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Hi all

Can anyone help me with this choice?

I need to pack light and the budget is low, but I want to extend my system into the telephoto range for wildlife/safari/Africa.

My current system is based around a Pentax K-3 ii with a Sigma 10-20 which is my go-to landscape combination.

I can either get a Sigma 100-300 quite cheaply to fit on the same body (about 1.5 Kg)

or 

(keeping the Pentax), get a Sony RX10 iii (Note: budget won't stretch to the mk iv at the moment) (about 1.2 Kg and potentially much more versatile)

I like to use fast flash which is an added bonus with the RX10 iii, as will the extra nominal reach.

What do you think? Do you think there will be an appreciable difference in IQ/focusing between the two setups?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

I don't know anything about the first rig but my wife owns the RX10 M3. It's a good camera with a lot of versatility. The one thing that was a negative for me was the battery life. If you go this route, take plenty of batteries

It has a significantly smaller sensor than your Pentax it's a 1" sensor 13.2 x 8.8 compared to your Pentax with 25.1 x 16.7mm. Image quality at higher ISO will be less than the APS-C but you can compensate to a certain extent by using wider apertures. At constant depth of field f8 on your Pentax is equivalent to f4.5 on a 1" sensor camera. It depends on your requirements really - if you are only ever looking at images on your computer you mostly won't notice a difference apart from pixel peeping at 100% - if you are printing bigger and pushing the ISO you probably will.

It is not Pentax based, but one of the lightest and best quality very light gear.
Sony a6600 APS-C (1.5 crop factor) camera with a 70-350 mm Sony lens.
The IQ is outstanding.

The RX-10M4 is great when you need really good AF, compact, good IQ and long focal lengths. If you buy used perhaps it can come in at your budget target?

I always take it backpacking when the Sony 200-600 and 100-400 are just way too big and heavy so I can get really long FL landscape images and wildlife photos.