DA* Lens

I purchased a DA* 60-250mm Pentax SDM Lens back in Jul - just before the price hike. It appears to share the same lens tripod foot as the DA*300mm SDM
last week the locking screw for the 60-250M foot completely unscrewed from it's housing. Luckily I didn't lose the screw. I have sent the tripod foot back to Park Cameras as they say they will send it to pentax for replacement or repair. Just wondered if this was just a one off occurence. I have checked the 300mm and that looks ok...

Hi Mayday - welcome to the forum.

I've just checked my 60-250 and 300 and both unscrew so far then lock solid, and I don't fancy doing my gorilla impression on them. I guess there's a spring and a ball bearing behind the screw to give the click as the ring rotates which go into orbit when the screw is removed.

Thanks for the "heads up".

Thought the mounting clip was a bit loose when I put the screw back. Didn't see a spring or ball bearing in orbit when the screw came out

Do you mean the screw that holds the detachable foot? On my DA*300 it looks to be designed to be removed completely.

The foot is designed to be removed by slackening the screw, which should remain captive. However, in the case of my lens, the screw came out completely!!

Mine must be a different design then, as it’s a plain parallel screw into a plain parallel hole. No sign of retaining rings or grooves.

On both my DA*300 and DA*60-250 the tripod foot fitting screw are non removeable.

Perhaps Pentax have two suppliers as there seems to be a good mix of people who have 'removable' and 'non-removable' screws.

Also although they are inter-changable the tripod foot for the 60-250 is larger than that for the 300. The larger one on the 60-250 is supossed to make turning the zoom ring easier.

Ah sorry, maybe I got the wrong screw. I had assumed Mayday meant the screw that locks lens rotation. the screws on mine that hold the shoe onto the lens can be removed.

link
This may end the confusion? The locking screw in the attached image is the one that is supposed to be captive but is no longer!

Neither of mine are captive.