What Makes Larger Apertured Lenses More Expensive?

[Rheinwasser]

And what makes lenses expensive in general?

[Hans Christian | Teri]

The precision craftsmanship that goes into them. Pick up a $100 Tamron and a $2000 Canon L lens and I promise you, you will feel the difference even before you mount it on the camera.

[Sauron]

Making camera lenses is a complicated and expensive process and requires very accurate design even before it goes into production. Check out a cross section of a camera lens and see for yourself. Larger aperture ones are simply even harder to make.

[qwertywarrior]

there are many reasons for a lens to be more expensive there are many variables

one could be the quality (less impurities etc)

time taken to make lens (labor)

 etc

[Rheinwasser]

The precision craftsmanship that goes into them. Pick up a $100 Tamron and a $2000 Canon L lens and I promise you, you will feel the difference even before you mount it on the camera.

i know i feel the difference. but what actually makes it more expensive apart from build quality.

Making camera lenses is a complicated and expensive process and requires very accurate design even before it goes into production. Check out a cross section of a camera lens and see for yourself. Larger aperture ones are simply even harder to make.

yeah, but why?

[Sauron]

yeah, but why?

 

I'm not an optical engineer, it's like asking me what makes a ferrari engine more expensive to build. I don't know how it actually works to design and produce one, all I know it that it is more complicated. I have to imagine larger lenses are tougher to manifacture because of the higher chance of getting defective material that doesn't react well to treatment, but I can't be sure.

[Puppet]

Aperture (f-stop) is calculated by dividing the focal length by the diameter. So more glass = more expensive.

 

The quality of the glass used also is important at larger apertures because of things like diffraction, this can be fixed by using other materials like diamond, but you see the problem...

 

Also the build quality on these lenses are usually better because there isn't really any point in putting expensive glass in a cheap housing unless you want really angry customers.

[79wjd]

Larger aperture lenses are more expensive as more of the lens is used, and flaws in the lens become more and more apparent the larger the aperture went. Thus the need for much higher quality glass, thus the premium cost. 

[Quilamento]

I had a go on a Nikon D3 the other day, with a 24-70mm 2.8. My god, the difference. I can totally understand why they cost so much.

[GamerPatriot]

It because it's uses a bigger piece of glass. Also that front element has to be built to bend the light towards the sensor. 

 

Sony new curved sensor is about to change the game however. Why? Because their curved sensor is the same as the human eye. This means that less glass has to be used that currently straighten out the image.