S90 & G11 Maximum Aperture and Focal Length Comparison

[AdamJ]

I didn't know if this was posted anywhere else, so I apologize if it was; below is a comparison I made of the available focal lengths and maximum apertures of both the S90 and G11 compared.

-The left half of the chart is the S90, the right half is the G11.
-The first column is the actual focal length.
-The second column is the effective focal length based on the diagonal field of view (or a crop factor of 4.55x).
-The third column is the 3:2 effective focal length based on the horizontal field of view (or a crop factor of 4.737x) which is what I find most useful.
-The fourth column is the maximum available aperture at that focal length.

I note that the S90 begins at a full stop faster at 28mm. At approximately 50mm both cameras equalize at f/3.2 and remain equal until about 70mm at which the G11 pulls ahead by 1/3rd stop and stays there until at the S90's full tele of 106mm where the G11 is about 2/3rds stop faster.

Also note the S90 has 10 zoom 'steps' while the G11 has 14 'steps'.

A tip, if you are using the S90 Ring as a Zoom selector, and you turn it to the 50mm position you will have a maximum aperture of f/3.2 but if you just touch the zoom out by one 'step' to 45mm you get a 1/3rd stop of aperture at f/2.8 but only loose about 5mm.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
S90 FL	EffFL	3:2FL	S90Ap	|	G11 FL	EffFL	3:2FL	G11Ap
----------------------------------------------------------------------							
6.000	27.3	28.4	f/2.0	|	6.100	27.8	28.9	f/2.8
6.850	31.2	32.4	f/2.2	|	6.790	30.9	32.2	f/2.8
7.490	34.1	35.5	f/2.5	|	7.410	33.7	35.1	f/2.8
				|	8.110	36.9	38.4	f/3.2
8.560	38.9	40.5	f/2.8	|				
				|	8.900	40.5	42.2	f/3.2
9.640	43.9	45.7	f/2.8	|	9.780	44.5	46.3	f/3.2
10.701	48.7	50.7	f/3.2	|	10.775	49.0	51.0	f/3.2
				|	12.074	54.9	57.2	f/3.5
12.845	58.4	60.8	f/3.5	|				
				|	13.761	62.6	65.2	f/3.5
14.976	68.1	70.9	f/4.0	|				
				|	15.673	71.3	74.2	f/3.5
18.189	82.8	86.2	f/4.5	|	18.098	82.3	85.7	f/4.0
				|	21.461	97.6	101.7	f/4.0
22.500	102.4	106.6	f/4.9	|				
				|	24.978	113.6	118.3	f/4.5
				|	30.500	138.8	144.5	f/4.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[cwarburton]

Great info - thanks for the comparison.

[tigerotor77w]

Excellent -- thanks!

Someone had posted a similar chart on DPR, but it's nice to have it here as well.