# Aperture pronunciation - "F one point four" or "F one four" ?



## kev8d (Jul 22, 2012)

How do you pronunce the aperture of a lens? E.g. if you were telling a friend that you're shooting with an f/1.4 lens, would you say: "F one point four", "F one four", or something else?


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## rpt (Jul 22, 2012)

I always said the word "point".


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## peederj (Jul 22, 2012)

I say "tomato"

You can use any jargon you wish, as long as you can be understood and act absolutely certain of it.


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## rpt (Jul 22, 2012)

peederj said:


> I say "tomato"
> 
> You can use any jargon you wish, as long as you can be understood and act absolutely certain of it.


U da man.


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 22, 2012)

kev8d said:


> ...would you say: "F one point four", "F one four", or something else?



The F ormer.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jul 22, 2012)

What yould you say for F14? F/16, F/22, etc. You better put that point in there.


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## Ryan708 (Jul 22, 2012)

I'd say "F one point two, or go home" haha i wish. I use the "." when i say it


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## dr croubie (Jul 23, 2012)

I just say F (ast).


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## IIIHobbs (Jul 23, 2012)

OP should have posted a poll; dot, no dot, other. ;D


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## Wrathwilde (Jul 23, 2012)

peederj said:


> I say "tomato"



You say tomato, I say tomato... 

Which reminds me of this clever take on the song 

courtesy of the Secret Policeman's Ball., 

Seriously though, I use the point system.


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## odie (Jul 23, 2012)

There is no correct way of saying it but from my area, they use for example:

thirty five point four (35L f/1.4), eighty five point two (85L f/1.2) and so forth. 

There are even funny words to describe the 70-200mm II L in the form of a rabbit too ^ ^


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## zim (Jul 23, 2012)

My word it’s a slow news day today

Damn all these years I’ve been saying ‘F one full stop four stops’ don’t you guys know nuthin


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## marekjoz (Jul 23, 2012)

If you expect to be understood, you use the simplest language for any communication. When I talk to someone, who's not familiar with the differences, I say "the big hole allowing more light and narrower depth of field set when using this small lens". A colleague shooting with me will understand "one four". Me and my girlfriend call the "EF 50 1.4" as "the smallie", so it could be "the smallie open". My cat runs away when he sees "the smallie" on the camera, as the noises and movements of the lens make him scary, so I have not to say anything, to make him dissapear. BTW - guys - do your cats react some funny way to some lens-body combinations?  My cat reacts this way only when sees the one four.


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## stephan (Jul 23, 2012)

I always say the "point", since when i said "f one four" once, I got a comment "that's kinda slow", as he understood "f1:4" instead "F1:1.4".


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## nairfotografia (Jul 23, 2012)

f7/5

7/5 = 1.4


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## Axilrod (Jul 23, 2012)

Either way is fine. I think I tend to say "f one point two" with the faster glass but with f/2.8 lenses I tend to just say "f two eight."


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## Axilrod (Jul 23, 2012)

stephan said:


> I always say the "point", since when i said "f one four" once, I got a comment "that's kinda slow", as he understood "f1:4" instead "F1:1.4".



I think whoever you said that around was just an idiot, I've never heard of anyone taking the "1:" into consideration.


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## Jamesy (Jul 23, 2012)

F one 'O'.

Is that F10 or F1.0 on the magical 50mm F1.0? I always use the 'dot' for any decimal F stop, all others tend to get abbreviated such as F8, etc...


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## distant.star (Jul 23, 2012)

.
Like politics and religion, I never discuss photography.

Anyone brings it up I just say "I'm am an old guy pushing buttons hoping something happens. That's all I know." Safer that way.


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## iaind (Jul 23, 2012)

I use the point. If you say F-4 you might get some Phantom readings


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## marekjoz (Jul 23, 2012)

iaind said:


> I use the point. If you say F-4 you might get some Phantom readings



Happily at 11 or 14 you'd receive a kitty


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## Hillsilly (Jul 24, 2012)

What an esoteric community - It would take me a while to work out what a thirty five point four is. Being a bit simple, and liking things easy, I'll vote for the "point" too. But I think most people wouldn't have a problem either way. F/14 would be "F fourteen" anyway, not "F one four". 

Just learnt that US Air Force photographic reconnaissance aircraft from 1930 to1948 were designated the F1 to the F15. Very appropriate.


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## crasher8 (Jul 24, 2012)

thought I was on the climbing forum….


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## RC (Jul 24, 2012)

distant.star said:


> .
> Like politics and religion, I never discuss photography.
> 
> Anyone brings it up I just say "I'm am an old guy pushing buttons hoping something happens. That's all I know." Safer that way.


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## quartzie (Jul 24, 2012)

Funny that you mention it, since the aperture should really be F _over _one point four - as in F:1.4 (F/1.4) or F 1:1.4


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## Menace (Jul 24, 2012)

I Keep it simple; f1.2 is 'f one point two'


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## expo01 (Jul 24, 2012)

I'm saying it like this: (on the 35 1.4) "35 one four". I don't say the "F" or the "point". To me, it's a suggested "F" and "point". There is also no confusion whether it's f1.4 or f14, simply because i would say "fourteen". That is if there actually were a f14 lens in my bag, which clearly isn't. If it regards not to the lens but to the actual (used) f-stop i might say the "f" sometimes.


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## SPL (Jul 24, 2012)

I always use "point" never "dot"


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## cdang (Jul 24, 2012)

When I'm talking to my photog buddies, I don't even say 'f'.. So 1 point 2, 2 point 8 etc.


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## And-Rew (Jul 24, 2012)

Given these numbers are the result of some mathematic formula they should technically be pronounced in a manner in which the decimal point is stressed eg. F one point four, or as I have heard 'f one decimal four'

The imperial variant of f one and two fifths would be misleading as well


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## marekjoz (Jul 24, 2012)

cdang said:


> When I'm talking to my photog buddies, I don't even say 'f'.. So 1 point 2, 2 point 8 etc.



It works until you will have such a converstaion with your friend, having some troubles with the accent in a sentence:

(Y) - you
(F) - friend

(F): Tell me about your last shooting. So how many lenses this you use for this project?
(Y): Just one four. This project was as usual.
(Just one for this project as usual)

(F): Which exactly and how much?
(Y): One four, fifty . 
(One for fifty).

(F): I don’t understand, you make me mad! Tell me exactly what lenses, how much, what focus type, and who exactly was shooting?
(Y): One point for me! It was fifty with AF.
(One point. For me it was fifty with AF) 
(One point four. Me. It was fifty. With AF) 
(One. Point for me. It was fifty with AF)

(F): Ok, it doesn't matter. Tell me what apperture gave such a good result and what the hell is this plane? 
(Y): It was F one point four. Great F4, don't you think?
(It was F one. Point for great F4, don't you think?)

and so on...

I think, that the understanding of the statement depends on the sender of the message, as he always should assume the proper level of understanding and context of the message's receiver


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## IIIHobbs (Jul 24, 2012)

marekjoz said:


> I think, that the understanding of the statement depends on the sender of the message, as he always should assume the proper level of understanding and context of the message's receiver



^This

Clearly, what/how you say it varies with who you are talking to.

My teen daughter, who is very interested in photography, but also a novice, gets one level of information with additional detail as needed, "this is the 24mm f1.4 wide angle" (all words and abbreviations spoken); to which she would reply, "i love that lens". 

My wife who happily supports my hobby/habit, but is not at all interested in photography gets something much less specific, "I'm using my wide angle"; to which she would reply, "make sure you get some good shots of the kids".


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## dshipley (Jul 24, 2012)

I tend to forgo saying "F" most of the time and "Point" almost all the time. Some examples...

If I was asking for my 35L - "Can you hand me the 35?"

If someone asked me what I was shooting at - "I'm at one four, one one sixtieth, ISO 100 (so I'm shooting at f/1.4 at 1/160 sec at ISO 100)"


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## pdirestajr (Jul 24, 2012)

This thread shows exactly how little there is to talk about on CR now that: the Mirrorless has been announced, the 5DIII shooting-the-back-of-the-cap-light-leak-disaster has subsided, the 1Dx is shipping, the new Rebel is out...


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## skitron (Jul 24, 2012)

SPL said:


> I always use "point" never "dot"



Probably a good idea you have...

...otherwise somebody would maybe think it was a website...


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## Razor2012 (Jul 24, 2012)

Most of the time use 'point'. I think there's an odd time that I would skip the point, for example 'Did you use four or five-six?' when talking about apertures.


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## expo01 (Jul 24, 2012)

I like you. You get me  I'm doing the same. It's logical isn't it? ;D



dshipley said:


> I tend to forgo saying "F" most of the time and "Point" almost all the time. Some examples...
> 
> If I was asking for my 35L - "Can you hand me the 35?"
> 
> If someone asked me what I was shooting at - "I'm at one four, one one sixtieth, ISO 100 (so I'm shooting at f/1.4 at 1/160 sec at ISO 100)"


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## distant.star (Jul 24, 2012)

pdirestajr said:


> This thread shows exactly how little there is to talk about on CR now that: the Mirrorless has been announced, the 5DIII shooting-the-back-of-the-cap-light-leak-disaster has subsided, the 1Dx is shipping, the new Rebel is out...



.
Probably a good thing. I hope it means most folks are out making good images every day!

Despite our persistent whining, we still have the greatest imaging tools in the history of the world. What would past masters have done with the tools I use every day!


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jul 24, 2012)

kev8d said:


> How do you pronunce the aperture of a lens? E.g. if you were telling a friend that you're shooting with an f/1.4 lens, would you say: "F one point four", "F one four", or something else?



Mostly "F one point four" "F two point 8" "F four" "F eight" although when referring to a lens and not an f-stop alone then I do hear a lot of "grab me the 70-200 two eight" and such since it's faster and there are no regular normal lenses that are f/14, f/28 etc.

If you say "F one four" when talking about an aperture what does that mean? f/1.4? or f/14? and no, f/14 is not some crazy never used aperture, it's not that rare in macro and crops up in landscape photography at times.


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jul 24, 2012)

iaind said:


> I use the point. If you say F-4 you might get some Phantom readings



And if you say stuff like "A Ten" for f/10 well then you're just kinda hoggish.


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## KyleSTL (Jul 24, 2012)

On a very loosely related note, why do most europeans transposes commas and periods in numbers (I know that sounds very US-centric, but that's where I'm from)? Shouldn't we all be saying "eff one comma four" - f/1,4?

1,200 = one thousand two hundred in my book (not one and two tenths with 3 decimals of certainty)


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## Jamesy (Jul 25, 2012)

KyleSTL said:


> On a very loosely related note, why do most europeans transposes commas and periods in numbers (I know that sounds very US-centric, but that's where I'm from)? Shouldn't we all be saying "eff one comma four" - f/1,4?
> 
> 1,200 = one thousand two hundred in my book (not one and two tenths with 3 decimals of certainty)


Commas are metric and decimals are imperial. I grew up in Montreal in the late sixties and we converted to metric and they introduced the comma instead of decimals. In my opinion, the comma has not taken hold in Canada but that may be different elsewhere in the world.


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## rpt (Jul 25, 2012)

Jamesy said:


> KyleSTL said:
> 
> 
> > On a very loosely related note, why do most europeans transposes commas and periods in numbers (I know that sounds very US-centric, but that's where I'm from)? Shouldn't we all be saying "eff one comma four" - f/1,4?
> ...


I am under the impression commas are European and not necessarily metric. We follow the metric system in India and use the "decimal point". But then that could just be the British influence in India


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## TexPhoto (Jul 25, 2012)

I say 1 point 4, and encourage others to do so. I think a related question is of you call f1.4 a big or a small aperture. I call it big (The aperture inside is adjusted to make a BIG hole) f22 is small. Some people say 1.4 is small because the number itself is small. ??? This drives me nuts.


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## Mendolera (Jul 25, 2012)

I usually add the point but anyone that has been shooting DSLR for awhile has a pretty good idea of a majority of Canon's offerings. When you the eighty-five one two, im guessing 95% of this forum knows your talking about the 85mm F1.2L.


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## RC (Jul 25, 2012)

Ok , I'll play this silly game. I'm pretty sure I do this:

- For single digit apertures like F4, I'll say "F four" and "F eight"
- for double digits, no "F", I'll say "one four", "two eight", "five six"

I shoot by myself, so I'm the only person who hears


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## RLPhoto (Jul 25, 2012)

rpt said:


> I always said the word "point".



+1


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## Jamesy (Jul 25, 2012)

I work in technology and telecom and back in the day 'Switchboard Suzie' - the voice of the voice mail system used to pronounce zero as 'Oh' but the dirty little technicians would make recordings sounding like, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh".

Now she says 'zero'


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## And-Rew (Jul 25, 2012)

KyleSTL said:


> On a very loosely related note, why do most europeans transposes commas and periods in numbers (I know that sounds very US-centric, but that's where I'm from)? Shouldn't we all be saying "eff one comma four" - f/1,4?
> 
> 1,200 = one thousand two hundred in my book (not one and two tenths with 3 decimals of certainty)


Europeans do not transpose points and comma's - we use them as they were originally intended to be used.
The point is a mathematical term that came with metric system, which in itself replaced the imperial system of fractions etc. When used in grammar - it is referred to as a 'full stop'.

The comma is used in numeracy to give an indication to size of number by separating hundreds from thousands, thousands from millions etc. in gramma, the comma is used to indicate a pause between statements.

It should also be noted that Europeans speak French, German, Spanish, Italian, Flemish to name but a few. Each language has their own title for these grammatical terms, so it would be unfair to say "the Europeans" when we consist of so many varaiants in language.

And before any one says it - The English language was developed by the English and not Microsoft or the US Simplified English legislation passed in the 1950's or 60's.


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## marekjoz (Jul 25, 2012)

And-Rew said:


> KyleSTL said:
> 
> 
> > On a very loosely related note, why do most europeans transposes commas and periods in numbers (I know that sounds very US-centric, but that's where I'm from)? Shouldn't we all be saying "eff one comma four" - f/1,4?
> ...



+1 
BTW - not in every European language point is used to separate fractional part of a number (sometimes it's comma) and comma is not always used to separate thousands (sometimes it's just a space). It's easy to check by changing national settings in the operating system and see differences.
@And-Rew - for the last sentence: +100


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## well_dunno (Jul 25, 2012)

marekjoz said:


> And-Rew said:
> 
> 
> > KyleSTL said:
> ...



+2 
Here is a map on countries that use decimal point vs comma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_point

and here is a second map on countries that use metric vs imperial measurement system (click on the "key" button on the lower left for the color codes):
http://chartsbin.com/view/d12

By the way, perhaps it is time to consider converting to the metric system??  ;D


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## tron (Jul 26, 2012)

marekjoz said:


> If you expect to be understood, you use the simplest language for any communication. When I talk to someone, who's not familiar with the differences, I say "the big hole allowing more light and narrower depth of field set when using this small lens". A colleague shooting with me will understand "one four". Me and my girlfriend call the "EF 50 1.4" as "the smallie", so it could be "the smallie open". My cat runs away when he sees "the smallie" on the camera, as the noises and movements of the lens make him scary, so I have not to say anything, to make him dissapear. BTW - guys - do your cats react some funny way to some lens-body combinations?  My cat reacts this way only when sees the one four.


This is very serious. You should upgrade to 50 f/1.2L in an attempt to help your cat overcome his problems...


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## dr croubie (Jul 26, 2012)

well_dunno said:


> Here is a map on countries that use decimal point vs comma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_point



"In the nations of the British Empire, although the full stop could be used in typewritten material, the point (mid dot: ·), which can also be called an interpunct (often referred to as the decimal point) was preferred for the decimal mark in printing technologies that could accommodate it."

Actually, that's more correct, the symbol to seperate whole units from tenths of units isn't the '.', it's the '·'. We had to have that drilled into us all the time we were at uni, because the 'dot' is actually the 'dot product', something about what you can do to matrices (7 years of engineering degree later and I still don't quite know forwhat it's used IRL). We had a maths tutor who would mark us down for using the wrong symbol in the wrong spot. (although that wikipedia article seems to put the dot product in the middle of the line too. Maybe i'm confused and it's a 'dot' that we had to use for multiplication because we couldn't use 'x' in algebra. I'm definitely confused, i'll have to check my maths textbooks next time I swing past my mum's place.)


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## marekjoz (Jul 26, 2012)

tron said:


> marekjoz said:
> 
> 
> > If you expect to be understood, you use the simplest language for any communication. When I talk to someone, who's not familiar with the differences, I say "the big hole allowing more light and narrower depth of field set when using this small lens". A colleague shooting with me will understand "one four". Me and my girlfriend call the "EF 50 1.4" as "the smallie", so it could be "the smallie open". My cat runs away when he sees "the smallie" on the camera, as the noises and movements of the lens make him scary, so I have not to say anything, to make him dissapear. BTW - guys - do your cats react some funny way to some lens-body combinations?  My cat reacts this way only when sees the one four.
> ...



50 1.2 might help him, but will not help me, unfortunately.
One day maybe STM in 40mm pancake will fight his fears. Although STM influence on animals is probably not yet known, other people seem to take care how USM was influencing animals:
1. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=36891249
2. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=32996324
What I'm pretty sure is, that he cares a s..t how I pronounced this noisy scary rolling toy.


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## dr croubie (Jul 26, 2012)

BozillaNZ said:


> Regards to the "rabbit" thingy,
> 
> In Chinese, "IS" sound same as "love to death", while "II" sound same as "rabbit"
> 
> ...



爱四兔?
hehehe, i'm going to say that next time my chinese friend (who has a 5d3 and 70-200) pulls it out, see if i get a laugh...


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## marekjoz (Jul 26, 2012)

That's really one of the best topics I was writing here to. I think canonrumors needs a HydePark section.


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## dr croubie (Jul 26, 2012)

BozillaNZ said:


> 爱死小白兔 (I know it's long, but that's how they call it...)
> 
> ai s xiao bai too



hehe, oops, i wrote the wrong si. stupid high-res photo screen, it's hard to see the characters they're that small...


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