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

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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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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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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?

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 :)
 
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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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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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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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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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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. :o
 
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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?

1,200 = 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. :o

+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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marekjoz said:
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?

1,200 = 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. :o

+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 :)

+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?? :P ;D
 
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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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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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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.
This is very serious. You should upgrade to 50 f/1.2L in an attempt to help your cat overcome his problems...

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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BozillaNZ said:
Regards to the "rabbit" thingy,

In Chinese, "IS" sound same as "love to death", while "II" sound same as "rabbit"

70-200 original is "little white"

So...

70-200 IS II is "love (you) to death, little white rabbit"

And I'm not kidding!

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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