1/2 or 1/3 EV stops?

I have been experimenting with the EV comp settings and was wondering who uses 1/2 and who 1/3 stops. I seem to be getting better results with 1/2 stops, but i would have thought 1/3 stops would give me more control. Can anyone provide any examples of why they use 1/3 and the benefits?

Thanks Gareth

I use 1/3 increments and almost always under rather than over with digital unlike film days when it was the other way round.

Why? Well it's simply more control.

If photographing such as a white flower to avoid burn out or if I want the out of focus background darker I use spot metering.

I used to use 1/3 stops until I read somewhere that it is not a true setting and can actually make the image noisier. It is basically the camera altering the exposure via inbuilt software and you are better off doing it in processing.

Never heard that one. I'd love to read that article. Do you have the source please?

Image noise is such a minor issue with my KR that I've no way of telling.

Being able to fine tune exposure is however a real issue as with digital avoiding burnout (ie no data) is an important issue I think.

I also am using spot metering most of the time now. Just thought i should have mentioned this before. Have been on a steep learning curve, but the experimenting with EV i have really learned a lot.

It all depends on what you are doing and as you say experimenting is the thing to do.

I find spot metering and spot or manual focus the way with telephoto. The opposite when using my wide angle for landscape work.

Are you sure that your not getting mixed up with the ISO settings Mike?

On some makes it's claimed that they only have settings at 100ISO 200ISO 400ISO 800ISO 1600ISO etc. and calculate the others from the next one up so 500 600 700 are the same in terms of noise as 800ISO and there is no advantage in setting them under ISO sensitivity

Does this apply to Pentax?..... 1st Golden Rule of Photography... Know your equipment

Yup, should read posts properly and not skip through them

It does apply to Pentax according to the thread I read on the other forum though.

The in camera NR (which I've not tried yet) is applied in units of full stops. I've not tried either to see if 800ISI is noisier than 500ISO?

I used to use 320ISO as my limit on the K20D and always thought it wasn't as noisy as 400ISO which was just getting unacceptable

My K-5 is set to 1/3 stops which is slightly more accurate for exposure although the K-5 is quite good at letting you adjust the exposure afterwards. So maybe 1/2 stops are OK depending on whether the noise level changes.

1/3 stops here too - on my previous Pentax bodies (K10D & K20D) I always had +0.7ev permanently set but the K5 doesn't seem to have the underexposure characteristics of previous models so I now start at 0EV.

I still intend pushing the exposure as far right as I can (shooting in raw) as I like to lift shadow detail and prefer to keep noise to an absolute minimum in these areas - the increased DR of the K5 should help here too, haven't had chance to try it so far though

Simon

For things like big white birds (Sw**s) it's handy to look at the overexposed warning on the preview and reduce the exposure in manual in 1/3 stop steps until you get rid of the warning.

I've just done a quick test at 500ISO and 800ISO all noise reduction switched off to see if the noise is the same or different. Results in about half an hour

I also included 400ISO.

There is a difference between 400ISO and 800ISO... not massive but it is visible.

Between 500ISO and 800ISO I can't see any difference.... so no point in using ISO settings between FULL STOPS... i.e. Use 400ISO or 800ISO

I use 1/3 stops because all other settings work with that as well or can je set the shutterspeed and aperture to 1/2 steps?


For the ISO, i've also heard the sensor doens't go past ISO1600 or ISO3200 so there is nothing to gain when using ISO6400, it's just a processed ISO3200 (or 1600) photo.