killed my second Metz 58 AF-1

Got my Yongnuo YN560-II this morning.
First impressions:
Very well made. More solid than Metz (surprisingly).
Lots of manual power increments down to 128th.
Intuitive interface.
Came with soft case and integral stand pocket (nice idea)
Variable strobe function is a nice bonus
Two slave modes, one to ignore pre-flash, the other use single-flash manual mode.
Going to take it out on a macro shoot now, where its manual functions will be no handicap at all.
I can see me getting a couple more of these
More anon.

What are the changes from mk-1?

I have found the K-5 and Metz 58 AF-2 combination perfectly fine once I got used to it. The P-TTL light metering is not completely reliable as noted, but all it seems to need is a little bit of negative exposure correction (EV on the flash unit) for close targets, and a little bit of positive for distant targets. Generally no more than +/- 2/3. This is something I'm so used to I now do it pretty much without thinking about it.

Update:
I'm getting both Metz 58 flashes fixed. Tiny ingress of sea water totally wrote-off the second flash so they are sending recon item.
Main reason for fixing is to get that deliciously small and fast output on 256th for ballistic photography, and having two will double that output to 128th for the same duration.
It will also be really handy to have two identical auto/pttl flashes at weddings etc.
In the mean-time, I was so impressed by the Yongnuo YN560-II for off-camera use, I bought another.
I've also been using my Metz CL45-4 at non-critical events. It's a super-powerful beast and commands respect, but the auto mode is limited to a fairly narrow angle - often blowing out people in the foreground, so not a professional solution.

A bit late now, but I had the same problem with the Metz update until I turned the flash off during the install of the new firmware, found that out by accident, nothing in the help files, you'd think the software would detect it.

My K5 was totally unreliable too, with random over exposure, my K-01 was the same. The update (now in version 4) cured both. I've seen reports of people with genuine Pentax flash having the same problem with no chance of updating, is this true?

Hmm, that's interesting Chris.
The refurbished units will have the latest firmware, so hopefully they will work even better than before

It does say the flash should be switched off with the batteries removed on page 2 (Item 3 in the procedures) of this file Metz_mecablitz_FW_Update_GB_Windows_2010.pdf .

According to the specs, the YN-560 II supports M/Multi modes.


What are the multimodes?


regards
Bernard

Can set the flash to do multiple flashes such as 3 flashes every 1/60th can't check at the minute but I think you could go to 10 flashes and vary the interval quite widely.