[ThorSanchez]

The push on cap keeps coming off taking it in and out of my bag so I have ordered a pinch cap for it and the hood will probably live separately in my bag for the moments I need it.

Yes, I have noticed the same thing. I'm slightly afraid I'll lose it, but it is nice metal with a velvety interior so I'll probably stick with it unless I actually lose it.

[Des]

Does the hood do anything besides hold the lens cap and offer a bit of space to the front element? I'm trying to decide whether to keep it or put it in the cupboard and fit a pinch cap as I've done with the 21 and 40.

The push on cap keeps coming off taking it in and out of my bag so I have ordered a pinch cap for it and the hood will probably live separately in my bag for the moments I need it.

Yes, I have noticed the same thing. I'm slightly afraid I'll lose it, but it is nice metal with a velvety interior so I'll probably stick with it unless I actually lose it.

We've been over this before: DA20-40Ltd lens cap issue. - PentaxForums.com
I have stored away the original lens hood and cap. I used a generic pinch cap and a reversible hood. Ugly but functional.

[Jonathan Mac]

So I did much the same thing. I dithered and thought for a very long time. Didn't know if I wanted the 20-40, the 18-135, the 16-85, or maybe something else. I picked up a 21mm limited early last year to compliment the 15 and 40. But then for my trip to Germany and Austria I rented the 20-40mm, and although I didn't immediately fall in love it produced some very nice pictures and came in very handy on a wet day in Füssen.

When we got home I continued to ponder and think, and then Pentax announced the eventual release of the new 21mm WR FF lens. But it's about as big as the 20-40, is just 21mm, and is built for full frame. At almost the same moment I found a very good deal on a used 20-40mm from the Lens Authority and just jumped. This is in the middle of COVID quarantine, and I haven't had a ton of great subjects to shoot, but I'm happy with the lens. I'll still use the limited primes quite a lot, as they're smaller and I like their rendering. But I do like the 20-40. But in terms of image quality... if I shoot it at 21mm or 40mm I don't know that I can be sure which lens I used.

Buried somewhere in the EXIF data, in a field that no other camera manufacturer uses for the purpose, I think you'll find the lens name.

We've been over this before: DA20-40Ltd lens cap issue. - PentaxForums.com
I have stored away the original lens hood and cap. I used a generic pinch cap and a reversible hood. Ugly but functional.

I have used my DA Limited lenses for quite some years and have yet to lose the cap for any of them. However, the 15mm was bought used and the previous user had lost the cap by putting it away for safe-keeping and using a generic one. When he came to sell the lens he couldn't find it.

[ThorSanchez]

Buried somewhere in the EXIF data, in a field that no other camera manufacturer uses for the purpose, I think you'll find the lens name.

That has to be true because RawTherapee auto-recognizes the lenses and shows the full name. But if I drop the resulting jpg into an EXIF reader the lens is nowhere to be found. If I drop the original DNG into a tool that looks at the Maker Notes part of the EXIF it's there. Maybe I'm missing a setting, but RawTherapee doesn't look like it exports the Maker Notes.

[3by2]

My version of Lightroom doesn't show the lens in EXIF either, even though it has a profile for it. Raw Therapee does but as you say exporting it from Raw Therape to a TIFF or Jpg doesn't seem to add the name to the EXIF. So in Lightroom it's an unknown lens which is a slight irritation but this version (5.7) is starting to have a growing number of slight irritations. I did add an extension lens tagger but it's clumsy to use.

[normhead]

Another one of these threads? Really.

I bet if you send me every lens you're interested in and I ran tests images, you woulndn't even be able to tell the difference between one and the other.

So generically
Use zooms if you need more than one focal length but will have restricted ability for lens changes. (Poor atmospheric conditions, limited time for lens changes, exponentially more flexibility in focal length)
Use primes if you wanna smaller lens with a faster aperture.

The prime in this one is #4, the DA 35 2.4, the majority couldn't't even identify it as the prime. Pixel peeping it's image was preferred by only 14.29%, less than random.

My advice remains pretty much constant. Buy the zoom, unless you can specifically identify something about the prime that you have to have. . The prime advantages are faster aperture or less weight or for 14%, maybe you prefer the image quality, but you'd be in a pretty sizeable minority if that's the case, whether you realize it or not.

[mikesbike]

The DA20-40 is very good. Take the DA70 or FA77 for a terrific walkaround combo.

I do this a lot! A wonderful combo, then I also always include my little DA HD 15mm, which is so tiny it fits easily in the front zipper accessory pocket of my holster-style camera case! I choose either the DA 70 or FA77 depending on what the time of day might be (low light coming), the reach I might need, or edge-to-edge performance at wider apertures, while avoiding color fringing, and even smaller size. The IQ of this zoom lens is that good, along with its quiet, sure AF along with WR.

The 20-40mm LTD with the DA 55-300mm PLM would indeed offer amazing range with quality in a very compact kit. And again the tiny DA 15mm can still continue to be included!

Since getting the HD DA 20-40mm, I have to admit my DA 21mm and DA 40mm do a lot of sitting- only put to use when I need the most compact possible versatile prime lenses.

[3by2]

I think it's going to be my go to lens and the 20 and 40 will remain for times when I need something more compact. The 70 is a lens I really want to try and the 55-300 also. Previously my K5 wouldn't run the plm lens but my newly arrived KP will. The arrival of the KP pretty much completes a journey I've been on for the last 18 months which was to finally put together a complete camera kit which suits me. I've kinda taken a half arsed approach in the past not wanting to spend money and not really knowing if I did what I should spend it on.

The 20-40 also looks great on the Kp.