640 x 480 Crop Mode

[David Rice]

Example of the 60D 640 x 480 Crop Mode. Useful for extreme telephoto or extreme close-ups.

60D 640 x 480 Crop Mode on Vimeo

[Zhong Cheung]

I'm thinking of using this mode to film my friend's wedding proposal from far away, since the 60D doesn't have digital zoom like the T3i or GH2. However, it seems like this 60D crop mode only has 60fps?

[David Rice]

it seems like this 60D crop mode only has 60fps? Yes, that is correct.

I have been doing a lot of experimenting. Personally, I would shoot 1080 30p. Then Crop the image later during editing. To me, a image cropped from the 1080p looks better than the 640 x 480 Crop Mode.

I'm not sure what use there is for the 640 x 480 Crop mode. Using a telephoto at that mode is a real light stealer.

Shoot 1080p. Beg, borrow, or what ever to get a good telephoto & tripod. Then crop later.

[Robert Turchick]

When I had my T2i I only use The crop mode once. Got a really cool vid of the moon rising out of the red dust. I had my 70-200 on so the moon fills the frame nicely! (1400mm equivalent!)
Worked well posted to the web.
Not sure I'd use that for any real projects though...rather put on my 100-400 and keep it HD.

[Zhong Cheung]

Yes, I have a 70-200mm L f/2.8 already and a fairly decent 501HDV head on nice sticks, but even at 200mm, it doesn't seem zoomed in enough for what I'm trying to do. Really wish I had a T3i or GH2 for this.

[John Vincent]

Lack of HD on that zoom is a bummer though.... Not sure if the 60D or T3 address this issue or not.

[David Rice]

The 60D does not have a HD crop mode. Which is strange.

[Kin Lau]

Originally Posted by John Vincent

Lack of HD on that zoom is a bummer though.... Not sure if the 60D or T3 address this issue or not.

The 600D has a HD crop mode, 1080p, 24 & 30fps only, but I find it very useable at 3x. You can go all the way up to 10x, but even tho it's a 1080p files, the resolution is actually less than 640x480.

[Zhong Cheung]

What do you mean it's less than 640x480?

[James Donnelly]

Originally Posted by Zhong Cheung

What do you mean it's less than 640x480?

In theory it should be equivalent to 518x346 or something thereabouts, as it is capturing from 1/10th of the sensor's total area of 5184x3456.

[Zhong Cheung]

I'm confused...I thought the 600D/T3i (not to be confused with the 60D) crop mode did not lose resolution since it has 18mp to play with, but 1080p only requires 2mp, so the cam can digitally zoom in without losing any HD resolution (2mp)? Or does it not work this way?

[James Donnelly]

Originally Posted by Zhong Cheung

I'm confused...I thought the 600D/T3i (not to be confused with the 60D) crop mode did not lose resolution since it has 18mp to play with, but 1080p only requires 2mp, so the cam can digitally zoom in without losing any HD resolution (2mp)? Or does it not work this way?

Yes, 3x zoom is roughly the same number of pixels as un-zoomed. It may have almost the same actual resolution. But that is the limit of the zoom multiplication if you want to retain all the resolution. Above that, it IS digital zoom and probably useless.

The zoom factor refers to the equivalent multiplication of the focal length. Zooming 3x gives 3x the equivalent focal length in terms of field of view. If you want to think in mp, things have to be squared.

[Kin Lau]

The HD mode on the 7D/60D/T3i/T2i has been tested to be less than full HD 1080p resolution (closer to 1600x900), so 10x is really only about 500x300.

Even 1/3 of 5184 is only 1728, short of 1920.

[Alan Halfhill]

Here is one I did with the 70-200 F4 IS + Sigma APO 1.4

http://youtu.be/yHyDOsgLRFs