D7100 1.3x crop in sensor vs Crop in Software?

Cropping (or "Crop mode") is no different from digital zoom that does not employ interpolation.

Also, why is this a 3 page thread? Crop mode is exactly the same as cropping the center of the image after the fact. Your benefits to doing this in camera are a faster frame rate, smaller resulting files, and the ability to consciously frame in the tighter FoV (also Nikon states that the AF points will cover the crop area from edge to edge).

The benefits to cropping in post are obvious; there are no limits as to how tight the crop can be, what aspect ratio is used,  or where in the image you crop from.

Now stop bickering over semantics and go shoot.

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'I remember when the days were long
And the nights when the living room was on the lawn:
Constant quarrelling, the childish fits,
And our clothes in a pile on the ottoman;
All the slander and doublespeak
Were only foolish attempts to show you did not mean
Anything but the blatant proof
Was your lips touching mine in a photobooth.'
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