Don't Use Crop Mode | Ask David Bergman 

Crop mode is great depending on your camera and type of photography. For wildlife I found that using crop mode increases the speed of my autofocus system and almost doubles the number of photos per second I can shoot. Both of those are very important to certain types of wildlife photography.

WARNING ! There is sometimes a big advantage to switching to crop 1.6 mode. And this advantage is on the effectiveness of autofucus with detection of the eye. I have a Canon R5 and I do a lot of sports and sometimes you are fully 200mm on your lens and it is impossible to have eye detection on the autofocus of a player too far away in the field. Bam, you switch to 1.6 mode and suddenly you have 320mm and the eye detection on autocus works for the same player in the same place on the playing field. Conclusion, even if you can postprod your raw the 1.6 is far from being a useless function for a sports photographer because if your photo is on the front page of the newspapers you'd better have it in focus!

I use crop mode all the time. Not for photography but for video since I don't lose resolution in this case but I can get extra reach if I need to. Should be definitely be mentioned!

I have a 42MP Sony FF camera with a 600mm lens and very often use crop mode in camera to zoom into far away birds in flight photos. I know that it is the same as cropping in post, except, in camera, it helps me see the tiny subject better, it helps the camera see the subject better and focus on it and the APSC centre of the sensor has focus points edge to edge. All is good, or at least better. I often still have to crop only about 25% out of that image in post. There is nothing like a lot of megapixels for this type of shooting. And yes, I shoot RAW.

I think you may have missed one advantage of the crop mode. When shooting wildlife, when you switch to crop mode, you can actually see more closely what you are doing, and you are using only the center of the lens, and sensor. Typically, those are the sharpest areas anyway. Secondly, since the issue was reach, and you will be discarding the excess pixels anyway in post, Why not lower the strain on the amount of computer storage, and just shoot cropped? The only downside I see, is remembering to switch back to Full, when the particular moment for the needed reach has passed. It is not for every application, but it does has certain benefits in my view. I have used it with my R5, and the 100-500, with a 2x tele-convertor on board. The results were quite good, hand held - Simulating a 1600mm lens, which I do not think I could carry ! Anyway, that is my two cents worth!

Thank you David for your explanation. Of course, that I don’t use APS-c mode on my camera as I like to crop in post as well, but I needed to know about this and honestly, I couldn’t find a better photographer than you who always explain everything in full detail. Thank you again for choosing my email. Much appreciated!

Great explanation of crop mode. I tried it once on my D750 (full frame) and compared the files with ones taken with my D7200 (crop sensor). I agree that using the full sensor and cropping (if necessary) in post is the way to go.

I think there are two situations cropping the sensor does make sense: 1) For videowork: FullHD or 1080p resolution is the equal of around 2MPx and UHD/4k or 2160p is the equal of around 8MPx. So you won't have drop of resolution but get a more versatile focal range. 2) On a mirrorless camera/DSLM you're getting the full croped image shown on the rear screen and in the EVF. On DSLRs you just get a line or a square which shows you, which area will be shot, but on DSLM this area goes to fullscreen and give you an better idea what you're shooting of. For example in the macro photography this could be very helpful, especialy when you even know, that you will crop later in post to get closer to your subject.

Excellent breakdown, as usual David.

Beautifully explained, and covered all aspects of using crop mode and the like.

Would have been nice to talk about the advantage of crop mode for video shooters. As they can shoot 4K full-frame and then also shoot 4K crop-mode without a loss of quality for the video but get that extra zoom. Agreed with everything said for photos though.

After 15 years as a photographer I only realised this fact today and your video confirms this! Of course in video mode crop mode can be useful.

I shoot haircuts for Instagram- sometimes a tighter field of view and faster work flow is more important than more resolution. I like the 1.6 in body crop for getting an 85mm look out of my nifty fifty on casual shoots where the camera just happens to be along with me. I don’t always want to crop in post for the same reason I don’t like to eat dry noodles and chase it with a shot of pasta sauce, it’s just a lot nicer to do it all at once.

Great explanation as usual ! I do use 4:3 crop mode on my R6 for my school pageants, teams, homecomings n such. It’s the closest to an 8x10 crop and thats how I crop all my school images. I do wish Canon (and others) would offer a 4:5 crop instead of the 4:3.

I use crop mode because it saved me on the cost of upgrading from APS-C ( Canon 80D ) to full frame ( Canon R6 ). I did buy the RF 85mm 2.0 at the same time but crop mode allowed me to use my existing APS-C glass while slowly migrating to RF L lenses. Yes I do way more zooming with my feet & framing can be challenging at times, but for me it's an acceptable alternative to explaining to my why wife why I'm spending $1300 -$2600 every every 6 months on a lens ( you're buying another lens?! why don't you just use your iPhone! )

Great video. So many people think this mode is somehow increasing pixel density to extend their 'reach'. But as you say it is just cropping. Since an APSc camera probably has a higher pixel density than a full frame, image scale is actually larger (more pixels per duck). But the pixel density doesn't change on a FF by setting it to crop mode, so it is only a field of view crop. No extra 'reach'.

Great discussion on the crop mode and I agree with you that having 1.6x doesn't gives you the same depth of view! Thanks David!

Years ago I bought the sigma 18 35 1.8 for my 7d mkii and absolutely loved it. I was hoping to crop on the r6 and see how it will work.

I came here when I searched for crop mode or not, for 4K video on a 90D... P.s. I knew all you talked about here, and I agree 100%. Never seen ANY advantages for me shoting still in crop mode (on my 5DsR). Always I joy to watch your videos, even when I know it all before ;-)

Nice video David. Appreciate it! I sometimes use DX mode in my Full Frame Nikon with a Prime when I go Street Photography; in some frame you need that extra closeness to your subject not going too close. Comes out somewhat handy.

As a wedding and event photographer I have found some usefulness for crop mode on my Canon R5. Smaller file sizes: At a wedding, there are situations and parts of the day when I do not need the huge files that my camera produces, even when using cRAW format, my camera makes files that are quite heavy… and crop mode makes a smaller file, so in general it’s a convenient way to produce some smaller sized files when covering cocktail hour and dancing, saving some hard drive space. Crop mode turns each lens I’m carrying into two different lenses: in these situations that I use crop mode, I have found that my ultra-wide angle zoom 15-35mm f2.8 can ‘feel like’ I’m using a standard zoom like a 24-70… so that allows me to omit the 24-70 from my kit, lightening up my camera bag and lessening my investment into lenses, and still have access to a similar field of view. That is very useful and I use it as a general ‘standard’ zoom - in practice it is like having a 24-56mm f/4 lens which is perfect for cocktail hour ‘grip n grin’ photos, with the ultra wide angle being there when I truly need it. It also gives me a bit of extra reach with my 85mm lens, which allows me to quickly ‘punch in’ to make that lens behave similarly to a 135mm lens - thus lightening up my bag considerably… I really only need a 15-35 and an 85 to cover most of the focal ranges that I need for just about any event now, since they double as 24-56 and 135, it’s like carrying four lenses when I only have those two lenses (just sacrificing a stop of depth of field or slightly less-blurry backgrounds) this is very useful for events. Overall, there are admittedly some drawbacks to using crop mode, I have found that high ISO photos look worse and obviously it could theoretically be better to crop into images in post, but sometimes it’s saving me a lot of time and lightening up my bag and my investment in lenses, so I’ll continue using it in those situations

I do not expect more reach in crop mode and that's not why I use it -- and I do use it and will continue to do so. I can refine my focus since I can see better where my focus point is, my FPS is (slightly) faster, I can take and store more shots on my SD card and the icing on the cake: my buffer clears *MUCH* faster. If I know I'm going to be cropping the shot in post - why NOT crop in camera? I lose nothing - not even the ability to refine the crop in post since I can see right there in the viewfinder whether the composition works or not. In addition to the already listed benefits my storage requirements after-the-fact drop dramatically and on my A7RIV that's something to consider.

I just borrowed an APS-C lens to use with a full frame camera. I suppose sometimes it's useful to turn of crop mode even then, since the crop you do in post to get rid of the black edges might not have to be as tight as the crop the camera would do - especially if you're making an image 1x1 square, or any image where the subject doesn't get much into the corners or the short edges of the sensor and you could replace that part of the background in post. Might be nice if the camera had the option to do both versions at once - or create an image with metadata that says how much it should be cropped by default to lose the black corners but preserves the data from the entire sensor so you can uncrop it in post.

I use crop mode on my R5 when I use an old EF APS-c Lens. I use it for wide angle shots when I don't want to bring out my bulbous wide angle lens that are separable to impact due to the front glass element. I bought the APS-c lens used for cheap used for the purpose of shooting while rocks and dirt could be flying around. I also like that it makes small files.

I recently switched from a APS-C Nikon D90 to the EOS R6 Mark II. From what I have seen so far I get the same results shooting the R6 in crop mode as I did with the D90. The thing to keep in mind it the D90 was 12 MP and now I am shooting with a camera with a 24.2 MP sensor.

Very useful thanks

Excellent analysis!

One advantage to using crop mode on a full frame camera is high speed frame rate would be faster with more frames processed before the buffer gets full. In bird or sports photography, frame rate speed is paramount. Cropping from a 45MP to 27 MP file will enable you to get the shot you wouldn't get if your frame rate is slower or your buffer slows down your camera.

What David somewhat brushes over is that while shooting, via an EVF... if you punch in let's say via Crop Mode from 135mm to 202mm (on Sony), it completely changes your entire creative view and your composition. Just test it out... the 202 vision will lead to completely diff images as opposed to shooting in 135 vision and then cropping in post. So there's huge value in using crop-mode. He also brushes over that when using let's say an a7R III, you only go down to 19MP when you crop in. That's more than enough ofc. I'm a big time crop mode user and the title of this video is for click bait sadly.... there are tradeoffs on both sides.

Thank you David for your video. Since the Nikon Super Coolscan 800 ED Scanner took so long to digitize 35mm slides, we tried using our Canon R5 with and a RF 100mm f2.8 macro lens and a ND filter to digitize old 35mm slides. I had modified our old Kodak Medalist II Carousel Projector to speed up the operation. As you know, the Halogen lights run hot but give us 100 CRI at around 3300K. My issue was that I could not fill the entire full frame area even when the macro lens was nearly touching the projector (absent the projector's lens). Consequently, I switched to crop mode on the R5. If there is another way to achieve what we are trying to do with our R5, please do not hesitate to tell us. Thank you!

I went in the opposite direction. I turned OFF auto DX Crop detection in my D700 and used my cheap 35mm f1.8DX on full frame for a while as I didn't have a full frame 35mm lens. There are only a few DX lenses with a big enough image circle to do it. The results were not perfect but they were very acceptable. The 35 f1.8DX is very sharp in the centre - and that's the bit that counts for people/portrait shots. Good cheap fix for casual low-light semi-wide people shots.

This was really interesting to hear your wisdom on crop mode. On a slight tangent it also reminds me about the Canon 90D which has 36 megapixels which can allow for decent size images cropped in post with that extra room to play with. I still cant decide to stick with apsc and update to canon 90d or go fuill frame as apart from extra cost my fear is I wont see a clear and obbvious improvement in image quality, sharpness, dynamic range and better bokeh that are the main reasons proposed for going full frame.

Some of my older manual lenses require crop mode because the full sensor doesn’t match the old lens. Without crop mode you see the ring in the view finder

I can tell you one particular reason that its very useful, shooting surf photography when there are a ton of people in the water all wearing black wetsuits and your trying to find your buddy or a particular person/client it gets really dificult to find them if you don’t have enough reach to zoom up to identify the person crop mode can be a life saver.

On the R5 I crop in more on the already 1.6 cropped image and still get bangers.

I am not sure you shoot wildlife. So I'll list the small number of advantages for you. 1) The target looks bigger in the viewfinder, that makes it easier to identify and ensure you are taking a picture of the right bird, in a flock for example. 2) The eye autofocus (R5) finds it much easier to find the eye when the target is bigger on the sensor than if it is smaller. 3) In cropped mode, it is commonly reported that the autofocus is snappier and stickier in crop mode. 4) Macro shooters often like using crop mode to fill the frame and so it gives a longer working distance (the space between your lens and the target). This can be important for things like skittish butterflies.

Dont see the link in the description for the bokeh on crop sensors. Great question. Thorough answer. 👍🏻 I used it a couple of times but noticed the raw was full so i turned the feature off. Helps a little to envision square or 16x9 video composition but not that useful overall.

Crop mode made upgrading from the Sony A6400 w/ 5 aps-c lens to the full frame Sony A74 a whole lot easier and reasonable. I can use my aps-c lens as I transition to ff lenses and avoid a fire sale in order to restock.

Perfect !!!👍👍👍👍 I am having one doubt regarding new generation mirrorlesss camera and point and shoot fix lens camera...... What's the difference is one is with interchangeable lens and other without. Both are mirrorless and have evf Exposing technology is bit similar. Nodoubt one is having advance features and other with basic one. I am very much confused, so please add some light on it Sir!!

Thanks David I just took a look and your right.I changed to the full size LLens 24-7 f2.8 and relized on my R6 with a 10-22 aps-c the files are only 1.7mp where using full size lens 24-70 f2.8 it goes up to 27mb. For me that is a big difference.

perfect i had exactly the same question :)

Depends for me in the situation but at the end of the day my client wont be able to tell the difference. Great video explaining!

Thanks for your great videos ! Please educate me on the following: Certain cameras use crop when you change format - from 1080p to 4k or again from 4k 30p to 4k 60p (for video). How does this impact quality or what does this affect? Thanks

I use crop mode on occasion such as when I have my 35mm and shooting weddings. There are times where I would like to have something close to a 50mm when my other body would have and I would need a different lens say like a 70-200 or 85 etc. So there are times I want that little extra reach but can’t get closer and trying to get the image I want closer to in camera so I don’t have to try and remember 100s of images later to crop my image. So I do feel it’s useful on occasion 😁

Good explanation

Hi David, I came across this video because I'm thinking of making a move from an older Sony APS-C camera (A6000) to full-frame on a tight budget. I have a decent set of Sony and Sigma APS-C lenses, and I'm considering buying a Sony A7R4 or A7R5 (when it's released) to use with the current lenses until I can afford to jump into FF lenses. The A6000 has a 24MP sensor, while the A7R's will likely both be the same 61MP. Used in crop mode, the A7R's will be equivalent to about 27MP, plus they'll have superior focusing and a much upgraded feature set. Lastly, when I dive into FF lenses, I'll already have an excellent camera ready for them. Thoughts?

Thank you for a clear informative explanation, i used a cropped sensor camera for a wildlife, birds shooting, which gives me extra reach, im planning on getting Nikon Z6 and use it for both cropped and full frame, this way i dont need another camera, i think you explained it clearly, do you have any other suggestions. Thanks again.

David, I appreciate your video. It is very helpful and has answered a lot of my questions. I recently bought a full frame camera. My problem is I own 6 lenses and only 1 is a full frame lens. My full frame lens is a 50mm. I have a 35mm lens that is supposed to be good for crop sensor and full frame, but it's a Yungnuo that my Daughter gave me as a Christmas present. It takes pretty good pictures, but my Nikon 35mm DX lens takes better images. Besides, shooting in 35mm crop mode is basically the same as shooting in 50mm full frame, so I might as well leave the crop sensor 35mm lenses in my other bag. So I guess until I can build up my lens collection I'll be forced to shoot a lot of pictures in crop mode.

My understanding is there is another advantage of using crop mode on some cameras. For instance, if your autofocus points don't cover the entire size of the full sensor , as in A7RV, those points cover 93% vertical and 86% horizontal of the sensor. But in crop mode, since it uses far less of the sensor, it is my understanding that you now get 100% coverage of autofocus points to the part of the sensor you are using in crop mode, improving autofocus. I would assume you would see the same benefit on any other full frame camera that doesn't have full coverage of autofocus points to sensor size.

Great advice!

Weight of the longer lens is also an issue. For example, a 55-210 Sony crop lens is 4.25" long and weighs 0.75 lbs whereas the lightest 200mm FF zoom would be a Tamron 70-180mm at 7" long and 1.8 lbs (the Sony f/4 is even heavier).

Great video! I only use crop mode for video on Sony because I can get the extra reach without sacrificing IQ. Great option if you have a wide prime on a tripod...

Interesting story about 1:1 framing. Several years ago I was archiving my parents' slides from waaaay back. In one box of my mom's travels, I found several hundred color 35mm slides that were originally shot and mounted as 1:1 square images. Now, like many here, I cut my photographic teeth on 35mm film and D-76 developer, but I didn't know that square shooting was a thing outside of medium format; I'm thinking that maybe her camera had a 1:1/2:3 selectable option, because both formats were mixed in together. Apparently back in the 60s, they were shooting Instagram before its inventor was even a gleam in the eye.

I see this crop mode function beneficial with the EFS fish eye lens I mistakenly bought some time ago. My question is, if I set it in RAW to shoot with the crop mode, how does it look like in your editing software?

The fact that you can choose to use the crop factor on a full frame lens is just one more reason to get the full frame. Crop and full frame sensors have there place and to be able to have both is such a great benefit.

i recently picked up the old 10-18mm for my FX3, it being an APS-C lens that only shows vignetting from 10-12mm, you can use it FF mode. I don't recall the FX3 automatically putting it in APS-C mode, bc I don't remember having to change it. But I dunno. Wish more APSC lenses worked like that, FF's so pricey once you start a real collection

Listen. With 1.6 crop mode turned on, the focus point allows me to achieve *sharper* focus on the object of intention. In FULL, I can't always get what I'm wanting to be IN focus, in focus. In the field, I can see in 1.6 that it IS in focus.

I use crop mode on my Canon RP for wildlife all the time. Yes you lose resolution (10mp down from 26mp) but its better for me than downing thousands of $ for a 500mm or 600 prime lens. The pros of 10mp images are a faster buffer and smaller file sizes for post & transferring.

Using the crop mode not only allows you to see a small subject with some distance better, but more importantly, it allows "the camera" to see "and focus on the eye" of that subject better ! Sure, I'd rather just be close enough that I can fill the frame with that subject, and be getting the full 45 mp's ! But most often, this is not possible. In fact, more often than not "even in the crop mode" I end up having to crop a bit more in post. although not much cropping is really possible at that point. Oh, I guess I should have said, I shoot birds 95% of the time nowadays :)

I do use crop mode every so often. It helps to get reach if needed. Sure I could crop later, but my guess would be losing mp either way? I do prefer to get it right in camera, so cuts down on editing later (pun not intended!) Either way, it's just a useful thing to have :-)

Just to be clear, this should only apply when shooting photos. Video mode with modern sensors doesn't work exactly that way most of the time. Crop mode can give you sharper video than full frame ones! It depends how the processing is done

Crop mode for corporate video is very important. Being able to crop in on the speaker on stage for live video or for hassle free editing in post. It’s also useful for wedding video for the same reasons. I’m still photo, I’d just rather have the raw file and crop.

What about using crop mode with macro photography? Some photographers say crop mode gives the extra reach if they don’t have a 2:1-5:1 magnification, depending in the lens they use.

excellent video. You have one of the best channels on youtube

How about sometimes shooting pano to get different aspect ratios for landscape or reality images. Increases resolution as well. Won’t always work.

surf photographer. i have a gm 100 - 400mm and want to purchase a a7r4 but not buy another lens. would you recommend crop mode to bring it to a 600 or shoot full and buy a 1.4x zoom adaptor

Nice information

The only real benefit I can see to using crop mode (unless no post process and shoting jpegs) would be smaller files = faster buffer emptying.

H! Sometimes when the birds are too far away crop mode helps the eye recognition autofocus. Its the only time I use it.

When using 1.6x crop mode ... Does it in some way affect the amount of light that camera can take ? Say, in extreme low light situation, will it be worse for 1.6 mode ? (I heard that full frame are generally better than crop cameras in low light, but will this still be true when we use 1.6 mode on SAME camera ?)

Hi, I know this video is kind of old, but I only saw it now... When you say, you basically lose a bit of the full frame shallow depth of field, this would be a huge advantage for the use when shooting indoor events like ballet or stage play where you need low light performance (best with a wide open lens from rather far away (if you can shoot F2.8/180mm (Tamron lens) with the A7Riii, often the depth of field is not putting the full person (sometimes even face) in focus, even if the eyes are sharp (cropping is still needed to display the correct moment anyhow). In such cases getting the equivalent of maybe a F4 in depth of field, while catching the full amount of light on the used area of the image finally explains while those 18MP images sometimes look sharper ... I always thought that hte AF just works better, due to the smaller FOV ... am I missing a point here?

I understanding using the an APSC lens on a full frame camera lowers the JPEG image quality. However, what about the RAW image quality?

Will iso performance on the crop mode of FF camera be better than APS-C cameras?

So what your saying is, a longer focal length lense will give the better subject/background separation w/better bokeh and a better compressed image vs getting a d500 and using my 70-200 mm simulating as a 300 f2.8

David, re. the Canon R6, can you comment on the quality of 4K Video in Movie Cropping mode? Reason is I have an 80D with an 18-135mm EF-S lens that has a PZ-E1 Power Zoom adapter. I love that lens! But will the 4K look bad compared with the 4K oversampled from 5.1K using say the RF 24-105mm kit lens, apart from the fact that that RF glass is better?

I use crop mode a lot, even on 20MP cameras. It helps with framing the subject, reduces the amount of processing, and saves on card and buffer space. Obviously, I only use crop mode when the subject is farther away than my lens can zoom into. I sometimes prefer this over using a TC, as the TC will eat at least one stop of light, directly compromising either ISO or aperture.

One advantage of crop mode not mentioned is subject acquisition. In bird photography, especially with very small birds (hummingbirds, buntings, etc.), getting that subject in focus with a cluttered background is easier. At a 1.6 crop, you have eliminated much of the clutter and the camera acquires focus more rapidly. Also, a longer lens or using a teleconverter to get the same effect as the crop works against you (image quality) in low light where higher iso and slower shutter speeds might be needed. I find, with my R5, that the 17mp is fine and I appreciate the faster subject acquisition, lower iso, and faster shutter available. I use FULL for most things but the 1.6 crop is just a ready tool in limited situations.

if you have to deliver SOOC JPEGs that will go straight for printing, crop mode can be very helpful.. In fact crop mode was the reason I moved from Canon to Nikon..not even 5dm4 had crop mode..

My R5 has the crop ratio grayed out .I cannot change aspect ratio What is the problem? How to fix it?

as a mixed system shooter I use the crop mode to put my favorite aps lenses on my a7r be cause at 32 megapixel I’m still getting around 22 megapixels after crop the af works better ik old camera and the 18-35 is just so much sharper and more light weight than my 24-70L and from 28-35 I only have to crop in 1.2 times so I’m fine with Less image size for the sharper lighter lenses

Kind of a bad ideology, not to use it, it’s another tool in your belt. There’s tons of reasons you may need crop mode out in the field and still using RAW. Longer reach sure, capturing candids, street photography, any of those times where moving closer to capture or frame the shot just isn’t an option. Most any camera that has crop mode is good enough for prints or what most people are doing posting online. Use it and don’t worry about it, just understand what is happening.

Crop mode can be useful. Depending on the customers need. I use a Nikon Z7ii, Customer wanted long series shot continually, in RAW., But did not need 45 MP. Full resolution gave god amount of frames and then a stop for buffer full, writing to the card (XQD). Crop mode gave smaller files, but the possibility to shoot continually.

The only time I would use crop mode is if I am covering an event / sport and I am sending the images straight off to a client for immediate publication without the chance to crop in post processing. I'd have a dedicated button set up to turn it on and off to give me the flexibility if I needed it.

Its's not quite true that APS-C mode and software cropping give the same final image. One of the difference is exposure. If there are significant differences in lighting between the APS-C area and the full frame area. When switched to crop mode, the camera only meters the APS-C portion of the frame. If you have a bright back light that would get cropped out in APS-C mode, that will make a significant difference in exposure between the two modes. Just think about environmental portrait on a lake.

I have been thinking about getting an R7, but am concerned over IQ etc. Using crop mode on my R5 I get the same image, just 17.3mp as opposed to 32mp. But as the sensor is better quality, and 17mp is pretty good anyway does it make any sense to get an APSC camera?

Main question was Not addressed. Most cameras now a days are APS-C sensor. Not Full Sensor. With Pentax K3 & 18-85 D lens, should one apply crop mode of 1.3 in Camera? How will it affect overall resolution & quality of photo?

1.6 factor for Canon cameras (only), when all other manufacturers have their APS-C sensors where a 1.5 conversion factor must be used to "understand" the lens focal range in the 35mm (or "full-frame", or 24x36) world of optics. Because, as everyone knows (or should know), Canon always does differently... for good or bad (reasons and results). PS1 : different factors must be used when the camera has another sensor size, such as "medium format" (larger sensors, but nearly each manufacturer have their own with differents dimensions), "one inch", smartphone, action cameras (most use sub-one inch sensors), 360 and/or VR capture cameras (best behaviour here is to dive into the technical specifications and user's manual, for there's practically no rule), security appliances cameras, photo chamber cameras (or camera chambers, or camera oscura), etc. And it has became a common rule to give, for all lenses fitted on non-35mm (or non-full-frame, or non-24x36) sensors, the equivalent focal range in the 35mm world of optics. But too many manufacturers "forget" to mention this as an equivalent, creating confusion in users minds. PS2 : using the "crop mode" (or function) also allows the sensor to process less informations and data, making for a faster processing procedure globally. It may seem useless, but it really is in video (mostly), for the data volume can be huge (to an extend photographers not filming can hardly understand) as a second of film is compose of 24 or 25 or 30 or 48 or 50 or 60 (etc. up to 12000 for scientific cameras) images per second, depending on the type of final result you want and the video standard you use (NTSC in North America, West of South America, Japan, a few Asian countries - PAL in most other countries - SECAM being abandonned more and more). With sensors used in oversampling capture modes, this crop can be done without quality loss in video up to a factor of 2 sometimes (exemple with the Sony A7IV, with built-in 7K capable 33 Mpix sensor). This is used a lot by manufacturers to minimize the burden on processors and circuitry, and reduce electric drainage, heat build-up, digital artefacts, reduction in chroma range and/or dynamic range, etc. In such cases of oversampling sensors, either you have no choice but used it, or you have the choice and should use it for your images will keep their quality no matter the crop factor applied. Just have a think...

Man that lens of yours is giga sharp for HD. I thought this was shot in 8k

I'm with ya, David. I honestly can't understand why a person would willingly 'lose' those extra MPs in camera when you can always have them and crop in post. Ya never know; you might just want to tinker with the image and need some of those extra pixels for a more creative crop later.

full frame Sony cameras have more then enough pixels for doing crop pictures. If you've been overseas in some countries and you want to do prints they have no editing you can do wysiwyg! Cropping can bring the image closer to a shy subject .

and you need shorter shutter speed with crop mode in camera cause of the longer focal lense in opposite to crop it in post.

The resolution of a 4K screen is 3840x2160 pixels -> 8.3 megapixels. Using APS-C mode on a Sony full-frame sensor of 24 megapixels results in an image size of 10.66 pixels - so why not use crop mode?

Not true the 5ds and 5dsr capture the full image even in 1.6 cropped mode only the jpeg ends up with the 1.6 applied. When you being the raw file to LR or DPP it has the full 50million pixels captured with a box around the crop you chose.

by using cropped mode on full frame do you loose quality or light please

How about ISO? On cropping does ISO noise more noticeable?

Never thought to ask this question..

Soo if it is the same as cropping in post, does that mean that the low light performace is also not affected by the crop mode? If that is the case, is it true then that any EF-S lense will have much better low light performace when used on a full-frame camera than on a crop camera, even in crop mode?? That's sounds too good to be true imo. But I just can't understand the science behind it... it only makes sense if it's the same as croppping in post. I really don't understand it :( Wouldn't using smaller portion of the sensor result in worse low light performace?

I did use cropped a few times to see how it affected the image and founded I prefer to use the senor as is. how much affect on the image I want to control so i know I have room to crop it the way I want too. So what does the teleconverter affect on a full frame and APC senor when using one

The one thing I used crop mode was for my own passport photo. The instructions said you weren't allowed to crop (or postprocess in any other way) the picture before uploading and the lens I wanted to use wasn't long enough to fill the frame with my background. I figured use crop didn't count as cropping. Would have been much simpler if either they just allowed cropping or ignored the instruction and cropped it anyway. Not sure why they have that rule.

Crop mode in FF camer is fine and great option so I don’t see any problem with it. 90 % of the people do not need 4k for youtube.