I'm in a similar situation to the OP; I'll be spending the next year studying in China, near Shanghai.
Originally posted by Hannican I've settled on the K10 camera, for a variety of reasons (price, features, fact that it forces you to learn about photography w/out relying on 'scene' modes), but will I be able to get adapters and other components (lenses, accessories, filters, replacement batteries, etc, etc) while in China? Is Pentax well represented in Asia? Or should I purchase all of my gear before I leave to make sure that I've got everything I need?
I don't know about the availability of Pentax gear over there, but I'd get the gear first, just so that you have plenty of time to familiarise yourself with your camera.
Originally posted by Hannican And are there convenient ways to adapt the camera to Chinese power sources (read: can I easily, and cheaply, get something that lets me plug it's charger into a Chinese wall?). I'm hoping someone here has been there and can save me the time of scouring websites looking for compatibility solutions for Chinese wall sockets.
China's AC electricity is 220V, and the Pentax K10D charger takes 100V-240V input, so that shouldn't be a problem. You'd need a socket adaptor so that your plug can fit in the wall socket; or you should be able to find a figure of 8 power cord with the local plug that you can plug into the charger. I don't think running out of power would be a problem, especially if you've got the spare battery as well.
To clear things up, it goes: Wall Socket -> Power Cord (figure of 8 plug on this end) -> (figure of 8 socket on this end) D-BC50 Battery Charger
Originally posted by Hannican I have been looking around and think that the Sigma 10-20 mm lens and the Tamron 18-250 in combination will give me the coverage I'm looking for
I agree, that would be an excellent combination, and if I had the $$, I'd love to do that too.
However, my plan is to get the Tamron/Pentax 18-250mm and put that on my K10D + Battery Grip (i personally prefer having the grip on), and bring along either one, or both of my prime lenses.