Maine in 50MP

This is a small portfolio of images I shot in Maine last summer while testing out my then new Canon 5DS R. Since that time it has become my primary stills camera. It excels at ultra-detailed architectural photography and in portrait work where flexibility in post for retouching and re-framing is desired.

I have posted a few assignments from the 5DS R on Learning to See but, overall, I have kept pretty mum about it. Now, mid-August, 2016, we are on the cusp of the 5D Mark IV being announced and I thought I better put down a few thoughts and images before the photography world becomes awash in the 5D Mark IV feeding frenzy.

The overwhelming spec of the 5DS R is detail, 50MP of it, and with that comes better drawing/rendition within the frame and increased dynamic range. Revisiting the images seen here are I am still floored by the amount of detail the camera can resolve. To me it has a medium-format feel even bordering on, dare I say, large format. This is due to the intense clarity in deep focus images and with shallow focus images it’s due to the way the focus falls off as it transitions from sharp to soft.

I recently made a series of 17″ x 22″ prints for a client of architecture projects shot with the 5DS R and with some of my previous cameras – 1DX, 5D Mark III, and the 1Ds series. Everything looks great but there’s a visible difference between the 5DS R and the others. There is no question that the 5DS R coupled with Canon’s stellar 24mm f/3.5L II and 17mm f/4L tilt-shift lenses most approaches my 4×5 work from way back when.

I won’t get too deep into the weeds here. There’s a bit of that in my prior 5DS R posts and I’ll save the rest for future posts based on assignments where I used the camera.