Advice please on Q10

My wife and I are going to South Africa for 3 weeks in March. She has not used a camera in years (last had a Kodak Instamatic about 20 years ago). We were in Worcester yesterday and went into the local LCE and were shown the Sony HX50 and the Pentax Q10 with the 5-15mm lens. I was quite impressed with the Q10 but have since looked at reviews of both and the Sony edges the Q10. It does have a bigger sensor with double the number of pixels.
I am just looking for advice on the Q10 (once a Pentax user, always a Pentax user!) as I can see the benefit of the K to Q adaptor and the ability to use some of my glass on the camera. Also there is a good deal on the Q10 at SRS which makes it about £40 cheaper.

I doubt that there are many on here that have much, if any, experience of using both of those. The Q10 is a system camera while the Sony has just its zoom lens so they aren't even similar.

Do they both do raw files? The Q10 does but I've no idea about the Sony.
Is the zoom lens on the Sony any good - some long zooms are quite a compromise optically but no idea about that on the Sony (this is Pentax User after all!) The Q10 lets you use a prime lens - the Sony will not.

I reckon you need to go with your gut feeling after trying both models - surely its a personal decision for your wife to make at the end of the day and choose whichever she will feel most comfortable with. The Sony is an all in one solution, the Q7 is like a mini DSLR system.

Agree with John, I don't know how many camera you handled, but as we're on Pentax user and you've brought a Sony compact into the equation I think you should at least take a look at the Pentax MX-1, comes in well under budget and produces superb results as can be seen on the forum.

Yes, the MX-1 is well worth consideration. It isn't a super zoom but its lens is good quality. The sensor is larger than the one in the Q10, in fact the same size as that on the new Q7 - have you considered one of those?