Aperture

echoyjeff222 · Aug 7, 2010

The camera I'm looking to buy has an aperture from 2.8 to maximum of 4.0

Is this enough to take good portrait and landscape shots?

Also, how much should I be paying for a Nikon Coolpix P80 that is used?

jeroen · Aug 7, 2010

That camera has a maximum apperture of 2.8 wich will move to 4.0 at full zoom.

It all has to do with the amount of light that can come trough the lense.
The lower the number, the bigger the opening (the apperture) in the lense and the more light through the lense (so maximum is maximally opened).

It has nothing to do with landscape or portrait shots. The Coolpix P80 is probably fine for that.

If you want to know how much you should pay for a used camera you better do a search on e-Bay or a used camera website.

Good luck on buying a camera.

BuS_RiDeR · Aug 7, 2010

jeroen said:
That camera has a maximum apperture of 2.8 wich will move to 4.0 at full zoom.

It all has to do with the amount of light that can come trough the lense.
The lower the number, the bigger the opening (the apperture) in the lense and the more light through the lense (so maximum is maximally opened).

It has nothing to do with landscape or portrait shots. The Coolpix P80 is probably fine for that.

If you want to know how much you should pay for a used camera you better do a search on e-Bay or a used camera website.

Good luck on buying a camera.

Yeah that.

NateWagner · Aug 7, 2010

Right... the aperture range is probably more like f/2.8(or f/4 at full zoom) if it's a P&S which the coolpix is, the most you can typically stop it down is to f/8.

One other thing to realize is that when you read people referring to 2.8 as resulting in shallow DOF they are typically referring to the effect on a full frame, or at least aps-c sensor.

The 2.8 on a P&S typically acts more like an f/8 or higher on a DSLR (meaning you will almost always have most of the image in focus).