The (Half-)True DA 35/2.4 Lens! ;-)

As we all knew, the specification of the "DA"35/2.4 is actually a DAL. In fact, it has none of the standard features of any other Pentax DA lens that has, namely, a metal mount and the Quick-Shift-Focus (QSF) mechanism as well as a focus scale with distance marks. But it has only a plastic DAL K-mount instead.

Frankly, I myself do not have particular preference of using metal over plastic for the mount, as long as it is proven to be strong enough and reliable for normal usage.

But then some people over the Chinese Xitek Pentax Forum had to remove the plastic mounts from their DAL long zooms owing to the unreliability of the original plastic mounts. But now someone has even done it for this pseudo DA prime! See:-

http://forum.xitek.com/showthread.php?threadid=917252

The user modded his white "DA"35/2.4 by replacing the plastic mount with a metal one detached from an old F lens of his and he has succeeded.

Nonetheless, such modding is not so meaningful IMHO as the lens is lightweight and doing this will only add weight in the end but there is not any real benefit. However, for a large and heavier lens like the DAL 55-300, which has also been reported more for the broken plastic mount, such modding would be far more meaningful, frankly.

After all, do bear in mind that this modded lens is not yet a true DA lens as it still does not have QSF nor a distance scale! :-( indeed, I still scratch my head hard for Pentax not called it as a DAL from the very beginning! >:-[