Common lens acronyms, numbers and abbreviations used by all manufacturers.

All the numbers below are just an example, it mean also you might or will encounter different numbers on your lens, which is normal, but those acronyms are recognized internationally by all manufacturers nowadays.

• Ø77mm, this number that you can see on the front element of a lens, give you the diameter in millimetre of the size of any kind of filter you can put on it, so if you want to put a filter in front of this lens it should be a 77 millimetres filter (this information is also printed on all filters in the same way like this Ø77mm).
• 50mm, this number give you the focal length in millimetre of a lens, and in this case it is a prime lens (no zoom).
• 70-200mm, those 2 numbers give the minimum focal length (70 millimetres) and the maximum focal length (200 millimetres), it means also it's a zoom which can zoom between 70 millimetres of focal length and 200mm.
• 1:2.8 or f2.8, those two kind of equations have the same meaning, it give the maximum aperture possible of the lens (in this example it's 2.8).
• 1:3.5-5.6 or f3.5-5.6, those two kind of equation means the same thing than above, but here it's applied for a zoom lens with no constant aperture, the first number 3.5 is the maximum aperture when the zoom is at its widest focal length (max zoom out), and the second number, 5.6, is applicable for the zoom at its maximum zoom-in focal length.

If there is some standard between all the lenses manufacturers to write acronyms on a lens, like the diameter of a filter, the focal length or the maximum aperture, each lenses manufacturer have also their own way to write things describing their lenses with their own meaning about the technology they use in their lenses.

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