Canon EOS 5DS and EOS 5DS R in the test

The Canon EOS 5DS is available at a price of 3.500 euros, the sister model Canon EOS 5DS R costs 3,700 euros.


Housing & Equipment


The 50 megapixels of the new full-size models Canon EOS 5DS and Canon EOS 5DS R sound impressive, Sony A7R II (42 MP) and Nikon D810 (36 MP) are at least nominally referred to subordinate places. The two new EOS models differ only in low-pass filtering: A low-pass filter is active with the EOS 5DS (price: 3,500 euros), whose effect on the EOS 5DS R (price: 3.700 euros) neutralizes a "cancellation filter". This is more cost-effective for the manufacturer than the low-pass filter on the 5DS R can be completely omitted.


Searcher & Monitor


For the case, the Canon EOS 5D Mark III was the godfather - with small deviations, of which the grip edge on the right side is the most striking. Thanks to the identical key layout, newcomers can quickly find their way to the new one.


Autofocus system


Equality with the 5D Mark III prevails with the weather resistance. New in the Canon EOS 5DS (R) is against: Instead of the spring and lever, the 5DS / 5DS R moves the mirror when triggered by a motor and transmission. With this, Canon aims to minimize the vibration caused by the mirror movement, and the sound will sound smoother.


Exposure functions


For critical exposures, such as in the macro range, it is advisable to take a look at the "Mirror lock" item in the shooting menu. Here you can set a delay time after the flip-up of the mirror, choosing 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 2 s. You can choose the usual version by pressing the shutter button twice.

The roof edge scanner of the Canon EOS 5DS and 5DS R offers an image coverage of 100 percent and an effective search magnification of 0.71 times. A new crop is a crop mode, in which the image segment in question is optionally bordered or depicted by masking the surroundings. The options are 1.6x (30.5 MP) and 1.3x (19.5 MP), with the Crop function applied only to the JPEG, while the RAW file is given a clipping mark-up (RAW) (Canon DPP 4) can be edited. A 1: 1 display is also possible in the viewfinder, while 16: 9 or 4: 3 are only available in the live view.


The 3.2-inch monitor at the back of the Canon DSLRs resolves 346,666 RGB pixels and is built-in. The WFT-E7 Wireless File Transmitter, available as an accessory, is priced at around € 700 and the GP-E2 GPS receiver at around € 280.

Two Digic-6 processors provide fast signal processing. Two card slots are available for recording the images: one for CF cards (UDMA 7), the second for SD cards with up to 104 MB / s, which means that simultaneous writing of the cards is much faster than the EOS 5D Mark III . In addition to an HDMI output, there is a USB 3.0 interface. Also on board are a flash sync socket as well as connections for microphone (stereo cable) and remote control (N3 connection), but no headphone socket.


The Phase AF of the Canon EOS 5DS is inherited from the 5D Mark III with 61 measuring points, 41 of which are cross-sensors. And as usual with Canon, the autofocus can be configured in a variety of ways: for measuring field automatic, single-field and spot AF, a two-stage measuring field is added, which, up to eight surrounding measuring fields, is added to the selected field. If one chooses "measuring field grouping" (AF zone selection in zone), one can move a cluster of nine or twelve measuring fields to one of nine selectable positions in the image field. In operating modes, the camera allows one-shot AF, AI Servo AF (Continuous AF), or AI Focus AF (automatic switching from One Shot AF to AI Servo AF when a static object is moving)

The Canon EOS 5DS R has a relatively short 0.33 / 0.37 s at 300/30 Lux, and the Canon EOS 5DS is slower: 0.41 / 0.55 sec , And the live view AF can take about 0.9 seconds too much time. Even the maximum standard speed is not really high at around 5 b / s.


Unlike the 5D Mark III, both 5DS models also allow for continuous auto-focus when shooting. In the Praxistest, the autofocus focused on the sharpness of the camera, but most of the time, with the 50mm lens (EF 1.8 / 50mm STM) supplied, but audible operating noise

The selection of exposure programs can be read off at the lockable mode dial: Beside the standard programs such as Tv (S), Av (A), P and M, you can see a full automatic (A +) and three individual memories (C1 / 2/3). Maximum possible video quality is full HD (1920 x 1080) with 30 frames per second.


The interval timer has taken over the camera from the EOS 7D Mark II, a new addition is a time lapse movie (Time Lapse Movie). A sensor with 150,000 pixels and 252 zones is used for exposure metering, selectable methods are multi-field, center-weighted, selective and spot.


The multi-field measurement can be linked to the weighting of the exposure measurement with each AF field, the selective measurement takes place in the search setup and covers 6.1 percent of the image field, the spot measurement around 1.3 percent. The fastest exposure time is 1/8000 s, the flash sync time with external flash units 1/200 s. The ISO settings range from 100 to 6400, in extended mode to ISO 50 or 12 800.