speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

You must be printing a lot of images and very large ones, that you're not satisfied by what the M II can give you. That, can pretty much be the only reason to upgrade to the SR, if not, you'd be hard pressed to see any differences in your images. All other aspects are about in the same ballpark as well, like af performance, etc.

mrtaxi Loc: Old Westbury NY, Fort Lauderdale, FL

I own the 5DS and 5DIV as well as a 5DIII and a few other canon bodies. All great cameras. The IV blows the sock’s off the III and is my go to camera. The S is a specific use camera when super detail is required with the high pixel count. Use a great L series canon lens or Sigma Art lens or Zeiss manual lens and it will not disappoint. Stunning image quality. For large blow ups for example. The S is not a fast low light capable camera like the IV is which is the camera major limitation.

ggenova64

I have a 5D Mark II, 5D Mark IV. Have you consider mirrorless? It depends on what glass (lenses) you own will be a great decision factor!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

There are probably a number of things happening...

1. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those eBay ads are shams.... shysters love to advertise high ticket items to get suckers to send them money. High end cameras are one of the common lures used. Be VERY careful! I know of a case where someone sent $15,000 to buy a car... which the "seller" didn't have. In fact, the photos of the car used in the eBay listing were of a friend's car and were lifted from his website. Several people who watch eBay more closely than me saw the listing, recognized the car and knew it wasn't for sale. They alerted eBay, but it was too late for one person. I never heard if that "buyer" recovered any of their money. Hope so.

2. A lot of pros buy a specific camera or lens for a job... maybe even charging it to the job... then sell it once the job is finished. I've never bought a camera being sold that way, but it's how I got my Tilt-Shift lenses at a big discount (TS-E lenses tend to see a lot of resales, because they're fairly specialized.)

3. There's high anticipation that Canon wiill soon announce a replacement for the 5DS-R.... I would guess it will be a mirrorless R-series, but who knows. People may be selling in anticipation of that, hoping to get top dollar because resale values often drop considerably once a replacement is announced.

4. Hand in hand with #2 and #3, I bet a lot of 5DS-R owners have multiple camera models and the 5DS-R is a fairly specialized camera for them. For example, the 5D Mark IV is more of a "general purpose" model... with some AF system enhancements, better high ISO and video capabilities, among other things.

5. Similarly, there are probably some 5DS-R users who are opting to replace them with the EOS R, also a more versatile, general purpose model but primarily because there are folks who always have to have the latest and greatest, biggest and "bestest". The mirrorless model is lower resolution (30MP vs 50MP) but other than that has a number of features that make it attractive: Far better low light focusing ability, more than 5600 focus points!, the advantages of an electronic viewfinder (much like using a DSLR with Live View & Exposure Simulation all the time), far higher usable ISO, much lower price and more. Plus the EOS R can use all the same EF lenses.... while also being exclusively able to use some premium lenses such as the RF 28-70mm f/2L and RF 50mm f/1.2L (with hints of more coming in the near future).

6. I bet more than a few buyers have found the 5DS-R "more camera" than they really need. Handling 50MP images comes with some challenges. And it's way more than you need for Instagram and Facebook postings!

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Been shooting a 5DS for about 3 months now and have to agree with those who suggest its best to shoot with L glass. I have also had some issues with older lenses needing to have the micro-adjustment set to a -10 for autofocus to work well. (newer lenses don't seem to have the problem). The low light capabilities are not as good as the 5DIV but it still gives an exceptional photo even at higher ISO.

Its still a learning experience but now that I have been using it for a while, I love the camera. You can get some idea of the low-light capabilities on my pixel site (https://kj-wojnar.pixels.com/). The fourth through 7th pictures were low light taken just this past month on a victorian house Christmas tour. No tripods allowed so yes, there is some motion blur evident in the pictures without IS enabled lens.

The shot of the tree was taken with the tree and candles the only illumination in the room. Lightroom boost of the shadows helped a lot too !

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

Your jumping from 21mp to 50mp in full RAW on the DSr - you sure you want to work with that kind of file size? Also as previously stated there are limitations with that system. I personally think you would be very happy with the Mrk IV.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

No, no problem. I use mine for birding and it is quite good, I am not convinced that the focusing system is up to par with the 5DIV, I own both cameras, but the camera is the sharpest camera that Canon has produced and you have the added benefit of being able to significantly crop images while retaining a sharpness. On the downside the dynamic range and ISO performance suffers from a sensor that has more in common with a crop camera than it has with traditional full frame sensors because of the smaller pixels required to fill that sensor with over 50,000,000 of them.

The only other comments I would make is that the camera is actually akin to a super high resolution 5DIII, the advancements of the 5DMKIV are obviously missing from the 5DS or SR cameras, touch screen, advanced focusing system etc.. The 5DS or SR either one is better with ISO and dynamic range performance than their crop counter parts but not as good as other full frames including the 6D series.

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I disagree with your statement about little difference between images created by each camera - I went from a 5D II to the 5DS and there is noticeable improvement in the image quality in my opinion even when online viewing at full size. The 5D II was VERY acceptable but the 5DS is better.

The only processing issue I have run into with my PC is that Lightroom really struggles with creating HDR from brackets of 4 or more shots. Thats the only PP downside I have seen so far. Tried a 5 shot bracket and it took 2 hours to display a preview and when I clicked the merge button, had to cancel after 3 hours. Part of the solution is memory ( going from 4 to 8gb this week should help).

tropics68 Loc: Georgia

I see no problem with this camera. I have had my 5DS for a little over a year. I have absolutely no regrets. I had a 6D and a 7D decided to keep both but ending up selling the 6D about two months later since I seldom used it after buying the 5DS. The majority of the time it is used outdoors in natural light. When indoors with poor lighting I use a flash. The images either way are quite good. The attached is a crop from a 100% image. As it came out of the camera with the exception of a high pass sharpening set at 2 pixels. I was approximately 75 +/- yards from the subject and using a tripod.

(Download)

cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX

There are a number of reason to shoot with the 5DS besides printing large. The 5DS is great when I know I will be cropping the image because I can't get closer, eg. perched birds. (Its pixel density is a tad higher and it's noise characteristics are better than my 7Dii and far exceeded my 5Dii on both counts). Needless to say, it is vastly superior to both 5Dii and 5Diii whenever the image is cropped.

I do a bunch of focus stacking macro and micro, some of which I do because I am curious as to what I will see after I complete the stack. With roughly twice the pixels of the 5Dii, the 5DS resolves much finer detail in my macros and micros. I can sometimes see structures and details that the 5Dii couldn't resolve.

If I was not printing big, I can downsize the image by 1/2 in post. The resulting noise at comparable ISOs was better with the 5DS than that with the 5Diii and substantially better than the 5Dii, while retaining at least as much resolution as those models. In general, I found the 5DSr substantially outperformed the 5Dii in nearly every aspect. I also found it was incrementally better for my work than the 5Diii in most respects and that doubling the pixels was significant for my photography.

Also, as you indicated the difference is apparent when you print big. Not only can you print larger without the image falling apart, the 5DS looks cleaner, more detailed than the 5Diii in large images where the 5Dii still looks good.

Having owned and shot over 100,000 images on each model (5Dii, 5Diii, 5DSr) I can only give my observations.

cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX

I think you are right about the memory. I have no problem creating 5 shot HDR, but I have 32gb RAM. Hope the upgrade helps.

Ventura Sam

Thanks for your response Daniel, I'm not concerned about file size as memory is cheap, I tend do crop alot and hope this will allow the leeway and still get good images.
Your suggesting the Mark4 is one of several and still under my consideration.

Kuzano

I'm a price consideration person. Many are using the 5D II for their points of consideration in placing the 5DS as a better camera.

All those fine points aside and the closeness of those points would put the 5D II clearly in front of the 5Ds for this comparison using price alone.

Good Low Count 5D II cameras can be purchased easily for $400. Clearly leading everything discussed in this post on price consideration. I have lenses for my film EOS camera's that will work on the 5D II, with no further expenditure. L glass is over rated!

Selene03

I have been shooting with both the 5d mk iv and the 5dsr for awhile now. I love the higher resolution in the 5dsr and use it a lot for daylight landscape photos. For most purposes, I actually prefer the 5d mk iv--it is faster with af and is much better in low light. It produces less shadow noise and is often recoverable in pp. I only use good Canon L lenses so have gotten good results from the camera. It does require a steady hand or a tripod, but I have mostly used it without a tripod with no issues. I recently acquired a sony a7riii, which is almost as sharp as the 5dsr and much lighter, so more convenient to use in landscape shots involving boulders and a lot of hiking. I have thought about selling one of the Canons. If I do, it will probably be the 5dsr, as that is the camera the Sony really replaces. It hasn't really replaced the 5d mk iv, which I find better for night photography and birds and wildlife. I also just plain like the 5d mk iv. But the images from the 5dsr are fantastic, so I haven't really wanted to get rid of it yet.

Of course, this is my analysis which is really personal and related to my needs and interests as a photographer. Your needs and interests will be different, but this is my evaluation. If you want to buy it, you will find the 5dsr to be a great and significant improvement over your 5d mk ii as far as detail and resolution.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

The 5Dsr is a very niche oriented camera. For the same monies, I would be looking to the future with new Canon mirrorless !