TV's aren't very good at reproducing colours (they have a reduced gamut)and have very poor resolution compared to a PC monitor. I've never yet found any TV (including £1000+ plasmas) that could show pictures from a camera with anything like the fidelity you get from viewing on a computer (or better still in print) so I don't think the best lead in the world would make one iota of difference.

The only thing you can do is wait a few years for TV technology to catch up I'm afraid...

That last one brought back painful memories of my one-and-only paintballing adventure - took weeks for the lumps to settle back down!

Good shots Clarky, but you're a braver man than I taking your equipment in there

Welcome to the forum

I don't have an SDM lens but from what I've read it seems they are more likely to slow down in cold temperatures.

Winter in Estonia probably isn't the best time to judge its performance, wait until Summer comes around again and see how it behaves then.

I concur with Peter's answers and add one further:

P-TTL is designed to not blow any highlights so if you're shooting a highly reflective surface (like a mirror) then it can severely under-expose. Because in auto mode the flash does the thinking (and it's not as sophisticated as the camera) it measures the reflected light according to a whole different set of rules; hence it's more likely to give the effect you actually want rather than the one the camera wants you to have.

The Pentax 360 has chocolate sprinkles; with their swivelling heads the Metz 58 and the Pentax 540 have Flakes in them too!

I've thought about it a few times but never got round to it - should pick up a spare body cap really and give it a go

1) Yes

2) You may not miss it at all. Some people have used "auto" flashes for years and feel more comfortable with it, others argue that it's less prone to under-expose than P-TTL. Personally though I tend to use either P-TTL or fully manual (unless it's on my MX when I find the auto mode quite useful). If you don't have an older camera then that last bit won't effect you either. In summary, I'd argue it isn't a "big" advantage but something that's quite nice to have nonetheless. The Metz flash is a bowl of ice cream with strawberry sauce, it's just missing the chocolate sprinkles...

Look on the bright side - at least back here there are no poisonous caterpillars for him to sniff at

That sounds like a plan - I'll try to shuffle things around so I get there around the same sort of time.

Ffordes (www.ffordes.com) have the Cosina badged version, Ex++ condition and boxed in Pentax fit for £99. Look under Pentax->A/F Lenses.