Panasonic S5 II review: The full-frame vlogging camera you’ve been waiting for

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While widespread with vloggers, Panasonic’s mirrorless cameras have been held again from true greatness by the dearth of a phase-detect autofocus system. Lastly, the corporate has rectified that downside with the launch of the S5 II. It has a brand new 24-megapixel sensor with phase-detect pixels that ought to do away with the wobble and looking which have plagued the contrast-detect AF on Panasonic cameras over time.

To make it even higher for content material creators, Panasonic additionally introduced over its new, extra highly effective stabilization system from the GH6. And you continue to get the highly effective video options you’d anticipate on Panasonic cameras, like video as much as 6K, monitoring instruments and superior audio options. The S5 II can be attractively priced at $2,000 – that’s $500 lower than the Sony A7 IV and Canon EOS R6 II, its predominant opponents.

That is Panasonic’s first hybrid phase-detect autofocus system, so I used to be very curious to see the way it stacks up towards these cameras. I additionally needed to see if it will allow you to go away your gimbal at residence, as the corporate suggests in its adverts. To search out out, I took it round Paris and my hometown of Gien, France. 

Physique and Dealing with

The S5 II’s physique and management structure is similar to the S5, and that’s typically a superb factor. At 740 grams, it’s a bit heavier than its predominant rivals. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless a fairly light-weight video digital camera that’s snug sufficient to shoot for a full day. 

It has an enormous snug grip, together with numerous guide controls that allow you to change settings with out the necessity to dip into menus. It has all of the controls you’d hope for like a joystick, devoted AF management and extra. The file button is positioned on prime so it’s straightforward to seek out when vlogging, however it will be good to have a file button on entrance just like the GH6.

Ought to you must use the menus, Panasonic has nailed that half, with well-organized classes that make necessary changes pretty straightforward to seek out. It’s additionally fairly straightforward to customise issues, so as with all digital camera, I’d advocate doing that on your personal workstyle. 

The three-inch, 1.8 million dot rear show is similar one as earlier than and is vivid and sharp for video work. It after all totally articulates, so you may flip it round for vlogging, maintain it excessive or low and extra. The one disadvantage is that it may well get twisted up with any cables, significantly the headphone jack.  

Fortunately, Panasonic boosted the OLED digital viewfinder (EVF) decision to three.68 million dots from 2.34 million dots on the unique S5. It is now decently sharp and clear, addressing one in all my largest complaints of the final mannequin. 

One other welcome replace is 2 quick UHS-II card slots, relatively than one UHS-II and one UHS-I slot on the S5. That permits for sooner switch speeds and extra dependable backups, in the event you wish to shoot video to 2 playing cards without delay. It additionally now makes use of a full-sized, relatively than a micro HDMI jack as earlier than, making it way more dependable when utilizing an exterior recorder. 

There are after all headphone and mic jacks, however the S5 II now affords 4-channel recording by way of the DMW-XLR1 hotshoe audio adapter, similar to the GH6. It additionally borrows the latter’s audio interface that provides you a central hub for all audio settings. It doesn’t have a devoted button just like the GH6, however you may assign any perform button.

Lastly, the batteries are borrowed from the S5 II, and ship as much as 470 pictures on a cost or a stable two hours of 4K recording.

Video

Panasonic’s mirrorless cameras are primarily designed for video shooters, so let’s get into that first. The centerpiece of this digital camera is that new phase-detect autofocus, designed to remove the wobble or looking that occurred with previous Panasonic fashions that had contrast-detect solely autofocus. So how does it work for content material creators

As with different current fashions, the S5 II’s system contains common steady AF modes together with topic monitoring, for each people and animals. Nonetheless, it’s not as refined as current rival cameras just like the A7 IV and EOS R6II, although, as it may well’t observe issues like automobiles and airplanes, and doesn’t distinguish between birds and different animals.

Fortunately, the capabilities it does have are on par with these fashions. It easily tracks topics and has little or no lag in the event that they transfer towards the digital camera, for instance. Face and eye detection is sweet, although it struggles a bit if the topic turns, and may’t observe their eyes in the event that they’re not fairly near the digital camera. It’s additionally not fairly as sticky as rival fashions. 

Nonetheless, it typically tracks focus reliably for interviews, vlogging and different conditions. Extra importantly, the pulsing, looking and wobbling is totally gone, so now you can depend on the S5 II’s autofocus in most conditions.

There’s one caveat that could be necessary to some customers. As YouTuber CameraOfChoice notes, the phase-detect AF works nice in any respect 4K and 6K resolutions, and 1080 25p. Nonetheless, the digital camera switches to contrast-detect AF at 10-bit 1080p 60 fps and 120 fps resolutions, together with 3.3K 422/10L 25p. I’ve reached out to Panasonic for extra info, however in the event you use these resolutions regularly, you might want to have a look at a special mannequin. 

With autofocus points principally gone, the S5 II is a much more enticing vlogging and video digital camera due to its different highly effective options.

You’ll be able to shoot 5.9K video at 30p utilizing the complete width of the sensor, or full-width supersampled 4K at as much as 30 fps. 60p 4K video is feasible as properly, however requires an APS-C crop and a few lack of sharpness. The S5 II may also deal with 4:3 anamorphic video at as much as 6K utilizing the complete sensor width, or 3:2 “open gate” video that makes it simpler to crop or ship in social media codecs.

There are few temperature-related time restrictions in any of those modes, due to the inclusion of a intelligent fan that solely kicks in once you want it (under). Specifically, there are not any time restrictions on any video at 4K and under, together with 1080p 120, whereas 6K is proscribed to half-hour. Panasonic is the one producer to check its cameras at as much as about 105 levels Fahrenheit, so most customers will seemingly by no means expertise any issues. 

As with most Panasonic cameras, you may shoot 10-bit video with V-log to spice up dynamic vary. And it’s simpler than ever to watch V-Log. You cannot solely select a regular Rec.709 output, however show your individual customized look-up-table or LUT, too. You’ll be able to even file these LUTs as your remaining video output, providing you with limitless “appears” and probably saving time in put up.

The principle video disadvantage is the lowish information charges (200 Mbps and under) and the dearth of any ProRes or All-I inside recording modes. There’s additionally no exterior RAW seize, although you’ll have the ability to add that later for a $200 payment. You’ll be able to, nevertheless, seize different ProRes codecs to an Atomos Ninja V/V+ or BlackMagic Video Help recorder. 

And that brings up Panasonic’s upcoming S5 IIx, introduced concurrently the S5 II. It’s priced at $2,200 and is usually similar by way of options. Nonetheless, the additional $200 will get you not solely RAW exterior video included but additionally ProRes seize to an exterior SSD by way of the USB-C port. With a small value distinction to get such a helpful characteristic, lots of people may need to anticipate this mannequin.

One other terrific new functionality is the up to date in-body stabilization borrowed from the GH6. It’s now significantly better at smoothing out vertical step movement than the S5, although there’s nonetheless some side-to-side sway. It additionally has a “Enhance IS” for handheld video the place you don’t want to maneuver, conserving pictures locked off just like the digital camera’s on a tripod. Can it substitute your gimbal? In some circumstances, sure, however you may must work rigorously because it nonetheless cannot match a gimbal’s smoothness.

Video high quality is superb, with extraordinarily sharp 4K 30p and 4K 60p that’s only a contact much less so. Colours are correct and pleasing straight out of the digital camera, with natural-looking flesh tones. The ten-bit V-log video delivers a really stable 14+ stops of dynamic vary, simply barely under Nikon and Sony fashions. That gave me loads of room for further creativity or to right over- and underexposed pictures. 

The S5 can be good in low gentle, due to Panasonic’s Twin Native ISO system. Don’t anticipate Sony A7S III-level efficiency, however the Twin ISO system actually retains noise down at ISOs as excessive as 12,800 and even 25,600. You’ll after all see noise once you enhance shadows at these ISOs, however the grain appears fairly pure. Something under ISO 6400 has little or no seen noise. One quirk is that it’s finest to make use of ISO 4000 as an alternative of ISO 3200, because the Twin ISO is about for ISO 640 and ISO 4000. 

As for rolling shutter, the S5 II is middling on this regard. It’s most noticeable in 6K or supersampled 4K modes, however not unhealthy in any respect with an APS-C crop. I’d price it as higher than the higher-resolution A7 IV and about the identical as Canon’s R6 II.

Lastly, Panasonic affords a number of methods to watch video not seen on rival cameras, together with waveforms and vectorscopes. These options are very helpful to video professionals, serving to them nail publicity and colour accuracy. And as talked about, audio may be very straightforward to work with due to a devoted hub to regulate settings, together with each line and mic inputs. 

Pictures

Most individuals seemingly gained’t purchase the S5 II for images, nevertheless it’s not unhealthy in any respect on this division. It might probably deal with bursts at as much as 7 fps with the mechanical shutter or 30 fps in digital mode. The buffer is sort of spectacular, because it permits for 200 pictures in RAW earlier than throttling – a full 6-seconds of uninterrupted 30 fps burst taking pictures.

At these speeds the autofocus largely retains up, although it’s not fairly as quick or correct because the R6 II and A7 IV AF methods. As with video, the photograph autofocus isn’t fairly as good or tenacious with topics as Sony’s A7 IV. Nonetheless, it’s significantly better than the contrast-detect AF of the final mannequin and up there with current Nikon and Fujifilm AF methods.

Regardless of the quick digital burst speeds, the S5 II has restricted utilization as a sports activities digital camera. The rolling shutter would influence pictures with fast paced topics, until you employ it in APS-C mode. That’s a possible possibility, nevertheless it reduces the decision by half.