I just got myself a Metz 58 AF-2, it seems up to the task and is very much more affordable here than the Pentax 540.
I'm happy, though not ecstatic with my Metz. A few things are more awkward than they should be, like adjusting power in manual mode.
I've been fairly happy with my (slightly older) 58AF-1, except it has just developed an issue with the motor zoom last week :-/ so I'm back to using the 540 for now.
However I do agree the settings are a little tedious. The 54MZ series were a bit nicer in that respect.
I'm seriously looking at one of those midwest photo lumopros as a manual backup to the Metz. If I'm using multiple strobes I'm not going to be shooting in TTL mode anyways.
For the price, I'm pretty happy with my Yongnuo YN560-iii flashes at like $70 each. There were numerous QC issues with the original YN560, but they seem to have pretty much sorted this out. Or maybe I've just been lucky.
Anyway, not only do they have built in RF receivers, but Yongnuo have recently announced they'll be releasing a trigger that allows group control with remote manual power setting on them.
- Peter -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.