EOS 7D - how heavily can you crop? (1 Viewer)

Winterdune · Oct 2, 2012

Hi all,

I am thinking about changing from a micro four thirds camera to a DSLR setup, mainly for birds in flight, which the micro 4/3 gear does not manage very well. Although I know that a DSLR will produce many more keepers of flying birds, I'd also like to know how much better big crops would be compared to my gear.

Attached is an uncropped and then heavily cropped version of the same pic. Would the detail be considerably better with a good DSLR than this, for record shots of flyover passerines? If anyone can post comparable images with such a heavy crop I'd be very grateful.

Many thanks
Sean

Winterdune · Oct 2, 2012

Maybe I should have posted in the Canon forum???
Sean

Hor Kee · Oct 2, 2012

I've done similarly heavy crops of a 600D (same sensor as the 7D). should not be much of a problem.

Roy C · Oct 3, 2012

Here are a couple of examples of heavy cropping with the 7D.

Roy C · Oct 3, 2012

And a couple more from the 40D. Of course the lens you are using counts for a lot - all these pics were with the Canon 400/5.6 (handheld)

Dave Williams · Oct 3, 2012

The Godwit shot is very impressive Roy.

Roy C · Oct 3, 2012

Sean,here is another example of flyers with the 7D - this is about a 5MP crop from the original 18MP's and again taken with the 400/5.6 (I have removed a few oof birds and some from the edge of the frame)

Winterdune · Oct 3, 2012

That's great - thanks Roy. I wonder - do you have anything as far away as the pied wag in my original? I know it is not the sort of shot you'd generally keep but I'd be really interested to compare. Mine was taken with the 16MP Panasonic GH2, by the way.
Cheers
Sean

postcardcv · Oct 3, 2012

If you want Sean I can email you some full res 7D files so you can see what they are like, or if you want to meet up and take some for yourself. As for how croppable they are, it will depend a lot on the conditions and also the lens used. I found that the G3 that I had before was good but didn't have the fine detail that I get with the Canons. Also the 7D will show it's quality in lower light conditions, this is when I found that the G3 really suffered.

Roy C · Oct 3, 2012

seanofford said:
I wonder - do you have anything as far away as the pied wag in my original? I know it is not the sort of shot you'd generally keep but I'd be really interested to compare. Mine was taken with the 16MP Panasonic GH2, by the way.
Cheers
Sean

No, Nothing further away really Sean, like you say for anything a lot smaller in the frame I would probably delete. Having said that I have managed to pull out this shot which was taken with stacked 1.4x and 2x tc attached to a 300/2.8 lens (840mm)on the 7D. Goodness knows how far away I was but it gives you an idea I suppose although the IQ is obviously very poor.

Winterdune · Oct 3, 2012

Thanks Roy and Peter. Peter I might well take you up on your offer to meet, and if you are able to email me a full rez 7d image with a distant bird (ideally in flight) I'd love to see it. I'll pm you.
Thanks
Sean

Roy C · Oct 4, 2012

Sean, IMHO the lens is going to be more important than the Camera for what you are looking to do - only the very best lenses will retain detail when cropping mega heavily. Just a thought before you splash out any cash on a Camera.

Winterdune · Oct 4, 2012

Hi Roy,

Thanks for that - agreed! I will only be able to afford the 400 f5.6, but in fact, having looked at the detail on the photo you sent me I think there is not really a lot in it regarding how much more there is in your shot compared to mine with the GH2. So it basically boils down to speed and accuracy of tracking focus, where I already know the 7D wins hands down compared to any micro 43 camera. Low light will also be another advantage. Now all I have to do is sell the GH2 and 100-300 lens!

Thanks very much for your help...
Sean

jonahs · Oct 6, 2012

The 7d is a good camera except in bad light and when cropping heavily, If you can afford it I would go for Eos 1dmk3 or the newer Eos 5dmk3 full frame. Good luck

BodyResults · Oct 6, 2012

jonahs said:
The 7d is a good camera except in bad light and when cropping heavily, If you can afford it I would go for Eos 1dmk3 or the newer Eos 5dmk3 full frame. Good luck

Jonah, it would seem to imply from your statement above that if you have to crop very much in the 7D with higher ISO that you would be better using a 1D3 or 5D3. This scenarios is what people call a focal limited scenario and the 7D works extremely well in this situation. If you try a 1D3 from the same distance you are going to be left with so little pixels on subject that the image will be far worse than the 7D.

Roy C · Oct 6, 2012

BodyResults said:
Jonah, it would seem to imply from your statement above that if you have to crop very much in the 7D with higher ISO that you would be better using a 1D3 or 5D3. This scenarios is what people call a focal limited scenario and the 7D works extremely well in this situation. If you try a 1D3 from the same distance you are going to be left with so little pixels on subject that the image will be far worse than the 7D.

I agree with this :t: - the 1D3 is is great unless you are reach limited but as soon as you have to crop to give the same FOV as the 7D then the 7D will yield more detail. Also the advantage the 1D3 had in noise levels will be evaporated by the cropping.
The 7D is a very under estimated Camera IMO maybe because the high density pixel level mean you have to get things right when shooting.

EOS 7D - how heavily can you crop? (1 Viewer)

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