Casadearte Loc: Watsonville, California

My canon 7d comes with aspect ratio disabled by default. I never paid atention to that. Now it is buging me. Can you guys give me a piece of advise. Wich on is the correct one, or do I have to keep it disabled? Help. thank you

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Well...2:3 is the 35mm standard. 5:4 for an 8x10. Not sure what you mean by disabled - does that mean you cannot change it? What is it now?

Casadearte Loc: Watsonville, California

I think I used the wrong word, It is off

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

OK - what is the issue. If it is off and you want it on, turn it on. If I am understanding, it will allow you to shoot in different aspect ratios. So if you want to shoot a file that is shot as an 8x10, you can change the ratio to 5:4.
What do you see as an issue here?

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

This is one of those new features that can come in handy when needed, but most of those I know don't use it.

When you are shooting in live view mode (which most folks don't use for taking images, with the exception of fine focusing, like macros), you can display a grid that corresponds to the 6 different aspect ratios shown on the menu. It is just a guide on how to compose you images in advance depending on what ratio you plan to use when using the image (like making a 4x5, 5x7 or 8x10 inch print).

Just pick which ratio you want to use for your final image, and a grid will appear in Live View. The camera does NOT do any cropping, and the grid does NOT show up in the viewfinder.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

If only it did then it might be useful.
It just displays a guide grid on the LCD when shooting in Live View mode to help you compose for a specific aspect ratio.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Ah - useful, but not as useful as actually shooting in the selected aspect ratio.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Indeed.
I find it virtually useless.
Being able to hide these virtually useless menus would be useful.

unclebe1 Loc: NYC & Wellington, FL

Long ago I learned to replace the word 'virtually' with the word 'not'. It makes me chuckle when I do it to ads on tv and radio. But seriously, I recently shot team photos for a proAm charity golf outing that the sponsors were going to mount in 5x7 frames and give to each player. A grid (even on the lcd) would have been useful. It wasn't necessary, by any means, but would have been useful. Just 2 cents worth. :)

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

The Nikon D800 has that capability to show the different aspect ratios in the view finder. very useful. since changing the aspect ratio changes the pixels

The Viewfinder Display
The 1.2 ×, DX format, and 5 : 4 crops are shown; the area outside
the crop can be viewed in gray when Off is selected for Custom Setting
a5 (AF point illumination, 0284).

Fat Gregory Loc: Southern New Jersey

HD Video is 16x9 SD is 4x3 if the camera does video.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

There are always (at least for me) some things that one hesitates to admit not knowing (don't want to show how dumb...). Aspect ratio is one of those things for me - just never have been able to grasp the concept. Reading this thread an 8x10 inch print has been noted as having as having a 5:4 ratio - I still don't get it - would appreciate some help - thanks

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Yes, some things just seem complicated based on terminology, but usually they can be explained simply.

Aspect Ratio is just a measurement of a photograph’s width to height. For example, 35 mm film and professional (full frame) digital cameras both have an aspect ratio of 3:2.

To calculate what size prints you can make from an aspect ratio, multiply both the width and height by another number:

3 x 2 = 6, and 2 x 2 = 4, so you can get a 6 x 4 print without cropping.
3 x 3 = 9, and 2 x 3 = 6, so you get a 9 x 6 print without cropping
3 x 4 = 12, and 2 x 4 = 8, so you get a 12 x 8 inch print without cropping

If you try to print digital photos that don’t conform to the aspect ratio of the paper (print size) you are using, you have to either pad the picture’s edges by adding a border, or crop the photo’s top or bottom and/or sides.

This is what most film kisoks do when they are faced with a variety of digital image aspect ratios, they just crop from all sides to fit them on their standard 4x5 prints without any white space and hope that no one's head is cut off in the process. I'm sure you have seen that.

Or worse, you distort the aspect ratio to make the image fit the paper. But whether this makes your bride thinner or wider is more a matter of how much you value your life versus understanding aspect ratios....:roll:

Darn numbers! :-D

rwdaley Loc: Hilton Head Island

The first issue is how the camera is being held. Most hold the camera so the image recorded is “W” width by “H” height. The math is simple, 8x10 or 10x8 / 2 = 5x4. They have twisted the numbers anticipating you will hold the camera with the rectangle long on the horizontal and short on the vertical sides. If you have taken an image at 5x4 (8x10 is the same) and want it to be to be 5x7 later, it can be achieved by cropping the image. However you will be eliminating part of the image. If your assignment was to take images that would print 5X7 or 7x5, the way you hold the camera is vital. If it was of 5 folks, 7x5 would do it best. If it was of 2 people, perhaps 5X7 would be better. It becomes vital to know which way you’re your image will be printed. When I am on a shoot, I take images anticipating the crop factor, hence I don’t zoom in for it will prevent framing options later. Hope this helps.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Very good point! This helps a lot. Aspect ratios and horozontal vs vertical image orientations often get confused.