Photographer Tested: Canon’s 5DS and 5DS R

The new 50-megapixel Canon 5DS and 5DS R cameras will not go on sale until June, so few photographers have had a chance to find out if this is a game changer.

But visitors to this week’s WPPI 2015 show got to see examples of images shot with the two cameras from four of Canon’s Explorers of Light — George Lepp, Bruce Dorn, Hanson Fong and Ken Sklute. These shooters, along with Peter Hurley, joined Rangefinder‘s technology editor, Greg Scoblete, for a panel discussion to share their thoughts on the new cameras prior to their introduction.

The star lineup of photographers were all enthusiastic about the capabilities of the camera. Lepp said that as an outdoor photographer, he is always looking for more data in an image. “I normally stitch together several pictures,” he said. With 50-megapixels, he gets two-and-a half times the information from the 22-megapixel 5D Mark III. “I’ve now got the quality of a medium format camera.”

Hurley told the large audience of photographers that he tried a 5DS in-studio. “I’m a medium format shooter and never went with a 35mm DSLR,” Hurley said. “This thing has changed my game. I’m doing things I couldn’t do before, such as shooting at 5fps instead of getting one per 1.5 seconds. The 5Ds is a beast!”

Fong, a wedding and portrait photographer who usually shoots with a wide angle lens, said that even when the subject had a head the “size of pin” against a vast background, he could enlarge the image to the point where he could see eyelashes. “I have a digital back that I probably will not use again,” Fong said.

Photo © Karen Seifert

There’s been some concern that the 5DS R—which has an optical low pass filter cancellation effect—might produce moire when photographing fine lines in repeating patterns. Sklute, however, said he found no moire effects when shooting fabrics. He says he pushed it a bit more than others. “I did some drag racing in the dark, shooting a car at 120 mph. [With the 5DS R] I can shoot handhold outside. It’s not just a studio camera on a tripod.”

He says he was thrilled to be able to get a 50-megapixel image at 1600 ISO. Incidentally he also used the new 11-24mm zoom lens, which he said “is a game changer with no distortion at 11mm.”

Canon is pitching the 5DS primarily as a still camera. Dorn, who is a stills-photographer-turned-cinematograher, says the lack of some video features is not a huge problem for many cinematographers. He likes the fact he can shoot video in three different crop formats, as well as the dampened mirror lockup and the intervalometer, which will “be great for time-lapse, which has become an important feature in cinema photography.”

Judging by the favorable comments by these shooters, Canon has a serious competitor in the high-resolution photo sweepstakes.