There’s no right or wrong here, but let me know which is your preferred camera of the three at high ISOs. Personally I’d say all three are looking good up to 6400 ISO, but any higher and you’ll steadily lose fine details to noise and smearing. I’d also say Panasonic’s default approach may leave the most visible noise, but not to the detriment of retained details. I have used the S5 to shoot sports, wildlife, portraits, street photography, documentary photography, birds, events, concerts and more. I’ve never been let down. Overall autofocus performance is snappy and accurate. Yes, you see the autofocus pulsing and it makes you think the camera is struggling, but it’s not. The camera will nail nine out of 10 shots all day long. The X-H2S has a slightly higher resolution 26.1-megapixel APS-C sensor, while the LUMIX GH6 has a 25.2-megapixel micro-four-thirds sensor. Due to their smaller sensor sizes, both rivals can do internal ProRes 422 HQ recording and 4K/120p video. The camera's battery life rating is a rather disappointing 370 shots per charge, per CIPA standard testing methods. As always, these numbers tend to significantly underestimate how many shots you can typically expect (unless your shooting style is very energy-intensive). A 370 shot-per-charge rating will typically give you plenty of charge for a day's shooting, but you'll want to keep a USB power source near to hand for intensive shoots. A power-saving mode gives a rating of 1,250 shots per charge for viewfinder shooting.

LUMIX S5 Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera - Panasonic LUMIX S5 Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera - Panasonic

Anamorphic 4K] 3328x2496 (4:3) 50.00p, 200Mbps (4:2:0 10-bit LongGOP)* (H.265/HEVC, LPCM) *HLG is selectable.

Intro

FHD] 1920x1080 23.98p, 100Mbps (4:2:2 10-bit LongGOP)* / 100Mbps (4:2:0 8-bit LongGOP) (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, LPCM) *HLG is selectable. Looking through the camera’s bright 3,680k OLED viewfinder, the camera detects subjects immediately, forming a dynamic box around both humans and animals. It can also detect faces and eyes when subjects are in proximity, and it will highlight those as well. Autofocusing on the S5 II is reasonably customizable. FHD] 1920x1080 25.00p, 100Mbps (4:2:2 10-bit LongGOP)* / 100Mbps (4:2:0 8-bit LongGOP) (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, LPCM) *HLG is selectable. For example, Canon and Sony simply have one option for humans, with a separate option for animals. Sony has a third option specifically for birds, while Canon is the only one of these three rivals to have an additional option for vehicles. Simply choose the one for the desired subject.

Panasonic Lumix S5 review | Cameralabs Panasonic Lumix S5 review | Cameralabs

To my surprise, Panasonic managed to retain in-body I.S. in the Lumix S5. It’s rated at up to 5-stops of stabilization and, depending on the Micro Four Thirds lens used, will implement Dual I.S. for up to 6.5 stops of stabilization with compatible stabilized lenses. Moving on, the S5 II’s sensor is stabilised within the body with a five axis system claiming up to five stops of compensation alone, or up to 6.5 with Dual IS when coupled with a lens sporting compatible optical stabilisation. Above: There’s also support for anamorphic modes which use special lenses to squeeze a wide aspect ratio into a 4:3 shape for recording, before being de-squeezed later during presentation.

Summary

Should I buy the Lumix S5 II? Is it important to have a weather-sealed camera with no recording limits, that is equally capable of capturing professional-level photography and video content, while shooting in a wide variety of environments? The original Panasonic Lumix S5 was an exceptional value that punched above its weight for video and kept up with entry-level competitors for stills . The S5 II promises a host of improvements and delivers on many, but its fresh phase detection autofocus system just doesn't make the grade, slowing down when you need it most for moving subjects. Sirui 50mm 1.6x Anamorphic, t/2.9, 1/125-second, ISO 800

Panasonic Panasonic LUMIX S5 Battery Pack DMW-BLK22

There are a few different color profiles available for creators who want to snap ready-to-share JPGs: standard, portrait, vivid, and landscape, as well as the film-like L.ClassicNeo and L.Monochrome looks. Note that there's some overlap with the V-Log, HLG, and CineD2 video profiles because you can use any of those for stills and vice versa. Nikon Micro-Nikkor 55mm F2.8 AIs, f/2.8, 1/500-second, ISO 100 To find out if the S5 II finally resolves the issues with previous models, I tested a final production camera running final firmware over several weeks with a selection of native L-mount and adapted EF lenses. I also tested Canon’s latest EOS R6 Mark II alongside it, as well as retesting Sony’s A7 IV side-by-side. Telling the camera the squeeze ratio of your lens also allows the S5 II to adjust its image stabilization system to accommodate the differing effective focal lengths of your vertical and horizontal capture, improving the stabilization performance. LUT-applied shootingPanasonic has always been a key player in the video camera space, and the S5 is clearly hoping to attract vloggers or anyone looking for a hybrid video-stills camera that's not as big and bulky as something like the S1, or especially the S1H. Where does that leave a potential Micro Four Thirds successor to the GH5? I don’t know. But I do know that if you’re a hybrid shooter and want a compact camera with intuitive controls and great battery performance, that produces highly attractive, robust images, you can’t go wrong with the Lumix S5. The S5 II continues to use the DMW-BLK22 battery from the previous version, which means it's also fully compatible with the same AC adaptor, DC coupler and dedicated battery chargers as the Mark I. Above: Moving onto image quality at higher sensitivities, I shot a still-life image with the S5 at every ISO value from 100 to 51200 ISO, using the Lumix S 20-60mm at 50mm f11. I shot in JPEG and RAW, but in the absence of RAW support from Adobe at the time I made this review, I’m comparing the JPEGs here. In my video review I’ll show you a closer look at each value, starting at 100 ISO and ending at 51200 ISO, but just now here’s a cropped view of the 3200 ISO sample above. Panasonic says the S5 has dual native ISO like the S1H which means at a certain point the noise levels and dynamic range should improve. Unlike the S1H though, the switch happens automatically on the S5 and Panasonic isn’t officially saying where it happens, so you tell me if you can see it here. Either way, I’d say the images look very clean and detailed up to 3200 ISO, remain very respectable at 6400 and 12800 ISO, and only really begin to suffer at 25600 and 51200 ISO, but even then still retain a good level of detail.

Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 review - Digital Photography Review Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 review - Digital Photography Review

The S5 II does make a couple of small missteps in terms of build and design though. One of them is highlighted by another of its major improvements; the S5 II gains a full-size HDMI port. A very welcome addition. But, unfortunately, it didn’t also gain the ingenious tilt and flip screen that Panasonic first deployed in the LUMIX S1H and improved for the LUMIX GH6. Shooting stills, the S5 II can handle 7 fps bursts of RAW+JPEG shooting with AF-C for roughly 200 frames. If you need more speed, its mechanical shutter can do 9 fps with AF-S or 30 frames per second using its electronic shutter with AF-C. At the time of testing I was still using pre-production firmware and still, the results were impressive. As mentioned, Panasonic didn't make many substantive changes to the design for the S5 II, but the handgrip is a bit bigger this time around, for better balance with heavy lenses. The control buttons and dials are all in the same place though, so there's not much of a learning curve if you are upgrading from the original. PHOTO is a high speed burst shooting function that cuts a still image out of a 4:3 or 3:2 video footage with approx. 18-megapixel (approx. 6000 x 3000 effective pixel count) that the 6K image manages. Sadly until sensors with faster readouts become more affordable, skewing will remain the penalty of using an electronic shutter. If your subject or composition is mostly still, it will be less of an issue, but when shooting fast motion be warned.When the ambient temperature is high or continuous recording is performed, the camera may stop the recording to protect itself. Wait until the camera cools down. Size-wise, here’s the S5 II on the right with the Canon EOS R6 II on the left, the former a little taller and more angular in style. And now for the Sony A7 IV on the left, again a little shorter than the new Lumix. In real-world use, the S5 should last for a full day of moderate use, especially when engaging in power-saving tactics of your own, such as switching it off between shots. If you’re somebody that wants to shoot lots of 4K clips in a day, it may be worth investing in a second battery. You can also charge the S5 via USB, so an alternative would be a high-capacity power bank for charging on the go, too. Image and video quality You may have already spotted this during some of the electronic bursts of birds I showed a moment ago, but here’s another example. I’m starting with a pan at 70mm using the mechanical shutter where the tower and buildings are vertically upright as you’d expect. Use a card with SD Speed Class with ""UHS-I / UHS-II UHS Speed Class 3 (U3)"" when recording motion pictures with [MP4] in [4K], [MOV], [S&Q], [6K PHOTO] or [4K PHOTO].