After much speculation and rumours Canon has announced their newest full-frame camera – the Canon 5Ds. The show stopping feature is, of course, the 50.6MP CMOS sensor. This means that the Canon 5Ds may be seen as a direct competitor to medium format cameras like the Hasselblad H5D-50C, Phase One iQ250, Mamiya Leaf Credo 50 and Pentax 645Z. Of course, this is simply only in the megapixels stakes. Many professionals will prefer aspects of the medium format cameras like the colour rendering, the tethering options, the larger sensor sizes and the sync speeds of Leaf lenses. Yet it sounds as if the Canon 5Ds will be priced somewhere in the range of AU$4,000.00-AU$4,500.00 which makes it less than half the price of the Pentax 645Z and almost eight times cheaper than the price of the other options.
This camera seems to be particularly tailored towards landscape photographers (particularly the low pass cancellation filter in the Canon 5Ds R) and studio portraiture. While I dabble in landscape photography my primary field is wedding photography. In this case the Canon 5Ds potentially has some deficiencies, yet most of them I believe I can live with. In theory the ISO sensitivity sounds limiting. ISO 100 – ISO 6400 is a very small range for a modern-day professional camera. However, I don’t think I have ever pushed my camera to ISO 6400. With the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II and the Canon 35mm f/1.4L if there is not enough light for me to shoot below ISO 2000 then I usually employ some artificial lighting to my scene. When this isn’t possible that’s when you couple this camera with the Canon 5D mkIII (or the rumoured Canon 5D mkIV). If Canon has taken to steps to allow the Canon 5Ds images to be comparable to images from the Canon 5D mkIII at ISO 6400 while retaining such a large image size then I don’t think there will be any problems with the ISO range.
So why do I need 50.6MP for wedding shoots? Well, I don’t really. However, there are some advantages for images beyond simply printing canvases to sizes that can act as your wallpaper. Chiefly, I believe 50.6MP provides you greater flexibility for editing. Often when I am doing micro-editing I struggle because the image starts pixelating at 400%. With the images produced from the Canon 5Ds I will still have fine details at that magnification and beyond. 50.6MP also provides a variety of options for cropping. This is one of the reasons why I shoot my video on a 4K sensor. Not only do I get uber-sharp HD but I am able to significantly crop into the video if I so desire. This doesn’t happen often but as a professional you should be working towards catering for all situations, even ones that happen only once or twice an event. Similarly, the Canon 5D mkIII has its limitations in regards to how heavily you can crop and retain details for a framed photo or full-page print in an album.
Many people are concerned about the large file sizes that the photos of the Canon 5Ds will yield. For a Cinematographer who shoots 4K footage (albeit not RAW) the file size just isn’t an issue. 50GBs to shoot a wedding doesn’t compare to the 1TB+ in space the equivalent wedding video would take.
The video options on this camera is a small problem for me. I get that Canon are making this camera with certain consumers in mind. However, I was hoping for a camera that could act as my 4th or 5th video camera (if necessary) on a wedding shoot. Now, by all accounts, the video will be comparable to the Canon 5D mkIII, which isn’t terrible. Yet improvements wouldn’t have gone amiss. I think that Canon is simply too concerned about cannibalizing their professional video camera range and so have limited any improvements in video that the Canon 5Ds could’ve had. The rumour is that the Canon 5D mkIV will have 4K video. I believe that this is a bit of a pipe dream. The Canon C100 mkII (just released) retails for a touch over $7K. If a Canon 5D mkIV is announced that has superior resolution to the Canon C100 mkII all of a sudden the market for this camera would plummet. As would the market for the Canon 1Dc. I know that a company like Sony doesn’t seem to care about rather quickly superseding their more expensive cameras but Canon has displayed no indications that they are going to follow in Sony’s footsteps.
The Canon 5Ds R coupled with the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 would be close to the best combination that one could find for landscape photography. Yet this camera could still fulfill a role for wedding photographers. The availability of cropping modes for the first time on a Canon digital professional body may come in handy, on occasion. One thing that remains in the dark is the Canon 5Ds’ dynamic range. Canon have been challenged over the years for producing professional cameras that have only so-so dynamic range. How the Canon 5Ds falls into this discussion remains to be seen.
It is quite obvious that Canon have felt the need to improve resolution beyond the Sony a7R and the Nikon D810 with their new generation of full frame cameras in regards to resolution and, depending on the full package, this camera may stop the droves of people who are leaving behind their Canon systems for other manufacturers.