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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read
some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? |
#2
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
"LooksLikeRain" wrote in message
ups.com... I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? If you have plenty of light then you can often get better results by stopping down to f8 or so. f11-22 will give you good results if you want both near & far objects in focus at the same time, but in poor light you might need to go with f5.6 as a higher figure might give you too slow a shutter speed. Try experimenting with different settings to see what works best. cheers adrian www.boliston.co.uk |
#3
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
On 4 May 2007 11:39:40 -0700, LooksLikeRain
wrote: I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? You have to know a little lens-system history to realize how this works (I'll use the Nikon system as an example, since I'm familiar with it). The original Nikon F lenses had a diaphragm that would be closed down according to the aperture ring on the lens, but when mounted on the camera, would be held open by a lever linkage. (This allowed for full-aperture viewing.) When the shutter release was pressed, the linkage would allow the diaphragm to stop down to the preset value, for taking the picture. Then it would automatically open up again. Starting with about the N2000 camera and the AIS lenses, the setting of the aperture was transferred from the lens to the camera when using certain program modes. That is, you would lock the lens at the minimum aperture (say, f/22), and the camera would activate the proper aperture by a differential motion of the linkage lever. The G series lenses have done away with the aperture ring altogether, and the aperture is set exclusively by the camera. Now, to answer your question directly -- When you say your lens has a "rated" 3.4-5.6 aperture, what you mean is that this is a zoom lens with a *maximum* (widest) aperture of f/3.4 to f/5.6, depending on the zoom (focal length) setting. What you should do is set the lens at the *minimum* aperture (say, f/22). This will give the camera access to the full range of apertures in the lens. (Remember, the lens starts out fully open, and the camera stops it down the required amount through the use of the linkage lever.) If, on the other hand, you set the lens at f/5.6, the camera will not be able to stop it down smaller than that no matter what it wants to do. Think of the lens aperture ring as a limiter in the direction of *larger* openings. If you don't have an aperture ring on your particular lens, don't worry about it and just use the setting on the camera. |
#4
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
On May 4, 1:39 pm, LooksLikeRain wrote:
If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? The aperture numbers on your lens are the lowest f-number (largest aperture) that your lens will allow. On a zoom lens, this often changes depending on what focal length you're using (i.e. how "zoomed- in" you are). The smallest number (largest aperture) is for the shortest focal length (the widest angle; the most "zoomed-out"). The larger number (a slightly smaller aperture) is for the longest focal length (the narrowest angle; the most "zoomed-in"). You can always use much smaller apertures (larger f-numbers) than these, at least to f/16 but possibly as far as f/40 or so. The smallest apertures (largest f-numbers) are not part of the lens's normal description -- you won't see those numbers unless you're getting more detailed specs. So for the common Canon 18-55mm f:3.5-5.6 lens, you can go to f/3.5 at 18mm (wide angle), but not to f/2. At 55mm, you can to to f/5.6, but not to, say, f/4. In the other direction, you can go to f/22 or whatever without difficulty. With Canon's EF and EF-S lenses, the camera knows what the lens's limits are, and won't let you go past them. So, if you zoom the 18-55mm lens to 18mm, you can pick an aperture of f/3.5, but when you zoom in to 55mm, the camera will automatically adjust it to f/5.6. Likewise, it won't let you set f/40 on the kit lens, because the kit lens doesn't go that small (it does go to at least f/22 though). I imagine the situation is similar with Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Sigma, etc., but I have no experience with them. Hope this helps! - Darryl |
#5
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
LooksLikeRain wrote:
I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. There is a simply *huge* amount of stuff to learn! Some of it may be easy, some not. Some is easy only after you learn other parts, but you don't know that 'til you get there... One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. Keep in mind that there is only one diaphragm, and it is in the lense. On most lenses, but not all, there is a ring on the lense to control it. On most cameras, but not all, there is also a way to control it from the the camera. But it all controls that one aperture in the lense. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, That is just a measure of how wide the widest aperture that can be set actually is, and the range indicates you have a zoom lense that is a bit different at the short end of the focal length range than it is at the long end. The numbers mean that with the focal length at minimum the largest aperture it has is f/3.4, but when set to the longest focal length the largest aperture is only f/5.6. then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? The f numbers get smaller for larger apertures (because f/stop is a ratio of the focal length to the aperture size, not the size of the opening). It is confusing, but to be absolutely correct a _larger_ f/stop is a _smaller_ aperture. The minimum f/stop is the maximum aperture (f/3.4, for example). So, at the longest focal length, your camera can probably set the lense to f/5.6. To make that work commonly requires the ring on the lense itself be set to the smallest aperture (e.g., f/22, though it might be f/16 or f/32 on some lenses). Then what actually happens is the lense stays wide open until you press the shutter release button. The camera closes down the aperture to whatever it is set to just before it fires off the shutter. But what you see looking through the viewfinder is always with the lense wide open! That is useful for two reasons, first that more light comes through so that you can see to focus, but also the focus is more critical (less depth of field) when the lense is wide open and hence you can focus more accurately. -- Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) |
#6
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
"LooksLikeRain" wrote in message ups.com... If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? You can do that, but keep in mind that there's a point where your lens won't be as sharp, so you might want to use the smaller apertures ONLY when you have a definite purpose in mind. DP |
#7
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
LooksLikeRain wrote:
I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? There's only one aperture. Generally speaking, you set it on the camera, and the camera changes it in the lens. Note that the aperture is a fraction: f/whatever. The minimum aperture is the *smallest* aperture, which means the smallest fraction. The minimum for your lens is probably f/22, though some lenses go to f/32 and smaller. f/3.4 is the maximum (largest) aperture for that lens. The f/3.4-5.6 part tells us that the maximum aperture gets smaller the more you zoom in, from f/3.4 to f/5.6. Most kit lenses do, and even many pro-level ones. Some expensive zoom lenses are referred to as 'constant aperture' lenses, which means their maximum aperture doesn't change as you zoom in and out. HTH. -- http://www.xoverboard.com/cartoons/2..._argument.html |
#8
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
"LooksLikeRain" wrote in message ups.com...
I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? Hi LooksLikeRain, You don't say whether you're using film or digital, and this affects whether f22 might be appropriate. The reason is that at that level, even a full-frame 35mm image starts running into diffraction effects. If you're using a DSLR with a smaller sensor, then you really need to open the aperture up by a corresponding amount to keep within those limits. For example, if the image looks OK at f22 on a full-frame 35mm SLR, but not at a smaller aperture, you wouldn't want to go below f14-f15 on a DSLT with a 1.5 or 1.6 FOV crop. In simple terms, you can divide the minimum acceptable f-stop for 35mm by your DSLR's crop factor to get the corresponding minimum acceptable f-stop for that format. Cheers -- cmyk |
#9
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
On May 4, 2:39 pm, LooksLikeRain wrote:
I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? Generally, no. Almost all DSLR lenses perform best between f/4 and f/ 8. f/11 is still OK, but you are already starting to get what is known as "diffraction" (think of what happens to your vision when you squint and you'll get the general idea). At f/16 and beyond it only gets worse. |
#10
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In-camera aperture vs. In-lens apertu What's the difference?
Aperture is *always* (well, for any camera you'd be likely to be talking
about) in the lens. It's just that most cameras allow you to make the setting in the camera. The camera then passes that info down to the lens. If my lens is only rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture... That doesn't mean it only does apertures in that range. It means that is as *big* as the aperture can get for that lens - 3.4 is the biggest at the shortest end of the zoom range, 5.6 is the biggest the aperture can get at the longest end of the zoom range. will it do me any good to set my camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6? 5.6 is the *maximum* aperture the lens allows at the longest end of the zoom range. They don't generally bother quoting the minimum, but if the camera allows you to set f/11 or f/22, then indeed, the lens must be supporting apertures that small (virtually all lenses will do f/11, f/22 is pretty of smaller is common too). So yes, you can set the aperture using the in-camera controls to f/22, and lens should happily obey and close down that small. However, you not be able to set the aperture *larger* than whatever the maximum is at the particular particular length you are zoomed too - the camera won't let you. --------------- Marc Sabatella Music, art, & educational materials Featuring "A Jazz Improvisation Primer" http://www.outsideshore.com/ |
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