editting IN camera

[thegrump]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on, cropping IN camera before down loading to computer.

[arthurking83]

Don't do it! While you may think there is an advantage, it's not real. It's implied only .. in that you think you've finished editing the image so that you don't have to waste time doing so on the PC!
Chances are tho that you will either over do the crop in some way(ie. maybe crop out too much), or not crop enough and hence still need to do more editing(eg. cropping) on the PC anyhow.

The issue is, if you're spending time editing images via the camera, then this implies that you're probably not ready to take a shot if a moment presents itself.
Hence the apparent advantage of editing in camera is almost certain to be more of a constraint at some point.

Remember, anything you can do in terms of edits in camera are easily also duplicated in software on a editing device(whether thats a computer, tablet, laptop .. or whatever).
But the device usually has more finely honed ability(which is the advantage!)

ps. I'm not telling you WHAT to do .. just offering some advice on how to efficiently spend time with the camera.

[thegrump]

Good enough for me. I was just wondering if a crop on the camera would lose less detail than down loading a larger picture and then cropping. I know the cropping on the camera is limited to fixed sizes. So I know you may need to crop again. Also cropping on the camera, you still have the original picture for editing on the computer.

[arthurking83]

.... Also cropping on the camera, you still have the original picture for editing on the computer.

This is true, but again there is no real advantage.
The disadvantage is that you have one extra image on the card, because you saved the edit to a new file .. usually jpg, which is not as good as a raw file too! ;)

The only advantage in editing in camera like that is if you are pressed for time and need to get a jpg image off to an external source in a real hurry(eg. news reporters/sports shooter/etc).

The notion of losing less detail is an ambiguous one.

You won't lose any detail in the (in camera)edited version, compared to a later edit of the full image on the computer.
That is, the in camera cropped image will be exactly the same as the PC cropped image if the crop was made in the exact same way. But only as long as the same format was used both in camera nd on the PC.
But if you edit a raw file, say crop it and then save it as an edited image, I think you can only save the edited image as a jpg(have to confirm this tho).
So the edited image now saved as a jpg definitely LOSES data compared to the same crop of a raw file(then saved as a jpg on the PC).

The PC software does a better job of converting a raw file to a jpg file, than the camera does.

[farmmax]

I wouldn't contemplate cropping in camera, I guess mainly because I'd rather have a good look on a full size image on the monitor and then choose where to crop.

[ricktas]

No, you are working with images that are thousands of pixels wide (usually) on a screen that shrinks that down to around 600-800 pixels wide (usually), on the back of your camera. Any editing is going to be no where near as accurate as being able to see a lot more of those pixels on your computer at home.

For example, say you crop the photo, but get home and find the horizon is slightly crooked. You have to rotate and crop again to get your image how it needs to be. Why not do the rotate one the computer, then you can accurately crop, once only!