Pentax makes some of the most magical lenses out there. Of those, the Pentax 20-40mm Limited stands at the pinnacle of coolness.

The Pentax Limited line of lenses is one of the most interesting lens lineups in photography. These lenses started being produced in the film days and remained coveted amongst Pentaxians in the know through to current times. The Pentax 20-40mm Limited, however, was the first and only zoom lens to bear that badge. Does it deserve it? Let’s find out.

The good:

• Wonderful build quality that makes you want to use it
• Great image quality
• Images from the lens have character and “3D pop”
• Sexy, film-era look and feel to the lens design
• Compact and lightweight

The less good:

• Some people won’t like the odd zoom range
• Variable aperture (presumably to stay small and light)
• Probably less practical than the DA* 16-50mm

Pentax-DA 20-40mm f/2.8-4 Limited DC WR – TL;DR

The Pentax 20-40mm Limited lens is awesome. Yes, I’m a bit of a Pentax fanboy, but hear me out. For starters, just look at it! It’s gorgeous. That design carries over into a fantastic build quality. It’s weather sealed, the scalloped metal zoom ring feels great, and the manual focus ring is nice. With its metal build, it feels great in the hand.

Then, moving to image quality it’s more of the same. The way Pentax Limited lenses render images is just special. It’s hard to put into words why, but there must be a magical pixie who sprinkles magical dust into them at the factory. In the more technical realm, there’s a tiny bit of corner sharpness falloff wide open, a negligible amount of barrel distortion at 20mm, and that’s about it for the negatives.

On the positive side, this lens is sharp. It’s great in the center wide open and great everywhere once you stop it down. The bokeh quality is excellent in my opinion. Plus, it’s actually pretty good for close-up work, making getting said bokeh pretty easy. In short, it’s a cool lens and I love it.

Pentax-DA 20-40mm f/2.8-4 Limited DC WR – Does it photo?

I’ve had the Pentax 20-40mm f/2.8-4 Limited lens for almost a year now. I’ve put it through the paces on my Pentax K-70 in a variety of situations. It’s been on mountain bike rides with me, hiked to waterfalls, done a lot of close-up flower work, and more. I’ve been quite pleased with the lens. It’s sharp with good contrast, a nice “3D pop”, great bokeh, and that Pentax Limited magic rendering.

Autofocus

When paired with the K-70, judging the autofocus of the lens is a little tough. It takes some technique to be super accurate with the K-70 and any lens, so I’m speaking from that experience in this section.

That said, the Pentax 20-40mm Limited performs quite well in the AF department. The DC autofocus motor is fairly quiet and fast. However, watch your fingers while it’s focusing. The focus ring does turn during autofocus and if you aren’t paying attention you can fumble the focus ring.

The lens features Pentax’s “Quick Shift” focus feature, meaning you can take over and manually focus with it without fiddling with switches or menus. That feature does come in handy from time to time on the K-70, but I would sure love to try this lens out on a new K3III!

Bokeh

When it comes to bokeh, the Pentax 20-40mm Limited really delivers. It has a look I’ve come to think of as “Modern Vintage.” Out-of-focus backgrounds with this lens have a modern, pleasing creaminess to them. However, they still have a great character like you would typically see with a vintage lens.

Whether the bokeh elements are foreground or background, the Pentax 20-40mm Ltd. always delivers. I think this special “modern vintage” bokeh is one of the things that makes Pentax Limited lenses so special. As always though, bokeh can be quite subjective, so make sure to check out the photos!

Optical Imperfections – Flare, color fringing, etc.

When it comes to optical imperfections with the Pentax 20-40mm Limited, there isn’t much to say. The Pentax HD coatings do their job exceptionally well. There’s practically no flaring to speak of. Ghosting is well controlled and there’s little to no CA or color fringing to be seen with this lens.

As a side note, the Pentax 20-40mm Limited can produce some decent sun stars. The downside is that they don’t start looking good until f/16 and they get to be the best closer to f/22. Not only does that lead to slow shutter speeds, but also diffraction starts to soften the image noticeably above f/11.

Sharpness, Contrast, and Color

There’s more good news here for the Pentax 20-40mm Limited lens. The only issue the lens has is slight corner softness when using its widest aperture. Stop down even a little, and that clears up delivering corner-to-corner sharpness. That said, even wide open, the lens is quite sharp in the center.

Contrast and micro-contrast with the Pentax 20-40mm Limited are also great. The images from this lens are just punchy enough and really come to life with that mythical “3D pop” we love to see but have difficulty quantifying.

As for color rendition, the 20-40mm Ltd does a great job here as well. It maintains a neutral and realistic color palette and makes editing raws or using the jpegs easy. It’s worth noting here that all of the images in this review were taken in raw and processed using DXO Photolab.

Pentax-DA 20-40mm f/2.8-4 Limited DC WR – Touch Test

This is perhaps the area where the Pentax 20-40mm Limited shines above its more conventional DA* 16-50mm counterpart. While the DA* is a well-built lens, it definitely lacks the panache of the Limited series. The 20-40mm looks ultra classy and has a style that can’t be matched.

In the hand, the DA 20-40mm Limited feels like a million bucks. It’s one of those rare modern lenses that just begs to be taken out on a photo walk. The scalloped metal zoom ring is damped perfectly and offers great a purchase on the lens. The focus ring could be a little more heavily damped, but considering it is a modern AF lens, it feels really nice and has a good throw.

Control-wise, that’s about all this lens has on it. There’s no aperture ring. There’s no in-lens stabilization since all modern Pentax cameras have IBIS. It’s the same story for an AF/MF switch, as the quick shift function and switches on Pentax camera bodies make that unnecessary. Ergonomically, there isn’t much to complain about here.

Build Quality

As the first Limited-series lens to feature WR (weather resistance), the Pentax 20-40mm Limited is built like a tank. It’s a solid metal construction overall, without a huge reliance on plastic parts. It comes with a small screw-on metallic lens hood and a felt-lined metal lens cap. Everything about the lens says high build quality.

Pentax-DA 20-40mm f/2.8-4 Limited DC WR – A uniquely great zoom lens

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a pretty big fan of this lens. It’s something different and interesting in a world where every camera maker has their own version of the same lenses and focal lengths. The best part about the Pentax 20-40mm Limited is that it’s a great lens and not just an oddball.

Its unique image rendering is what makes me enjoy the lens the most. I love lenses with character. I’m sure there are lenses with better technical image quality, but when you have a lens with this much IQ AND a unique image rendering, what isn’t to like? Add to that the great feel and build quality and it’s a no-brainer, especially since it’s now quite a lot less expensive than when it first came out.

So what do you think of the Pentax 20-40mm Limited lens? I know I’m not getting rid of mine any time soon. I’d love to try it out on a new Pentax K3III someday as well. (Pentax, if you’re reading…hint, hint!) Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Also, consider helping to support the site by buying a print!