Ongoing development and refinement of digital camera technology continues to improve cameras and the technical quality of the images they produce. Color accuracy improves, dynamic range expands, sensor resolution increases, AF accuracy gets better, and so on.
The Canon EOS 5Ds and the Canon EOS 5Ds R continue this process. Their most notable feature is the 50.6 megapixel (MP) sensor, currently the highest sensor photo site density available on full frame digital cameras. (Nikon and Sony both produce 36MP sensor cameras using Sony sensors, and Sony has announced an upcoming camera with a 42MP sensor. Note that the differences between 36MP, 42MP, and 50.6MP are less than you might expect.)
When it comes to dynamic range — the ability of the sensor to record a wide range of luminosity levels from very bright to quite dark in a single exposure — Sony is the current champion, and cameras using their sensors have the largest available dynamic range among comparable cameras.
(All current digital cameras capture images with more dynamic range than we can display on monitors or in prints — the display media cannot keep up with the capture technology. Consequently, the primary advantage of greater dynamic range comes in post-production, where the photographer will find more useful scene data in darker areas that can be “pushed” or otherwise recovered while maintaining useful image quality.)
If you can get more dynamic range without giving up anything else, there is no reason not to have it. In marginal situations, that extra bit of dynamic range might enable you to get a bit more image data in a single exposure, while a photographer with a camera providing less dynamic range is a bit more likely to have to use exposure bracketing or HDR techniques (which combine multiple images in post-production), use a graduated neutral density filter, or possibly find ways to suppress noise in shadow areas of scenes with very wide dynamic range. That said, all current high quality digital cameras capture a wide dynamic range — much larger, for example, that was possible with typical film media.
With all of that in mind, I thought I’d share an example of a file from the Canon 5Ds R that has been pushed quite a bit. The scene (photographed with the Canon EOS 5Ds R and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II lens) included one of the classic dynamic range challenges — bright sunlit sky and sparkling pine needles provide the brightest tones, while a group of backlit trees provide much darker areas in the scene. When I encounter a scene like this one, even if I’m certain that I can make a single exposure work, I often bracket my exposure “just in case” and to have more image data than I might actually need. To bracket means to capture a sequence of exposures that are optimized for different areas of luminosity. In this case I made five exposures, varying the shutter speed by 2/3 stop each time — the longest was 1/50 second (nice shadow detail but blown out highlights), and the shortest was 1/320 second (no blown out sky, but lots of very black areas in the shadows.) Here the set of original raw file images:
It turned out that the middle image provided a good exposure, from which I could create a fine photograph in post — pulling the highlights back a bit and pushing the darkest shadows enough. However, for the purpose of this example I am going to work with the darkest exposure, the one using the shortest exposure at 1/320 second. The following shows that image opened in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) for initial post-processing.
(Note that the design of this website automatically downsizes some images. To see the full size images as uploaded, please click on the images to open them in a new window or tab.)
This exposure is darker than necessary, even for the brightest sky tones. The right end of the histogram curve falls short of the right side of the display, so there was still a bit of headroom for bright tones. Much of the scene is black or near black, including the shaded sides of the trees and their darkest foreground shadows.
I made some rather radical adjustments to the image in ACR as follows.
The overall quality of the scene is much improved, but what changes were necessary to get there?
Exposure was pushed to +2.00
Contrast was increased to +47
Highlights was reduced to -44 to compensate for the other increases and avoid blown highlights
Shadows was raised all the way to +100
Blacks was raised to +75
Small adjustments were made to increase Vibrance to +12 and Saturation to +6.
Noise reduction was increased: Luminosity to 50 and Chroma to 25
The converted file was opened in Photoshop and a 600 pixel x 450 pixel 100% magnification crop was extracted from a dark area of the trees on the left side of the image.
Almost all of this area would have been black in the original. At this magnification you can see some noise if you look carefully into the darkest and near-dark areas, but it is minimal. I am certain that it would not be an issue even in a very large print. (And keep in mind that the exposure that I would actually use for making a print of this scene would be the one with a 1 1/3 stop longer exposure, which does not require such radical pushing.)
What does it mean?
I’ve been around enough discussions of dynamic range and various brand’s abilities in this area to know that this subject is both subjective and subject to what might be termed “camera politics.” With that in mind, there is probably nothing I can write that everyone will agree with, and what we see here will be viewed from a range of subjective points of view.
What do we know? We know that it is possible to push a file like this one in the way I pushed it and get the results shown here. ;-) We know that there are other cameras using Sony sensors that can, from the evidence I have seen, produce an even larger dynamic range. If having the very largest possible dynamic range is your only or most important criterion for camera selection, you’ll probably want to use a camera with one of those Sony sensors. If your selection criteria are a bit broader and you select these Canon cameras, you will find that they produce excellent files with a large dynamic range that include image data that can be pushed a great deal in post and still give you an excellent final image.
All that I’ll add to that for right now is that I am very happy with the performance shown it this example, and I don’t expect to be limited in any way by the performance of this sensor.
5Ds and 5Ds R Articles:
The Canon EOS 5Ds R — Dynamic Range Examples
The Canon EOS 5Ds R — A Resolution Example
Canon 5DS R: A Printing Test
Looking at Canon 5Ds RAW Files: Noise and Dynamic Range.
Canon EOS 5Ds and 5Ds R Release Near?
Canon 5Ds and 5Ds R Pre-orders Available
All images © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Links in this article go to site-sponsor B&H photography with whom I have an affiliate relationship. When you purchase through these links your price is the same, but a small percentage is returned to help support this website. Mentioned in this article:
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II lens
Canon EOS 5Ds DSRL (with anti-alias filtering)
Canon EOS 5Ds R DSLR (without until-alias filtering)
The Sony and Nikon cameras referred to in this article:
Nikon D810 — 36MP full frame DSLR
Sony A7R — 36MP full frame mirrorless camera
Sony A7RII — 42MP full frame mirrorless camera (currently available for pre-order with shipping in early August)
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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