Olympus E-500 Aperture Issues - Help?

[AMOphotography]

Okay, I'm a semi-pro photographer and have only been doing photography seriously for about a year. I'm stumped! And I also feel rather stupid, so I certainly hope someone can help me. I've gone to the bookstore to read on the issue with no success!

When I am shooting in aperture priority, the lowest the f stop would go is 5.4! My lense goes to 3.5. Is is my ISO setting? It was at 200. I also adjusted it around all the possible ISO's to see if it changed, but it didn't. Is it my sensor? ??? I'm really confused and a bit ashamed...

Thank you for you help.

[inkista]

What lens are we talking about? And at what focal length?

Max. apertures can vary with the focal length of a lens, which is why it's often designated with two numbers. Those two numbers are not the aperture range of the lens, but the max. apertures at the smallest and largest focal lengths in the zoom range.

For example, the 14-42 f/3.5-5.6 has a max. aperture of f/3.5 @14mm, but @42mm, the max. aperture is only f/5.6.

A lot of folks misread what those numbers mean, since it's a natural assumption that the zoom range would be followed by the aperture range.

[AMOphotography]

Ah, I see. That makes sense. Thank you for the information!