Do two lenses with the same f-stop but different focal lengths transmit the same light to the sensor?
Asked 7/3/2013
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If you compare two lenses with the same maximum aperture, such as 25mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4, will they deliver the same amount of light to the sensor? In my case, I would move the camera so both lenses frame the same area of a light source. Which setup gives the highest light intensity on the sensor?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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Let's start with lenses at the same location, and then address the moving the longer lens farther away to get the same field of view.
Lenses at the same location
The 50mm f/1.4 lens has an effective aperture that's twice the diameter, and four times the area, of the 25mm f/1.4 lens. The 50mm will, therefore, collect four times as much light (four times as many photons) from the light source as the 25mm (assuming all other aspects of the setup are identical, and the light source fits inside the field of view of both lenses).
However, the 50mm lens will produce an image that's twice as big in each dimension as the 25mm lens. That means that the 4x as many photons will be distributed over a 4x larger area on the sensor. The result is that each lens will each record the same number of photons per pixel on the sensor. This is why photographers work with f-numbers: Photographic exposure is about keeping the number of counts per pixel in a sane range (high enough for good signal-to-noise, without exceeding the maximum value the pixel can record).
So in this setup, the question of "which gathers more light" depends on whether you're thinking on a per-pixel basis, or integrating the counts over the whole image of the light source.
Distance of lenses adjusted to give the same magnification
Now, suppose we move the 50mm lens twice as far away, so the image of the light source is the same size as with the 25mm lens.
Compared to the previous situation, the 50mm lens has an 1/r^2 loss of (1/2)^2 = 1/4, so it collects 1/4 as many photons as it did before. That means it collects the same number of photons as the 25mm lens does at half the distance. And since we've moved the distance to make the image size the same, those photons fall into the same area on the sensor as the 25mm lens at half the distance.
So, indeed, the 50mm f/1.4 lens at twice the distance as the 25mm f/1.4 lens collects the same number of photons, and images them into the same area on the sensor. So both the total number of photons, and the photons per pixel, will be the same for the two setups.
Note: There are a variety of real-world factors that could throw this equivalence off slightly. For example, AJ Henderson points out that working f-number will vary for objects not at infinity, and real lenses don't have perfect transmission.
Originally by user2138. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2138
13y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For exposure on the sensor, lenses at the same f-number are effectively the same.
At the same camera position, a 50mm f/1.4 has a larger physical aperture than a 25mm f/1.4, so it collects more total light. But it also projects a larger image, spreading that extra light over a proportionally larger sensor area. The result is the same image brightness per unit area on the sensor at the same f-stop.
If you move the camera so both lenses frame the same area of the subject, the answer is still essentially the same: for an extended subject, the same f-number gives the same sensor irradiance/exposure, assuming similar transmission and no major losses.
What changes is total light and magnification, not brightness per pixel area. In practice, small differences can come from lens transmission (T-stop), vignetting, or sensor/pixel sampling, but not from focal length alone.
So for your 25mm f/1.4 vs 50mm f/1.4 example, neither lens has an inherent advantage in sensor brightness just because of focal length, if both are used at f/1.4 and adjusted to show the same framing.
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