The setupexternalfigures seems to be broken. In the example below, the first \placefigure doesnt work, but the second with the entire path does.

I'm running the latest minimals via the GUI installer on winxp.

Best regards
Reimund Trost

Example:
% mptest.tex:
\starttext
\setupcolors [state=start]
\setupexternalfigures [directory={fig}]

\placefigure
	[top]
	[fig:three-point-setup]
	{This is the caption.}
	{\externalfigure[figures.1]}

\placefigure
	[top]
	[fig:three-point-setup]
	{This is the caption.}
	{\externalfigure[fig/figures.1]}


\stoptext




% fig/figures.mp:

beginfig(1)
	pickup pencircle scaled 5bp;
	draw (0,0) withcolor (1,0,0);
endfig;

end