Nikon aperture in 1/3 stop increment

Chan Tran · Mar 6, 2013

Newer cameras allow for setting aperture in 1/3 stops. My question is specific to Nikon cameras because I believe each brand may do the round off differently and they are not mathematically exact (or correct). I can check on my cameras but I don't have any lens that is faster than f/2.8 so I don't know the larger aperture values. Again I mean the values that are specific to Nikon.

polyglot · Mar 6, 2013

What are you asking, exactly? Do you want to know the common 1/3-stop points for faster than 2.8?

bdial · Mar 6, 2013

Most Nikon lenses I am familiar with are numbered 2.8 - 2 - 1.4 or 1.2 for the larger apertures, but there is a 1.8 50mm so it's not universal, that one goes 2.8 - 1.8.

No Nikkor's I've used have click stops at anything other than full stop increments, though the lens can be set to any intermediate point.

LiamG · Mar 6, 2013

I think the question is basically: if you take say a f1.4 G series lens and spin the aperture dial on the camera, what sequence of numbers does it display, in 1/3 stops?

I don't have any newer bodies ATM, so I can't answer, and I don't really see the point, considering Nikon's mechanical aperture coupling is hardly precise by any measure.

Chan Tran · Mar 7, 2013

LiamG. Yes that is what I want to know. No I am not looking for precision but rather looking for consistent with the display of the camera. I know with some values Nikon uses the wrong round off value for example f/3.5 should really be f/3.6 so when I make a list I would want my list to be the same as that of the camera (not the corrrectly rounding off one).

Ian C · Mar 7, 2013

These are the conventional aperture numbers in 1/3 stop increments from f/1 to f/22

1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22

The numbers are a convention, not the precise calculated values. I don't know whether these match the numbers displayed by your camera.

Chan Tran · Mar 7, 2013

Ian C said:
These are the conventional aperture numbers in 1/3 stop increments from f/1 to f/22

1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22

The numbers are a convention, not the precise calculated values. I don't know whether these match the numbers displayed by your camera.

I think it is except I am not sure with the f/1.2. It could be f/1.3. I checked from 2.8 and up and your sequence is correct.

dorff · Mar 8, 2013

It is not really that much of an issue, is it? As long as you understand on your scale what it represents, who cares? Since the intermediate f-stops are already well rounded, the scale is merely an indication, not exact mathematical values. Your lenses and cameras are probably calibrated to the real values rather than the nominal scale. This applies to shutter speeds too: 1/125 is really 1/128; 1/15 is really 1/16 etc. An f-stop list in 1/3 increments from 1 up would be:

1
1.122
1.260
1.414
1.587
1.782
2
2.245
2.520
2.828
3.175
3.564
4
4.490
5.040
5.657
6.350
7.127
8
8.980
10.08
11.31
12.70
14.25
16
17.96
20.16
22.63

Chan Tran · Mar 8, 2013

dorff said:
It is not really that much of an issue, is it? As long as you understand on your scale what it represents, who cares? Since the intermediate f-stops are already well rounded, the scale is merely an indication, not exact mathematical values. Your lenses and cameras are probably calibrated to the real values rather than the nominal scale. This applies to shutter speeds too: 1/125 is really 1/128; 1/15 is really 1/16 etc. An f-stop list in 1/3 increments from 1 up would be:

1
1.122
1.260
1.414
1.587
1.782
2
2.245
2.520
2.828
3.175
3.564
4
4.490
5.040
5.657
6.350
7.127
8
8.980
10.08
11.31
12.70
14.25
16
17.96
20.16
22.63

Thanks everyone! I was looking for what displayed on Nikon cameras and not what is correct as I can easily calculate those.

oms · Mar 14, 2013

LiamG said:
I think the question is basically: if you take say a f1.4 G series lens and spin the aperture dial on the camera, what sequence of numbers does it display, in 1/3 stops?

So here's an amusing bit of somewhat-related trivia:

On Nikon cameras, you can only set the aperture in 1/3 stop (or larger) intervals using the command dial. If you set the aperture with the aperture ring on the lens, then in principle you can set any f-stop, but the camera only reports full-stop changes. However, if you fix the aperture ring at wide-open aperture on a variable aperture zoom (or macro) lens, then as you zoom (or focus) in, the camera will report the true f-stop in much finer steps. For example, on my f/4.0-5.6 "plastic fantastic" zoom, I get true apertures reported as: f/4, 4.2, 4.5, 4.8, 5, 5.3, 5.6.

PhotoJim · Mar 14, 2013

Most Nikons display third stop settings, but some show half stops, so it depends on the camera.

Nikon aperture in 1/3 stop increment

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