Trying out my Canon 5DsR
Back in October 2015, I participated in a Canon Lab portrait experiment that was quite a success and attracted more than 7 million views worldwide. As a thank you from Canon for my participation I was rewarded with a new Canon 5DsR body. Collected the body a couple of weeks ago.
Today I went to Malabar beach in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney to try out the 5DsR. I also stopped at Milsons Point on my way home.
After trying out the 5DsR, here are the immediate improvements that I found as a user:
50 megapixels sensor versus the 21.10 megapixels sensor of the 5D Mk II. The 50 megapixels sensor packs in a lot of details with astounding clarity. This brings with it the additional benefit of being able to crop the image in post processing and still maintain a reasonable sized file.
The 5DsR supports two memory cards, one for CF card and the other for SD card.
The 5DsR has a new mirror mechanism that dampens the effect of mirror slap/shock. The user can set the time between the mirror locked up and the final image being taken.
The 61 points focus system is a vast improvement over the 9 points on the 5D Mk II. Focusing is pin sharp on both manual and auto focus.
The grid view on the 5DsR is a welcomed addition. On the 5D Mk II user would have to buy a different focusing screen with the grid view.
The electronic level on the 5DsR is a very useful addition particularly for night photography for lining up the horizon.
The automatic white balance with white bias is a nice addition for removing unwanted colour cast.
The ability to choose the image recording quality on full raw (50 megapixels), M raw (28 megapixels) and S raw (12 megapixels) on the 5DsR is very useful particularly when shooting L raw is not required. For portrait and general street photography, I tend to use M raw.
From a personal standpoint the shortcomings of the 5DsR are:
It is difficult to see whether focusing has been locked in bright daylight. When focus is achieved, the chosen focus point and grid light up in red but it is difficult to see this confirmation in bright environment.
It is difficult to see the electronic level in the viewfinder during night photography although there is a workaround through viewing the electronic level on the LCD screen by pressing the INFO button.
The 5DsR is not really suited for sports photography and perhaps even for wedding photography. I would like to have a faster continuous burst rate.
The 5DsR is heavier on battery use compared to the 5D Mk II and the 5D Mk III.
All in all, I quite like the 5DsR, which is a significant improvement from my 5D Mk II that I have had for more than 7 years.
Thanks Canon Australia.
