Using the 5DSR for wildlife, a field review

[Grant Atkinson]

I have enjoyed using the Canon 5DSR full-frame body for photographing African wildlife. Whilst the 50mp camera might not be the single best, all-round wildlife camera, it does a pretty good job in many aspects, and in some things it excels. I have shared some thoughts on my experience with the camera so far, including lots of actual images taken with the camera, and just where and how I think it can best be used. The link is here:
http://www.grantatkinson.com/blog/using-the-canon-5dsr-for-photographing-african-wildlife

I did not get around yet to shooting night skies with the camera.
Cheers
Grant

 

[Click]

Hi Grant,

Thank you for this excellent review.

Cheers

 

[candyman]

Great report with some fine images
Thank you for sharing some insight on the use of the 5DSR

 

[Eldar]

Excellent review Grant and fully in line with my own experiences. I find the combination of the 5DSR and a 1DX/1DXII to be outstanding and cover pretty much anything we come across.

The real world examples you provide in your review is worth a lot more than all the half qualified semi lab environment reviews we see.

 

[Sabaki]

Grant Atkinson is one of South Africa's best wildlife photographers and a fantastic person too. He took time to share some tips with me when I was having issues with a 7Dii (it was returned).

Nice review and images Grant. The 5DSR's repertoire has grown quite a bit from being just a studio body. The detail rendering is superb.

 

[Click]

Grant Atkinson is one of South Africa's best wildlife photographers and a fantastic person too.

I totally agree with you.

 

[dak723]

Your real world experiences are truly appreciated for folks who want to know what cameras are like (and their photos) in actual use.

 

[Larsskv]

Grant Atkinson is one of South Africa's best wildlife photographers and a fantastic person too.

I totally agree with you.

Great review, and pictures. I love the one with the cheetah chasing the small buck. Thank you for sharing!

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Excellent review, Grant. I am finally getting around to ordering in a 5DsR for review. I wanted to be familiar with it before the 5D4 comes out so that I can adequately compare/contrast.

You have a good attention to detail and a lot of great images to back up your observations. Well done!

 

[East Wind Photography]

Used a 5dsr for about 5 months. Put it through its wildlife paces and decided to sell it in favor of the 1dx2. The 5dsr is a great camera if you have still subjects and don't need it for in flight or action.

Other than that I was abysmally disappointed. It was too slow in every respect, including AF. I often found that it had a tough time keeping up with subjects moving toward and away from the camera. The 7d2 has a much faster AF system but is overshadowed by the amazing 1dx2.

You just have to keep your expectations in check and realize it's not great for everything.

 

[AlanF]

What I love about reviews like this is that it quite clearly shows that with only 3fps, you can get really amazing bird and wildlife shots. Great stuff!

It has 5 fps, not 3. Why do you so consistently get easily verifiable facts wrong?

 

[Mikehit]

Other than that I was abysmally disappointed. It was too slow in every respect, including AF. I often found that it had a tough time keeping up with subjects moving toward and away from the camera. The 7d2 has a much faster AF system but is overshadowed by the amazing 1dx2.

What do you mean by 'slow'? There are two aspects IME that are rarely distinguished:

• response time to capture the moment
  speed for tracking focus
• 
  

As an example, one of my obsessions at the moment is the local kingfisher and I realised that I am less interested in capturing it in flight and more interested in capturing the dive and it hitting the water.
The latter needs quick reactions by me (and the camera) when I see it diving and about to hit the water, the former relies on tracking which is a different skill.

Also I can imagine that if you are into animal behaviour pretty much the same thing applies to catch an interesting moment.

 

[Eldar]

Other than that I was abysmally disappointed. It was too slow in every respect, including AF. I often found that it had a tough time keeping up with subjects moving toward and away from the camera. The 7d2 has a much faster AF system but is overshadowed by the amazing 1dx2.

What do you mean by 'slow'? There are two aspects IME that are rarely distinguished:

• response time to capture the moment
  speed for tracking focus
• 
  

As an example, one of my obsessions at the moment is the local kingfisher and I realised that I am less interested in capturing it in flight and more interested in capturing the dive and it hitting the water.
The latter needs quick reactions by me (and the camera) when I see it diving and about to hit the water, the former relies on tracking which is a different skill.

Also I can imagine that if you are into animal behaviour pretty much the same thing applies to catch an interesting moment.

Having used 7D, 7DII 5D, 5DII, 5DIII, 1DsIII, 1DIV, 1DX, 1DXII and 5DSR extensively, I find it difficult to comprehend your "abysmally disappointed". As many have pointed out, including Grant in his review, you have to pay attention to your technique, to really benefit from the high resolution and there is an ISO limit. In general I lose one stop, due to a faster shutter speed and yes, the 1DX and especially the 1DX-II has a better AF system and a much higher fps. But compared to the other cameras listed above, the 5DSR equals or beat them (except for 1DIV and 7DII with regards to fps).

So if your problems were for real, they must have been caused by one of two; Either finger trouble on your end or a faulty camera. My 7DII works well and I am happy with the AF system, but the 5DSR is better. The 5DSR is also better than the 5DIII. Besides Grants excellent review, you can also check out Art Morris. I believe their images of both wildlife and birds (also in flight) are proof good enough.

Mikehit; For your Kingfisher dives, I would rather recommend a 7DII (or preferably a 1DX or 1DXII), due to the fps performance.

 

[photojoern.de]

Grnt, I absolutely agree with your assessment. It´s a great camera, and combined with the stunningly sharp Canon 100-400 IS f4-5.6 II it´s ideal for many situations, wildlife and sports. When photographing Snow Polo, I absolutely loved the flexibility it gave me: shoot a little wider in angle and then crop. Because sports like Polo is so fast that with a non-zoom lens you will often miss the shot. I loved this flexibility the 5DSR offers. See some results here (mostly in hi res): http://photojoern.de/sports/polo/

 

[Grant Atkinson]

Grant Atkinson is one of South Africa's best wildlife photographers and a fantastic person too.

I totally agree with you.

Thanks so much for the feedback and response, Click, Sabaki, Eldar and Mikehit, also photojoern.de. Currently in the field and only have some internet access at night ..
It is very nice for me to be able to share with other Canon enthusiasts like you guys

 

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks to Dustin Abbot, dak723, AlanF, dilbert for your guys feedback..appreciated.
Cheers
Grant

 

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Larsskv, Candyman and East Wind too
Cheers
Grant

 

[Pookie]

What I love about reviews like this is that it quite clearly shows that with only 3fps, you can get really amazing bird and wildlife shots. Great stuff!

It has 5 fps, not 3. Why do you so consistently get easily verifiable facts wrong?

Don't have time to verify them and in this case, it isn't important if it is 3 or 5. What's important is that it isn't anywhere near the speed of the 1DX, etc. And then there's the problem of there being too many facts in my head and the paths between them getting a bit jumbled. And in focusing on whether it should be 3 or 5, you're actually missing what I'm saying.

Verifying facts is total nonsense... just ask Dilbert :

Canon's newest Explorer of Low Light photography... ask Dilbert about his DR?

 

[East Wind Photography]

Other than that I was abysmally disappointed. It was too slow in every respect, including AF. I often found that it had a tough time keeping up with subjects moving toward and away from the camera. The 7d2 has a much faster AF system but is overshadowed by the amazing 1dx2.

What do you mean by 'slow'? There are two aspects IME that are rarely distinguished:

• response time to capture the moment
  speed for tracking focus
• 
  

As an example, one of my obsessions at the moment is the local kingfisher and I realised that I am less interested in capturing it in flight and more interested in capturing the dive and it hitting the water.
The latter needs quick reactions by me (and the camera) when I see it diving and about to hit the water, the former relies on tracking which is a different skill.

Also I can imagine that if you are into animal behaviour pretty much the same thing applies to catch an interesting moment.

Having used 7D, 7DII 5D, 5DII, 5DIII, 1DsIII, 1DIV, 1DX, 1DXII and 5DSR extensively, I find it difficult to comprehend your "abysmally disappointed". As many have pointed out, including Grant in his review, you have to pay attention to your technique, to really benefit from the high resolution and there is an ISO limit. In general I lose one stop, due to a faster shutter speed and yes, the 1DX and especially the 1DX-II has a better AF system and a much higher fps. But compared to the other cameras listed above, the 5DSR equals or beat them (except for 1DIV and 7DII with regards to fps).

So if your problems were for real, they must have been caused by one of two; Either finger trouble on your end or a faulty camera. My 7DII works well and I am happy with the AF system, but the 5DSR is better. The 5DSR is also better than the 5DIII. Besides Grants excellent review, you can also check out Art Morris. I believe their images of both wildlife and birds (also in flight) are proof good enough.

Mikehit; For your Kingfisher dives, I would rather recommend a 7DII (or preferably a 1DX or 1DXII), due to the fps performance.

In slow i refer to just about everything from shutter lag to post processing. In particular i thought this might be a good camera catching eagles in flight. Its fine as long as they are flying across the field but in a slow sequence of shots when they are flying toward you, maybe one or two are in focus with clear sense the focus shifted behind the target. The AF cannot keep up. This has nothing to do with technique. Ive been doing this for 30 years. The camera was really not designed for this kind of action. It was designed with studio use in mind. The processor has quite a bit more to do on this model and i think thats more of a design issue than a fault of the camera.

Most of grants shots are of static subjects and birds crossing the field. The only one in the sequence that comes close to what i am talking about is the antelope running toward the camera. I wonder how many in the sequence were rejected? Probobly only got 5 or so off before it was over.

The other thing is i think this camera has the worst weather sealing in its class. I spend a lot of time shooting outdoors and i was constantly worried about that. I used sleeves and other means to protect it from rain but even so the body does tend to get wet just from needing access to it. Its an indoor or fair weather camera and one needs to be aware of that when you are out for extended periods of time.

so im not bashing the camera or the review. I think both are exceptional. Im only saying that pushing this camera beyond its design limits is a limitation and for someone that shoots wildlife and sports, this camera got less and less use because of that.

 

[Eldar]

Other than that I was abysmally disappointed. It was too slow in every respect, including AF. I often found that it had a tough time keeping up with subjects moving toward and away from the camera. The 7d2 has a much faster AF system but is overshadowed by the amazing 1dx2.

What do you mean by 'slow'? There are two aspects IME that are rarely distinguished:

• response time to capture the moment
  speed for tracking focus
• 
  

As an example, one of my obsessions at the moment is the local kingfisher and I realised that I am less interested in capturing it in flight and more interested in capturing the dive and it hitting the water.
The latter needs quick reactions by me (and the camera) when I see it diving and about to hit the water, the former relies on tracking which is a different skill.

Also I can imagine that if you are into animal behaviour pretty much the same thing applies to catch an interesting moment.

Having used 7D, 7DII 5D, 5DII, 5DIII, 1DsIII, 1DIV, 1DX, 1DXII and 5DSR extensively, I find it difficult to comprehend your "abysmally disappointed". As many have pointed out, including Grant in his review, you have to pay attention to your technique, to really benefit from the high resolution and there is an ISO limit. In general I lose one stop, due to a faster shutter speed and yes, the 1DX and especially the 1DX-II has a better AF system and a much higher fps. But compared to the other cameras listed above, the 5DSR equals or beat them (except for 1DIV and 7DII with regards to fps).

So if your problems were for real, they must have been caused by one of two; Either finger trouble on your end or a faulty camera. My 7DII works well and I am happy with the AF system, but the 5DSR is better. The 5DSR is also better than the 5DIII. Besides Grants excellent review, you can also check out Art Morris. I believe their images of both wildlife and birds (also in flight) are proof good enough.

Mikehit; For your Kingfisher dives, I would rather recommend a 7DII (or preferably a 1DX or 1DXII), due to the fps performance.

In slow i refer to just about everything from shutter lag to post processing. In particular i thought this might be a good camera catching eagles in flight. Its fine as long as they are flying across the field but in a slow sequence of shots when they are flying toward you, maybe one or two are in focus with clear sense the focus shifted behind the target. The AF cannot keep up. This has nothing to do with technique. Ive been doing this for 30 years. The camera was really not designed for this kind of action. It was designed with studio use in mind. The processor has quite a bit more to do on this model and i think thats more of a design issue than a fault of the camera.

Most of grants shots are of static subjects and birds crossing the field. The only one in the sequence that comes close to what i am talking about is the antelope running toward the camera. I wonder how many in the sequence were rejected? Probobly only got 5 or so off before it was over.

The other thing is i think this camera has the worst weather sealing in its class. I spend a lot of time shooting outdoors and i was constantly worried about that. I used sleeves and other means to protect it from rain but even so the body does tend to get wet just from needing access to it. Its an indoor or fair weather camera and one needs to be aware of that when you are out for extended periods of time.

so im not bashing the camera or the review. I think both are exceptional. Im only saying that pushing this camera beyond its design limits is a limitation and for someone that shoots wildlife and sports, this camera got less and less use because of that.

I see what you write, but I still don´t understand your conclusions.

A lot of bird and wildlife photographers are shooting with a 5DIII and this camera receives a lot of positive reviews for the AF systems performance. I was one that was/is very happy with it. The AF system in the 5DS/DSR is an improved version of the 5DIII and my personal experience is that it really is. That´s why I find your issues with the camera strange.

As for weather sealing, I have had no issues with it (I live in Norway, not exactly the most hospitable climate you´ll find), so how you end up concluding "this camera has the worst weather sealing in its class" is beyond me. Here is what Bryan at The-digital-pictures says in his review:
"Weather sealing is part of this camera's package and the level of sealing is the same as the 5D III. The level of weather sealing incorporated into the 5D Mark III was referred to as superior to the 5D II, lesser to the 1D X and equivalent to the EOS 1N film SLR. "The weather protection provided by this design is high enough to endure exposure to rain of up to 10mm of rain per hour for a duration of up to approximately three minutes" according to CPN."