Magnified movie views
Think APS-C is cropped? With 4K video, you might have to go even tighter
When you switch an EOS camera from photo mode to video mode, the image appears cropped on the rear display and in a mirrorless camera’s EVF. While all cameras crop the top and bottom of the image so that it fits the standard aspect ratio for video (16:9) and plays back correctly on a widescreen TV, some can only shoot 4K video using a cropped area in the middle of the sensor. The EOS RP’S 4K crop is about 1.76x, for example, although the camera does record Full HD video using the full width of the sensor.
If your camera crops the image during video recording, there are two potential issues. The first is that you might need to reframe the shot if you composed it while the camera was in photo mode. Secondly, you’re going to appear to get more reach from the lens. This may or may not be a problem. If you’re filming a wild animal, you’ll probably welcome all the reach you can get. But it can be an issue if you want to capture a wider view and are unable to move backwards or zoom out with the lens.
Canon EOS R series cameras also have a Movie
Cropping option in their main menu, which enables you to purposely crop the image in the centre when you’re using RF or EF lenses, should you want to. There are some restrictions when you use this option, however, such as not being able to record high frame rate movies.
If you enable Movie Digital IS, the image is further cropped. This is so that the sensor data can be moved around to compensate for camera shake during video recording. There are two settings: the standard one crops the image very slightly, around 1.1x, whereas the enhanced option chops the image more noticeably.