Lumix fan boy here and can't agree with you more out the gate!.. That being said. Im strapped in. Here we go.. (after watching) Thank you sir. Love this camera. Been shooting on the GH4 for past 9 years and have had the s5iix for a couple weeks now. Great in low light! New auto focus is great! Two things you didn't mention was PRORES recording and SSD recording. Thank you again or your time and effort.
Yeah I ended up missing out quite a few things I wanted to cover because it was already horribly long 😅 One cool thing about the SSD recording is that you can apparently hook up a CFExpress Type B reader - Angelbird make one intended for iPhones that should apparently work, but it's out of stock everywhere. I'll make a video about that when I eventually pick one up! I haven't actually tried the ProRes recording yet - something else for the list.
Great video again Robert. I love your laid back style is SO easy to watch and take in. I have the S5ii and I LOVE it. I am an amateur photographer and I bought it mainly for photos, not video, which I rarely do. For me it produces fantastic images which I am more than happy with. Im not really trained yet in "post production" with software, but I feel the images straight from the camera are amazing. Thanks for the video, please keep top the great work.
Thanks very much! And I 100% agree; I've got years of photo editing experience, but that's why I also love how good the photos straight out of camera are - I struggle to believe that anyone "loves" editing photos 😆 The default colours are good in every situation too, which is surprising. For comparison, the Nikon colours are great for wildlife but I find the greens far too saturated for landscapes. It's interesting that Panasonic have managed to come up with a default configuration that seems to work for everything.
Great video as always! I've been playing around with the newly added handheld hi-rez mode that I just got via firmware. It's quite impressive... even for portraits of my dog when he sits still enough haha. Panasonic does a good job with firmware. Will you do a video on the 28-200?
The handheld hi-res is really good! I mentioned that a bit in a previous video rather than this one, but I'd definitely like to do a proper comparison with that mode at some point. The 28-200 is very interesting and quite tempting - I'll definitely do a video if I get ahold of one 😀 Would make for a really nice hiking/landscape lens.
loots for video are used in movies, they shoot in RAW but with loot applied, and if they want to change something, they change it in RAW, but the lighting is set according to the loot, in order to preserve the character of the picture
I have been considering this system for stationary birds and general wildlife. The low burst-rate doesn't detract me too much, especially now that the excellent Sigma 500 5.6 can be used with teleconverters!
I'm hoping to try out a long lens on it soon - I've previously tried the Sigma 150-600 Sport on the first S5 and it worked better than I expected, and actually got a few photos I really liked. Jeremy Neipp has some good videos about Panasonic cameras for wildlife, if useful: ruclips.net/video/PcQJlk4km_0/видео.html. That Sigma 500mm is a really interesting lens! Can't wait to try that out 😀
Excellent and detailed presentation. Buying the s5iix, 8 months ago, was my "entry" into the Panasonic ecosystem. I would like to mention : 1. The ability to record to ssd (s5iix), which reduces the cost (much cheaper solution than ANY CARD) and enables prores recording, which is a HUGE BENEFIT 2. AF is good but needs improvement. It should be AT LEAST, with some Firmware, given the same capabilities that were presented in the G9ii.
I actually haven't used the SSD recording much yet, but as I'm experimenting a bit with recording more in the 3:2 6K mode lately I think I'll be trying it out much more. I do not want to buy big V90 SD cards 😅 Yeah I'd like to see an update to bring it closer to the G9II. It's a huge improvement over the first S5 but they should look at how Nikon has continuously improved their AF via firmware and try to emulate it. The G9II has a few really nice quality of life improvements to the AF.
I really liked your summary, the feeling of being connected to a camera, I can really relate to this. One of the reasons I stayed so long (too long!) with Pentax was that the K-1 was just an absolute JOY to use. It's such a god damn simple brick lacking in so many features, but that simplicity really translates to a pleasant experience. Of course this is a DSLR, it is woefully in adequate for so many genres and applications by todays standards, but that feeling of being connected with the process (possibly because you are not being assisted as much) actually is quite nice. It is a shame you have had to split your interests across 2 systems. As an XH2S owner I can't help but compare your thoughts and findings and more often than not I am finding myself happy with my choices of investing in Fujifilm. I understand your reasons for leaving and that I think are very valid, Fuji definitely need to up their QC game. They need continuity across their divisions, all aperture and focus rings need to feel the same degree of tension and stiffness, all hoods need to click in place adequately, all mounts need to feel like the glass docks in firmly. As is its a mixed bag and I fear they won't ever be taken seriously till they up their game in this area.
I'm gonna make sure to actually spend some time with a Pentax camera this year. It has been too long 😆 Yeah I'm still annoyed about the XH2S problems - I really liked that camera 🙈 I think there's at least one major downside to every camera system right now. The two most enjoyable experiences for me in the past couple of years have definitely been Fujifilm and Panasonic cameras. Panasonic really wouldn't need to do much to win me over to an S1II, but I'm worried that they'll do something stupid like make it SD-card only or something, or inexplicably still have a 5FPS burst rate. They have at least proved they do somewhat listen to their customers with the past two releases, so maybe I'm being overly pessimistic 😅
@@robert_may About Pentax, I dunno if in 2024 there will be much to say positively about the brand or camera. The K-1 was their best camera imo (I have owned or tried most), but 4.4fps and a buffer of 13-17 shots (with questionable IQ), worst video on any brand etc. The camera and experience would need to be appreciated on a whole other level that has basically nothing to do with modern cameras. Comparing the K-1 as an alternative to film camera experience would be fairer 😅 so yeh just bare that in mind. K-1 is still a landscape beast, super tilting screen, LED lights to illuminate buttons and sd card slots in the dark, the very best iteration of pixelshift from any brand, built in astrotracer. Honestly its kinda mind blowing how the big YT landscape channels just completely skipped this camera. My recommendations, K-1+ any FA Ltd (31, 43, 77), that glass is iconic and the pairing is really quite nice. After the success of the Kimono (K3III Monochrome), many are praying that Pentax/Ricoh does the same with a K-1 and GR. Fingers crossed. The K3III started with too aggressive built in Denoise, many of us are hoping that will be the last time they behave in this manner. But yeh, in short Pentax for Play, Fuji for work. It's a completely different thing. If you get the chance to play with a K-1 take it, anything else I wouldn't really bother tbh. It is interesting today that because our interests are wide and varied that its hard to find a single brand camera that can do it all. It's not surprising that you need Nikon for birds but chose Lumix for casual/video, it's just a shame we need to do this. Ah well...
The difference between the S5II & the G9II stabilization is mainly a rework of the electronic stabilization, apart from the smaller sensor being able to move a lot more in a body designed for FF. The EIS has 2 levels, at 9% crop and 25% crop, both of which correct for the wobble. The EIS strong is more of a gimbal emulation mode.
Very nice video, thank you! I have a S1 and G9ii. One tip re picking out the subject when multiple are available: I have the size of the AF area mapped to the back wheel, so it’s very easy to make it smaller. Subject detection only picks up in the box.
Oh boy, this came at quite the time for me. I have the S5ii, and there are so many features that I absolutely love about this. I carries some of the computational photography things I loved about the OM-1, in a FF body, and then added others. Currently I am sat with only the 24-105 Lumix lens for general photography, and I am contemplating getting the Sigma 150-600 Sport. However, there are some things that are keeping me from doing so. Yes, I could get it, have an OK experience and pray that Panasonnic will release a faster & higher resolution sensor this year, and sell my S5ii for it. Ooooooooor.. I could not invest more, get the Nikon Z f and an equivalent lens, maybe both, and use that until I can afford a Z8 down the line.. anything you may have to add to this, Robert, would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance, and cheers for yet another stand out video. :) Atb from Norway
Tough decision! It's something I'm kinda stuck on as well, and was just as stuck on last year too. The Z9 is a great wildlife camera but I honestly don't use it for much else. Panasonic wouldn't need to do much to get me interested in an S1II; probably "only" needs a faster sensor, higher burst speed, and CFExpress Type B cards, in order to make a perfectly viable wildlife camera. But who knows what they'll come out with 🤔 I keep telling myself that Sigma must be releasing all these telephoto L-mount lenses for a reason 🙈 The Zf looks like a really nice camera though. I imagine it's somewhat more annoying for video but it certainly has good photo specs. I still haven't had a chance to try one out myself though - hopefully I'll get my hands on one at a trade show sometime this year. One holdup for me on Nikon is that I don't really love most of their lenses outside of the super cheap ones (like the 40mm f/2) or the telephoto range. I find myself really enjoying the L-mount lens range far more - I've always liked Sigma lenses, and the Panasonic ones are proving really great too. I've been planning to borrow a long lens for the S5IIX for a while in order to properly test it out for wildlife, like I did with the S5. Hopefully I'll have a video out for that in the next month or so 😀
@@robert_mayFirst, thank you so, so much for taking time out of your day to respond. I much appreciate it! Second: oh god now I must wait for that video I suspect.. the GAS is real! I was even considering X-H2, for the higher resolution and "ok" speed, but with longer reach and all that. But moving to a Nikon system also seems appealing, having to get a Z F first, because of price, then Z8 later on. But really, this is really hard. 😅 Waiting for a S1ii would be a risk, but it could also be SO worth it, and without taking a huge (for me) loss in money, over changing systems. This is.. difficult. I only do photography, who knows about the future, but for now that is my only priority out of the two. Cheers again.
@@VandrefalkTV I just discovered that Sigma have shut down the lens rental scheme they had here in the UK so getting a long lens to try the S5II out is going to prove to be a bit more awkward 😩 I'll see if I can find any other way of nabbing one for a test.
@@robert_may Whaaaat? Noooo! 😭 I've taken steps to MAYBE even join a local photography group but.. oh god. Maybe. Just to see if anyone has any camera or lens combinations that might interest me. 🙈
I've had my s5ii for a year and I'd agree with your points. I love the ui and controls with that back wheel being a small annoyance. I've gotten more used to it though. Overall the UI and menus are the best Ive ever used coming from Canon DSLRs and olympus mirrorless (ive had an em5mk2 for 2 years i still forget how basic controls work on it). I was hunting for a camera that did everything. I live abroad in the developing world and do mostly family stuff for myself and ethnographic photography/documentary of the country I live in and the people. I also like to do landscape and cityscapes. I needed a camera that had me covered for a wide gamut of photo and video situations, durable, robust feature set, and a one lens one body solution to tackle it all. Ive put the camera through its paces taking it to Switzerland, Turkey, Germany, and Austria as well as where I live in Central Asia. It's performed excellently but like all cameras - it pays to learn its quirks and limits. For what I shoot now, I doubt I'll ever need another camera. I would love to give the s1r a test drive however or its sequel which should be announced shortly i think. Also i love the 24-105, but might add that sigma 65 f2 ive had my eye on and possibly a sigma 100-400 for capturing telephoto landscapes and maybe even some large wildlife and pastoral scenes here.
Haha I can relate on the Olympus menus. They did thankfully fix them somewhat in the OM-1 and later cameras 😅 The S5II really is a good all-rounder, just as you say. I’m also super interested in what models they bring out next, especially as there are lots of nice lenses on L mount now. I’ve not actually tried either of those Sigma lenses yet, though I did briefly have a go on the 35mm variant of that range and really liked how it felt. The 65mm is a really interesting focal length!
Blackout isn't too bad (and doesn't exist in electronic shutter mode from what I can tell, though the EVF does then lag a bit), but it does have a curious adverse effect - I think it combines with the slow-ish sensor speed to cause some AF issues, as it often loses the subject focus after 2-3 shots in a burst. Will cover this in an upcoming video!
Hi Robert, excellent considerations as always! I also noticed that the audio of the S5 ii was strangely disturbed, as soon as I increased the volume in post production this background noise emerged. I thought it might be the fan but it's probably as you say. In fact I regretted the audio quality of my gh6. Fortunately with the G9 ii I never encountered this problem. The g9 ii is practically identical except for the fact that it doesn't have a fan, so I thought that could be the determining factor. I didn't like the fact that I wasn't able to precisely freeze the subjects in the photos with the S5 II. The eyes are always slightly out of focus in most cases, even when shutter speeds are very fast and the subjects move slowly closer or further away. Unfortunately the g9 ii also has this shortcoming, it tends to be a little better in everything like AFC but it doesn't even manage to give me satisfaction. What satisfies me instead is Sony. Doing some tests with a friend who has the Sony a7 IV, it has incredible precision on the eyes to say the least. Who knows if they will ever fix this problem. I don't know if you experience this too, but I think Nikon is much closer to Sony in this sense than Panasonic. By the way, I wanted to ask you, since you are very technically expert, why the DPI and jpegs are 180 and instead those of other brands like Sony are 350? Same thing in raw too. Soon!
Ooh you could be right about the fan - they can generate electrical interference as they're basically small electric motors involving magnets. I'll do some proper testing and see if I can verify it, because that'd make for an interesting video anyway 😀 I haven't had a chance to test out a G9II yet but in general I find the S5II surprisingly accurate on eyes, possibly more so than the Nikon Z9 - the Z9 in particular has a front-focusing issue where it tends to hit eyelashes on humans and cheek feathers on birds 🤔 But it wouldn't surprise me if the S5II/G9II do the same. Sony do seem to be the best at this right now, and I'm not sure if it's because they have more focus points on their cameras (and thus having a more accurate hit on the centre of eyes) or if they're doing something clever in the firmware like shifting focus back minutely when focusing on eyes, but it really is very accurate. I think Canon are probably the closest in terms of performance to Sony right now, from what I've heard. I don't do a huge amount of printing these days so I'm a bit rusty on DPI, but they should be identical as far as I know - it might be something weird going on in the photo software. Photos from my Z9 and S5II both show as 240 DPI in Photoshop for me. Which is a bit of a weird number but I don't think I've changed it on any photo since installing this version of Photoshop.
@@robert_may thak you. regarding dpi, I'm not talking about those that we can set after editing via software, I'm talking about those that the camera itself imprints on the file. By the way, have you tested the effectiveness of the AF with S5 II on the eyes of subjects who are approaching or moving away? that's where I run into problems with accuracy. On static static subjects I agree that it is precise A greeting
There is a japanese youtuber たかTube, who complained about the noise of - built-in - mics on the S5II, supposedly S5IIX as well. Turned out, this particular issue was tied to SD card they were using, apparently. Can't say much myself, I don't have an S5II, and the video wasn't about external mics, but I guess you can try switching cards and check it out, maybe it will help. I will point out though, that there is definitely some cricket electrical noise present on the headphone jack of my original S5 (not on the mics portions, though, as far as I can tell) - I guess, QC issues on the sound portion of the camera bodies were present for a while now...
Oh that's really interesting - I've never thought of testing out the SD cards. I have a bunch of Lexar cards that were fairly cheap, and they did cause problems in the Fujifilm X-H2S when I had that, so probably worth a test 🤔 When I get a bit of spare time soon I'll see if I can figure out the exact conditions that cause the sound. Unfortunately the audio part of mirrorless cameras is still pretty far behind, except on the higher-end cine cameras. Thankfully the XLR adapter works really well on the Panasonic, so there is a workaround at least.
Also thanks for the channel recommendation! 😀 Lots of good Japanese RUclipsrs don't get shown to me very often, and between auto-subtitles and my extremely limited language skills I can usually figure out what's going on. That channel is exactly my sorta thing!
@@robert_may You're welcome, there's indeed a lot to dig with somewhat obscure foreign youtubers for sure - korean feature film and ad director from 감송필름 Gamsongfilm channel, for instance, was rolling with Lumix as primary cameras for a while (starting from original S1), and his color-grading practices is nothing but amazing (even when it comes to occasionally tested 8-bit only cameras, like Z6), the best I've seen on YT so far, to be frank. Auto-translate is very much adequate with korean content, much better than japanese, for example, so it's very much worth check it out for Lumix users around. Regarding sound - eh, some part of me wants to complain about QC, but, then again, many modern external recorders can be mounted underneath the cameras nowadays, so that's not really a problem for me. Realistically speaking, how good ML preamps can possible be?.. Even without obvious chirping tied to QC-issues, I would expect built-in mic's sound to be atleast somewhat hissy, so, I probably wouldn't use it for anything other than sync in post anyway.
Mainly using a Sennheiser MKE 600, going into a Tascam Model 12 mixer (wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for vocals but I already owned it). I then pass it out to the Panasonic XLR adapter to keep the recordings simple, and post process with some Izotope plugins and EQ 😀 Since this video I’ve started using a Roland interface I already owned to run the mic as it has cleaner gain, but then it passes that into the mixer again.
I don't have any of those unfortunately, though I have briefly played with an FX30 (nice camera!). I'll make sure to give them all a proper try at an upcoming trade show though, as I'm interested in them myself too. I can possibly compare more generally between Fujifilm & Panasonic if you have any specific questions though, as I did previously have an X-H2S 😀
Yes they support 4:4:4, and 4:2:0, but weirdly no support for 4:2:2. As far as I know, only Intel and Apple support 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. Example of other people complaining about this lack of support: old.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/180c4l2/422_footage_decoder_in_the_works_please_we_video/
Lumix fan boy here and can't agree with you more out the gate!.. That being said. Im strapped in. Here we go..
(after watching) Thank you sir. Love this camera. Been shooting on the GH4 for past 9 years and have had the s5iix for a couple weeks now. Great in low light! New auto focus is great! Two things you didn't mention was PRORES recording and SSD recording. Thank you again or your time and effort.
Yeah I ended up missing out quite a few things I wanted to cover because it was already horribly long 😅 One cool thing about the SSD recording is that you can apparently hook up a CFExpress Type B reader - Angelbird make one intended for iPhones that should apparently work, but it's out of stock everywhere. I'll make a video about that when I eventually pick one up! I haven't actually tried the ProRes recording yet - something else for the list.
Great video again Robert. I love your laid back style is SO easy to watch and take in. I have the S5ii and I LOVE it. I am an amateur photographer and I bought it mainly for photos, not video, which I rarely do. For me it produces fantastic images which I am more than happy with. Im not really trained yet in "post production" with software, but I feel the images straight from the camera are amazing. Thanks for the video, please keep top the great work.
Thanks very much! And I 100% agree; I've got years of photo editing experience, but that's why I also love how good the photos straight out of camera are - I struggle to believe that anyone "loves" editing photos 😆 The default colours are good in every situation too, which is surprising. For comparison, the Nikon colours are great for wildlife but I find the greens far too saturated for landscapes. It's interesting that Panasonic have managed to come up with a default configuration that seems to work for everything.
Great video as always! I've been playing around with the newly added handheld hi-rez mode that I just got via firmware. It's quite impressive... even for portraits of my dog when he sits still enough haha. Panasonic does a good job with firmware. Will you do a video on the 28-200?
The handheld hi-res is really good! I mentioned that a bit in a previous video rather than this one, but I'd definitely like to do a proper comparison with that mode at some point.
The 28-200 is very interesting and quite tempting - I'll definitely do a video if I get ahold of one 😀 Would make for a really nice hiking/landscape lens.
I bought 2 S5II month ago . I ve been using it for photo and video . One of the great camera i had , with its flaws ofc.
loots for video are used in movies, they shoot in RAW but with loot applied, and if they want to change something, they change it in RAW, but the lighting is set according to the loot, in order to preserve the character of the picture
I have been considering this system for stationary birds and general wildlife. The low burst-rate doesn't detract me too much, especially now that the excellent Sigma 500 5.6 can be used with teleconverters!
I'm hoping to try out a long lens on it soon - I've previously tried the Sigma 150-600 Sport on the first S5 and it worked better than I expected, and actually got a few photos I really liked. Jeremy Neipp has some good videos about Panasonic cameras for wildlife, if useful: ruclips.net/video/PcQJlk4km_0/видео.html. That Sigma 500mm is a really interesting lens! Can't wait to try that out 😀
Excellent and detailed presentation.
Buying the s5iix, 8 months ago, was my "entry" into the Panasonic ecosystem.
I would like to mention :
1. The ability to record to ssd (s5iix), which reduces the cost (much cheaper solution than ANY CARD) and enables prores recording, which is a HUGE BENEFIT
2. AF is good but needs improvement. It should be AT LEAST, with some Firmware, given the same capabilities that were presented in the G9ii.
I actually haven't used the SSD recording much yet, but as I'm experimenting a bit with recording more in the 3:2 6K mode lately I think I'll be trying it out much more. I do not want to buy big V90 SD cards 😅
Yeah I'd like to see an update to bring it closer to the G9II. It's a huge improvement over the first S5 but they should look at how Nikon has continuously improved their AF via firmware and try to emulate it. The G9II has a few really nice quality of life improvements to the AF.
I really liked your summary, the feeling of being connected to a camera, I can really relate to this. One of the reasons I stayed so long (too long!) with Pentax was that the K-1 was just an absolute JOY to use. It's such a god damn simple brick lacking in so many features, but that simplicity really translates to a pleasant experience. Of course this is a DSLR, it is woefully in adequate for so many genres and applications by todays standards, but that feeling of being connected with the process (possibly because you are not being assisted as much) actually is quite nice.
It is a shame you have had to split your interests across 2 systems. As an XH2S owner I can't help but compare your thoughts and findings and more often than not I am finding myself happy with my choices of investing in Fujifilm. I understand your reasons for leaving and that I think are very valid, Fuji definitely need to up their QC game. They need continuity across their divisions, all aperture and focus rings need to feel the same degree of tension and stiffness, all hoods need to click in place adequately, all mounts need to feel like the glass docks in firmly. As is its a mixed bag and I fear they won't ever be taken seriously till they up their game in this area.
I'm gonna make sure to actually spend some time with a Pentax camera this year. It has been too long 😆
Yeah I'm still annoyed about the XH2S problems - I really liked that camera 🙈 I think there's at least one major downside to every camera system right now. The two most enjoyable experiences for me in the past couple of years have definitely been Fujifilm and Panasonic cameras. Panasonic really wouldn't need to do much to win me over to an S1II, but I'm worried that they'll do something stupid like make it SD-card only or something, or inexplicably still have a 5FPS burst rate. They have at least proved they do somewhat listen to their customers with the past two releases, so maybe I'm being overly pessimistic 😅
@@robert_may About Pentax, I dunno if in 2024 there will be much to say positively about the brand or camera. The K-1 was their best camera imo (I have owned or tried most), but 4.4fps and a buffer of 13-17 shots (with questionable IQ), worst video on any brand etc. The camera and experience would need to be appreciated on a whole other level that has basically nothing to do with modern cameras. Comparing the K-1 as an alternative to film camera experience would be fairer 😅 so yeh just bare that in mind. K-1 is still a landscape beast, super tilting screen, LED lights to illuminate buttons and sd card slots in the dark, the very best iteration of pixelshift from any brand, built in astrotracer. Honestly its kinda mind blowing how the big YT landscape channels just completely skipped this camera.
My recommendations, K-1+ any FA Ltd (31, 43, 77), that glass is iconic and the pairing is really quite nice. After the success of the Kimono (K3III Monochrome), many are praying that Pentax/Ricoh does the same with a K-1 and GR. Fingers crossed. The K3III started with too aggressive built in Denoise, many of us are hoping that will be the last time they behave in this manner.
But yeh, in short Pentax for Play, Fuji for work. It's a completely different thing. If you get the chance to play with a K-1 take it, anything else I wouldn't really bother tbh.
It is interesting today that because our interests are wide and varied that its hard to find a single brand camera that can do it all. It's not surprising that you need Nikon for birds but chose Lumix for casual/video, it's just a shame we need to do this. Ah well...
The difference between the S5II & the G9II stabilization is mainly a rework of the electronic stabilization, apart from the smaller sensor being able to move a lot more in a body designed for FF. The EIS has 2 levels, at 9% crop and 25% crop, both of which correct for the wobble. The EIS strong is more of a gimbal emulation mode.
Ooh that's good to know - I hadn't seen many details of what changed between the two models.
Very nice video, thank you! I have a S1 and G9ii. One tip re picking out the subject when multiple are available: I have the size of the AF area mapped to the back wheel, so it’s very easy to make it smaller. Subject detection only picks up in the box.
That's an excellent tip - I never even thought of doing that 😮
Oh boy, this came at quite the time for me. I have the S5ii, and there are so many features that I absolutely love about this. I carries some of the computational photography things I loved about the OM-1, in a FF body, and then added others. Currently I am sat with only the 24-105 Lumix lens for general photography, and I am contemplating getting the Sigma 150-600 Sport. However, there are some things that are keeping me from doing so. Yes, I could get it, have an OK experience and pray that Panasonnic will release a faster & higher resolution sensor this year, and sell my S5ii for it. Ooooooooor.. I could not invest more, get the Nikon Z f and an equivalent lens, maybe both, and use that until I can afford a Z8 down the line.. anything you may have to add to this, Robert, would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance, and cheers for yet another stand out video. :) Atb from Norway
Tough decision! It's something I'm kinda stuck on as well, and was just as stuck on last year too. The Z9 is a great wildlife camera but I honestly don't use it for much else. Panasonic wouldn't need to do much to get me interested in an S1II; probably "only" needs a faster sensor, higher burst speed, and CFExpress Type B cards, in order to make a perfectly viable wildlife camera. But who knows what they'll come out with 🤔 I keep telling myself that Sigma must be releasing all these telephoto L-mount lenses for a reason 🙈
The Zf looks like a really nice camera though. I imagine it's somewhat more annoying for video but it certainly has good photo specs. I still haven't had a chance to try one out myself though - hopefully I'll get my hands on one at a trade show sometime this year.
One holdup for me on Nikon is that I don't really love most of their lenses outside of the super cheap ones (like the 40mm f/2) or the telephoto range. I find myself really enjoying the L-mount lens range far more - I've always liked Sigma lenses, and the Panasonic ones are proving really great too.
I've been planning to borrow a long lens for the S5IIX for a while in order to properly test it out for wildlife, like I did with the S5. Hopefully I'll have a video out for that in the next month or so 😀
@@robert_mayFirst, thank you so, so much for taking time out of your day to respond. I much appreciate it! Second: oh god now I must wait for that video I suspect.. the GAS is real! I was even considering X-H2, for the higher resolution and "ok" speed, but with longer reach and all that. But moving to a Nikon system also seems appealing, having to get a Z F first, because of price, then Z8 later on. But really, this is really hard. 😅 Waiting for a S1ii would be a risk, but it could also be SO worth it, and without taking a huge (for me) loss in money, over changing systems.
This is.. difficult. I only do photography, who knows about the future, but for now that is my only priority out of the two. Cheers again.
@@VandrefalkTV I just discovered that Sigma have shut down the lens rental scheme they had here in the UK so getting a long lens to try the S5II out is going to prove to be a bit more awkward 😩 I'll see if I can find any other way of nabbing one for a test.
@@robert_may Whaaaat? Noooo! 😭 I've taken steps to MAYBE even join a local photography group but.. oh god. Maybe. Just to see if anyone has any camera or lens combinations that might interest me. 🙈
I've had my s5ii for a year and I'd agree with your points. I love the ui and controls with that back wheel being a small annoyance. I've gotten more used to it though. Overall the UI and menus are the best Ive ever used coming from Canon DSLRs and olympus mirrorless (ive had an em5mk2 for 2 years i still forget how basic controls work on it).
I was hunting for a camera that did everything. I live abroad in the developing world and do mostly family stuff for myself and ethnographic photography/documentary of the country I live in and the people. I also like to do landscape and cityscapes. I needed a camera that had me covered for a wide gamut of photo and video situations, durable, robust feature set, and a one lens one body solution to tackle it all. Ive put the camera through its paces taking it to Switzerland, Turkey, Germany, and Austria as well as where I live in Central Asia. It's performed excellently but like all cameras - it pays to learn its quirks and limits.
For what I shoot now, I doubt I'll ever need another camera. I would love to give the s1r a test drive however or its sequel which should be announced shortly i think. Also i love the 24-105, but might add that sigma 65 f2 ive had my eye on and possibly a sigma 100-400 for capturing telephoto landscapes and maybe even some large wildlife and pastoral scenes here.
Haha I can relate on the Olympus menus. They did thankfully fix them somewhat in the OM-1 and later cameras 😅
The S5II really is a good all-rounder, just as you say. I’m also super interested in what models they bring out next, especially as there are lots of nice lenses on L mount now. I’ve not actually tried either of those Sigma lenses yet, though I did briefly have a go on the 35mm variant of that range and really liked how it felt. The 65mm is a really interesting focal length!
'Also makes a cute little robot face' 🤖🥰
When I rented the S5IIX and inspected it before use I also saw that robot face, LOL. Great review, thanks.
Good honest review, what’s the EVF blackout like in burst mode ? What’s it like with the FW 3.0 update?
Blackout isn't too bad (and doesn't exist in electronic shutter mode from what I can tell, though the EVF does then lag a bit), but it does have a curious adverse effect - I think it combines with the slow-ish sensor speed to cause some AF issues, as it often loses the subject focus after 2-3 shots in a burst. Will cover this in an upcoming video!
Hi Robert, excellent considerations as always! I also noticed that the audio of the S5 ii was strangely disturbed, as soon as I increased the volume in post production this background noise emerged. I thought it might be the fan but it's probably as you say. In fact I regretted the audio quality of my gh6. Fortunately with the G9 ii I never encountered this problem. The g9 ii is practically identical except for the fact that it doesn't have a fan, so I thought that could be the determining factor. I didn't like the fact that I wasn't able to precisely freeze the subjects in the photos with the S5 II. The eyes are always slightly out of focus in most cases, even when shutter speeds are very fast and the subjects move slowly closer or further away. Unfortunately the g9 ii also has this shortcoming, it tends to be a little better in everything like AFC but it doesn't even manage to give me satisfaction. What satisfies me instead is Sony. Doing some tests with a friend who has the Sony a7 IV, it has incredible precision on the eyes to say the least. Who knows if they will ever fix this problem. I don't know if you experience this too, but I think Nikon is much closer to Sony in this sense than Panasonic.
By the way, I wanted to ask you, since you are very technically expert, why the DPI and jpegs are 180 and instead those of other brands like Sony are 350? Same thing in raw too.
Soon!
Ooh you could be right about the fan - they can generate electrical interference as they're basically small electric motors involving magnets. I'll do some proper testing and see if I can verify it, because that'd make for an interesting video anyway 😀
I haven't had a chance to test out a G9II yet but in general I find the S5II surprisingly accurate on eyes, possibly more so than the Nikon Z9 - the Z9 in particular has a front-focusing issue where it tends to hit eyelashes on humans and cheek feathers on birds 🤔 But it wouldn't surprise me if the S5II/G9II do the same. Sony do seem to be the best at this right now, and I'm not sure if it's because they have more focus points on their cameras (and thus having a more accurate hit on the centre of eyes) or if they're doing something clever in the firmware like shifting focus back minutely when focusing on eyes, but it really is very accurate. I think Canon are probably the closest in terms of performance to Sony right now, from what I've heard.
I don't do a huge amount of printing these days so I'm a bit rusty on DPI, but they should be identical as far as I know - it might be something weird going on in the photo software. Photos from my Z9 and S5II both show as 240 DPI in Photoshop for me. Which is a bit of a weird number but I don't think I've changed it on any photo since installing this version of Photoshop.
@@robert_may thak you. regarding dpi, I'm not talking about those that we can set after editing via software, I'm talking about those that the camera itself imprints on the file. By the way, have you tested the effectiveness of the AF with S5 II on the eyes of subjects who are approaching or moving away? that's where I run into problems with accuracy. On static static subjects I agree that it is precise
A greeting
There is a japanese youtuber たかTube, who complained about the noise of - built-in - mics on the S5II, supposedly S5IIX as well. Turned out, this particular issue was tied to SD card they were using, apparently. Can't say much myself, I don't have an S5II, and the video wasn't about external mics, but I guess you can try switching cards and check it out, maybe it will help. I will point out though, that there is definitely some cricket electrical noise present on the headphone jack of my original S5 (not on the mics portions, though, as far as I can tell) - I guess, QC issues on the sound portion of the camera bodies were present for a while now...
Oh that's really interesting - I've never thought of testing out the SD cards. I have a bunch of Lexar cards that were fairly cheap, and they did cause problems in the Fujifilm X-H2S when I had that, so probably worth a test 🤔 When I get a bit of spare time soon I'll see if I can figure out the exact conditions that cause the sound.
Unfortunately the audio part of mirrorless cameras is still pretty far behind, except on the higher-end cine cameras. Thankfully the XLR adapter works really well on the Panasonic, so there is a workaround at least.
Also thanks for the channel recommendation! 😀 Lots of good Japanese RUclipsrs don't get shown to me very often, and between auto-subtitles and my extremely limited language skills I can usually figure out what's going on. That channel is exactly my sorta thing!
@@robert_may You're welcome, there's indeed a lot to dig with somewhat obscure foreign youtubers for sure - korean feature film and ad director from 감송필름 Gamsongfilm channel, for instance, was rolling with Lumix as primary cameras for a while (starting from original S1), and his color-grading practices is nothing but amazing (even when it comes to occasionally tested 8-bit only cameras, like Z6), the best I've seen on YT so far, to be frank. Auto-translate is very much adequate with korean content, much better than japanese, for example, so it's very much worth check it out for Lumix users around. Regarding sound - eh, some part of me wants to complain about QC, but, then again, many modern external recorders can be mounted underneath the cameras nowadays, so that's not really a problem for me. Realistically speaking, how good ML preamps can possible be?.. Even without obvious chirping tied to QC-issues, I would expect built-in mic's sound to be atleast somewhat hissy, so, I probably wouldn't use it for anything other than sync in post anyway.
Thanks mate, Eye opening
Your audio is crisp. What is your setup?
Mainly using a Sennheiser MKE 600, going into a Tascam Model 12 mixer (wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for vocals but I already owned it). I then pass it out to the Panasonic XLR adapter to keep the recordings simple, and post process with some Izotope plugins and EQ 😀 Since this video I’ve started using a Roland interface I already owned to run the mic as it has cleaner gain, but then it passes that into the mixer again.
I have a Fujifilm X-S20, Sony FX30 and A6700. Any chance you have those and able to give a comparison of the S5IIX to those?
I don't have any of those unfortunately, though I have briefly played with an FX30 (nice camera!). I'll make sure to give them all a proper try at an upcoming trade show though, as I'm interested in them myself too. I can possibly compare more generally between Fujifilm & Panasonic if you have any specific questions though, as I did previously have an X-H2S 😀
16:22 what are you talking about? i can't post links but go to the wikipedia article for nvidia NVDEC and see hevc 444 supported for gpus from 2018
Yes they support 4:4:4, and 4:2:0, but weirdly no support for 4:2:2. As far as I know, only Intel and Apple support 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. Example of other people complaining about this lack of support: old.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/180c4l2/422_footage_decoder_in_the_works_please_we_video/