{"id":13014,"date":"2026-08-14T20:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T01:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=13014"},"modified":"2026-08-14T20:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T01:59:25","slug":"canon-5ds-r-a-special-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/canon-5ds-r-a-special-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"Canon 5Ds R – A Special Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few years ago, I ventured back into using a DSLR <\/a>for the first time in over a decade to compare to my more recent experience with mirrorless cameras. Over the last year or so, I’ve been dipping my toes back into some older bodies, and taking advantage of the excellent used prices on older DSLRs. I’ve picked up copies of what were my first two DSLRs, the original Canon Digital Rebel and the Canon EOS 30D<\/a>. I later added a 7D, and loved the feel of it, though the image quality didn’t really speak to me. However, I then decided to pick up a Canon 5D Mark II on the cheap, and I really enjoyed shooting with that camera. It still feels great in the hand, operates wonderfully, and the images, provided you don’t need to push the shadows too much, still have wonderful color depth and overall quality. I enjoyed it so much that I built up a good landscape kit with some quality EF glass, and originally thought I’d pick up a 5D Mark IV and just use that for most of my landscape work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But finding a good quality 5D Mark IV with a low shutter count is actually somewhat difficult. I then started looking at the 5Ds and 5Ds R, which, as primarily studio and landscape oriented cameras, are much more readily available in excellent condition with low shutter counts. Midwest Photo had a reasonably priced near mint 5Ds R with relatively low shutter count (27,000), and I decided to pick it up. While I’ve only had the camera for around a month, I have been very, very impressed by the 5Ds R. It’s an 11 year old body, that was actually a bit controversial when it released, but what I’ve found is that it’s a special camera that has image quality that still rivals high end modern mirrorless cameras in many ways. Let’s discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 5Ds \/ 5Ds R History – 50 megapixels in 2015<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-2010s, there was a bit of a revolution occurring in the camera world. Mirrorless cameras were starting to gain serious ground, and Sony had released their A7 series of bodies, with outstanding image quality and wonderful features. Nikon’s DSLRs had wonderful sensors as well, and a lot of people were lamenting Canon’s lack of progress in this area. The 5D Mark III had much improved autofocus over the Mark II, but still had an approximately 22 megapixel sensor, and the dynamic range was lacking compared to peers. Then in 2015, Canon released the 5Ds and 5Ds R, with a brand new 50.3 megapixel sensor. The bodies were identical, except that the R had an additional filter that canceled the effects of the standard anti-aliasing filter, creating incredibly sharp detail. At the time of release, the 5Ds R was the highest resolution 35mm or smaller sensor on the market, with only some medium format digital cameras having resolution beyond. Even today, it’s the highest resolution camera Canon has ever released. Unfortunately, while the camera was generally very well received by professionals who used it, many reviews were disappointed that the 5Ds series only improved dynamic range by around a stop over the 5D Mark III, and still trailed Nikon’s D810 and Sony’s A7R II in this department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, though, the 5Ds series has been beloved by those who purchased the camera, but many people who weren’t exposed to it first hand view it as an overly ambitious project from Canon that was crippled by ‘poor’ dynamic range. In 2026, it’s easy to find good examples with low mileage for under $1,000, and in many cases around $800. For a super-high resolution full frame body, this is an absolute steal – but what about that ‘poor’ dynamic range? I’ll get to that in a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build, Controls and Ergonomics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The 5Ds R shows Canon’s refinements in DSLR design over the years. The 5D Mark III had several improvements over earlier iterations, with the more conveniently located Live View button and a Video\/Stills switch and the addition of the Q menu and M-Fn button on the top, both of which are still present on modern Canon mirrorless bodies. The 5Ds and 5Ds R inherited the 5D Mark III body, with only extremely subtle changes. While Canon made a few other changes with the 5D Mark IV, the body design on the 5Ds R is extremely mature in Canon’s design scheme. Shooting controls are all easy to access, with the traditional dual wheel Canon control scheme intact here, along with the Drive\/AF and ISO\/Metering buttons on top easy to access with your index finger. The rear joystick falls easily to hand and the Q and M-Fn buttons allow for quick changing of most any setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The top of the Canon 5Ds R will be instantly familiar to users of other Canon DSLRs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canon has always had excellent ergonomics, and the 5Ds R has an exceptionally comfortable grip for both your thumb and the rest of your hand. The thick, sculpted front grip provides excellent comfort and control, and the sculpted back allows your thumb to hold the camera securely without fatigue. I’ve always found Canon’s ergonomics to be the overall best among the major camera brands, and it’s extremely evident on the 5Ds R as well. Despite being a rather hefty camera, at 930g, it comfortable to hold for long durations simply because the ergonomics are so good. In many ways, the camera feels even better in the hand than some of Canon’s R series mirrorless bodies, and those bodies also have excellent ergonomics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only real downside is that several of the controls, such as playback, and the main menu button, are on the left side of the camera, so you do need to use both hands when reviewing images. Still, this doesn’t pose any major issues. The mode dial is a locking traditional PASM dial located on the left shoulder of the camera, and has a lovely knurled rubber surrounding edge that makes it very easy to grip and operate. The top of the camera looks like the vast majority of Canon’s prosumer DSLRs, with the major drive and image controls on top and the large status LCD behind them, providing a quick glance at all the major camera settings in use at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The menu system in the 5Ds R looks remarkably similar to the menus still in use today on Canon’s cameras. They are well organized and easy to navigate. The camera has a multi-page My Menu for placing your most used settings, something Canon has had since all the way back in 2007. The Q menu is customizable and allows you to place more commonly adjusted settings within even easier reach. This makes adjusting things like drive, autoexposure bracketing and more extremely easy to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rear of the Canon 5Ds R is very similar to current Canon mirrorless bodies, as is the menu system. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 5Ds R was also one of the first Canon cameras to gain some more advanced features we take for granted today, such as a built in intervalometer (and the ability to build a time-lapse movie directly from those captured shots, right in camera), multiple exposures and Canon’s outstanding Bulb Timer, allowing you to simply set any exposure length from 1 second to over 99 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who didn’t use DSLRs in the mid 2010s when this body first came out, I was also very pleasantly surprised to find the optical viewfinder of the 5Ds R has a number of extremely useful features that enable viewing some of the information shown in mirrorless EVFs. Canon has a fully dynamic LCD system in the 5Ds R’s viewfinder, such that in addition to the illuminated exposure information at the bottom like in basically all SLRs, they can overlay tons of information on the optical finder. Among the most important are the digital level that is visible in the top of the viewfinder, for both vertical and horizontal leveling and the ability to overlay a grid on the EVF to make framing easier. The camera can also do in-camera cropping to APS-H, APS-C or Square formats, and the camera will shade the viewfinder to show you the cropped area in the optical finder. The 5Ds R’s viewfinder is also extremely clear and bright – noticeably brighter than my former Nikon D750’s finder, though I find the 5Ds R’s focus screen is smoother, and thus harder to judge manual focus than the rougher focus screen in my 5D Mark II. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the 5D Mark II and Mark III before it, the 5Ds R has live view capabilities, and while it lacks the dual-pixel AF that debuted in the 5D Mark IV, I found the live view experience with the 5Ds R to be very good. It’s not as responsive when taking the shot, nor does it have the high end facial tracking features of modern mirrorless cameras, but it does focus quite quickly in live view (even in dim light), and is a major step up from the slow live-view AF in the 5D Mark II, and miles ahead of the absolutely ponderous live-view AF of the Canon 7D. The rear screen, while not ultra-high resolution, is a large 3.2″ display with 1M dots and it has very good brightness, color and contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resolution and Lenses to Use<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The 5Ds R, as mentioned earlier, is Canon’s highest resolution body of all time (as of 2026), with a 50.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS image sensor. The R variant of the 5Ds has “low pass filter cancellation”, which effectively removes the effects of the typical anti-aliasing filter and allows the 5Ds R to have even further per-pixel sharpness than most other cameras, even those like the R5. And I can attest: with a good lens, the sharpness of the files is simply unrivaled, with exceptional detail and bite. Canon also added some features to reduce mirror-slap and shutter shock on this body, which can harm resolution. The mirror assembly is motorized instead of spring-loaded for a softer landing, and Canon has implemented delayed mirror-lockup settings to allow for 1\/8s to 1 second delays in taking the shot after the mirror flips up. I find the 1\/8 and 1\/4s settings do a nice job of reducing the effects of mirror slap and shutter shock while still providing a predominantly seamless experience in shooting. I’d turn it off for shooting any sort of action or shooting where timing the shot is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Canon 5Ds R with 50mm f\/1.8 STM, 70-300mm f\/4-5.6L IS, 16-35mm f\/2.8L III, 24-70mm f\/4L IS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But you definitely need good glass to take advantage of the high resolution sensor. As such, while budget primes when stopped down certainly can provide the necessary detail, if you want cross-frame detail with zooms, you really need to be paying for the high end EF glass. Thankfully, there are a number of Canon’s lenses that are up to the task. The wide-angle space is probably the most difficult, as the older ultra-wide zooms from Canon such as the 17-40mm f\/4L or the 16-35mm f\/2.8L II don’t really have the resolving power necessary, at least across the whole frame, to really take advantage of such resolution. As such, you’re looking at the 16-35mm f\/2.8L III or the 16-35mm f\/4L IS among Canon’s glass – Sigma’s Art ultra-wides are also likely well up to the task. In the standard zoom range, it’s the 24-70mm f\/4L IS and the 24-70mm f\/2.8L II. Canon’s 24-105mm lenses work ok as well, but some focal lengths don’t keep up at the edges, and my original standard zoom of the 24-105mm f\/3.5-5.6 STM was not up to the task. Thankfully, most of Canon’s outstanding telephoto L zooms ARE good enough to take advantage of this sensor, including the venerable original 70-200mm f\/4L. While Canon’s DSLR lenses are still commanding decent prices on the used market compared to Nikon, they are still FAR less expensive than they were when they were new, and can often be found for 30-50% of their original price, even in outstanding condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my kit, I ended up with the 16-35mm f\/2.8L III, the 24-70mm f\/4L IS, and the 70-300mm f\/4-5.6L IS, a lens that is often forgotten about but has exceptional image quality and a very useful range. I chose to buy all three used from retail locations, which allows me either a warranty (in the case of MPB), or at the very least, time to shoot the lens and make sure it’s a quality copy, in the case of my locally purchased lenses. Even with the slightly higher prices compared to peer to peer or auction sales, I paid under $2,400 for all three lenses, bringing the total kit to around $3,300, and I was able to pay for it by trading in several pieces of gear I wasn’t using much any more. That’s not cheap, but when you compare it to a comparable mirrorless kit from Canon, it’s an absolute bargain. If you don’t need the advantages a modern mirrorless body provides, the 5Ds R becomes an absolute steal of a camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We’ve discussed resolution, but how does the rest of the older 50 megapixel sensor stand up in 2026? Honestly, pretty well. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Dynamic Range. If you head on over to Photons to Photos and look at their photographic dynamic range chart, you’ll see the 5Ds R sits with just shy of 10 stops of dynamic range, while something like the R5 II pulls out around 11.5. While over 1.5 stops of DR is certainly something that is noticeable in the files, I’ve found that in real-world scenarios, that difference doesn’t crop up nearly as often as you’d think, especially if you expose properly. The 5Ds R has enough native dynamic range that you don’t feel like the files are overly contrasty. As someone who used the Canon EOS RP for a while, the 5Ds R has about a 3\/4 stop advantage over that body. Also, modern photo software can make a huge difference to the final result when processing 5Ds R files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While yes, pushing shadows a significant margin will result in higher noise and reduced detail, modern noise reduction software, like Lightroom’s Denoise feature, can make even strong pushes look fantastic, and the extremely high resolution and high native sharpness of those pixels makes it so that even 3-4 stop pushes in the shadows retain excellent levels of detail. In reality, the thing to watch out for the most is that the 5Ds R will clip highlights faster than more modern cameras, so proper highlight exposure is critical. If you nail that, you’ll be set in all but the most extreme circumstances. For landscape work, it’s also rather trivial nowadays to simply bracket and combine in post as well, dramatically reducing the impact of the more limited dynamic range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate this, take the image below, which was taken in harsh mid-day sunlight, under a very dark and low railroad bridge. I thought for sure, this would be a situation where the 5Ds R would run into serious limitations. First, let’s look at the shot out of camera with no adjustments as it was imported into Lightroom with the Camera Standard profile:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Railroad Bridge – Unadjusted RAW – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 16mm, f\/8, 1\/40s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some adjustment in Lightroom (+2.4 stops Exposure, +42 shadows, -92 highlights, +68 blacks), which is a very hefty push in the shadow regions, with some negative highlights to pull back the overexposed sun-lit area beyond the bridge, along with Lightroom’s Denoise tool at 30, yields an extremely nice file, with good detail under the bridge, almost all of the highlights recovered beyond (only the reflective signs were not fully recovered), and relatively low noise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Railroad Bridge – Adjusted RAW – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 16mm, f\/8, 1\/40s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even areas between the beams, which were in extreme shadow, had detail recovered. Take a look at the 100% crops from the upper center of the image, showing the relatively clean pushed detail recovered in the beams. Would an R5 II recover the shadows even better? Sure, but how many situations do you encounter that are more extreme? Not too many (though they do exist). In those situations, you’ll likely want to bracket and combine into an HDR file, but frankly, in those situations I’d do that with any camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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100% Crops of shadow areas – original (top), adjusted (bottom) – click to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All this to say – the dynamic range ‘issues’ with the 5Ds R, are, in real world use, largely irrelevant. These cameras have been used for years by professional landscape and portrait photographers, and many are still using them because of how good the files are. The shot below is a real world example, with a strongly backlit skyline, where the sun was located directly behind the central tower, casting the main subject into fairly heavy shadow. The final result, however, looks fantastic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Huntington Building, Columbus, OH – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 16mm, f\/9, 1\/250s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Regarding other items with image quality. The 5Ds R produces files with beautiful color and lovely contrast. Color is rich, and I really enjoy the overall look and feel of the files. At high ISO, there is definitely a bit of noise, but given the massive resolution, for similar output size I find it not too dissimilar from any modern camera, except at the very extremes of the ISO range, where the 5Ds R will be noisier. Here again, though, modern tools make handling noise a relative non-issue. I’d read reports about this camera producing rather noisy files at higher ISO, but to be honest, I think it performs quite well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Upper Lynn Camp Falls, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 24-70mm f\/4L IS @ 29mm, f\/11, 5s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the image quality out of the 5Ds R is exceptional. While it does show less dynamic range than modern peers, it has enough information in the RAW files that I haven’t found it to be an issue in real world shooting at all. The other imaging characteristics, like the excellent color and extreme resolution, are on par or even a little better than high end mirrorless bodies today. We’ve known for a while now that most cameras for the past 15 years are capable of excellent image quality, and the 5Ds R is still capable of top-flight image quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, in this world of mirrorless bodies with insane feature sets and impeccable autofocus, is there still room for an 11 year old DSLR? Absolutely. The 5Ds R lags a bit behind today’s modern mirrorless cameras with regards to features, autofocus, and pure dynamic range, but it is still a very capable body that, especially for landscape or studio work, can create impeccable images, with detail levels that exceed all but a handful of today’s bodies. There’s also something incredibly tactile about the experience of shooting with it. From the absolutely phenomenal grip to well-thought out controls and an excellent viewfinder, the 5Ds R feels amazing to use, and the results look amazing as well. For the time being, I’m going to be using it as my dedicated landscape camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few more images I’ve taken with the 5Ds R since I picked it up in early July:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Smoky Mountain Sunset, Sevierville, Tennessee – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 24-70mm f\/4L IS @ 47mm, f\/11, 1\/50s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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These Are My Jewels, Columbus, OH – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 70-300mm f\/4-5.6L IS @ 200mm, f\/5, 1\/400s, ISO 200<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Middle Falls, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 24-70mm f\/4L IS @ 35mm, f\/11, 20s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bridge Falls, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 28mm, f\/11, 30s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Middle Prong, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 24-70mm f\/4L IS @ 37mm, f\/11, 1s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ohio Statehouse – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 16mm, f\/11, 1\/80s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Columbus in the Summer – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 24-70mm f\/4L IS @ 24mm, f\/8, 1\/800s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Middle Lynn Camp Falls, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 24-70mm f\/4L IS @ 30mm, f\/9, 2.5s, ISO 200<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Containers, Columbus, OH – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 21mm, f\/8, 1\/320s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Smoky Mountain Sunset, Sevierville, Tennessee – Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 70-300mm f\/4-5.6L @ 160mm, f\/6.3, 1\/60s, ISO 200<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bridge Falls, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
Canon 5Ds R with Canon EF 16-35mm f\/2.8L III @ 18mm, f\/10, 25s, ISO 160<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, I ventured back into using a DSLR for the first time in over a decade to compare to my more recent experience with mirrorless cameras. Over the last year or so, I’ve been dipping my toes back into some older bodies, and taking advantage of the excellent used prices on older […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[533,534,14,30,149],"class_list":["post-13014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-shop","tag-5ds","tag-5dsr","tag-camera","tag-canon","tag-dslr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/5DsR_al.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28RGq-3nU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13014"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13057,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014\/revisions\/13057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}