Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/01

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Subject: f/stops weird and wonderful
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 16:57:26 -0400

At 10:29 AM 10/1/97 -0400, Barney wrote:
>
>
>Barney mis-spoke himself. I do believe I meand Summar, a pre-world war
>II lens with f-stops which ran from 2 - 12 (?). 

There are two f/stop ranges.  The one we are accustomed to today is the
'International Scale' adopted by Zeiss at the turn of the century after the
Rudolph aperture range came a cropper.  This scale runs:
1-1.4-2-2.8-4-5.6-8-11-16 und so weiter, each aperture being the double of
the second one before it.

The other is the Stoltz scale, alias the 'European' scale popularized by
Leitz.  Here, the numbers run:  1.1-1.5-2.2-3-4.5-6-9-12-18 and so forth.  

Both scales are based on squares and square roots;  they are one-third stop
apart from each other.  The problem with using a Stolz-marked lens in
today's universe is that the f/stops on the lens and the f/stops on a
modern meter aren't hooked up.  (I get around this by using a Weston 715 ... )

Marc


msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!