| Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: January, 2012 Location: Tokyo Posts: 2,678
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 16, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Rendering, bokeh, design, size, cost performance, WR | | Cons: | Aberrations wide open, focusing not the fastest | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-5 IIs, K-01, K-3 III
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At first I didn't see the point of a zoom lens with so little range, but after a while I started to think of it differently. Pentax doesn't make a prime around 24mm and I started to think of this as a 30mm, with room for adjustment. So I went ahead and bought it from Ricoh's own outlet store. I'm really glad I did, because this has become by far my most used lens.
I like using primes for their size and image quality, and have quite a few of the SMC Limited series. Even so, the lens changes become frustrating when traveling. This lens provides prime-like quality, along with some of the convenience of a zoom in a very light package. Recently my favored travel kit is this lens for 70-80% of shots, the 15mm Limited for the wide end and the 77mm for telephoto.
The size of this lens is just right on an APS-C camera. The detailing on the metal barrel feels really nice and sets it apart from the rubber feeling of other lenses. The hood doesn't seem to provide much protection, but it has the advantage that the lens is ready to shoot as soon as you pull the cap off - very quick to start shooting.
This lens produces really nice image quality. The colour is good and the bokeh is pleasant, even though a lens with these specs is never going to be the choice for extreme subject isolation. This lens duplicates the range of my DA 21 Limited FA 35mm and DA 40 Limited. It seems to be up to the level of the 21mm, but I do feel the 35mm and 40mm lenses give greater sharpness at their respective focal lengths.
The weakness of this lens is fringing at wide aperture with strong contrasts. It is especially noticeable in nighttime city scenes. I'm not sure how obvious it will be at this resolution, but in this image below (30mm, f4 with a K-5 IIs), there is quite a lot of color fringing around the street lamps and office windows.
Overall, this lens is highly recommended, and importantly can be used to fill a gap in Pentax's prime line-up. Here are some more images taken with this lens and a K-3 III.
 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2023 Posts: 1
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 28, 2023 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: KP K10D
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Very good lens for me, its small and very good contrast, sharpness is very good. Lens is product off metall and glass no plastic it is amaizing for this these days. And it is very small !
 IMGP3623 by Łukasz Karzełek, on Flickr
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2015 Location: Toronto Posts: 24 | | Review Date: January 1, 2023 | Not Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 5 |
| Pros: | Sharpness | | Cons: | Build quality | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 5
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K3 III
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Purchased lens directly from Ricoh as a reconditioned lens. I would not do that again as a year and a half later I have to see how much the sticking barrels is going to cost to fix.
This lens has been babied since I received it and it is now broken. Other than the poorly designed lens cap, this lens has performed well.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2012 Posts: 506
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 23, 2022 | Recommended
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | New or Used: New
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Hard to consider this a "good" lens when the reviewer lists the following opinions:
Poor corner sharpness, especially at 40mm
Low contrast wide-open at 40mm
Sub-par center sharpness at 40mm
Moderate vignetting if left uncorrected
Small hood makes it prone to flare
No filter threads on hood, unusual 55mm diameter
Expensive ($999)
Read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/hd-pentax-da-20-40mm-limited/conclusion.html#ixzz7iVRdG7T9 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2016 Posts: 16
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 2, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $496.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Image Quality, Quiet, Light Weight, Build Quality, Rendering, Weather Sealing | | Cons: | None from my use. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K3
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This is my first Limited Lens for my K3. The build quality is top tier. You can feel the quality of the lens straight out of the box. My experience using the lens has been nothing but pleasurable. It focuses smoothly and quietly. The manual focus is dampened and has a quality feel to it. The image quality I've experienced is everything I hoped for. Color and contrast is like that of my Mamiya medium format film camera lenses. What "negatives" others may have had with this lens I was well aware of before I purchased mine. The lens is exceptional and has a handmade feel to it. I will purchase additional Limited Lenses in the near future.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,202
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 3, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $240.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Quite small, nice build quality, useful focal range, great image quality | | Cons: | Slow focus, focus accuracy, max aperture not super fast | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-3
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This lens is taking more time than usual for me to really reach a conclusion and that's because it's a bit of an oddball with many things being neither here nor there - the focal range is short but useful, the maximum aperture is OK but not great, the focus is quiet but slow and not always accurate (at least my copy).
I have wanted this lens since it first came out as I have all the DA Limited primes and I love using them. A WR zoom that covers the most useful focal range with a decently fast max aperture and the feel and IQ of a Limited lens sounds great and I bought a used copy even though I already own the 16-85mm as a high quality WR option.
Image quality
Image quality is very good indeed. The lens is sharp wide open at all focal lengths, colour and contrast are typical DA Limited, flare is minimal and I haven't noticed any distortion. Though this lens isn't fast enough to be a real bokeh monster, the out-of-focus rendering is nice, especially wide open at 40mm.
Focal length
This is a short zoom that doesn't go as wide or long as even a kit lens and yet it covers focal lengths that are good for probably 90% of what I want to do. In practice I've found in the past that the DA 21mm is wide enough for most things so 20mm should be fine, and it is, but you'll probably want to have a wider option for when it's needed.
Aperture
f/2.8-4 is not particularly fast, especially at the long end and I can't help but feel that for the price and size it should really be a constant f/2.8 or even f/2.8-3.5. At 40mm and f/4 it's still possible to isolate close subjects and the other image quality factors still allow a nice 3D feel despite the modest aperture.
Size, build and handling
The build quality is typical of the DA Limiteds in that everything feels nice but it's also lightweight. The zoom ring is lovely and smooth. In fact it feels light enough to give the impression that a large proportion of it is empty space and the lens could probably be made more compact. The lens is pleasurable to use, more so than probably any other zoom I've tried, which is what I'd hoped for in a Limited.
Focusing
The focusing motor is nice and quiet but a little slow. With no fine-tuning my copy focuses perfectly at 20mm but is a bit off at 40mm and with this being a zoom, fine-tuning becomes a question of finding a setting that satisfies at both ends of the range, which is not easy. So far a change to -7 improves the results at 40mm while apparently leaving the 20mm untouched, which seems strange. I still need to play a little more with this though as it's not perfect at 40mm. Other people report that their copies are fine with no fine-tuning needed.
Summary
In summary, this is an excellent lens for walk-about use but many of it's limitations mean that there's almost always something better in terms of range or speed and at least equal in image quality. So what sets this lens apart? Why should you buy it? Well, I suppose it brings together a number of factors that you won't find elsewhere all together in a package that's this small and light. There's nothing that offers this image quality, range, speed, Limited build and pleasure of use all together in one package. However, as soon as you're willing to compromise on any one factor (size, weight, speed, IQ etc) there is immediately something that's better. That means that this lens is the best for what it is, but that niche is very narrow. In my case I'll keep it because there's no zoom this size and weight that I can enjoy using, and get such good results from, as much as a DA Limited. That makes it a great walk-around lens where there's no pressure to need anything wider, longer or faster, but if I do need to go outside of this lens's limitations then I'd take something else instead.
In the end I sold my copy but I could be tempted to get another in the future if I can find one that focuses properly at both ends of the focal range.
Baby feet by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Madrid by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Berries by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Lost in the sand by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Gijon by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Posts and rope by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Plastered by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
2021-07-29_01-26-12 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2022 Posts: 2
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 18, 2022 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness across the frame, fixed lens hood, exelent image quality | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K3 iii
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Direkt comparission with Da 16-85, HD 21 limited and HD 40 limited, the 20-40 winns in sharpness and overal rendering.
The 20-40 is extrem resistand against flare!
It outperforms my 21 limited and 40 limited.
Canīt understand the in- depth review....my copy is sharp from corner to corner 20mm and 40mm.
At f5.6 everything is better than my 21mm and 40mm limited
Bokeh is great.
all in all same league as my 50-135
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: June, 2017 Location: 3City agglomeration Posts: 1,829
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 18, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $973.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Feel, build quality, image quality | | Cons: | lens cap, short focus throw | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K-3 Mk III
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When I am using this lens I really feel as if I have pack of primes with me. I rarely use it like a zoom, just set up the focal length I feel at the moment and zoom with my feet. I think Pentax nailed this lens as Limited and being a zoom does not make it any less Limited then other Ltds. From all lenses I used till this time this one feels closest to old style manual lenses - both in look as in feel when operating.
Image quality is superb. I am not a pixel peeper so I will not say anything about aberrations and such - never noticed it on print or on screen. Frankly I don't care even if it sound not really photographic. There is no problem with using this lens in full sun or with artificial lightning shining from any side. Lens just delivers. It may be a walkaround lens for those not requiring long zoom range but still wanting something more elastic then prime. But it also works as "serious" lens for photographic projects etc. It is nicely paired with 15mm Ltd and I think with 70mm would make a perfect triplet.
Build quality leave almost nothing to be desired. It feels solid and sturdy, all lettering are clear, rings are easy to operate, but leave nice tactile feedback.
Cons? Two: for manual focus the focus ring throw is a bit too short. I would prefer something longer, but well, it is modern lens build with AF in mind. Second issue I have with it is lens cap. It is push on with material inside and after few months of use it already feels not as tight fitting as on beginning.
All in all - great lens, no regrets in getting it.
Here are some image samples:
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2021 Posts: 124
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 2, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $497.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, Build, Motor is silent, Weather resistance | | Cons: | not fast enough after 22mm | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: KP
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A perfect walkaround lens on KP. The sharpness is impressive, even better than DA21 on the wide end. An all-in-one alternative to DA21 DA35 DA40 plus weather resistance and silent DC motor.
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2016 Posts: 20
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 6, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Full Frame coverage better than expected, Center sharpness equals best primes | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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Just purchased this lens used, expecting to use it as an APS-C travel walk around and to replace primes on long hikes. The very first thing I did after unboxing was mount it on my K-1 to check full-frame coverage. Wow, was I ever surprised! Even at 20mm, there is a usable image (corners are black), and by 24mm, the corners are filled in with only mild vignetting! At 20mm, it's possible to crop a 2.5:1 panorama. The lens is very sharp, as sharp in the center as my FA 35mm f/2 AL, which is one of my sharpest lenses.
Given that the full frame coverage of this lens isn't often discussed, I thought I'd share a couple of sample photos (shot a few minutes after unboxing!). These are three exposure HDR images shot at f/8 (-2/0/+2) processed with Photomatix Pro - basically using the same process I would use for architectural photos (to assess how the lens would actually perform in my intended use). I think the full frame coverage is truly impressive, and is an important aspect for anyone who owns a K-1:
Full-frame image at 20mm - obviously vignetted, but also usable for cropped panorama
Full-frame image at 25mm, small amount of vignetting, correctable in post processing (Note that this amount of vignetting is less than many Sony 'Full Frame' lenses!):
Overall, I'm very impressed with the lens - basically flawless on APS-C, but maybe more importantly it also offers 'unadvertised' excellent performance on full frame.
Edit: It turns out that vignetting comes back at around 35mm when zooming, so the useful range on full frame with minimal vignetting is around 23mm-33mm. Still, once above 30mm, you're back to using the lens as intended, i.e. 20mm in APS-C crop mode. So on the K1, I will use as an APS-C crop 20-40mm lens (30-60mm effective), but switch to full frame to extend the usable wide angle range to between 23-30mm, and even down to 20mm for cropped panorama shots.
| | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2019 Posts: 7
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 1, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $497.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Build Quality, Color Render, Compact, WR | | Cons: | Curve of Field, Little Bit Soft Corner | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: KP
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Zoom range is narrow but weight is light and compact,and you'd like to take it outside for travel!
Color rendering is so beautiful, contrasty, and satruate.
Good for Travel, Street Snapshot, and Living style photo.
The Build Quality is awesome, all metal barrel just like the takumar lenses.
Trust me, it's a artcraft when you compare with plastic lens.
But the curve of field made the corner so soft, it is weak point, but just pay more attention for focus! It's fine!
Anyway, DA 20-40/2.8-4 Limited is wonderful lens, and I use it as my stardard zoom lens!
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2012 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Posts: 102
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 29, 2020 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-3
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The reviews and the evaluation of this new HD Pentax Limited zoom lens have been very different - some very negative and some very positive. I think that PentaxForums' test and evaluation of the lens is unfair with regard to sharpness (sample variation?). As soon as I received the lens I made some test footage, and I was admittedly a little confused about the results, but after some time I noticed an issue with back focus. It was subsequently adjusted to Back Focus + 5. Since then the results have been excellent. Back Focus + 5 was applied on two camera bodies (both K-3) with the same excellent result. The lens is sharp throughout the entire zoom range from 20 mm to 40 mm. I haven't noticed any decrease in picture quality in the long end of the zoom range. The color rendition is warm and very appealing - it can be compared with the DA *16-50 mm 2.8. The external parts of the lens are made of metal. I can highly recommend the lens. The reviews that have been negative may have forgotten that the lens is only one parameter of several in the process: photographer + camera/sensor + lens + image processing software + the photographer's ability to get all the qualities above. Lens quality is obviously very important - ultimately decisive, but so too the photographer's ability or skills. Thank you Ricoh/Pentax for this wonderful lens. It has lifted the pleasure of photography up to a higher level!
| | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2020 Posts: 4
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 10, 2020 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | A stack of primes | | Cons: | A constant aperture would have been nice... | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
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Hi Awesome Peeps
I am no pro here but I felt compelled to give my insights on this wonderful lens from a hobbyist's point of view.
Come to think of it for the value one gets for this lens it's like having the DA 21mm 35mm and 40mm Limited rolled into one. It's a bit faster than the DA 21mm at that focal. Slower than the DA 35mm and 40mm. One gets WR though in one stack of primes. Center sharpness is outstanding for a zoom through out its entire focal range. Stopping down to 6.3 onwards gives very good corner to corner sharpness. The nice bokeh it gives is a wonderful bonus. I find the colors lack a bit of warmth though at times but overall I am one happy boy when I shoot this lens.
I could not afford getting one but was able to swap some of my lenses for this. From a hobbyist's point of view this is one highly recommendable lens.
I've posted some shots. These won't win any awards but I just wanted to show how this lens renders. Cheers!!! 
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2020 Posts: 130
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 12, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $528.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | good build, appearance; light weight; compact size; optics | | Cons: | lens cap and thin hood; no aperture ring; manual focus only on my K10D without firmware update; not designed for FF cameras | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 7
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K10D, K-3 II
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Great little zoom lens, covering a good range for me. I wish they made this for FF cameras, to go with my forthcoming K-1 and my old LX cameras. It autofocuses well on my K-3 II camera, but I discovered after I bought the lens new that it won't autofocus with my K10D; this is only a minor problem to me because I like to manual focus. [I see on the "Notes" at the top of this review page that there is "No autofocus on older bodies (*istD series, K100D, K110D, and film)", and I presume this list includes the K10D, so I have only myself to blame for not researching enough. I just didn't consider the possibility that this lens would not autofocus with my K10D because my DA 12-24mm f/4 lens autofocuses well with it; my K10D works quite well, thank you. [After I posted this initially, three readers have pointed out that I need to update my K10D firmware through the Ricoh website, and then I should have autofocus ability with this lens -- good to know.]
The lens cap is maddening to use, as is the thin lens hood. The cap takes a good pull to take off, and I wonder what thousands of such pulls can possibly do to the lens zoom structural elements over time. Also, the lens cap only fits over the lens hood, so you have to have the lens hood on to have the lens cap on. There aren't many good lens caps out there, and I can imagine designers/engineers going crazy trying to develop what one would think would be a simple item to be practical and easy in use.
The lens hood has to be removed to put on a filter, and this is a huge problem because the hood is placed then on top of the filter threads, which means you turn the lens hood with the filter and can only turn it counterclockwise (as seen from the viewfinder) because turning it clockwise will loosen the hood and not give good turning motion on the filter. I also have difficulty with filters sitting too tight on the lens, making them very hard to remove. The screwing in of the lens hood onto my polarizing filter definitely has the effect of tightening the filter onto the lens, making it hard to pull off. I've played with this quite a bit and am convinced I'm doing nothing wrong. Just bad design for filters.
I haven't really looked at bokeh, so didn't rate it. The lens' optical sharpness seems very good, and the aberrations seem very slight for a zoom lens encompassing these focal lengths (I'm very impressed at 40mm, and at 20mm the distortion is minimal with not much vignetting). I don't see color problems. I used a resolution chart to test the lens (with K10D at ISO 100 in direct sunlight) for sharpness and distortion at 20, 30, and 40 mm, and at f/2.8, f/3.5, and f/4.0 wide open (respectively), up to f/22, and the sharpness and lack of distortion is excellent -- even at 20mm. The sharpness improves at f/8 over wide open, but the wide-open sharpness is good for most purposes. The narrow focal-length zoom ring does its job, turning about 60 degrees to the left (counter-clockwise, as seen from behind the camera) from 40 to 20 mm; good design, with no possibility of "zoom creep" when pointing up or down. The filter does not rotate when the lens is focused or zoomed. The thin manual focusing ring turns about 90 degrees from infinity (also counter-clockwise as viewed from behind the camera) to closest focus, and it's not as good as typical manual focusing rings on older (pre-F-series) Pentax lenses, but it's adequate.
For me, the lens is over-priced (my listed price above includes sales tax, as bought from B&H with free shipping). But in terms of the optical quality, it seems impressive indeed, and worthy of being in the Limited family. I will keep it and probably use it a lot on my K-3 II cameras (though in practice, it has not come close to replacing my DA 12-24mm lens as my standard walkaround lens on my APS-C cameras, as I thought it might when I ordered it).
Below are photos showing the lens on my camera:
 | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2018 Location: Tokyo Posts: 10
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 13, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $420.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: KP
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The lens you can attach to your camera all day and take quality images. Sometimes wants some wider f stop but for the size I cannot complain.
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