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5DS for landscapes ?

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Terry K1

Terry K1

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Hello folks,

The 5DS has gotten my attention with it's 50MP sensor. I would use it for landscapes, and portraits of my family. Years ago, I had the original 5D, and loved it. Then, I used all of the Lenses, but now I would like to adapt my Pentax primes, and also get a 15mm Irix for Canon. I normally shoot at low ISO settings. Would the 5DS be a good choice for me? I not looking to replace my Pentax K1, but as a second body with higher resolution.
 
Terry K1 said:
Hello folks,

The 5DS has gotten my attention with it's 50MP sensor. I would use it for landscapes, and portraits of my family. Years ago, I had the original 5D, and loved it. Then, I used all of the Lenses, but now I would like to adapt my Pentax primes, and also get a 15mm Irix for Canon. I normally shoot at low ISO settings. Would the 5DS be a good choice for me? I not looking to replace my Pentax K1, but as a second body with higher resolution.
Click to expand...
The 5Ds (or R) would make a good choice for landscapes. The 5D iv is possibly a better all round choice though.

Look carefully at the Irix 15mm though. My experience was not good. I tried 3 of them, and none were acceptable. The first Firefly was wildly decentred and was returned. The replacement Firefly did not focus far enough around to achieve sharp infinity focus (I wanted it for astro and nightscapes), and the third Blackstone was the same.

Technically the focus ring has an adjustable infinity stop, but it seemed pretty fiddly to do with very poor instructions, so I chose not to attempt this on a brand new lens, and looked elsewhere.

I narrowed my choices down to Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP (newer premium lens, not the old f2.8) and Sigma 14mm f1.8. The Samyang won because it was almost as good, but significantly smaller, lighter and cheaper.

The Irix lenses seem to be almost as much of a lottery as the cheap Samyang f2.8 lenses for QC. You might get a good one, and if you do it is probably quite acceptable, but buy it from a seller with a great returns policy.

Colin
 
Wow,

That's a shame that your experience with Irix was that bad. I have a 15mm Blackstone, and it's perfect. The Laowa 12mm is really nice. Thanks for your reply on the 5D. If I get one, it will probably be the 5DSR. My experience with the original 5D was really good. I loved the skin tones. I had to switch to Nikon for their focusing when my boys started playing sports.

Regards
 
The 5Ds is a fine camera. For landscape and portraits with your Pentax lenses, I'd suggest a Sony A7R2 camera with an adapter. Reasons:
  • It can also use all of your current Pentax glass via adapter (so can the Canon), plus just about any lens made.
  • Much better manual focusing tools in the Sony body. This will help with the portrait work
  • The Sony sensor has better dynamic range than the Canon (if that's your thing). The Canon is a step down from your K1 here.
  • The Sony + adapter is cheaper.
  • Smaller and lighter.
  • 42 vs 50 megapixels...close enough to not really matter.
To me the 5Ds makes more sense only if you plan on investing in Canon EF glass and want the AF. Or if the better weather sealing and battery life matter more than the above.

--
My site:
http://www.gipperich-photography.com
 
Last edited:
Thank you, Aaron,

I'm sure I would get some Canon lens, especially the 50, and 85, and an ultra wide. I appreciate your reply, and the Sony looks great. I'm really going to think about that one.

Regards.
 
Terry K1 said:
Hello folks,

The 5DS has gotten my attention with it's 50MP sensor. I would use it for landscapes, and portraits of my family. Years ago, I had the original 5D, and loved it. Then, I used all of the Lenses, but now I would like to adapt my Pentax primes, and also get a 15mm Irix for Canon. I normally shoot at low ISO settings. Would the 5DS be a good choice for me? I not looking to replace my Pentax K1, but as a second body with higher resolution.
Click to expand...
50MP does not make landscape pictures better ... and especially not the portraits.

I bought a 5DMkIV some months ago and i'm using it also for special landscapes close to the sea . Dynamic range at low ISO is quite good and with a good lens there is enough of resolution.

Dynamic range is more important than some 15- 20% more of resolution

EF system is better for images of moving kids - and the sensor of 5DMkIV is more modern.
 
Thank you, Kari,

You make a good point.

Regards
 
KariP said:
Terry K1 said:
Hello folks,

The 5DS has gotten my attention with it's 50MP sensor. I would use it for landscapes, and portraits of my family. Years ago, I had the original 5D, and loved it. Then, I used all of the Lenses, but now I would like to adapt my Pentax primes, and also get a 15mm Irix for Canon. I normally shoot at low ISO settings. Would the 5DS be a good choice for me? I not looking to replace my Pentax K1, but as a second body with higher resolution.
Click to expand...
50MP does not make landscape pictures better ... and especially not the portraits.
Click to expand...
Resolution is an IQ attribute. In the case of Wide Open expansive landscape images...more resolution can indeed make a shot "better" in many circumstances. Same can be said for portrait images....in some cases. No absolutes.
 
KariP said:
Terry K1 said:
Hello folks,

The 5DS has gotten my attention with it's 50MP sensor. I would use it for landscapes, and portraits of my family. Years ago, I had the original 5D, and loved it. Then, I used all of the Lenses, but now I would like to adapt my Pentax primes, and also get a 15mm Irix for Canon. I normally shoot at low ISO settings. Would the 5DS be a good choice for me? I not looking to replace my Pentax K1, but as a second body with higher resolution.
Click to expand...
50MP does not make landscape pictures better ... and especially not the portraits.

I bought a 5DMkIV some months ago and i'm using it also for special landscapes close to the sea . Dynamic range at low ISO is quite good and with a good lens there is enough of resolution.

Dynamic range is more important than some 15- 20% more of resolution

EF system is better for images of moving kids - and the sensor of 5DMkIV is more modern.
Click to expand...
I´m using a A7 I (with Sony and Canon glass) right now and it completely has changed the way I shoot. You can shoot at low ISOs against the evening sun, underexpose by -3 EV, push the shadows up in post without noise punishment and this way retain some color in the sky, while it usually would be washed out and white. Once you have some color there, you can pick up on that in post and edit it to your liking (I use Luminar´s Sky Ai and Golden Hour filters), making it darker / brighter, more magenta, whatever.

So while the 5Ds is certainly a great camera, I´d also think about the A7 III or A7R II (both can AF with Canon glass, while my A7 I can´t). Also, you can use the electronic shutter and not worry about any mirror or shutter induced blur.

In print the per-pixel-sharpness of the shot (= sharp lens, good technique) matters, not so much 24 vs. 50 MP, imho.

---------------------------------------------
Waldemar
www.pbase.com/haak
 
PhotonCanvas said:
KariP said:
50MP does not make landscape pictures better ... and especially not the portraits.
Click to expand...
Why?!?

View attachment 2ee4a7c9442d4890a2ea5b5ff36044cf.jpg
Click to expand...
Because very few of us print so big images that ANY difference can be seen in real life - and nobody looks at prints with a magnifying class from a very close distance . And the difference is resolution has no practical meaning - difference between 35MP and 50MP is something like 15% ( comparing 5DMkIV and the model with 50MP)

Dynamic range is much more important .

In a portrait the structure of the small pores or tiny hair of the skin do not make a portrait. Female models are not very happy if the microscopic wrinkles come visible - and very likely not the men.

More megapixels are ok in cartography , science, technical photography , astronomy etc

--
Kari
I started SLR photography in 1968, first DSLR was Canon 40D in 2007. Now Fujifilm X-E3 is my favourite traveling camera - also NEW! 5DMkIV for landscapes, BIF/nature .
 
Those who think 50MP is not better than 25 or 35MP have not used a 5DS (R). At ISO 100 to 800, I will take my 5DS R over any FX or DX body.

I never intended to use the 5DS R for sports but I am forced into it because of the extreme gain in resolution. Even adding a converter to the same lens on the 5DS R and cropping to match the DX body the gain in resolution and depth of colour is outstanding.

It is not only the resolution it is the deep rich "look" of the colours compared to other cameras.

I highly recommend the 5DS(R) for landscape, architecture, and portraits, and if you are up to the challenge, even sports.
 
I think you are missing one of the real advantages of 50mg. that is the ability to crop your images without losing detail. The attached image was taken in Iceland and cropped significantly.



efdbeb9893504e4ca4cd21682707d9d0.jpg

--
bweberphotographs.com
[email protected]
 
Absolutely beautiful shot.
 
Not only can you crop, but with Canon TS-E lenses you can shift and stitch without distortion and create 83 to 100 MP images that can easily compete with medium format cameras as well.



Canon 5DS R with Canon 17mm f4 L TS-E (shifted and stitched) Cherry Blossoms Toronto High Park
Canon 5DS R with Canon 17mm f4 L TS-E (shifted and stitched) Cherry Blossoms Toronto High Park
 
Agree on 5DsR colors - these look beautiful in comparison to 5D mark IV or 1DX2. And I mostly use 5DsR handheld, even with 70-200 lens with IS turned off (I think it's broken) - I get tack sharp images. Once I moved from auto fucusing lens to manual ones (Zeiss Milvus 21, Otus 55 and Canon Ts-e 90 I), keeper rate increased to 90 percent from previous 70 (that is with auto focus lens). To each his own, but I know that this much of resulution doesn't hurt me.

And yes, once I moved from 5D mk II to 1 DX2, I was shocked how obvious was the lack of those 1.8 Mpix. 35 is not about the same as 50 - to me at least.
 
smartphoto said:
And yes, once I moved from 5D mk II to 1 DX2, I was shocked how obvious was the lack of those 1.8 Mpix. 35 is not about the same as 50 - to me at least.
Click to expand...
This doesn't make much sense to me. You can really tell the difference between a 5472 x 3648 image vs. a 5616 x 3744 image on resolution alone? You lost about 3% linear resolution.
 
gipper51 said:
smartphoto said:
And yes, once I moved from 5D mk II to 1 DX2, I was shocked how obvious was the lack of those 1.8 Mpix. 35 is not about the same as 50 - to me at least.
Click to expand...
This doesn't make much sense to me. You can really tell the difference between a 5472 x 3648 image vs. a 5616 x 3744 image on resolution alone? You lost about 3% linear resolution.
Click to expand...
That may not be the case for anyone else, for me it is very obvious difference. I used cropping a lot, then I really do feel lacking, though one might think difference is barely existent.
 
smartphoto said:
gipper51 said:
smartphoto said:
And yes, once I moved from 5D mk II to 1 DX2, I was shocked how obvious was the lack of those 1.8 Mpix. 35 is not about the same as 50 - to me at least.
Click to expand...
This doesn't make much sense to me. You can really tell the difference between a 5472 x 3648 image vs. a 5616 x 3744 image on resolution alone? You lost about 3% linear resolution.
Click to expand...
That may not be the case for anyone else, for me it is very obvious difference. I used cropping a lot, then I really do feel lacking, though one might think difference is barely existent.
Click to expand...
If we are convinced and believe - we see what we see.

In real life it is very difficult to see any differences between 35 and 50MP in any printed image. Serious pixel peeping can of course reveal something. Practical meaning ?

The idea of great photography is not cropping 10-15% from the edges - that is the 35 vs 50 difference
 
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