i have a Nikon D5100 and a 18-140mm 3.5-5.6g in manual mode, aperture priority, doesn't matter, I can't open to f3.5. the camera shows (view finder/lcd display) 5.6 as the lowest what am i doing wrong?! can someone help, plz? thanks!!
Zoom out to 18mm and it will. That's why it's listed as an 3.5-5.6.... the maximum aperture available depends on the focal length it's set at.
And the maximum aperture you can use varies in between the 2 extremes. Which is why any zoom lens having a range of maximum apertures is called 'variable aperture' zoom lens. If you set f/3.5 @ 18 mm and then zoom the lens the maximum aperture will automatically stop down (get physically smaller) until it reaches f/5.6 shortly before the zoom reaches 140 mm. FWIW - f/3.5 is a bigger number (because it's a fraction), and a more open (wider) lens aperture than f/5.6 is.
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