Long weekend test of the canon 5DS and 11-24 wide angle.

There has been much ado and hype about the mega megapixel Canon DS and Canon DSR. I am comparing it to my 5D3 and 7D2.

To use the DS was easy enough. Same set up as my 5D3 and 7D2. Are the photos taken good? Oh hell yes. Higher ISO shots are no problem.  However, I have found the FPS very slow (compared to 5D3 and 7D2) and I did miss shots because of this. That being typed, the 5DS isn't made for sports photography. Planned shots, and carefully composed shots, not a problem.  Tracking surfers, birds or anything in motion, I found it lacking in performance. 

Images:  HUGE, but bigger isn't always better.  I took these shots, one using the 5DS and one with my 5D3, using the 11-24mm wide angle.

5D3, 11-24mm Wide Angle

 

5DS, 11-24mm Wide Angle

 

I know it would have been better to do both photos at the same time of day, but that wasn't an option, but this does well enough to demonstrate.

Both images are sharp, clear and have good colors and tones. For me, there is no real difference, except if you wanted to you could closely crop in on the 5DS image and because it’s 50+ megabyte 50megapixel image, you would still end up with a large image. This will also require you to have a lot more storage space. Not just for the finished products, but to store the raw files.

Same 5DS photo as above, but cropped in.  I guess the larger image size allows for some wiggle room for post editing (cropping out unwanted items, leveling horizon etc etc), but for me (and I mean, this is just MY opinion) nothing beats composing image before you take your shot.

My conclusion:  to quote a friend, ‘Horses for Courses’. Great camera, but not for me.  It would not supplant my current cameras,  and if I really want a huge 50mp image, I will stick with photo stacking and merging. 

 

Onto the 11-24mm Wide Angle lens – Omygoodness was a luscious piece of glass. Bulbous Goodness!  Even with the distortion you get using such a wide angle lens, it was crisp and sharp even to the corners.  Landscape shots are a dream with this lens.  Especially compared to my older 17-35mm wide angle.  If I was going to save my shekels for another lens, this would be the one.