The G-Number: A Photometric Lens-Aperture Designation

Allen Stimson

The photometric aperture or G-number is a more realistic and accurate measure of a lens opening than the relative geometric aperture or f-number. The G-number is the ratio of the field luminance to the focal-plane illuminance. It is a single-number measurable quantity which expresses the exposure effectiveness of a lens opening taking into account all lens and mounting variables. The G-number is easy to measure, explain, use and understand. It relates camera-film exposure to sensitometric exposure, simplifies exposure calculations and the engineering of automatic exposure controlled cameras. The lens efficiency is 1/G.

Print ISSN
Published
1965-02
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J09265