiggle the switch". It's still a useable camera and has yet to become worse over the past few years (in fact it does it less often, surprisingly) but I always have to be mindful of it. It will also, seldomly but on occasion, choose an incorrect shutter speed and "lock up" even while I'm in a manual speed setting, though the same "fix" brings it back to normal. I'd say this will happen around 2 or 3 times per roll on average, but if I don't notice and "correct" it I might shoot several frames with bad metering before I realize what's happening.
An MX simply doesn't have these issues and is the Pentax 35mm I use far more often.... but it also doesn't have same incredible handling as an LX. All this is to say, you're right that a CLA may not fix the issue, but until you're sure what the issue there's no way to know.
Originally posted by acoulter If I don't, what does everyone feel would be a good alternative? Small, light-ish weight SLR with accurate meter and ideally equipped with aperture priority would be my dream camera. All my lenses are manual focus but I could re-evaluate that.
(FWIW, based on your "dream camera" ... I fell in love with a Konica T4 (Autoreflex) a couple years ago based on that criteria, with the exception that it's shutter-priority, not aperture... but that was something which bothered me at first and now I've grown to prefer it.)