AboutSteve Pearson Expertise Try me for 35mm or darkroom issues. I am a professional photographer in Australia. I work solely in 35mm digital format, after 35 years of colour and monochrome film in many formats. I have darkroom experience and for many years belonged to my local camera club. I conduct photography workshops around the state on any and most subjects relating to photography and often judge photography exhibitions and competitions.
Experience I hold a Diploma of Applied Science in Forensic Investigation, with part of my studies involving photography. I spend most days with a camera and am into digital photography in a big way. I was given my first camera in 1965 and have not been without one since. I spent nearly 20 years as a forensic investigator with my state Police Force, and since retiring a couple of years ago have concentrated on commercial photography - especially weddings.
Expert: Steve Pearson Date: 9/24/2004 Subject: digital camera
Question Hi,
How are you?
A friend of mine purchased a digital camera (Fuji Finepix S7000). To his big surprize he discovered that none of the manual modes (P,S, A, M) let him choose aperture (F stop) smaller than 8. The range he can choose from is F2.8 - F8. Why is it so? I think I must be missing something because why would anyone make a camera limited by small apertures. At the same time there seems to be no way around this and picture taking seems to be, indeed, limited by F8. Do you have any ideas as to what is going on. Am I missing something, did my friend get a bad camera, or is it possible that the F-values have a different meaning in digital cameras (maybe digital F8 is the same as 35mm camera's F22 - very heard to believe though).
Thank you very much.
Eric
Answer Eric.
Digital photography and hardware are a whole new ball game compared to conventional photography. f8 is a small enough aperture for digital. Very hard to explain the differences but there is no problem. My Olympus digital is f2.8-3.7! It's not really a matter of closing down the aperture as in a conventional camera - more a matter of letting the electronics do their thing. Cheers, Steve
