Survey question for D7100 owners

I'm just curious. I see that the D7100 has a 1.3x crop mode.
That's about 15mp and almost total 2x crop, right?
How many of you use this mode, especially for wildlife/avian to get some extra "reach"?
If not, why?

Thanks,
Al

Alan: I'm a Canon user, not Nikon, but I've read and worked with clients with Nikon. The crop mode doesn't really give you any extra reach. If you took two images of a distant subject, one in crop mode and one in the regular mode, then cropped the regular mode image to the same field of view in post processing using something like Photoshop, the subject would be the same size as the subject in the crop mode. There are some other small issues like frame rate and file image size which might provide some small advantage using crop mode, but none that are earth shattering. Nikon users may chime in and tell me I'm nuts, but that is my understanding of the feature.

I have a D-7100. Here's what the User Guide (p. 63) says:

"DX (24x16): Pictures are recorded using a 23.5x15.6 mm image area. (DX format)

1.3x (18x12): Pictures are recorded in a 18.8x12.5 mm image area, producing a telephoto effect without the need to change lenses. The camera can also record more images per second during continuous shooting."

I hope this helps Al. It's a very nice camera, for sure. I'm quite pleased with mine.

--P

Preston's quote gives the reason for using crop mode, which is actually similar to the "digital zoom" feature of P&S cameras. I use it occasionally both for wildlife and close-up/macro photography. I know I can accomplish the same thing by just cropping the full image when processing, but using the crop mode helps me visualize the final image better. A minor consideration is that, if you don't anticipate making large prints and don't need the full 24MP the sensor records, using the crop mode will record the image using the center of the lens, where resolution is highest.

The D600/D610 has the same feature, allowing the choice between FX full frame and DX 1.5 crop mode.

If you use the feature frequently you can set it up as a custom function so it's quick to change from full to crop mode, rather than going through multiple steps via the Menu.

I have the D7100 and use this feature somewhat frequently - as Greg states it helps with framing the image of something you're pretty far away from and would end up cropping anyway. I utilized it this winter when photographing snowy owls because I couldn't get as close as I wanted, so instead of spending the time to crop in post-processing (and creating bigger files and have a slower fps rate) I just put it into the cropped mode and fired away. The only bad thing about the mode is when you forget to change out of it and clip wings when doing birds in flight or something similar.

Greg and Luke--good ideas!

I've only had my D7100 since late February, so I'm still negotiating the learning curve (it's a bit different from 4x5!) and have yet to use this feature. I'll have to try it. Setting it up as a custom function is a good idea.

--P

I would guess the real advantage of the crop mode are a faster frame rate and longer continuous shooting (because the buffer fills less quickly with the smaller frames)?