Many full-frame (FF) camera owners ignore the built-in crop modes, such as the APS-C (or DX) crop, viewing them only as a feature for adapting older lenses. However, for most users whose photos end up on social media or in family albums, 6these modes offer powerful, practical benefits that can significantly improve your shooting experience and workflow.
Here’s why you should embrace your camera’s in-camera crop mode for everyday and social media photography.
Two Or More Lenses In One
Suddenly your whole world opens up, at the flick of a button your 35mm prime lens also becomes a 50mm lens, your 20mm ultra-wide angle lens becomes a 30mm general purpose wide angle lens, your 50mm lens suddenly becomes a 75mm portrait lens!
The same goes for zoom lenses. If you are a wildlife photographer, your 150mm-500mm lens suddenly becomes a 225mm-750mm lens and you get that extra perceivable reach. If you are someone who uses a general walk around lens of 24-200mm, at the flick of a switch it becomes a 36mm-300mm.
Smaller File Sizes
If you are concerned of running out of space, you can suddenly free up a lot of space. In many cameras when you shoot in a crop mode, both your raw files and jpeg files are suddenly half the size and so you save space.
This is actually really handy when you are photographing events or weddings, and you know that you are running low on space and don’t have time to change your storage. it can buy you a few minutes while you wait for a break in activity to change your cards.
Enhance compositional aids
You can simply use the crop modes as a compositional aid. Switching to crop mode quickly to check your focus and then deciding if you want the composition of the crop mode, or the composition of the un-cropped mode. It is quick and effective and a useful tool.
Conclusion
Crop modes are available in many cameras, not just full frame cameras. Many modern point and shoot cameras such as the Ricoh GR range have crop buttons that set you from the initial 28, to 25mm and 50mm. Leica cameras have similar features, allowing you to in-camera crop to 35mm, 50mm and 75mm etc.
Not forgetting that using an in-camera crop mode will mean that you will have less megapixels, it is a tool that professional photographers use endlessly, especially when using prime lenses. Even on a camera with 24mp, you are still getting images around 10mp, which are more than enough for everyday use. In fact, many of the images I take out and about, and even at weddings and events are taken in a crop mode. No one has ever questioned them, and they are sharp and just and as good to use as the 24mp images. Even when printing, these files are more than capable.
Of course, there are cameras with huge megapixel counts these days too, anywhere from 40mp-100mp, and there is simply no reason not to use crop modes on these cameras (hence why the camera offers them as options!)
So, in the new year, experiment in using crop modes, because, just like the crop tool in editing itself, it is genuinely the most useful tool in a photographers arsenal.
This has been Part 5 of a 12 part series for “12 Days Of Christmas 2025”. A collection of new articles and so much more from Mark G Adams from One Camera One Lens Photography as well as guest authors. Catch them all if you missed any here.
One Camera One Lens Photography 
Well written and very practical article, Mark. In-camera crop modes are indeed one of those quietly useful tools that many photographers overlook, often for theoretical reasons rather than real-world ones. I use them occasionally myself, and every time I do, I’m reminded how liberating they can be – especially when working with primes or when speed matters more than pixel-peeping.
This idea also translates nicely to Micro Four Thirds. Not so much for “extra reach” (we already live there 😄), but for aspect-ratio choices. The 3:2 crop is simply better suited for standard photo paper when printing, while 1:1 can be a refreshing alternative – also very handy if you want to play with Polaroid-style compositions without committing to it later in post.
Like you say, even with fewer megapixels left, the results are more than good enough for everyday use, publishing, and printing. It’s one of those features that makes photography feel more intentional rather than less capable. A genuinely useful reminder to stop obsessing over specs and start using the tools that are already in the camera.
Great article ! thanks for sharing and have a great day ! Marc.
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Thank you Marc. It is something I am passionate about, using tools that are genuinely useful. When I shoot weddings, at least a quarter of the photos are in crop mode, and when I’m shooting wildlife it’s probably more than half of my photos!
People are obsessed with believing that they need more and more megapixels, but then just share on social media or their website or print an image occasionally. With even 10mp you can do this and a lot more and you’d be hard pressed to notice a difference unless you’re told.
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