Dear Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax and Every Other Camera Manufacturer,

Please give us back our full stops.

The way digital SLRs allow shutter speed and aperture control in increments of 1/3 of a stop by default makes grasping the essentials of photography rather confusing for beginners. What does an f-stop of 6.3 or 7.1 'mean'? What is the difference between a shutter speed of 1/320 or 1/400? Beginning photographers are lost, confused and frustrated.

Our humble proposal is:

Bring Back the Full Stops!

Is there anything there to prevent Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus from implementing a simple firmware update in all their cameras to allow the increments for shutter speed and aperture control to be also simply full stops? With many DSLRs ISO is already this way and with most cameras there is already an option to choose 1/2-stop increments. All that needs to be done is just to enable the option of 1-stop adjustments on all cameras!

A minor change, yet a fantastic aid to all photographers wishing to take control of their cameras!

Full stops allow you to understand what your camera is doing. They are simple. They are friendly. They are intuitive. They have been around since the beginning of photography.

We believe that a simple change like this would be met in the photography community with great enthusiasm as it would make it easier for photographers all over the world to grasp the concept of the all-important stops in a traditional, intuitive and straightforward way that analogue photographers used to enjoy for decades.

I'd like to ask you, My Favourite Camera Manufacturer, to implement this tiny but significant update in your firmwares.

Thank you!