F-stops are purely geometrical, the ratio of aperture to focal length, regardless of actual light transmitted. Since all lenses absorb some portion of the light passing through them (particularly zoom lenses containing many elements), f-numbers do not accurately correlate with light transmitted. F-numbers corrected to measure light transmission rather than aperture ratio, called T-stops (for Transmission-stops), are sometimes used instead of f-stops for determining exposure.[7] A real lens set to a particular T-stop will, by definition, transmit the same amount of light as an ideal lens with 100% transmission at the corresponding f-stop.
Use of f-numbers leads to exposure inaccuracy, particularly for lenses with many elements. This is particularly problematic in cinematography, where many images are seen in rapid succession and even small changes in exposure will be noticeable. To avoid the problem, lenses used in cinematography were bench-tested individually for actual light transmission and calibrated in T-stops, allowing fixed-focal-length turret-mounted lenses to be changed without affecting the overall scene brightness due to differences in transmission for the same f-number. Many modern cinematographic lenses are factory-calibrated in T-stops. In still photography, without the need for rigorous consistency of all lenses and cameras used, slight changes in exposure are less important, and are largely masked except for the highest-absorption lenses by film and sensor exposure latitude. Source =
F-number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia