Originally posted by code200 I looked at the D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR Lens.
Is it locked in at f2.8? If so, it's fairly wide open most of the time right?
Sorry for the "dumb question", but what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens?
---------- Post added 06-24-16 at 10:59 PM ----------
Whoops I guess it has a range of f2.8 - f22. Amazon's data was wrong on their page.
On lens descriptions like "D FA 24-70mm f/2.8ED SDM WR", just the maximum aperture is listed (f2.8) for the lens. The other extreme aperture (f16, f22, f32, etc.) is just left off. This is a constant aperture lens, which means that f2.8 is available across all the focal lengths. For example, if the lens description had an aperture range listed like "D FA 24-70mm
f/2.8-f5.6 ED SDM WR", then f2.8 would be available at 24mm and as you move the focal length, the maximum aperture the lens would be able to provide would change also - such that at 70mm, the maximum aperture would be f5.6. The constant aperture is much more desirable.
On your other question - what priority mode would most of you shoot in with this lens? - really any of them. A lot of folks like to shoot in Av or Aperture Priority. In this way, the rear thumb wheel controls the aperture (f stop), the ISO will be constant (but you can change that also by pressing the ISO button and select a new value via the rear thumb wheel), and the shutter speed will be controlled/selected automagically by the camera to give you the best exposure (as computed by the camera).
A lot of other folks use M or Manual - especially for night shooting. The reason why is that you can control all three major settings - shutter time, aperture and ISO. There are times where you want to override the camera - where you the photographer knows best. There are some limitations on this mode. For instance - the longest shutter speed is 30 seconds.
If you want to shoot a longer exposure, switch to B or Bulb. The shutter will remain open for as long as you desire - 55 seconds, 2 hours, 2 days, etc.