Lenses in General

[Ronny]

I just wonder.
Living in the USA my lenses use for Focus distance the metric as well as ft.
How is it with the lenses made for other countries like Europe?
Both indication also or only the metric indicator?

[krispix]

As far as I know focus rings on all lenses are marked in Imperial and Metric. Just a carry-over from the old days and also for the US market.

[rpcrowe]

We in the USA are stuck with the imperial measurement system which we inherited from the British when we were colonies of Great Britain and which we never got around to changing like our British friends did many years ago. I certainly wish we had made that change but, since we didn't, I am thankful that our forefathers had the good sense to establish a decimal based money system...

However getting back to lenses, camera companies do not produce USA and foreign lens versions. When you hear of equipment spoken of as USA and Gray Market versions, this has to do with the warranty being honored in the USA, not any intrinsic difference in the equipment.

[Manfred M]

All of my lenses that have markings (and none of my newer ones have any markings) are both metric and imperial. I have seen old (1940s and 1950 era lenses) that were only imperial, these were made in the US and some German ones that were metric only.

[Tringa]

Just checked my kit lens which I bought last year and a 55mm lens, bought around 1977 (both bought in the UK) both show distances in feet and metres.

Dave

[krispix]

We in the USA are stuck with the imperial measurement system which we inherited from the British when we were colonies of Great Britain and which we never got around to changing like our British friends did many years ago. I certainly wish we had made that change but, since we didn't, I am thankful that our forefathers had the good sense to establish a decimal based money system...

However getting back to lenses, camera companies do not produce USA and foreign lens versions. When you hear of equipment spoken of as USA and Gray Market versions, this has to do with the warranty being honored in the USA, not any intrinsic difference in the equipment.

Hi Richard,
You're absolutely correct, but don't think we're particularly smart for having metricated 25 years or so ago. There are still people here who insist metric measure is 'Too complicated' and continue to use Imperial. There are even people who still use Pounds, Shillings & Pence!!!
We should have done what many of our old colonies did and make Imperial measure ILLEGAL and prosecute anyone who continues to use it after a period of adjustment.

[Val Mansfield]

Hi Richard,
You're absolutely correct, but don't think we're particularly smart for having metricated 25 years or so ago. There are still people here who insist metric measure is 'Too complicated' and continue to use Imperial. There are even people who still use Pounds, Shillings & Pence!!!
We should have done what many of our old colonies did and make Imperial measure ILLEGAL and prosecute anyone who continues to use it after a period of adjustment.

Well I lived in a couple of those old colonies and metric is not the answer to everything. The inch, the foot and the yard are much more understandable and useful measurements than the mm and the metre.

The whole metric system falls flat because it still uses the non metric time measurements; seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months. That is effectively base 60, base 60, base 24 (or 12 if you prefer) base 7, and then really odd stuff!

Also let us not forget that the US gallon is not the Imperial gallon.

[Ronny]

Well I lived in a couple of those old colonies and metric is not the answer to everything. The inch, the foot and the yard are much more understandable and useful measurements than the mm and the metre.

The whole metric system falls flat because it still uses the non metric time measurements; seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months. That is effectively base 60, base 60, base 24 (or 12 if you prefer) base 7, and then really odd stuff!

Also let us not forget that the US gallon is not the Imperial gallon.

The internet told me that the US gallon was created base on a barrel of wine and the imperial gallon base on a barrel of ale. Both parties must have been drunk, I guess. Maybe that is the reason why the economy is so screwed up.

[Polar01]

Ronny the US Gallon is base on the Queen Anne Wine Gallon which was 4 5th's of a proper gallon. An Imperial gallon is 160 oz's or 4qt's (1qt=40oz) the US gallon is 4qt's or 32oz's or 128 oz to the gallon. I have forgotten the reason that Queen Anne resized the gallon.

Allan

[krispix]

Well I lived in a couple of those old colonies and metric is not the answer to everything. The inch, the foot and the yard are much more understandable and useful measurements than the mm and the metre.

The whole metric system falls flat because it still uses the non metric time measurements; seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months. That is effectively base 60, base 60, base 24 (or 12 if you prefer) base 7, and then really odd stuff!

Also let us not forget that the US gallon is not the Imperial gallon.

Can't agree that the Metric system falls flat. Try working on plans at a scale of 1/4"/Foot. There's not a great deal we can do to metricate time because it's governed by the revolution of the planet and it's orbit round the sun. I guess we could have a day of 10 metric hours length, but we'd still end up with 365 1/4 of those every year, so we wouldn't gain much.
In UK we buy our petrol by the litre now. Only because if it was priced in gallons it would frighten us so much we'd start walking everywhere! Of course, we still measure fuel economy in MPG - Strange world.

[jimd]

Hi Richard,
You're absolutely correct, but don't think we're particularly smart for having metricated 25 years or so ago. There are still people here who insist metric measure is 'Too complicated' and continue to use Imperial. There are even people who still use Pounds, Shillings & Pence!!!
We should have done what many of our old colonies did and make Imperial measure ILLEGAL and prosecute anyone who continues to use it after a period of adjustment.

Of course you are either joking or living in 'cloud cuckoo land.' Make it illegal and prosecute. Exactly how? All it would do is give the PC police something else to make our lives a misery with.

Parking on double yellows, speeding, using a mobile phone at the wheel are all illegal and you can be prosecuted. Ever done any of those?

[Andrew76]

The inch, the foot and the yard are much more understandable and useful measurements than the mm and the metre.

How do you figure? Sorry to my American friends! Just kind of found this funny!



Interestingly enough... If I'm not mistaken, one Liter of fresh water weighs exactly one Kilogram, and it would fit into a container measuring exactly 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. Funny how that works!

[xpatUSA]

I was quite irritated when the UK converted to metric money and didn't follow the Aussies by calling it dollars and cents. Having to say "pee" or "pees" was quite galling. And all those big beautiful coins, e.g. florins, half-crowns and such disappeared into furnaces all over - good for collectors I suppose.

But having to buy cloth a yard wide by so many meters long, filling cars with with liters of gas while doing so many miles per gallon was a bit too much. My company (a gas turbine manufacturer) metricated it's newest model's manufacturing drawings without bothering to tell the Shop Floor whose machines were all Imperial with not a mm in sight!

All of which is one of the many reasons why I am now a Texas resident going by "xpatUSA" and why my camera has a mass of about 0.16 slugs and does not weight 22 Newtons.

Ted

[Colin Southern]

I have to say that for things like distances and weights, I'm happy working in either metric or imperial. Took a while, but I definately prefer metric these days though (and yes, I still remember "pounds, shillings, and pence"!).