1/2 vs. 1/3 Stop Increments

[ajmcdo]

Am I doing myself a favour by changing to 1/3 stop increments in C.Fn-06?
Will my 10D get upset with me for straying from the factory 1/2 stop increment setting?
I use two EF lenses at the moment: 28-135 IS and 70-200 f2.8 L IS, mostly the latter.

Any advice appreciated.

Wombat

[hmhm]

Your 10D will not get upset with you, though it may roll its eyes a bit.

Changing to 1/3 stops just gives you finer control when specifying the aperture via Av mode or shutter speed via Tv mode or both via M mode. It also applies to the granularity with which you can specify exposure compensation.

In Av or Tv mode, the "other" attribute that the camera calculates based on metering is always chosen at a much finer granularity (1/6 of a stop, I believe) regardless, this has nothing to do with your 1/2 vs 1/3 selection, so you shouldn't be under the impression that switching to 1/3 stops makes your metering more "precise".

If you often find yourself thinking "dammit! f/5.6 is too big and f/6.7 is too small, I need something in between!", then 1/3 stop increments is for you.
-harry

[agit-prop]

It will also take you longer to manually adjust from say, bulb to 1/4000 or from f/1.4 to f/22, due to a greater number of stops along the way.

Not nescesarily a big deal, just something to keep in mind