Aperture question

jessiecpt · Apr 18, 2013

Hello all,

I just wrote a LONG post and it didnt post so this one is going to be short and sweet. I have a Sony A200 and in P,A,S an M I cannot get my aperture to go "lower" than 5 or 5.6. I can adjust everything else to whatever I want. Shutter and ISO are no problem. I do not have a manual because I bought it used but I am reading a field guide when claims that I should be able to adjust my aperture to whatever I want. I am using a 3.5-5.6/18-70 lens.
Thank you for any help you can give me!

Ysarex · Apr 18, 2013

The lens on your camera has a variable maximum aperture. It's only capable of f/3.5 when zoomed to the widest end. As you begin to zoom the focal length toward the longer end the aperture eventually max's out at f/5.6

Joe

o hey tyler · Apr 18, 2013

jessiecpt said:
Hello all,

I just wrote a LONG post and it didnt post so this one is going to be short and sweet. I have a Sony A200 and in P,A,S an M I cannot get my aperture to go "lower" than 5 or 5.6. I can adjust everything else to whatever I want. Shutter and ISO are no problem. I do not have a manual because I bought it used but I am reading a field guide when claims that I should be able to adjust my aperture to whatever I want. I am using a 3.5-5.6/18-70 lens.
Thank you for any help you can give me!

Zoom your lens out to 18mm and your maximum aperture will be f/3.5. If you zoom it in, it will be f/5.6.

jessiecpt · Apr 18, 2013

Wow. Thank you both so much. This has been driving me insane all day!! This is my first DSLR camera and not having a manual is not fun. I study for at least two hours a day trying to get a grip on how everything works together. It's weird though because in A mode I can dial the aperture up to much higher than 5.6. It would seem that since I can't go below 3.5, it shouldn't let me how higher than 5.6? So confusing.

SCraig · Apr 18, 2013

Might try a Google search for "Sony A-200 User Manual" and see what happens.

jessiecpt said:
Wow. Thank you both so much. This has been driving me insane all day!! This is my first DSLR camera and not having a manual is not fun. I study for at least two hours a day trying to get a grip on how everything works together. It's weird though because in A mode I can dial the aperture up to much higher than 5.6. It would seem that since I can't go below 3.5, it shouldn't let me how higher than 5.6? So confusing.

F/3.5 - 5.6 is the MAXIMUM aperture allowable at the wide and narrow end of the zoom range. It has nothing to do with the MINIMUM aperture.