Wildlife Canon 5DS R
So let us get down to the first in the field practical review on this megapixel monster and Wildlife Canon 5DS R. With there being a fairly large variety of subject matter in Southern Africa it has been a great experience to test it while hosting my Creating Photography workshops. Over the last few months in dedicated wildlife environments and real-world conditions, it has been mind blow, ng to say the least.
The body and lens performance
- I paired this beast with the new 100-400 F4 &-F5.6 MK II and well it was an epic combination
- Battery life is pretty awesome and compares well against my 5D MK III and 7D MK II
- For me personally, the frame rate of roughly 6 FPS is adequate even though many could suggest that you need more. I shoot short bursts and am more selective in what I shoot in a scene so it was not an issue
- I was able to capture a number of image series when the action was on
- The buffer for me was an issue simply due to the fact that I did not use an ultra-fast card. When I say I had an issue, the write speed was quite lengthy and I had to wait to “chimp” J
- Focus system and point selection worked well and almost the same as my 5D MK III so it was a quick and easy to get it customized for my shooting style.
Shooting style and posture
This was the biggest learning curve for me as I am very relaxed and have a freestyle way of shooting with handheld being my preference on a game vehicle. In good light my keeper rate was normal.
In the lower light and darkness I found that as soon as I started to use the standard monopod/gimbals combination support, the number of keepers was far higher. Adapting the shooting support was vital vs. what I normally do with my 5D MK III
All images are 90% full frame except for leveling and some minor crop. We will get to the advantage of the megapixels in a later post. The editing was done in Lightroom CC for ease of use and for the gallery upload. No NR has been added with main sliders, only for the colour smoothness and slight NR removal. PLEASE NOTE this was a beta version and not final production body.
As I said in the beginning, it would be a short and practical opinion of the Canon 5DSR. So as they say, you are the judge of the results.
Click on the image to be directed to a select gallery of the first few weeks of my shooting this DSLR camera.
