Thanks useful information: 
I'm not quite sure how the 5DS R will fit into my little stable of cameras and what I'll end up using it for, butthreemore than three things have prompted me to buy another camera.
- I'm fed up with not having an electronic level in the viewfinder of the 5D II or the 1D IV. I am constitutionally unable to get horizons straight though I have tried and tried and tried over the years. The simple, practical electronic level in the 7D II and the 5D IV is a godsend! (The EOS R had one too, but it was almost unusable.) I particularly miss the level when I'm landscaping, especially at wide angles. This will give me three out of four cameras with levels (assuming that I retire the 5D II and keep the 1D IV).
- I dislike second-rate focus systems. In that category I include the 5D II (which is notoriously primitive and, for its era, more like fifth rate) but also anything which has all the AF points squeezed into the middle of the frame with none in really useful places like the edges and corners. Black marks against the 6D and the 6D II on that account, and top marks to most crop cameras which are typically very good in this regard. The 5D III and 5D S (R) are mediocre in this regard, the 5D4 good and the 1 Series bodies excellent. Anyway, something with AF points in more useful places than the 5D II was desired.
- Another 5D IV would be perfect. In my opinion, the Canon 5D IV is the best all-round camera ever made. But every time - and I do mean every single time - I've bought a second, identical camera to one I already own, it has given lots of trouble. I bought a second Coolpix 4500 because the first one was such a great little camera. It died. (I probably still have the first one somewhere.) I bought a second 20D: it blew up. (The first one went for many years.) I bought a second 40D. It died too. Twice, I think. (The first one is still in service with a relative.) So I don't want a second 5D IV because
I have a stupid superstition about buying a second camera of the same modelfour grand is too much to spend.- I am tired of the vast bulk of the 1D IV. As a single stand-alone camera, it is still a joy to use even after all these years. But mostly it gets used alongside another body with a different lens mounted and it is a real pain trying to fit both bodies into even my oversized camera bag. And it doesn't have an electronic level.
- As you know, Canon has stopped production of the 5DS and 5DS R models and is threatening not to make any more SLRs at all. I'm seeing a few second-hand examples of the 5DS around at reputable places for about $2000, give or take. (No, I don't do E-bay, not for anything expensive - E-bay is good for cheap and nasty little gadgets out of China. Anything over $100 or so I want a real shop and proper consumer protection laws.) That's less than half the price they were selling for new not long ago. A 5DS would be way more than I need, but it would certainly do the job.
- On the other hand, I've always thought that the 5DS R was the one to have, certainly for a nature and wildlife man like me, and you mostly only see the (slightly) inferior 5DS advertised. And it's quite a lot for a second-hand camera.
- But what about a 5D III? Well-regarded model, excellent in all respects, plenty enough resolution for my needs, and I'm seeing used ones in good nick for $1000 or a little under. A 5D III would do everything I'm asking for. So there is my answer.
- But I see that B&H are selling brand new 5DS Rs for $1500 USD - that's $2350 AUD by the time we factor in GST and shipping. This is probably the last-ever chance to buy a brand-new 50MP DSLR and (going on my experience with the horrid little EOS R) I don't know that I'll ever want one of those mirrorless things, at least not as a main camera.
- The 5DS R doesn't quite manage the near-perfect body and controls design of the 5D IV. It actually stepped backwards a bit from the excellent 7D II design in order to be more like the 5D III, so it misses out on the very useful focus-mode switcher on the back of the body and, instead, has that fiddly and awkward M-fn button on the top (like a 7D Mark 1). And from reading the manual I think it doesn't have the ability to put the top and back dials around the right way in manual mode. (All Canon professional-grade cameras and also the 5D IV have this. Without it, when you switch from Av to M - idiotically - the top dial and back dial get switched around backwards such that the aperture is suddenly under your thumb and the shutter speed under your finger. If this is the case, I'll just have to live with it, as I did with the 20D and the 5D II and several others. It's a pain though. I don't like having to think about the camera - all that control stuff ought to be on muscle memory level while I think about the picture I'm making.) But these are fairly minor quibbles: overall it is an excellent design, very nearly as good as the very, very best ones.
I haven't figured out how I'm going to employ the 5DS R. The main unmet need at present is wide-angle use with the 16-35/4. It would be excellent for that, of course, but a bit wasted given that the 24-105 goes so wide and whatever camera has that lens will likely get first use. And I'm certainly not going to consign the 5D IV to wide-angle duty - it's my best bird camera. I'll try the 5DS R out for birding - thinking of it, essentially, as a slow 7D II with a wide field of view. (The pixel density is similar.)
Whatever ... I guess I'll just mix and match and bumble around to find out what works best.
5DS and 5DS R users, what is your experience with this camera?
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