Aperture setting: This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum...

bbradford Loc: Wake Forest NC

This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum aperture of 5.5 how can the camera take it up to f.22? Is the lens really going to f.22 as the camera says or is max. at 5.5. Hope this doesn't sound to stupid but it's giving me a headache.

cmc4214 Loc: S.W. Pennsylvania

Think of f numbers as fractions, the bigger the number, the smaller the opening. For example 1/2" is bigger than 1/16"

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

bbradford wrote:

This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum aperture of 5.5 how can the camera take it up to f.22? Is the lens really going to f.22 as the camera says or is max. at 5.5. Hope this doesn't sound to stupid but it's giving me a headache.

This may help to explain it: https://expertphotography.com/how-to-understand-aperture-5-simple-steps/

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

bbradford wrote:

This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum aperture of 5.5 how can the camera take it up to f.22? Is the lens really going to f.22 as the camera says or is max. at 5.5. Hope this doesn't sound to stupid but it's giving me a headache.

f/ 22 will be the minimum aperture (lets the minimum amount of light through.)

John Sh Loc: Toronto, Australia

As has been said, the aperture is not 5.6 but f over 5.6 or f/5.6. the link above should help you work out the area that confuses most newbies. You are not alone in this.

Hamltnblue Loc: Springfield PA

First thing to understand is that the definition of Aperture is an opening or hole. In photography, it's simply the hole you see when looking at a lens.

The f number is your focal length. If you set the aperture to a set number, say 5.6 and measure the lens opening at different focal lengths you will see it change. At 50mm the diameter of the hole should be 8.9 mm wide (50/5.6).
At 100mm it should be 17.8mm wide, or half as much (100/5.6)

This is why lenses with very large apertures are so significant. Take the Nikon 58/.95. That is a 61mm hole (2.4 inches)

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

bbradford wrote:

This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum aperture of 5.5 how can the camera take it up to f.22? Is the lens really going to f.22 as the camera says or is max. at 5.5. Hope this doesn't sound to stupid but it's giving me a headache.

It can be confusing.

The smaller number ... f5.5 ... represents a larger opening.

The f stop is a focal ratio, or the ratio of focal length to aperture opening.

As an example lets say you have a 50MM f2.0 lens.

This means that the lens has a focal length of 50 and a widest aperture of 25. 50 (focal length)/25 (aperture width) = 2.0 (f2.0).

Stopped down to f22 the clear aperture is roughly 2.27MM. 50(focal length)/2.27(aperture)=22.0 (f22).

If you remove the lens and look through the front element you can then change the aperture and view the aperture size change with each adjustment.

I hope this helps.

Resqu2 Loc: SW Va

bbradford wrote:

This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum aperture of 5.5 how can the camera take it up to f.22? Is the lens really going to f.22 as the camera says or is max. at 5.5. Hope this doesn't sound to stupid but it's giving me a headache.

If is says 5.5 is max then you can set it anywhere between 5.5 to 22. I have a lens that goes from 2.8 to 32 and can be set anywhere in that range but I can’t set it smaller that 2.8 and you can’t set yours lower than 5.5.

Bigmike1 Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.

Aperture was never a problem even when I got my first 35mm camera while in the army. I just looked at the lens opening with each setting and it was quite clear. My problem was trusting my light meter. I ruined a ton of pictures.

Linary Loc: UK

bbradford wrote:

This may sound stupid as I am new to all of this. I have read and read about aperture settings but am still confused on one thing. If your lens says it has a maximum aperture of 5.5 how can the camera take it up to f.22? Is the lens really going to f.22 as the camera says or is max. at 5.5. Hope this doesn't sound to stupid but it's giving me a headache.

This diagram should help

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Good article -

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-techniques/understanding-maximum-aperture.html

What can be confusing is the aperture of zoom lenses. The more you zoom, the smaller the maximum opening gets, except with very expensive lenses. My Nikon 28-300mm takes in less light as it zooms, while the $2,800 70-200mm lens can maintain a large f/2.8 aperture even at maximum zoom..

hj Loc: Florida

Linary wrote:

This diagram should help

Just goes to show "A picture is worth a thousand words" :-)

(Download)

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

The fstop represents a fraction of the focal length of the lens. For example, an fstop of f2(1:2) on a 50mm lens is half the focal length(an opening in the diaphram of 25mm).

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

It can be confusing, the the higher the number greater DOF. I try to shoot wild life at f8 to get a decent DOF.

uhaas2009

This is