I like the Staedtler yellow and blacks too - they are like the BIC Crystal of pencils; low tech, but work incredibly well. My hate is cheap supermarket 10-for-a-quid type pencils, that don't sharpen properly and always seem to have leads that are broken into 15mm long sections rather than being one continuous piece.
I know some people with recoil with horror at not using something made of wood that necessitates carrying sharp implements to keep in working order, but my everyday pencil for work is a 0.5mm mechanical pencil (Parker Sonnet Cisele).
I love both the Cisele looks (my main fountain pen is a 1960s vintage Parker 75 Cisele) and nice tactile grip the etched squares give; the thickness is just right for me too, slim pens and mechanical pencils just don't feel comfortable when I use them for extended periods.
I have a soft spot for the classic black Pentels (205?) that I used to use, but they do bite when you put them in a pocket due to the non-retractible sleeve.