Preview of the new Canon 5DS, better than the 5D Mark III?

Preview of the new Canon 5DS, better than the 5D Mark III?

With the 5DS being recently announced, you may be wondering if this is the replacement for the 5D Mark III?

Time will tell whether the 5D Mark III is eventually dropped, but when released no doubt the 5DS will be sold alongside the Mark III.

There are some obvious questions like, 'Is the 5DS better than the 5D Mark III?', 'Should I put off purchasing a Mark III until the 5DS is released?', 'Should I trade in my Mark III and upgrade to the 5DS?'.

In almost all ways the 5DS is looking the be a better camera, but interestingly not in all respects.

Until someone gets their hands on the 5DS and does some shooting with it we won't know for sure.

US retailer B&H Photo is indicating on their website that the brand new Canon EOS 5DS & EOS 5DS R will be available for purchase 29th June 2015. List price for the 5DS is US $3,699.00.

Australian retailers hopefully won't be too far behind.  

So let's look at a few specs that might make you think twice before rushing in to trading in your 5D Mark III.

More Pixels

Canon 5D Mark III: 22.3
Canon 5DS: 50.6

So yes the 5DS is better.

50.6 megapixels means an image area of 8688 x 5792 for the 5DS, compared with the 5D Mark III of 5760 x 3840.

This is an extra 2928 pixel in width, and an extra 1952 pixels in height; or approximately 50% more pixels width and height.

So this is definitely a useful increase and allows for more cropping (or printing really really big images). The question is do you need the extra pixels?

Low light capability

This is one area which has interestingly actually gone backwards from the 5D Mark III.

Canon 5D Mark III: 25,600
Canon 5DS: 6400

The introduction of the large full frame sensor meant that pixels didn't need to be crammed so closely together. This has resulted in better dynamic range and less noise, so ability for manufacturers to push ISOs.

So why has canon restricted ISO to 6400, is it because the extra pixels mean that noise becomes an issue past 6400?

If you are consistently pushing beyond 6400 this may make you stop and think. At the very least wait til real samples are done at high ISOs

Videography?

2 videography features have been dropped from the 5DS compared to the Mark III.

The first is 'Uncompressed HDMI output' and the second being a Headphone jack.

Both are available on the 5D Mark III but not the 5DS.

So this will either be important to you not.

Samples

The only samples available for the 5DS at the moment are from the Canon website.

Manufacture samples are always heavily biased so not too much should be read into them.



Source: Canon US website, 1/125 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS II USM. Original image 5792 x 8688

100% crop of original image:

The ability to resolve detail is quite amazing.

A second example from the Canon website:

Source: Canon US website, 1/125 sec, f/4.0, ISO 800, EF 24-70mm F4L IS USM. Original image 8688 x 5792

and 100% crop of original image:

This is at ISO 800 and there is some noticeable noise. We'll have to wait for more samples to really see what low light noise is like when the ISO is pushed, and interesting what that is in direct comparison to the 5D Mark III.  

Difference between the 5DS and 5DS R

The short answer is most of us will go for the 5DS, it is the most general purpose (and slightly cheaper) camera. The 5DS R will be for particular shooters only.

The Australian Canon website describes the difference as...

"The EOS 5DS R features a Low Pass Filter (LPF)...For the EOS 5DS R, blurring is not applied and the resulting image is resolved to a higher level. However, false colour can happen as a result – this manifests itself as colour patterns and swirls in certain textures. These textures are usually always man made, such as fabrics and brick work for example. Users of the EOS 5DS R will need to perform post processing to get the most out of this model...The EOS 5DS is suited for general high resolution photography (portraits, landscapes, architecture), whereas the EOS 5DS R, with the LPF cancellation effect, should be used away from man-made objects and is particularly suited to landscape photography, and for instances where the photographer has the technical ability to counter for moire ie, by changing fabrics, recomposing, post production, etc"

Conclusion

Whether the 5DS will eventually replace the 5D Mark III only time will tell. 

Based on the initial specs it seems right not to call it the 5D Mark IV. 

The 5DS appears to be more of a specialist camera for particular shooters. It's not so much a general do it all camera like the 5D Mark III. If you want to shoot video, shoot in low light and don't need the 50 megapixels, then you may well be better off with the 5D Mark III. Based on current pricing on B&H Photo, the 5D Mark III is also US $1,200 cheaper.  



Thanks for reading.

Tom.