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Indeed, and other digital medium format cameras such as the Phase One are in the 100MP range. Of course, they're impractical for a lot of reasons - the $55k pri

Indeed, and other digital medium format cameras such as the Phase One are in the 100MP range. Of course, they're impractical for a lot of reasons - the $55k price alone puts them out of reach for most hobbyists.

hengheng 11y ago
Canon's 5Ds has been viewed as a game changer especially among aerial photographers. these guys used to convert six-seater planes and equip them with a catapult that pushes the camera back to get rid of motion blur during exposure time. In that industry, purchase price of these cameras wasn't really significant. Now that canon is pushing 50-160 MP on 36x24, digital medium format starts crumbling, and the idea of a "surveying plane" dies along with it. Drones lack the coverage, but the combination of unmanned flight and camera prices that dropped an order of magnitude creates a textbook disruption.
- KaiserPro 11y ago
  5d? for aerial still? not really, for filming, yes. I was there when it exploded onto the advertising stage. But for stills not really. It was an alright camera, but there were more sensitive cameras even from canon. The nikon d700 was easier to use, and I think it was faster with better optical res (I could be wrong on the last bit) For high end surveying the 5d sucked because it has rolling shutter(and no finegrained speed control), so you couldn't use it in film mode to get 3d imagery. (RED suffers from this as well, along with being blind to colour, and having a rabid fanbase.) But then there was a trade off, one time resolution vs speed of acquisition. Film for large plate photography has better dynamic range even now. But it is slower and depending on the stock has less optical resolution. Most survey planes are all digital. For the kind of thing that's required its just not practical to have 3 miles of 70mm film. For peering out the side of a helicopter, just choose any high end dSLR, unless you want night shots, then you can't really use a digital medium format.
  - JackC 11y ago
    I think hengheng is talking about the 50-megapixel 5DS, released in June 2015: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-5ds-sr http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-5ds-sr
    - abakker 11y ago
      I have the 5DsR, which is the same as the 5Ds but with an anti-aliasing cancellation filter. I can confirm that at the pixel density on this camera, it is VERY challenging to get perfectly sharp photos if your shutter speeds drop too low. Pixel-level blur is a real problem on these cameras. Conversely, on medium format, you have a little bit more leeway for tripod shake as the individual pixels are larger. I have no experience with analog photography, So I'm not sure whether these same considerations are present.
- WatchDog 11y ago
  Why use a plane and catapult instead of just using a helicopter?
  - NickNameNick 11y ago
    probably because helicopters cost more than $10/minute to operate (r-22's were nz$5/minute more than 10 years ago), and they vibrate a lot.

hengheng 11y ago

Canon's 5Ds has been viewed as a game changer especially among aerial photographers. these guys used to convert six-seater planes and equip them with a catapult that pushes the camera back to get rid of motion blur during exposure time. In that industry, purchase price of these cameras wasn't really significant. Now that canon is pushing 50-160 MP on 36x24, digital medium format starts crumbling, and the idea of a "surveying plane" dies along with it. Drones lack the coverage, but the combination of unmanned flight and camera prices that dropped an order of magnitude creates a textbook disruption.

KaiserPro 11y ago
5d? for aerial still? not really, for filming, yes. I was there when it exploded onto the advertising stage. But for stills not really. It was an alright camera, but there were more sensitive cameras even from canon. The nikon d700 was easier to use, and I think it was faster with better optical res (I could be wrong on the last bit) For high end surveying the 5d sucked because it has rolling shutter(and no finegrained speed control), so you couldn't use it in film mode to get 3d imagery. (RED suffers from this as well, along with being blind to colour, and having a rabid fanbase.) But then there was a trade off, one time resolution vs speed of acquisition. Film for large plate photography has better dynamic range even now. But it is slower and depending on the stock has less optical resolution. Most survey planes are all digital. For the kind of thing that's required its just not practical to have 3 miles of 70mm film. For peering out the side of a helicopter, just choose any high end dSLR, unless you want night shots, then you can't really use a digital medium format.
- JackC 11y ago
  I think hengheng is talking about the 50-megapixel 5DS, released in June 2015: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-5ds-sr http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-5ds-sr
  - abakker 11y ago
    I have the 5DsR, which is the same as the 5Ds but with an anti-aliasing cancellation filter. I can confirm that at the pixel density on this camera, it is VERY challenging to get perfectly sharp photos if your shutter speeds drop too low. Pixel-level blur is a real problem on these cameras. Conversely, on medium format, you have a little bit more leeway for tripod shake as the individual pixels are larger. I have no experience with analog photography, So I'm not sure whether these same considerations are present.
WatchDog 11y ago
Why use a plane and catapult instead of just using a helicopter?
- NickNameNick 11y ago
  probably because helicopters cost more than $10/minute to operate (r-22's were nz$5/minute more than 10 years ago), and they vibrate a lot.