I felt immediately like a pro when I laid my hands on this Canon 5D S which adored by many YouTubers and videographers. I love photography and thoroughly enjoy documenting my life through still images and videos but I’ve never really got to the extend of learning all the photography jargons and investing in expensive lenses and cameras for professional use. I was rather happy with the Canon G16X and Canon 650D which I had but after using this mega tool for two weeks, I was hooked onto this camera and was left in awed by its ability to shoot professionally. The Canon 5D S, together with the 50mm f1.2 lens, makes my images looked more ‘3D-like’. It is almost as if I was popping right out of the image. I swear that the best images are the ones where you can sense the depth of field – blurry background with sharp foreground objects. It also depends on the camera lenses you are using too.
See what I mean? The images looked so crisp and clear even when you are taking night shots. It’s incredible and if it is only not that heavy and bulky, I would have carried it everywhere I go together with my iPhone, wallet and other nick-nacks.
Pardon for my dearth of knowledge in Photography (I’m still learning the technicalities of it!) but here’s my take on how Canon 5D S has changed my shooting experience and impressions of professional photography. Like many others, all I know is point-and-shoot but because I’m handling the camera almost every other day, I do play with it once in a while and got to know it a little better with each use. It’s like a friend to me who teaches me things as I interact with it.
Two Cameras Are A World Apart
Not all DSLRs are the same. Let’s start with its body. The first thing I noticed is the variety of recording media available for professional DSLRs. There are more than one slots to insert your CF cards or SDXC memory cards.
The Basic Stats
50.6-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor
Dual DIGIC 6
150,000-pixel RGB + IR metering sensor, 252 areas
The other noticeable difference is the size and mass of it. It’s going to weigh more than any regular digital cameras or DSLRs for beginners. To protect the camera, I usually have to put it in my camera bag and this added weight to my shoulders. But no pain, no gain. If you want to capture beautiful pictures, you’ll need to lug it all around unless, one day, such DSLRs are further downsized to look more compact and light. It becomes heavier if you are using a bigger camera lens.
As with all recent Canon EOS cameras, the image stabilization is exceptional. The EOS 5D S has a new Mirror vibration control system to reduce camera-shake blur. This maximizes the full resolving power of the camera by decreasing camera-shake blur. I guess the weight of the DSLR camera together with the lens also increases the stabilization of the camera.
The other unique functions which you can find in Canon 5D S are:
(1) Fine Detail Mode
The resolving power of the Canon 5D S is exceptional and the image quality is retained even when enlarged. It also allows crop shooting too.
(2) Wide-ranging ISO sensitivity
It has a sensitivity range of ISO 100–6400 and it is expandable to ISO 50–12800. The
EOS 5DS is perfect for capturing stunning images with a smooth and defocused background to long exposure shots of natural landscapes.
(3) Time Lapse Movie
Popular American YouTuber, Casey Neistat, often use this video function to film preludes to his vlogs. It’s pretty cool actually but I haven’t really tested it out! But the FULL HD video which I shoot with this camera turns out really amazing, almost like any professionally-shot videos.
(4) 1.3x and 1.6x Crop Shooting
The EOS5D S can perform crop shooting at 1.3x (approx. 30.5 megapixels) or 1.6x (approx. 19.6 megapixels) while retaining high levels of image sharpness and quality. This is great for shooting bird or sports photography.
The battery pack is larger than the non-professional DSLR cameras too! It is good that the battery life is longer too.The Lens
EF50mm f/1.2L USM
I wanted to shoot portraits and videos with that blurry background ground so Canon Singapore recommended that I use this standard lens which features a super-wide maximum aperture of f/1.2.
The most attractive aspect of the lens is its circular aperture that creates beautiful background blur and the images turn out so well even under low-light conditions. It has a silent, high-speed autofocusing and full-time manual focus so it doesn’t disrupts the filming process; a problem I encounter while filming a video with my Canon 650D. The auto-focusing of my current 18-55mm lens generates a loud noise which is a source of irritation.
Are you an amateur photographer too? Share with me your favourite cameras or lenses!
