Recently, Canon announced two new flagship cameras, both offering a monstrous 50.6 megapixel, full-frame sensor and the pedigree you’d expect of a flagship camera from Canon; here, we’ll break down the differences and help you choose between these two powerhouse cameras.
On outward appearance alone, the Canon 5DS and 5DS-R appear to be identical to the existing Canon flagship model, Canon 5D Mark III. That being said, don’t be fooled by outward appearances, the 5DS and 5DS-R offer far more than incremental upgrades to an already powerhouse of a camera, both the 5DS and 5DS-R at once are representative of their 5D Mark III pedigree while still offering something very different for their intended photographers.
The Canon 5DS and 5DS-R offer the same 50.6 Megapixel full-frame sensor as well as body construction tweaks that allow for more stability when handling. However, the big differentiating feature is the additional low-pass filter in the Canon 5DS-R.
Before jumping into their differences, there’s some great technology built into both the 5DS and 5DS-R that goes far beyond high resolution sensors. For starters, both models borrow the advanced programmable auto-ISO sensitivity from the 7D Mark II allowing for increased control over ISO sensitivity before having to stop down. The Canon 5DS and 5DS-R both employ the new dual Digic 6 processor to make the most of the monstrous resolution offered by the 50.6 megapixel sensor; allowing for some of the sharpest images ever captured by a digital SLR. Rounding out some of the new features on the 5DS and 5DS-R is a built-in intervalometer for creating time-lapses and long exposures ranging from 1 second to 99 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds in length, to capture everything from an incoming storm to light trails from cars on night-time cityscape.
Both options offer the same video capabilities as the 5D Mark III of 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second, however you will have to give up a dedicated mic jack and clean HDMI out. In its place you get a new USB 3.0 connection to help transfer the larger 50.6MP files onto your workstation. The Canon 5DS and 5DS-R are both very capable video capture cameras, but with these two models, Canon is clearly sending a message to still photographers – we’re about capturing the best images possible in any medium.
We briefly mentioned the main differentiating feature between the Canon 5DS and Canon 5DS-R being the placement of the low-pass filter construction. The low-pass filter placement on the Canon 5DS is your typical arrangement in relation to the sensor plane; the net effect being an ever-so-slight blurring effect on your images to eliminate moiré. This is a similar filter/sensor arrangement that is found in the Canon 5D Mark III and provides similar results with significantly higher stills resolution.
The Canon 5DS-R, however, introduces a second low-pass filter just behind the IR filter and set opposite of the original axis of the first low-pass filter which creates this cancellation effect. This filter arrangement is set so that it re-aligns the original pixel shift and thus eliminates the blur resulting in extreme sharpness in images. For landscape photographers, commercial and still-life or fine art photographers whose livelihood depend on delivering the sharpest of images, the 5DS-R has the technology to deliver the goods.
Ultimately the decision comes down to this: which camp do you fall into? Are you a fashion photographer where workflow time is the most crucial? If getting your images off of your computer and into your client’s hands is most important, your needs will probably be best met by the Canon 5DS. If your work requires a more intimate touch and time isn’t as large a constraint and you require the sharpest possible output – an open call to all studio and landscape artists (and pixel peepers) – then you’d definitely appreciate the canceling effect of the second low-pass filter on the 5DS-R. No matter which camp you fall under, both offerings are truly representative of what we’ve come to expect from a flagship model with the Canon name on it.
Both the Canon 5DS and 5DS-R will be available later this year and can be had for an MSRP of $3699.99 for the 5DS (body only) and $3899.99 for the 5DS-R (body only).
