EOS 5DS DSR Firmware update wishlist

[Freddell]

When a new camera is released Canon could easily breathe new life into 5DS/DsR (like what happened with 5DmkIII and original 7D) with a firmware update!!

Here is my wishlist:

Faster autofocus: Despite having a superior auto-focus mechanism the 5Ds is only focuses as fast as a 6D!!! The 5DmarkIII is twice as fast!!.. It seems Canon did a deliberate slowdown of 5Ds not to hurt mkIII sales despite 5Ds should have ample of capacity for a quick focus!!
Unlock higher ISO shooting: Could automatically down sample to 24Mpix to match 5DmkIII at higher ISOs. A little crisper down sampling algorithm would not hurt. (Compare Ken Rockwells high ISO comparison and manual down-sampling)
Spot metering following auto focus point: not only center focus.

These changes should make MkIII truly surpassed on almost all aspects. This is no longer a priority to protect mkIII when mkIV is available.

What do you think!!??

My take on the USB3 port/update. Compare the sluggish SD card performance on 5DmkIII with 5Ds. It is clear the SD card was hooked up to USB2 on the old camera and on USB3 now, making Compact flash cards unnecessary on 5Ds!!!

 

[Larsskv]

This is the first time I've read that somebody claims the AF in the 5Ds is slower than 5DIII. How did you come to that conclusion?

 

[Freddell]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising numbers..

Full Autofocus Single Point (center) AF:

1DXmkII 0.085 second
5DmkIII 0.120 second
1DX 0.129 second
7DmkI 0.131 second
7DmkII 0.249 second
5Ds 0.268 second
6D 0.290 second

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5d-mkiii/canon-5d-mkiiiA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5ds/canon-5dsA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-6d/canon-6dA6.HTM

 

[j-nord]

Interesting, I've never heard anyone mention the 5Ds is slower at focusing than the 5Diii. It's possible this is intentional to gain greater focus accuracy since that is probably more important for the average user of a 50m-pix 5fps camera.

 

[Larsskv]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising numbers..

Full Autofocus Single Point (center) AF:

1DXmkII 0.085 second
5DmkIII 0.120 second
1DX 0.129 second
7DmkI 0.131 second
7DmkII 0.249 second
5Ds 0.268 second
6D 0.290 second

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5d-mkiii/canon-5d-mkiiiA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5ds/canon-5dsA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-6d/canon-6dA6.HTM

I am skeptical about generalising from these results. The 5DIII and 5DS results are done with a Sigma 70mm macro lens. The 7DII are done with the 18-135 stm lens.

Since nobody else seems to have noticed any difference in AF speed between the 5DIII and 5Ds, I find it more likely to be related to the lens in use. If a test was done with the native Canon 24-70 f/2.8 LII, showing similar results, I might have been convinced.

The 7DII results will probably suffer from using a slower than f/2.8 lens, with a (slower) stm motor in it. The focusing system performs better with f/2.8 or faster lenses.

 

[Eldar]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising numbers..

Full Autofocus Single Point (center) AF:

1DXmkII 0.085 second
5DmkIII 0.120 second
1DX 0.129 second
7DmkI 0.131 second
7DmkII 0.249 second
5Ds 0.268 second
6D 0.290 second

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5d-mkiii/canon-5d-mkiiiA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5ds/canon-5dsA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-6d/canon-6dA6.HTM

I own or have owned all the cameras on that list, except the 6D. A test that concludes that the 5DIII is faster than the 1DX has no credibility. To claim that the 7DMkI is a lot faster than the 7DMkII is absolute rubbish.

 

[Loswr]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising unbelievable numbers..

Does your experience with those cameras match IR? Clearly Eldar's ample experience differs.

 

[Zeidora]

My main wishlist item is reducing the vampire drain on the battery. Even when the camera is off, battery gets depleted rather rapidly. I've never noticed anything on my 5D2, but it is very pronounced on the 5DsR.

 

[RGF]

When a new camera is released Canon could easily breathe new life into 5DS/DsR (like what happened with 5DmkIII and original 7D) with a firmware update!!

Here is my wishlist:

Faster autofocus: Despite having a superior auto-focus mechanism the 5Ds is only focuses as fast as a 6D!!! The 5DmarkIII is twice as fast!!.. It seems Canon did a deliberate slowdown of 5Ds not to hurt mkIII sales despite 5Ds should have ample of capacity for a quick focus!!
Unlock higher ISO shooting: Could automatically down sample to 24Mpix to match 5DmkIII at higher ISOs. A little crisper down sampling algorithm would not hurt. (Compare Ken Rockwells high ISO comparison and manual down-sampling)
Spot metering following auto focus point: not only center focus.

These changes should make MkIII truly surpassed on almost all aspects. This is no longer a priority to protect mkIII when mkIV is available.

What do you think!!??

My take on the USB3 port/update. Compare the sluggish SD card performance on 5DmkIII with 5Ds. It is clear the SD card was hooked up to USB2 on the old camera and on USB3 now, making Compact flash cards unnecessary on 5Ds!!!

without h/w upgrade this make sense though I don't need down sampling. Also I would like to see the write speed increased but I suspect that is a h/w fix.

No reason max ISO is so low. I would've expected Max ISO to be similar to the 7D M2 since the pixel sizes are the "same".

 

[Freddell]

I am skeptical about generalising from these results. The 5DIII and 5DS results are done with a Sigma 70mm macro lens. The 7DII are done with the 18-135 stm lens.

Since nobody else seems to have noticed any difference in AF speed between the 5DIII and 5Ds, I find it more likely to be related to the lens in use. If a test was done with the native Canon 24-70 f/2.8 LII, showing similar results, I might have been convinced.

Thats just the thing, if you read: "Note that the Sigma 70mm f/2.8 is a fast lens when it comes to autofocus speed when tested this way, but as a sanity check, we also tested full AF lag with a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 II lens, and got nearly identical results (only 0.0018 second faster)."

 

[bholliman]

Having shot a 5D3 and 5DsR side by side for three months, I can attest the 5DsR's AF performs as well if not better than the 5D3's. I felt AF speed was the same and the 5DsR's AF accuracy was slightly better. I sold the 5D3 since I found the 5DsR to be a better all around camera for my uses (family/kids, landscape, portraits and some wildlife).
I question the validity of this test.

 

[Eldar]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising unbelievable numbers..

Does your experience with those cameras match IR? Clearly Eldar's ample experience differs.

There are lots of parameters that can affect such a test. A large still subject, or a flat chart, with lots of contrast, in good light, or a small subject in front of a crowded background, in shifting light, or a moving subject, with less contrast in difficult light etc. etc. represent totally different challenges to the AF system. In the first, just about any available DSLR will perform well and certainly good enough, whereas the others will separate the good from the less good. I do not know how IR did this, but to present a credible test and use it to compare systems, they should have used a number of different controlled scenarios. What we do know is that they did run the test with a Sigma lens, with all of Sigma´s known problems with AF on Canon bodies. So all in all, these results have no credibility to me.

If I had to rate these cameras AF systems, for practical use, based on my practical experience and not by any controlled measurement, I´d rate them: 1DX-II - 1DX - 7DII/5DSR - 5DIII - 7DI. I have never used the 6D, so I don´t have an opinion.

 

[Memdroid]

My biggest issue with the 5Ds is the operation speed. Image preview and scrolling/zooming is slow! (if youare used to a 1Dx/5D3) I hope at least they fix this "issue" .

 

[nomad85]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising numbers..

Full Autofocus Single Point (center) AF:

1DXmkII 0.085 second
5DmkIII 0.120 second
1DX 0.129 second
7DmkI 0.131 second
7DmkII 0.249 second
5Ds 0.268 second
6D 0.290 second

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5d-mkiii/canon-5d-mkiiiA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5ds/canon-5dsA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-6d/canon-6dA6.HTM

I own or have owned all the cameras on that list, except the 6D. A test that concludes that the 5DIII is faster than the 1DX has no credibility. To claim that the 7DMkI is a lot faster than the 7DMkII is absolute rubbish.

I own 2 5d mark III's and 1 5ds...I have not noticed any drop in AF-speed since using the 5ds. My experiences coincide with yours

 

[Mikehit]

Sorry, should have published the test results..
very surprising numbers..

Full Autofocus Single Point (center) AF:

1DXmkII 0.085 second
5DmkIII 0.120 second
1DX 0.129 second
7DmkI 0.131 second
7DmkII 0.249 second
5Ds 0.268 second
6D 0.290 second

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5d-mkiii/canon-5d-mkiiiA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-5ds/canon-5dsA6.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-6d/canon-6dA6.HTM

From the articles:

We also use the same Sigma 70mm f/2.8 macro with every camera (on all platforms except Four Thirds/Micro Four Thirds and Nikon consumer models lacking an in-body focus motor), to further reduce variation, and because our tests showed that focus-determination time with this lens was close to the fastest, across multiple camera bodies from different manufacturers. Being an older design with a non-ultrasonic motor, it wouldn't be the fastest at slewing from one focus setting to another, but that's exactly the reason we measure focus determination speed, which is primarily a function of the camera body, vs focus adjustment speed, which is primarily a function of the lens.

As a photographer I don't care about focus determination speed or focus adjustment speed. I want to know how quickly lens+camera work together. And nothing I have read or heard support the IR conclusions have any real-world effect.

 

[jeffa4444]

The only difference I have noted (I use the 5D MKIII at work, own the 5Ds and 6D) is that the 5DS takes longer to write to cards (understandable given file sizes) in every other respect I see no difference to the 5D MKIII except the metering system is more accurate in the 5DS. As for AF speed not noticed anything different, I use only Canon glass.

 

[jeffa4444]

Unlocking higher ISO shooting in a firmware upgrade would be good news for the rare time I need it.

 

[photojoern.de]

Better battery performance and a bit faster play functions would certainly be nice. But that is certainly due to the large file size, so in the end we should not expect huge improvements.
I would also love to see things that I know from Magic Lantern: focus peaking and overexposure peaking.

And one more thing, which I never understood, from all Canon cameras and also most other DSLR cameras: why are all the cameras limited to 30 seconds exposure time in Av / Tv mode? Why can´t they just add two more stops and go up to 120 seconds - and I will probably never again use the bulb mode.

Otherwise I am really happy with the camera incl. the firmware.

 

[timcz]

The only thing of note for my 5dsr, is that early pre-sunrise I was finding my metering to be doing funny things. Pitch black outside, in manual or Av, The metering was calculating the exposure as 10" at iso100, f5.6 in a scenario that was completely pitch black. It was very odd. Basically to get anything remotely like a normal exposure it was iso1600 for 30 seconds, which was according to my meter about 5 stops over exposed (but still under exposed according to histogram).

Anyone seeing similar?

Firmware update wise - I'm always just happy with an "ironing out the bugs" rather than complete new features.

 

[Eldar]

I find the 5DSR to be a very capable camera, so there is not that much I´d like to add. But I have two requests:

1: Give me ISO25600 and 51200. ISO12800 is so good that I am certain I could live with two stops more in some situations.

2: Metering to follow AF point. To have metering locked to the center is a bit irritating, but not a big deal, when you photograph slow or still subjects, since you have time to measure and recompose. But when you have things moving in and out of shade and all over the frame, that metering functionality would help a lot.

The other things I´d like to change are mechanical. Where support for different focusing screens top off the list, followed by getting rid of the bloody useless SD card. I have also been in more and more situations where a tillable LCD screen would have been most helpful.