Gordon Laing’s in-depth hands-on reviews of new photography and video hardware releases are always our first port of call so we’re pleased to re-present his review of Panasonic’s Lumix S5 II here.
Panasonic has had a long history of creating solid workhorse camcorders and cinema cameras and the company’s entry into the mirrorless hybrid market with its Lumix GH1 was as revolutionary as the much more publicly lauded Canon EOS 5D Mark II if not more so.
Due to our connections with Canon R&D at the time, and the difficulty of finding the GH1 and its successors in our local camera stores, we were blindsided by the implications of Panasonic entering the consumer hybrid camera market and the camera hacks that users began creating to extend the GH2’s video capabilities.
We bought into the Panasonic plus Olympus Micro Four Thirds world when we needed a more video-capable hybrid than the 5D Mark II for documentary work and we’ve been hoping since that Panasonic would radically improve its autofocus capabilities beyond its proprietary DFD – Depth From Defocus.
DFD proved up to the job for stills photography though we’ve mostly relied on back button focus and manual focus via our Olympus M.Zuiko Pro lenses’ excellent manual clutch focus mechanisms.
Having learned photography and moviemaking in the analog era, manual focus has been in our DNA for years now, so we didn’t mind relying on manual focus for video production whatever camera system we used.
But ageing eyes and the desire to do more, faster and better with less but still affordable enough means we’ve been hoping Panasonic would finally do something about replacing DFD with PDAF or something better again.
And so it has, and Gordon Laing shows us just how much the company has done it with this excellent video review.
Gordon Laing: Panasonic Lumix S5 II for PHOTOGRAPHY review: BEST value full-frame vs R6 II A7 IV?
“My Panasonic Lumix S5 II review! In-depth look at the photo and focusing vs R6 II and A7 IV.”
Panasonic Lumix S5 II & Panasonic accessories for video
We’ve often recommended Panasonic Micro Four Thirds or Fujifilm APS-C/Super 35 hybrid cameras for their relative affordability compared to 35mm sensor-equipped cameras, popularly referred to as “full frame” or sometimes “full format”.
Panasonic tipped the tables, though, when it added the compact but feature-rich S5 to its much larger and heavier initial 35mm-sensor S-Series offerings comprising the S1, S1R and the Netflix-approved S1H.
We have been hoping, though, that Panasonic would extend the compact and affordable S5 concept into two different directions – more high-end video capability one way and higher megapixels for professional photography in the other.
The S5 II and the coming S5 IIX are taking care of the video end of things and we’re still hoping that a 50 megapixel or greater more stills-oriented camera will appear later in 2023.
Even better would be a 35mm rangefinder-style camera with tilting EVF in the tradition of Panasonic’s GX8, still one of our favourite Micro Four Thirds cameras despite its age.
During our analog film camera days our daily carry was two Billingham belt-pack camera bags containing a combo of one or two Leica M-System cameras and from one to five Leica M prime lenses with a Zone VI Studios modified Pentax spotmeter for deadly accurate Zone System exposure.
Cameras from a range of other brands, film formats and camera types supplemented our Leicas but we always came back to our tough and reliable M-System gear when our other hardware wasn’t up to the task or the tough environment in which we often worked.
Panasonic has had a long association with Leica at least from the start of the former’s Micro Four Thirds Leica-badged lenses and that’s continued and grown with the formation of the L-Mount Alliance.
Last year, 2022, it looked like it would become even deeper with the announcement of Panasonic’s L² Technology collaboration agreement and so it has proven with the many innovations in the S5 II and S5 IIX not least of which is their DFD-quashing hybrid PDAF aka PDHAF aka Phase Detection Hybrid Autofocus.
We’re looking forward to more such innovations from Panasonic and Leica in 2023.
Links
- B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
- B&H Affiliate Link – Panasonic Camera Accessories – DMW-BGS5 Battery Grip – DMW-BLK22 Lithium-Ion Battery (7.2V, 2200mAh) – DMW-BTC15 Battery Charger – DMW-EC6 Eyecup – DMW-MS2 Stereo Shotgun Microphone – DMW-SHGR1 Tripod Grip – DMW-XLR1 XLR Microphone Adapter
- B&H Affiliate Link – Panasonic Lumix Digital Cameras – S Series (35mm aka “Full Frame”) – S1 – S1H – S1R – S5 – S5 II– S5 IIX – BSH1 Box Cinema Camera
- B&H Affiliate Link – Panasonic Lumix Lenses – S Series (35mm aka “Full Frame”) – 14-28mm – 18mm – 20-60mm – 24mm – 24-105mm – 35mm – 50mm – 70-300mm – 85mm – Lumix S Pro – 16-35mm – 24-70mm – 50mm – 70-200mm f/2.8 – 70-200mm f/4.0
- Camera Labs – Panasonic Lumix S5 II review – Gordon Laing’s text plus images plus video review.
- Gordon Laing – Panasonic Lumix S5 II for PHOTOGRAPHY review: BEST value full-frame vs R6 II A7 IV? – video
- Leica Camera USA – website
- Unititled.Net – Panasonic North America: Leica and Panasonic Sign Strategic Comprehensive Collaboration Agreement – “Both companies are committing to increase the collaboration of their core competencies and to develop new technologies and solutions under the new name of “L² Technology” (L squared Technology).”
UNITITLED.NET 