Dak on cam
Forum Pro
Professional grade lenses often offer constant aperture throughout their range. Now if I take a look at some Nikon lenses, quite a few offer an orange-marked "macro range" usually on the distance scale (my 35-70mm 1:2.8 lens has a separate "Macro" button and scale you can dial in at f=35mm). With Nikon, these orange parts of the scale basically mean "you are leaving the range of exact specs/scales" with regard to distance, focal width, and partly even aperture.
Essentially that is "get closer, I don't care about the details".
Now with the limited focal range of constant aperture lenses, I wonder whether there would not be a market for "get longer, I don't care about the details" ranges, to wit: getting an extension of focal range at the cost of losing constant aperture. Which is what variable aperture lenses do. But they tend to lose aperture fast.
Now a lens that is 1:2.8 from 28-70mm and gives you 70mm-135mm at variable aperture would be more useful than a mere 28-70mm 1:2.8 one, but its specs would be 28-135mm 1:2.8-5.6 and would not interest anyone.
So how about making that 28-70-135mm 1:2.8-5.6 or perhaps 28-70-135mm 1:2.8-2.8-5.6 (namely listing one additional important inflection point)? That would allow manufacturers to advertise variable aperture designs that would be a lot more useful than variable apertures that close down fast as the focal range increases.
Lens designers will not bother with stuff that doesn't sell no matter how useful it might be, and a large part of selling stuff is advertising it prominently in the specs.
Essentially that is "get closer, I don't care about the details".
Now with the limited focal range of constant aperture lenses, I wonder whether there would not be a market for "get longer, I don't care about the details" ranges, to wit: getting an extension of focal range at the cost of losing constant aperture. Which is what variable aperture lenses do. But they tend to lose aperture fast.
Now a lens that is 1:2.8 from 28-70mm and gives you 70mm-135mm at variable aperture would be more useful than a mere 28-70mm 1:2.8 one, but its specs would be 28-135mm 1:2.8-5.6 and would not interest anyone.
So how about making that 28-70-135mm 1:2.8-5.6 or perhaps 28-70-135mm 1:2.8-2.8-5.6 (namely listing one additional important inflection point)? That would allow manufacturers to advertise variable aperture designs that would be a lot more useful than variable apertures that close down fast as the focal range increases.
Lens designers will not bother with stuff that doesn't sell no matter how useful it might be, and a large part of selling stuff is advertising it prominently in the specs.
