Restricted choice of apertures a bit irritating

[farsidefan1]

First a confession. I got serious about photography about 40 yrs ago with my canon Ftb. I am quite new to digital photography. (yeah, I know, what an idiot I laid off serious photography for most of the last 25 yrs. One thing that is amazing to me is that the new SLR cameras have lenses that only have aperture choices of 3.5 to 5.6??? My Ftb had a 1.4 to 22 range. Now that gives you control over your depth of field! Is it because of the speed you can shoot at with these new cameras? I see where you can set the ASA at speeds of over 6400 (wow). Anyway I was curious as to the limitations of today's lenses

 

[ChrisSG]

Hi!

I guess you misunderstood the spec sheet: I believe you are talking about a zoom lens, most probably a relatively cheap one that came as a kit with the camera? 3.5-5.6 is NOT the range of the ap, but the maximum aperture depending on how much you zoom. So the range is some 3.5 to 22 or higher.

Of course can you easily get yourself a 1.4 lens, probably a 50mm. They are not cheap though and I bet they were not cheap back then either... I guess that the lens you used long ago had a fixed focal length? Because zoom lenses are not that good when it comes to aperature.

 

[vladimir]

.....

 

[bvanant]

Your Canon FTB body didn't have an aperture limitation and neither do any of the DSLR cameras, the choices of aperture are in the lenses. You can easily get a 50 mm 1.4 max aperture lens for $350 or so but UW it isn't so hot. Most good UW prime lenses are in the f/2.8 range (the 100 macro for example) so DOF control is not at all trouble. Cheap zooms are never going to have very large apertures; but you can get some zooms (16-35) that have 2.8 max apertures but they are a bit pricey ($1700).
As already mentioned all of the lenses go to 22 or smaller.
Bill

 

[farsidefan1]

Thanks, you are exactly right. The ones I saw were zoom lenses and part of the "kit" sold by costco. Yes my 1.4 was pricey back then but I worked in a camera store and canon had a policy of letting sales people purchase canon cameras and lenses for 1/2 retail. Smart since you sell what you are most familiar with. I was faked out because these are Nikkor and canon lenses. I'm surprised the factories put their name on these lenses. Back in the day you bought cheap brands for the extra lenses (at least that is what I did I was a struggling college student working at a camera store before I discovered the oil field paychecks. IF course then I didn't have access to 1/2 price stuff either. Dang, just can't have it all.

 

[vladimir]

One saving grace for underwater photographers is that the really expensive fast lenses are the long ones. We don't have much use for a long, fast lens, since we are blasting away with our strobes when shooting macro.

 

[farsidefan1]

True.. I guess I was also surprised my canon g12 had limited apertures. 8 being the smallest setting. But then it has that 5X zoom.

 

[NautilusCairns]

Although f8 on a compact is almost equivalent to double that on a DSLR or so I understand from reading Martin Edge