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[OM] very technical question: lens mount, f/stop meanings

Subject: [OM] very technical question: lens mount, f/stop meanings
From: lenglish@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Larry English)
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 98 10:51:36 EDT
warning: long tricky boring confusing technical question follows.

i bought recently [it all came in yesterday] from paul the olympus guy, 
a new om 2000, and a 50mm/1.8 olympus lens.

the om2000 is all-manual, essentially match-needle metering 
[leds instead of meter but still the same idea.]

also bought a tokina 70-200mm/f/4.0-5.6 zoom [not from paul].

in doing some elementary checks and tests, i am concerned that the
zoom might cause overexposures.

in any given metering situation where all else is equal, the 
aperture you have to set for correct indicated
exposure is 1 stop wider with the zoom [at 70 mm, where i would
expect it to be the same] or 3 stops wider at 210 mm than with a 50mm lens.

example:
outside, sunny day, film speed at asa 125, shutter speed 1/125
aperture where meter indicates correct:
50mm fixed lens : f/16
zoom on 70mm    : f/11  [+1 stop]
zoom on 210 mm  : f/5.6 [+3 stops]

i trust the 50mm because:
a. it does the "sunny 16" test correctly and
b. it matches my other camera's readings, and i know the
   other one works correctly, in spite of being a 20 year old konica :).

getting technical, i looked at the little "output" tab on each lens that
that [i assume] tells the camera where the lens is set.

the comparison reveals something i do not understand: 
it is in the same position on the 50mm lens set at f/1.8 as it is 
on the zoom set at f/4. [these happen to be the widest settings for each lens.]

this poses a question: how come the f/4 "output" from the zoom 
lens is not in the same place as the "output" from the 50mm lens
on the same setting? and how come the difference at 70mm is 1 stop,
not 2? [since the camera should not be able to tell the difference between
f/1.8 from the 50mm,  and f/4 from the zoom.]

i took the zoom apart and looked for an adjustment, there was not one that
could be moved this far, and i still was not sure anything was wrong,
so i did not change anything.

[i do understand the reason for the difference between 70mm and 210mm
 settings - the zoom is dimmer at long lengths.]

is the zoom going to work right?

is there something i don't understand about this setup?

isn't f/16 supposed to be the same, regardless of the lens it comes from?

is this possibly the answer?: the "output" from the lens is not really the
absolute f/stop, but the amount of stopping down from the max
[which is what is going to the meter when you are viewing the image]
that you are going to use. it's the only one that makes any sense.

but then how come the indicated apertures are different at same light
conditions? 

how could i ever use this lens with a separate light meter that
indicates f/stop and shutter speed? 

setting the zoom on a given f/stop seems to mean something
different than setting same f/stop on the 50mm..

thanks for reading this far and thinking about it.

??,
wle.


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