Comparison: EOS 5Ds & 5D Mark III

24. Juni 2015 florianbieler

Update June 24th, 2015: added an 5Ds Raw / mRaw / sRaw and 5D Mark III Raw comparison

Update June 22nd, 2015: added an aperture sequence with the 5Ds and the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM

Index:

1. Introduction
2. Sharpness comparison
3. Aperture sequence
4. 5Ds Raw / mRaw / sRaw and 5D Mark III Raw

1. Introduction

As the topic is very relevant these days, I’ll make an exception and offer an English translation for my comparison between the 5Ds and the 5D Mark III.

After quite some time there’s another equipment posting today. I did a little comparison between the EOS 5Ds and the 5D Mark III. I used my EF 16-35 f/4L IS USM, my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art and my EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM.

I need to say some things beforehand. I do not own two identical Arca baseplates, that’s why there are minimal differences between the fields of view. I tried to compensate that in the crops by moving the picture, they are not absolutely identical, but almost.

Next thing is, there were two possibilities to make it a just. Either I resize the Mark III files up to 50MP or I downsize the 5Ds files to 22MP. When looking at the crops I went for the second method.

Normally I’d process my Raws with DxO Optics. There’s no support for the 5Ds Raws yet, so I processed them in Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin. I applied the lens profiles and sharpened the files with the standard value of 25. I denoised the high iso files with color denoising of 25.

I know that I „missed the focus“ at some pictures. I wanted to focus on the bench in the 70-200 pics, but hit the forest. As that’s quite irrelevant for the comparison, I left it that way and did not take the shots again.

The full size files are hosted at Flickr for everyone to download and compare by him- or herself.

2. Sharpness comparison

The 5D Mark III files come first, afterwards the 5Ds.

[b]EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM[/b] at f/8 and ISO 100.

Full size

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uuHC8f][img]https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3701/18702972508_9d2dc8e2d0_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uJZzu1][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/315/18864516356_dae8e62f7e_z.jpg[/img][/url]

100% Crops

[b]Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art[/b] at f/8 and ISO 100.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uMiyEX][img]https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5346/18890658635_471ea3252b_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uMywAH][img]https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3720/18893578341_da8d1cacd4_z.jpg[/img][/url]

100% Crops

[b]EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM[/b] at f/8 and ISO 100.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uuRs5V][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/447/18704499629_ac3503cd9a_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uJZqxU][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/345/18864486306_4150867b62_z.jpg[/img][/url]

100% Crops

Now for a little [b]bokeh comparison[/b] with Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art at f/1.4 and ISO 100. The sun came out in between.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uuHzUh][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/457/18702965028_0cbbc3afeb_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uuJ3CN][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/466/18703054958_7860a6c6c6_z.jpg[/img][/url]

An [b]ISO comparison[/b] at the end.

ISO 1600

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uuHvK5][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/448/18702951038_402cfe2552_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uMiU1a][img]https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5471/18890723665_6878df301b_z.jpg[/img][/url]

100% Crops

ISO 3200

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uMitZK][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/488/18890642905_d5d3b4c83b_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/tQib17][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/429/18268175094_1fb86e57bb_z.jpg[/img][/url]

100% Crops

ISO 6400

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uuRmA8][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/440/18704481139_055f1ef401_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/tQi5yW][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/455/18268156814_ac2547d474_z.jpg[/img][/url]

100% Crops

3. Aperture sequence

An aperture sequence with the 5Ds and the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art follows. The pics are in the following order: f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6

4. 5Ds Raw / mRaw / sRaw and 5D Mark III Raw

Up next is a comparison between Raw, mRaw and sRaw of 5Ds vs. the Raw of the 5D Mark III, done with the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM at 1/10s, f/5.6 and ISO 100. At first are the Raw, mRaw and sRaw of the 5Ds:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/uRcpon][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/405/18934722709_6676cc3988_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ubNx8P][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/459/18500234353_ce7b32864c_z.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ubCPTJ][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/376/18498339604_0289944b09_z.jpg[/img][/url]

And this is the Raw of the 5D Mark III:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ubCVKJ][img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/268/18498359324_714d9c9b1e_z.jpg[/img][/url]

Interestingly enough, colors are off between the 5Ds Raws. The mRaw and sRaw files are more yellow-greenish. To wrap it up, here are 100% Crops of the 5D Mark III Raw, the 5Ds mRaw and the 5Ds Raw, scaled to the output size of the 5D Mark III:

Now [i]my personal opinion[/i]:

- 5Ds pics have more contrast while on the same settings.

- The sharpness is significantly higher, especially when comparing the resized crops.

- no difference in bokeh

- noise is absolutely acceptable, a bit more visible than with the Mark III but the shots are also more detailed.

- the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art can’t deliver on the 5Ds when wide open. I wouldn’t say there is that much of a difference to a scaled shot of the 5D Mark III. When stopping down to f/2 it gets significantly sharper and is tack sharp at f/2.8.

5Ds‘ mRaw is similar to the 5D Mark III Raw.

Hope you liked my little comparison!