5D3 cropped to 7D sensor size???

Hi All

Looking at adding the 5D3 for the full frame and its other nice features

So if you crop the 5D3 to the dimensions of the 7D and account for pixel density/pixel pitch how many MP do you have in the 'frame' presumably less than the 7D at 18MP but how many in real terms
This question presupposes that such a crop yields an image "look" that is right, as at the moment I do find myself cropping the 7D sometimes quite markedly but still get very workable images for print.

TIA

The 5D3 produces images that are 5760 x 3840 pixels. To crop down to 7D equivalent field of view you need to divide those numbers by 1.6 to get 3600 x 2400 pixels, or around 8.6MP.

My 'progression' of from upgrading 4 and 6mp point and shoots to 8, 18mp DSLRs and finally, a 22mp 5D3 was strongly driven by the need for more pixels. I oftentimes find myself doing some pretty heavy handed cropping on my shots when I discover that I had failed to recognize 'fringe clutter' around the subject when I took the shot. I even crop a landscape-format shot to portrait on occasion. Not having enough pixels after cropping to produce a good shot has landed considerably more than a handful of pictures in the delete bin.

But I must admit, it wasn't the 'bump' in pixels from a 60D to the 5D3 nor the jump to full frame (I shot 1000s of rolls of 35mm slides eons ago) that was my primary criteria for making the move. It was as the low-light, high ISO speeds and super sharp, drop dead accurate auto focusing capabilities of the 5D3 that I had to have. The extra pixels are worth it, too. Cropping down to APS-C size would still be usable, but not as high quality as the 60D I had could produce.

MalVeauX wrote in post #16835662
Heya,

See this thread for examples of why cropping a full frame image (5D3) to crop does not yield what you think it will. I crop images all the time for composition. You don't need something super high resolution for it to be a workable image. I print a lot of my stuff, and even a heavily cropped image is around 6x8 inches in terms of print, which is perfectly fine by me as that with framing cuts into a 5x7. For the 8x10 and up to 20x30 (highest I generally print), I try to use uncropped images, but even 18MP is more than enough to make a very good print that large.

Very best,

Cropping a 5D3's image down to a 7D's FOV gives you an 8mpx result. That may work for larger prints than 8x10s, depending on the content. If it is very detailed, like a landscape, that may very well not be. I print alot of 13x19s these days now that I have all the costs well under control, so I have practiced a bit with some of my sports shots. A cropped 5D3 printed at a 13x19 is just about borderline for me.

Hi all

Many thanks for the insights re the MP of cropped size and feedback.....I think amfoto sums it up nicely in that "it is a horses for courses situation...." to summarise his post, so to speak.

My range of subjects is ~ wildlife including BiF, architecture including low light handheld interiors, sports (motor & people such as Cricket) and also some landscape work. On balance the 5D3 will bring something to the party for me and compliment my 7D.

I upgraded to 7D from my 40D for the better AF & AI Servo plus frame rate but the one thing that needed much more careful handling was that the 7D is way more prone to noise compared to the by comparison creamy smooth 40D images, not all images by any means but some need more attention in PP. Yes, you can mitigate for it by ETTR and being carefull about the shadows that do exist..............it is a very capable camera and no mistake. But having the 5D3 depending on the subject including wildlife & lens used will be nice to have.

Oh, talking of prints ~ the one thing that is overlooked by too many folk is the viewing distance if you cannot natively get 300ppi but I have had some prints recently of cropped 7D images with modest resizing done by the printing 'lab' on Giclee prints looking absolutely stunning ~ by modest for example I mean at 300ppi the size would be 8.64inches but it printed great at 10inches, so good that it was bought by someone

Cropping the 5D3 down to an APS-C yields a 200dpi image of dimension 12x18. At normal viewing distances, you can see the lack of detail in a print of that size.