Pierre LecLerc

i HAVE been a photographer for almost 30 years, and was an early adopter of the digital format, having now owned seven different SLR models in the Canon line-up. I sell fine-art prints online and contribute to various photography stock agencies, and always strive to produce the highest quality prints – and it’s for this reason that I recently switched from a Canon EOS 6D to the EOS 5DS R.

The EOS 5DS R has, without a doubt, the best image quality of all the cameras I’ve used so far. The 50MP files hold so much detail that it gives the power to crop and still retain enough resolution to print large images. That’s not to put down the EOS 6D, though; it’s also an amazing camera, and still, in my opinion, the best value in Canon’s SLR line-up.

After shooting with the EOS 5DS R and comparing its results with images from the EOS 6D, I found the latter to be slightly better in low light and when shooting long exposures, with less image noise. I found this to be the case even at low sensitivities, especially when lifting shadows in post processing.

Next to images from the EOS 6D, the EOS 5DS R’s results are sharper and have much more detail, and the main advantage of this is the possibility to print very large images, either for your own enjoyment or for resale as fine-art prints.

On the other hand, the files are big, so everything is a bit slower to process. Many stock agencies or web portfolios have file size limitations when you submit your images, so you may find you have to resize them in order to stay within these limits.

bring spare batteries There are some great new features in the EOS 5DS R. I really like the new bulb timer option for more flexibility when capturing long exposures. Having the intervalometer feature means there’s no need for expensive remotes, while the new timelapse movie features make it easy to create movies in camera, without much editing. I have noticed, however, that the battery life of the EOS 5DS R is short, especially when doing long exposures.

Overall, I feel the EOS 5DS R is the best current option from Canon for landscape photography and creating large prints. I plan to use it for most of the work I do, but I will still be using the EOS 6D for night photography.