F/14 on A550?

[fiuman]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this forum as well as to photography so I apologize in advance if I'm about to ask a stupid question.
Anyway, I recently bought an A550, so today I was experimenting with it a little bit, so I chose tungsten white balance and spot metering and took a shot at the sea reflecting sunlight. I got some great blue colors :D, but I noticed that aperture was F/14! Since this camera shlouldn't be able to work with apertures smaller than 5.6, I'm a bit confused...

(If some of my sentences, word choice or spelling don't make any sense, that's because English is my second language and I didn't use it for a while :))

[MaxZoom]

Hmm, the spec says f/2.6 to f/5.5 alright. f/14 is way off the charts for a P&S and may be beyond some dSLR lenses too. Can you export the EXIF data via zoombrowser and post it here? Don't know what good that will do but you never know someone might spot something.

[fiuman]

Well, looking at EXIF data, it seems that A550 is in fact SLR (small lying rat) :).

Here it is:

File Name IMG_0595.JPG
Camera Model Name Canon PowerShot A550
Shooting Date/Time 12.3.2007 14:40:28
Shooting Mode Manual
My Colors Mode Off
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/640
Av (Aperture Value) 14.0
Light Metering Spot
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 80
Lens 5.8 - 23.2 mm
Focal Length 23.2 mm
Digital Zoom None
Image Size 3072x2304
Image Quality Superfine
Flash Off
White Balance Tungsten
AF Mode Single AF
Parameters
Contrast Normal
Sharpness Normal
Saturation Normal
Color Space sRGB
File Size 2825 KB
Drive Mode Single-frame shooting
Owner's Name

[rabidcow]

f/2.6 to f/5.5 is the maximum aperture from wide angle to telephoto, this is not the total aperture range. Zoomed all the way out, the max aperture is f/2.6, zoomed all the way in the max aperture is f/5.5.

[fiuman]

I get it now, thanks a lot!

[JustShootin']

Zoomed all the way out, the max aperture is f/2.6, zoomed all the way in the max aperture is f/5.5.

Uh, don't you have that backwards? Shouldn't it be: all the way in=2.6, and all the way out=5.5?

[MaxZoom]

Oops yes I fell for that trap. I'm not used to cameras loosing so much as they zoom in. Since you were zoomed in fully then f/14 may indeed be true. A (pure guess) range of f/2.6-f/11 would translate to f/5.5-f/14 when zoomed in so perhaps it is true. Maybe no one told the camera is was not supposed to be a dSLR?

[Jon]

Actually, f/2.6-f/11 at the wide end would correspond (given the f/5.5 starting point, which is 2 stops and a hair slower than f/2.6) to about f/5.5-f/22. I suspect the smallest aperture's more like f/8 at wide, so you'd get around f/14-f/16 at the tele end.

[rabidcow]

Uh, don't you have that backwards? Shouldn't it be: all the way in=2.6, and all the way out=5.5?

it is a matter of perspective I guess, from behind the camera, zooming out brings you into the wider angle and zooming in tightens the field of view...

[MaxZoom]

Actually, f/2.6-f/11 at the wide end would correspond (given the f/5.5 starting point, which is 2 stops and a hair slower than f/2.6) to about f/5.5-f/22. I suspect the smallest aperture's more like f/8 at wide, so you'd get around f/14-f/16 at the tele end.Jon you are of course right. Logically the range at wide would be f/2.6-f/8 and f/5.5-f/16 at tele if only I could do the math right like you, thanks for spotting my mistake.