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

[marekjoz]

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

[IIIHobbs]

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".

[dshipley]

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)"

[pdirestajr]

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...

[skitron]

I always use "point" never "dot"

Probably a good idea you have...

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

[Razor2012]

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.

[expo01]

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

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)"

[distant.star]

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!

[LetTheRightLensIn]

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.

[LetTheRightLensIn]

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.

[KyleSTL]

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)

[Jamesy]

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.

[rpt]

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.

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 

[TexPhoto]

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.

[Mendolera]

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.