F Stop?

J

Jofes6

Active member
What does the F stand for? I know everything about what it does but I never knew what it stood for?
 
If you want my best guess then it would be "flash stop".

In early photography there wasn't as much concern with DOF as there was simply getting a good, clear image. They didn't have the luxury of playing with light for DOF's sake... because simply getting adequate exposure was more the challenge... and so the camera iris had to stay open for rediculous amounts of time. As cams improved and the flash became common, early photographers suddenly found themselves in the situation of having to consider aperature as much as shutter time... and my guess is that's when the term started as it related to use of a flash.

So approximating the distance at which the flash would no longer be effective, or "stop" most likely is the source of the term f-stop.


I have no idea if this is correct by the way... this is just what I think would be the most logical explanation.
 
Actually the aperture is given as f/2.8 of f/5.6 or whatever.

The actual aperture (iris) is thus Focal length devided by the relative aperture (2.8 or 5.6 or something).

F means focal length, originally. But from the above you can easily deduce why the (relative) aperture is now called "f-stop"...
 
:grin: I guess "focus" does make more sense... damn, you mean I came up with all that crap and it's wrong?
 
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