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adrianlondon -

Some time before the end of January I need to buy a decent camera. My course here finishes then,
and I plan on travelling around China for a few weeks before returning to London and replenishing
my bank account via a job.

I may well change my mind between now and then, but my current desire is the Pentax K10D (for
reasons I can go into if people care enough).

Anyone seen one in Beijing and know its price? I know I can go to Zhongguangcun and enter the
crazy world of laowai haggling, but I'd like to get a rough idea of the price (and availability!)
first. If anyone knows, of course.



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roddy -

If you do a search on D70s on here, you'll turn up a number of posts people have made before /
just after buying a DSLR. Obviously not the same model, but the general idea is the same. Few
links for price checking here.

Edit: Rayi aren't listing any Pentax （宾得) stuff, but Taobao have a few K10D sellers in
Beijing but from the look of it they're pre-orders rather than in stock.










adrianlondon -

Thanks for that, Roddy; I'll go through the links.

A quick glance seems to confirm my suspicions that the K10D is still too new to be listed;
although that could be because I don't really know how to search for it. Can someone confirm what
"Pentax" is in Mandarin ... is it 宾得?










okokla -

yes "Pentax" is "宾得",i know it will be saled in Zhongguangcun in the late December,price is
about 7500RMB. maybe you should go there http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/163/163254.shtml.

But in my opinion Nikon D80 is better.










roddy -

Might be worth bearing in mind that when it's just come onto the shelves your chances of discounts
are even lower than at any other time. Also If you're leaving almost immediately after purchase
you probably want to make sure your warranty will be valid back home.










okokla -

agree with you , roddy










adrianlondon -

That works out at £500 which, as is to be expected for a new camera, is the same as the cheapest
UK price. If I do end up buying a camera here, which is likely as I want a decent one for my trip
around China, I'll make sure I check the warantee/guarantee.

The D80 is a nice camera but the weather sealing of the K10D is a slight draw and the in-body
anti-shake thing is a big draw for me. Most of my photography is of interior architecture (such as
cathedrals, other old buildings etc.) and inside museums where flash and tripods are usually
forbidden. I want anti-shake on wide angle (prime, ideally) lenses and neither Nikon or Canon
appear to put anti-shake on anything but mid-range zooms. I know this whole anti-shake thing is
hotly debated, but I want it ;)










Shiela -

Hi Adrian,

See you made it to BNU, I ended up at Renda.

Anyway, back to dSLR. I was looking at them just before leaving UK for my RTW trip. I ended up
choosing the Minolta Dynax 5D dSLR, mainly because their film lenses can be used on a digital
body. However, it does have inbuilt anti-shake which can be turned off if desired. So far, my pics
have turned out pretty well - even managed to impress myself!

This would have been around GBP450 in London (May06) but managed to save roughly GBP50 in Hong
Kong. So if you're planning a trip to HK may be worth looking there. Might also have the Pentax
and will probably have more choice than Beijing.

However, if you're on a single entry F-visa you'll need to get another to enter China again.










Shiela -

Adrian,

P.S. The anti-shake on the Minolta is on the body - which can be bought separately - not the lens.
Also, if price is a factor Tamron and Sigma also do lenses for Minolta.










adrianlondon -

Thanks for the tips, Sheila. Yeah, I've been kidnapped on the F visa. I know I could apply for a
re-entry stamp, but I'm only here for the one semester.

My studies finish on 19th January. My visa (and my return flight validity!) run out on 1st March
or something. So that gives me a few weeks to travel around. I had grand plans of going to many
many places but the high cost of internal flights, plus the crazy train system here (especially
over CNY it's on 18th Feb 2007) mean I might focus on two or three key cities.

I could just use my crappy pocket camera and buy the dSLR when I return to London, but I'd like to
have it here, really. I emailed Pentax and asked about the warantee and they said it would be fine
so long as I had some proof-of-purchase, ie a receipt.

I don't have any film lenses (I owned a Canon EOS300 quite a few years ago, but sold it along with
the lenses) and would prefer digital (i.e. cropped sensor) lenses anyway, for th reduced
size/weight. I'd love a full frame sensor, eg the Canon 5D, but that thing is just too big and
heavy for me.












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