Anyone Shoot their FF in Crop Mode for Specific Situations?

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I’m curious how this has worked for the folks that have done it. Just got my 70-200 in and started playing around with 1.6 crop mode to extend the reach a little. I know I could just crop in post, but when doing high volume shooting the crop mode could help cut down on time in post.

I shoot the R6 Mark 2, I know it crops to about 9.3 MP, which should be just fine for sports. I was thinking of setting up C1 to my sports settings for button mapping. Any limitations shooting in H+ while in crop mode?

 

[Archibald]

Reach comes from pixel density, not from crop. So whether you shoot in crop mode or crop the FF frame later, the pixels-on-subject and IQ will be the same.

The only thing is, the AF might work better on distant subjects if you are shooting in crop mode.

 

[David Berry]

Anyone shoot FF in crop mode?

No.

I cannot think of a reason for cropping the image as I take it; however, I can readily imagine ruining a shot — BIF tops the list — where I might lose the subject by 'pre-cropping' the image in camera.

For me, crop mode (versus full frame) and JPEG (versus RAW) defeat the raising d'être of owning a camera like an R5.

… David

 

[Kerro]

I don't usually shoot in crop mode but I do have a couple of EF-S lenses that will automatically change to crop mode for me. It doesn't worry me one way or the other, I still get the image in the end. Having said that though, I have been experimenting with the RF 800/11 in crop mode to see what it can do. I was trying to get Jupiter the other night but I think I need more practice. I can get it with its 4 visible moons but blur is too much of an issue at present.

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I’m thinking of using crop mode for hockey. For sports photography turning the images around quickly is important and if I know I’m going to crop a composition having a button mapped to switch to that mode at the time of capture makes post editing that much faster.

 

[Only RF]

Reach comes from pixel density, not from crop. So whether you shoot in crop mode or crop the FF frame later, the pixels-on-subject and IQ will be the same.

The only thing is, the AF might work better on distant subjects if you are shooting in crop mode.

Yes. An option for crop lenses. I tried it once with a FF lens and never seen any benefit.

 

[AKVet]

I have the 1.4 TC, but I prefer to use 1:6 crop mode instead of having to physically mount the TC. In fact, I haven't used my TC since I discovered my crop mode setting on my R5. I have assigned the 1:6 crop mode to my "pinky button" so I can access it quickly. As a wildlife photographer, sometimes I am in a situation where I don't have time to mount the TC. I have been very happy with the results. Another plus is I don't get the penalty of having the aperture stopped down when using the TC.

 

[AntonLargiader]

I have the 1.4 TC, but I prefer to use 1:6 crop mode instead of having to physically mount the TC. In fact, I haven't used my TC since I discovered my crop mode setting on my R5. I have assigned the 1:6 crop mode to my "pinky button" so I can access it quickly. As a wildlife photographer, sometimes I am in a situation where I don't have time to mount the TC. I have been very happy with the results. Another plus is I don't get the penalty of having the aperture stopped down when using the TC.

So what benefit do you get by doing that? Just smaller files?

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I think the main benefit for me would be saving time in post cropping, and being able to real time compose a shot that I know I’m going to crop anyways.

 

[AntonLargiader]

I can see that. Today I was shooting some field hockey and even with two cameras I had some shots that were obviously going to get cropped later on if they were any good. Cropping in-camera would have given me a closer starting point. However, for action I think I prefer to keep the wider view to tell me more about what's happening. Framing tightly on something that's moving fast is a challenge. For a while I tried the 300 + 1.4X on the R7... yeah, it was nice and close, but it was also hard to follow the action.

How does the size of the AF points/areas change in crop mode? Do they get re-scaled to the frame, or are they correspondingly bigger? Yeah, I know I could just try it myself... maybe tomorrow.