When you were learning simple arithmetic in school, did the teacher ever ask you to read out a simple equation like:2 x 2 = 4And if so, did you say "two times two"? Or did you say "two ex two"?
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When you were learning simple arithmetic in school, did the teacher ever ask you to read out a simple equation like:
2 x 2 = 4
And if so, did you say "two times two"? Or did you say "two ex two"?Many people on YouTube talk about cameras having, for example, a three ex lens. Why, do you think? I'm curious.
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jgmeadows@mstdn.careplied to garry@mstdn.social last edited by
@garry I shoot mainly primes, but on the rare occasion I shoot a zoom, I never really think about them in terms of ratios.
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softwaretheron@mas.toreplied to garry@mstdn.social last edited by
@garry
Two possibilities:
- I suspect because it's scaleless, in human terms. What does it mean to say it's three times bigger? So it's not intuitive to think of it in that way.
- People buy online. They never hear the actual word.Also, when you deal with binoculars (which is my referent in optics), you look at a set which are 8x42, and that's not a multiplication; it shows magnification and diameter of the lens. The useful thing is to divide not multiply. So the convention is unhelpful.
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nazani@universeodon.comreplied to garry@mstdn.social last edited by
@garry Wait till you ask someone under 30 to read Roman numerals.
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garry@mstdn.socialreplied to jgmeadows@mstdn.ca last edited by
@Jgmeadows It started with phone cameras and, I think, with Apple, Samsung, and the like. They'd advertise a lens as having a three times magnification, and I'd always wonder, "Three times what?" And they almost never mentioned the focal length, presumably because they thought that phone buyers were ignorant. And then the "three ex" thing started.
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garry@mstdn.socialreplied to nazani@universeodon.com last edited by
@Nazani I've seen teenagers trying to work out how to use an old-fashioned telephone, and asking what the finger and thumb "Phone me!" gesture is, and so on. Things change down the years, and one day no one will know what 3x used to mean. Maybe within two generations.
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garry@mstdn.socialreplied to softwaretheron@mas.to last edited by
@SoftwareTheron I think it originally meant three times the shortest focal length. So you'd get a camera with, say, a 24-70 zoom referred to as a 3x lens. Or a twin lens phone with similar focal lengths and cropping as a virtual zoom.
But I do wonder if some people don't realise that the 'x' in '3x' means the same as the 'x' in '3 x 2 = 6', i.e. 'times'.
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fembot@mstdn.socialreplied to garry@mstdn.social last edited by
@garry You would call that a '3 times' lens? I'm an old and have always known it stands for 'times' and pretty sure I've always said 'x'. Could this be a cross-cultural difference? Have you noticed more Americans saying 'x'?
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fembot@mstdn.socialreplied to garry@mstdn.social last edited by
@garry You would call that a '3 times' lens? I'm an old and have always known it stands for 'times' – pretty sure I've always said 'x'. Is this a cross-cultural thing? Like, are you noticing more Americans saying 'x'?
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garry@mstdn.socialreplied to fembot@mstdn.social last edited by
@fembot Yes, it's a "3 times" lens. But I'm far less likely to refer to it as such. I usually only use the focal length(s) when talking to other photographers. I *am* seeing Americans use this pronunciation, but I watch just as many videos by British photographers. So the population in question is YouTubers. I was wondering if 'normal' people also did this.