I personally have vivitars.... 283 (3) and 285(1) 2800(1) and slaves to add to my ftz500 my af 080c ringflash.
I think adding more lights (studio or flash, or ANYTHING for that matter) is a better alternative than one super high powered unit.
more control, more dimension, and most importantly with digital:
I find it nescessary to reduce light output, as most strobes are too powerful.
(my "copier cam" cameras all bottom out at f8 ).
(f8 to f1.7) is really all I use for portraits,( slr or evf, or point and shoot).
I have a 4x4 foot softbox that I have to use small scrims to "shade" my subjects, and light my backdrops at the same time.
I think other people rightly pointed out that this fellow is using a less than ideal approach for the work he wants to do, but you answered his original question best, if he wants high power fast recycle, along with the blown out highlights, washed out foregrounds, sudden falloff to black and possibly angry, temporarily blinded competitors, that is.

why appologise? that was a valid answer and a damn good (retina frying) peice of equipment. every peice of equipment in our kits cannot be Pentax.

another tip is studio lights and radio slave.
set your lights up before hand (hire the event co-ordinaters grip if you don't have experience) wire everything up at the cieling and test and measure your lighting beforehand. the flash pops are'nt as intrusive if the lights are side by side with the venues' stage lighting, which are too bright to look straight at anyways. my advice is go bare bulb with a 3 light setup eg 1 - 1000 ws mono at one side of ring and two 500ws mono at the other side of the ring, which'll give you rounded main + fill from almost any angle.

ps don't use light stands...I prefer to think of tall frestanding poles as idiot magnates....no matter how visible, clearly marked or signed, some idiot will be irresistably drawn towards it...

hmmn....I'd, maybe...recommend...clozapine...and a nice huggie jacket....come on..put the camera down...come see what we've got for you in the quiet room....
javascript:emoticon('')
heh heh heh!

ps...she seems a little too wide, at the bottom end, for my taste

I get suspicious of Microsoft if my toilet doesn't flush....I'm sure somebody at the public works dept has a pc crashing...call me paranoid...but I blame Everything on Microsoft.

try this:
format yourcards in camera.
Erase your cards in camera.
don't use your computer for those functions, only do it in camera and see if that resolves your problems.
also are you switching formats? pef-jpeg?

My personal viewpoint on minolta is that they bet the farm on aps and lost.
minolta is not truly gone, just owned by sony....the factory, like the land of a conquered nation, is still there, just flying a different flag.
I wonder if still and video will one day merge and ALL slrs wil be obsolete...
can an interchangable lens, 8 mp hdd 100gig hd camcorder be that far off in the future? I'm constantly pushing my significant other to integrate more and more multimedia into her business. As the ability to combine dvd video, web, print, and music into one package is very apealing to consumers in our market area.

I have issues with future shop and based on personal experiance, never do business with them.....thier flyer is usefull when shopping with other vendors who will price match, such as Staples and London Drugs.
I have found my student card useful at the university of manitoba.
ie:
photoshop suite cs $399.00
Apple aperture $139.00
Macally 250gig firewire hds $119.00

going back to school is good!

visatek
http://www.vistek.ca/
and London Drugs
http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/en-US/StoreLocator.htm?Location=0&Province=0&City=0&Store=0
and our little local shop called "photocentral" in wpg

Even when they do consult, they don't always listen...
I had a couple complain that people in thier wedding shots, (candids -not the formals) looked squinty eyed and sweaty.
I'm thinking to myself "damn...I told you 6 months before the shoot, that 12 noon was the worst time of the day to plan an outdoor park wedding. you hired me to photograph what was there, and you choose to stick a bunch of people (most of the men in dark suits), out in the noon sun on a day where it was 34 degrees celcius in the shade, (there was no shade) and you had them facing into the sun. I didn't walk up to them and poke them in the eyes to ruin your pictures, and infact, the fact that you can see thier eyes, (high sync fill flash) is proof I did my job right. next time don't be so cheap and rent a tent (which I also advised)....

Good thing Gerri did all the actual talking.
thier formals, which were done in the shade wre fabulous, by the way.