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Lenses can have a big impact on low light sensitivity. No material is 100% transparent, and camera lenses have many elements for light to pass through before it
by moron4hire 5y ago
Lenses can have a big impact on low light sensitivity. No material is 100% transparent, and camera lenses have many elements for light to pass through before it reaches the sensor. The more lens you have between the subject and sensor, the less light is being captured.
That's why, if you're super concerned with low light sensitivity, you go with fixed-focal length prime lenses. Not having to support zoom means far fewer lens elements through which to pass light.
- dboreham 5y agoThat's not the primary reason, which is that they don't make f1.2 zooms.
- moron4hire 5y agoThink about why there are no f1.2 zooms
- jsjohnst 5y agoTheoretically there could be a zoom that is an F/1.2, the issue would be the size and expense to manufacture ruins any possible commercial viability.
- moron4hire 5y agoYes, that is exactly why. There is a bit of an "unobtanium" problem in that materials science has been having in this problem for quite a long time. Barring a revolutionary new take on legs materials, this is about as good as it gets, cross what people are actually working to pay for
- mnw21cam 5y agoIt's more the case that the wider the aperture, the more the thing needs correcting for aberrations. A fixed focal length prime lens is much easier to correct than a zoom lens, because all the aberrations can be optimised down in the design. For a zoom lens, the aberrations need to be controlled while parts of the lens are moving around in weird ways. I have a 18-50mm F/2 zoom lens. It's a really nice piece of kit, but I noticed that at the extreme wide end of the zoom range, it has quite catastrophic coma. Zoom lenses are hard.
- dboreham 5y agoNot for the reason cited by parent. Hence my comment.