Questions tagged [aperture]
Aperture is the opening in the diaphragm of a camera lens. For questions relating to Apple's photo management software, please use [apple-aperture] instead.
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Is there a noticeable difference between 1.8 and 1.4 prime lenses?
I have been shopping around for a prime lens for my Nikon D50. I noticed that the 1.8 is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the 1.4 AF-S. What will I gain for that cost difference? Is it really ...
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What is a "diffraction limit"?
I've seen the term used, but what is a "diffraction limit", when should I worry about it, and what undesirable effects are a result of it ?
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What does f-stop mean?
What does f-stop mean? Is it the same thing when people say "2 stops" for example?
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What is aperture, and how does it affect my photographs?
How does aperture affect my photographs?
Why should I care about the aperture with which a photo was taken?
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What apertures are required to enable autofocus, including cross-type or high-precision focusing, on Canon DSLR cameras?
This is a follow-up to Why does Canon and Nikon limit or disable autofocus beyond certain f-numbers? I'm doing this to separate the AF aperture requirements from the linked question above. My goal ...
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Does this telescope only have a 4 blade aperture?
I was just looking at an image from NASA's APOD project
I noticed that the starbursts are directly horizontal and vertical. If I recall correctly, on my DSLR I get one "ray" per blade. So does that ...
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How does aperture work without "cropping" the image hitting the sensor?
I've been teaching myself the various settings in cameras and now have a much fuller understanding of how to use my camera effectively, but one thing is still bugging me.
When the aperture size is ...
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How do constant aperture zoom lenses work?
Cheaper zoom lenses usually are faster at the wide end and slower at the long end (for example, the $150 Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6). More expensive constant-aperture zoom lenses have the same ...
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Why no zoom lenses with a maximum aperture wider than f/2.8?
I can understand that a zoom lens with a maximum aperture wider than f/2.8 would be difficult and costly, but it seems like something pros would kill for. Surely it can't be more expensive (if its ...
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Technically, why is the out of focus area blurred more when using a bigger aperture?
I'm wondering, technically, why and how does the out of focus areas blur more when using a bigger aperture. I think it'd help a lot if I presented a problem that's been driving me nuts for a long time:...
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What are some tips for shooting in low light?
I own a Canon 450D with just the standard kit lens that comes with it (I don't plan buying a new lens for a while) and one thing I tend to struggle with is shooting in lower light conditions, indoors ...
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How do you find out the "sweet spot" of a lens?
I've tried googling this, but have never found a satisfactory answer.
I've heard the term "sweet spot" thrown around by some photographers to mean the f-stop of a lens which results in the highest ...
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What is T-number / T-stop?
Usually, when discussing aperture of a lens, F-stop and F-number are used for quantifying. But some photographers, and especially videographers, also mention T-stop. The concept and numbering used (e....
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What is an easy way to remember the full stop scale?
If you were teaching someone new to photography the full stop scales, is there a better way then flat out memorizing these values? Does anyone have an easy way that they remember the scale? Would it ...
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When to use shutter priority instead of aperture priority?
Under what circumstances would you use aperture priority vs. shutter priority and vice-versa?
I typically don’t use shutter priority (ever) and favor aperture priority to try to get a max aperture ...
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Why do wide angle prime lenses have relatively small apertures?
I've noticed that many of the wide angle prime lenses (at least for Canon) have somewhat smaller apertures than their normal or telephoto counterparts. E.g. the regular Canon 24mm prime is f/2.8 while ...
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Why use a small aperture when trying to see sensor dust?
Here and there I read of people who set their lens to a small aperture while testing their sensor cleanness, supposedly to get the best image of dust speckles. However, the image of the on-sensor dust ...
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Why is the depth-of-field preview in the optical viewfinder of my Canon 500D inaccurate?
I have noticed that in my Canon 500D, the depth-of-field preview in the optical viewfinder is inaccurate with large aperture settings.
If I press the DoF preview button, there is very little ...
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Do smaller apertures provide more depth of field past the diffraction limit, even if peak sharpness suffers?
In Understanding Exposure (3rd edition, on page 48), Bryan Peterson has what might be called a rant against modern on-line conventional wisdom about diffraction limits. Answers on this web site are ...
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What is a "fast" lens?
I've been reading lots of camera reviews lately and have ran across several references to "fast" lenses.
What exactly is a fast lens and what are its advantages compared to other lenses?
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What is special about lenses with f-number < 1?
Talking about fast lenses, Wikipedia mentions
Nikon TV-Nikkor 35mm f/0.9-Fastest Nikon lens ever made
Why don't, for example, f/0.5 lenses exist?
Is there some special construction that comes ...
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Can a smaller sensor's "crop factor" be used to calculate the exact increase in depth of field?
If APS-C and similar crop-sensor digital cameras have a focal length multiplying effect such that a 50mm lens has an apparent focal length closer to the field of view of an 80mm on a full frame camera,...
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Why is the aperture ring removed from new Nikon lenses?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I notice that Nikon's newer lenses don't have an aperture ring. For example, an older AF 35 mm f/2D is now replaced by AF-S DX 35 mm f/1.8G, or AF 50 mm f/1.8D is replaced by a ...
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Why don't compact digital cameras have the aperture range of DSLRs?
Why is it that on compact digital cameras the aperture never seems to go any smaller than about F8 ? Even on high-end compacts such as the Canon G10 or Panasonic LX5. Is there some practical or ...
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How can aperture be f/11 on a lens with an aperture range designation of 3.5-5.6?
I made a series of outdoor shots with Nikon D5000, with the 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G VR kit lens.
On some shots, I see in the EXIF info f/11, and in another shot, f/9.
How can that be, that the f-number ...
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Why do two lenses with the same F-number give different amount of light?
Why do the following two lenses provide different amount of light?
In both images we have fixed focusing distance, distance to the object, ISO, shutter speed and F-number.
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What's the benefit of a tiny aperture?
In this answer to another question Rob Clement wrote:
Think background first. What story do you want to tell? Epic background, big mountains. Looking to deliver a sense of grandeur with your ...
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Why do zoom lenses and compact cameras have varied maximum aperture across the zoom range?
Why does a camera's maximum (allowed) aperture get smaller when you increase its zoom?
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How can a smartphone take pictures of a landscape with everything in focus?
After the announcement of the new Samsung Galaxy S9 with the new camera that changes aperture, I caught myself wondering: if smartphones have such a wide aperture (f/2.8, f/2.2, etc), how are ...
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What are the practical advantages of fast lenses when shooting landscapes?
I'm still using my 18-105 kit lens on my Nikon D5300, and the (lower) quality of the photo on edges is bothering me, so I want to get some lens that produces good quality through the whole photo. ...
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Do the same camera settings lead to the same exposure across different sensor sizes?
Let's say I have a micro-4/3rd camera and a full frame camera, both set to 1/60 at f/2.8, taking a picture of the same scene in the same lighting. Will the exposure be the same across both cameras ...
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How iPhone 5S can have such a big aperture? f/2.2?
I thought that in order to have a big aperture such as f/2.2 a big amount of light should be able to enter to the sensor and in order to do it, a big lens was needed.
How is it possible that in the ...
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Does a bigger aperture create better photos?
I have observed that the wider the aperture, the more expensive the lenses are. However, I would like to know whether it really makes a difference in your photos or not?
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What are the benefits of the classic f-number scheme?
Classic ƒ numbers are entrance pupil diameter as a fraction of focal length. This seems like a slightly strange choice as exposure is proportional to area rather than diameter. Naively I would think ...
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Does a specific f number across all lenses denote same amount of light?
When we say a light source emits 1500 lumens of light, it does not really matter if the light source is incandescent, CFL, diode etc. Similarly, when I say f/1.8 can I assume that all lenses pass the ...
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Do rounded edges on aperture blades improve image sharpness, and how?
In the description for the XF lenses for its new X-Pro system, Fujifilm crows:
The [XF lenses] all offer precise control over depth-of-field and deliver excellent out-of-focus bokeh thanks to the ...
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Do f-stop and exposure time perfectly cancel?
I am photographing a scene with white and black elements in it. Starting at the f/22 stop, I widen the aperture one stop and decrease the exposure time by a factor of 2, take a picture, and keep doing ...
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Will using a lens at max aperture ("wide open") result in poor images?
I’m looking to add a second lens to my kit lens I got with my Nikon D7000.
I have read several reviews on both the 35 and 50 mm lenses made by Nikon in particular that said using either lens at the ...
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Why does Canon and Nikon limit or disable autofocus beyond certain f-numbers?
One thing that I've noticed with Canon DSLR camera is they will disable or limit autofocus when the lens' maximum aperture is narrower than certain values, which are specified in my answer to What ...
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In what way does the lens mount limit the maximum possible aperture of a lens?
In many answers to questions about different aspects of really large aperture lenses it's pointed out that the lens mount sets a hard limit on the maximum possible aperture of the lenses to that ...
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How do I find the aperture that produces the highest-quality images for a given lens?
I'm not talking about large aperture (f/1.8, f/2.8...), rather, about small apertures (f/18, f/20, f/23...). I read somewhere (actually I think it was on this site, but I don't exactly remember which ...
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Does lens speed still increase meaningfully when the physical aperture is larger than the sensor size?
This question came to me this morning, thinking about 50mm lenses. I have the Pentax 50mm f/1.7 (manual) and it's a very nice lens, but would be considered (relatively) slow on 35mm film, and many ...
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Why isn't my variable-aperture photo more interesting?
I took a photo where I changed the aperture of the lens during the exposure. I was hoping to get a cool or unusual effect, but I didn't. Why not, and is there any really interesting effect that I ...
user2910
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How do DSLRs figure out what aperture to select in P mode?
In program mode, DSLRs adjust not only the ISO and the shutter speed, but also the aperture.
The aperture has a huge impact in some situations. For example, when shooting a close subject in front of ...
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Why does a larger aperture cause more blur of the background? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Technically, why is the out of focus area blurred more when using a bigger aperture?
Why is it that a larger lens aperture produces a shorter depth of field, causing the ...
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Would a prime be redundant with a fast zoom?
Now that I am finally getting a fast zoom (Tamron 17-50mm 2.8) I've been considering a fast prime to go with it, specifically a Sigma 50mm 1.4. Despite its shortcomings, it still does really nice ...
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Why aren't lenses designed with extra large apertures for autofocus beyond what's used for imaging?
Historically, designing large-aperture lenses has been difficult because correcting the optical aberrations that arise from large apertures requires complex designs and very large amounts of glass. ...
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DSLRs with separate controls for aperture and shutter?
I just bought a Nikon D3200 DSLR and I'm going to return it. It's fine if you always want to use in fully automatic mode, but in Manual mode, it's much less convenient. You have to set the shutter ...
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Is it worth upgrading one stop for wildlife photography?
I have just purchased the following lens to accompany my Nikon D500:
AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR - £1,349 (see here)
However, having purchased this lens a few hours ago, it has been pointed out ...
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How do zoom lenses restrict their widest aperture at the telephoto end?
Does the aperture ring lock the apertures beyond, say 5.6 at length lens's telephoto end?
Does the lens introduce an obstacle to the aperture ring so the lens can't be opened anymore beyond the ...
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