Thanks for the comments Sherman. I will look into it. However In my case that would represent 12 turns to achieve 1. My application is similar to animatronics; a human turns a knob and views a result. I am aiming high with .5degree - however extreme scenarios will benefit from it. In my case repeatability is unnecessary, and absolute positioning is irrelevant, but fine, relative adjustments are a benefit. The project is hoped to become a product; is the 32 position encoder you mentioned consumer product priced? If so, would you mind sharing the part number ad manufacturer?
Thanks,
Dan