Anyone have views on 1/2 EV steps (Nikon D7000 & any other cameras that have option)

[crisscross]

I noticed this option while thinking about using Bracketing & gave it a whirl today. Anyone else tried it and/or have any views what ads/disads it might have over normal 1/3 EV steps?

I think I like the idea; after my 1st 2.5 months use of D7000, I find the dynamic range of the camera is a totally different phenomenon from previous D80. I generally shoot Manual so as to have no or just a trace of highlights in the playback. It tucks an awful lot of info into the dark bits easily recoverable using D-Lighting (in Capture NX2).

I don't like automation eg the auto ISO and feel that user settings need re-setting for each outing, and shooting mostly landscape where exposure range between sky and land and into sun and away from it is so high, its nice to change things manually but fast.

[herbert]

Hi Chris,

The nice thing about 1/2 stops is that they are easier to do the exposure maths in your head. However most people would do all the exposure maths in 1 stop intervals because that is even easier (double ISO, half shutter, etc). I have set my camera to use only single stop ISO increments for this reason (100, 200, 400, etc).

I leave my camera on 1/3 stop increments for aperture & shutter because it allows more fine tuning after I have done my main jumping around to get the exposure about right.

Alex

[William W]

A lot of it goes to what you first learnt.

Thirds are much more “normal” for me: way easier to compute for mental arithmetic and quickly.
Having been brought up with ASA64, ASA160 . . . etc . . . and lenses with Max Apertures at Third Stops

Half stops just do my head in: I actually have to waste time thinking about it: too late - the shot has gone . . .

If you haven’t learnt either set of increments so strongly yet such that it is second nature to you - then I suggest you learn third stops.

Third Stops is the way the majority (all?) of modern digital cameras dissect their ISO: it seems silly to me, to be using half stop logic and thinking for Aperture and Shutter Speed.

WW

[inkista]

My problem with half-stops is the way the needle on the meter "lights up" in the viewfinder kind of confuses me with two indictors lighting up together, since the marks are on the thirds. But I like using half stops if I'm using an old adapted manual focus lens that has them on the aperture ring (my Summicron Rs do this).

My ISO, though, is typically set to full stops, because I shoot with Canons, and the partial stop ISO settings are done by digital pushing/pulling in camera, and I can never remember which direction is pulled (theoretically less noise) and which is pushed (theoretically more noise) for which models (although I hear now that it's mostly the 160 multiples that are pulled), so I just stay with the whole stops.

[William W]

My problem with half-stops is the way the needle on the meter "lights up" in the viewfinder kind of confuses me with two indictors lighting up together, since the marks are on the thirds.

That does my head in too.

I can never remember which direction is pulled (theoretically less noise) and which is pushed (theoretically more noise) for which models (although I hear now that it's mostly the 160 multiples that are pulled), so I just stay with the whole stops.

That did my head in for a while and then I decided that if I really needed the Tv, then to hell with the noise, although yes, I avoid both ISO1000 and ISO2000, I don’t like those two, preferring either ISO1250 and ISO2500.

WW

[crisscross]

thank you all for thoughts so far

On D7000 there is not a corresponding 1/2EV step on ISO, but I think this would only matter if one had left a high ISO setting by mistake & wanted to take the exposure up in clicks corresponding to taking ISO down.

I haven't 'learnt' either - it is usually a matter of getting 'somewhere near' fast and I am not such a perfectionist that 1/6EV out would upset me, even if there is such a thing as perfect exposure, which I doubt. It would only exist on shots where the histo exactly matches the 0-255 diagram width and my experience is that it more normally is way short or way over

[William W]

Perhaps I was not clear enough

For me it’s not so much about perfect exposure or being 1/6EV out.

It’s about the evaluation (mental arithmetic) being really fast – I have to “think about” the numbers at ½ stops – I don’t have to think about any numbers at third stops, for Aperture ISO and Shutter Speed – those numbers are MEANINGFUL and REPRESENTATIVE or EQUAL to one and another, without taking up thinking time.

Like knowing where the Brake, Clutch and Accelerator are (specifically) such that the double shuffle is perfect, without thinking about where to place the heel and toe – exactly to perform the manoeuvre.

WW