So nice to hear a calm reviewer. I am debating at this moment between S5ii/iiX It's very difficult because I'm sure many of the extra video codecs, livestreaming, etc are features I won't be using. But the price differential is so small I am thinking it might offer better resale down the road to buy the X. Funny you should mention the Blackout version resemblling IKEA pros. I agree completely , Plus, if they were going to do such a version they should have made the markings on dials etc. glow in the dark. I mean we're supposed to be taking advantage of low light right? Anyway, I didn't hear your reasoning for iiX over the ii version. Sorry if I missed it but would welcome your opinion. Thanks,
Oh glow in the dark dials would be great (or a light-up feature like the Z9 has). Thankfully I was still familiar with the controls from the first S5 as they are quite a bit harder to see on the S5IIX 😅 My reasons for choosing the X were All-Intra codecs and USB-SSD recording support. Though, ironically, I’ve barely used either so far, but I am planning to start recording in my office using both those features alongside 6K open gate recording so I can more easily chop my videos into vertical format for Shorts, as well as get slightly higher quality clips without having to buy larger and faster SD cards. I hope that helps! 😀
Update...I ended up getting the MFT G9ii. Mainly because I have sufficient lenses and BH had the $500 Trade In bonus offer so the price new became $1398. I couldn't resist because it has many of the S5ii X features and while not glow in the dark, I can read the dials at least.🤗
@@keithnisbet Ooh great choice! That's a great deal. I got to play with one this past weekend and it's a really nice camera. Not having to rebuy all your lenses is always nice too 😅
made the jump from Nikon to Panasonic S5 iix back in August. having used this thing a ridiculous amount now for mostly photos and some videos, man am i glad i made the decision to get this!
Robert great video. I am an amateur photographer and have purchased the S5ii which I love. I am slowly going through the huge amount of settings to see which affect/setting works for me. I mainly shoot landscapes and would love to do more wildlife in the future. Please if you have time, make some more S5ii related videos as your way of explaining things is brilliant. Subscription added. Many thanks
My experience started when I called BH in the US and asked what do you have that shoots ProRes without buying a Ninja? The helpful lady started right in telling me about the 5SiiX. Having alot invested in Olympus gear and liking not having to deal with all that, I bought the 5SiiX. Loving it so far. Thanks for your informative review.
For video it's just such an effortlessly easy camera, I can't recommend it enough 😀Making videos has gotten so much simpler since I picked it up. Glad you're enjoying it too!
The original S5 has most of those jpeg and grain simulations, but it lacks the LUTs. Autofocus apart (I always shoot video on manual lenses), it's a very agreeable camera. Not too big and all the buttons and dials are where you'd expect them to be. Which is as much as I ask of a digital camera.
I'm not sure why I never played with them much on the original S5 🤔And yeah so long as you can deal with its autofocus oddities (and it is at least good for AF-S in photos) it's currently a bit of a bargain. The ergonomics just work for me, except the play button being a bit awkward, and I might see if I can swap it with Disp. or something, as I'm used to the Nikon layout now.
@@robert_may The S5/S5II/X are very good all round hybrid cameras, whose photographic capabilities are unfairly overshadowed by their video excellence. This puts them off the still photography radar.
AF in S5 works for me in 50 fps area+ mode and Speed +3-5 0 sensibility...still not Sony but fine in AF C with native prime and works better in non vlog picture profile because it is contrast based...since latest update it is in some case usable...
@@filipmichalsaffray441 Yeah shooting it in 50p vastly improves the AF on the S5 - not a bad workaround if you chuck a wide lens on to offset the crop. I always suspected LOG caused the AF more trouble, good to know it wasn’t just me going crazy 😆
“I really just like using Panasonic cameras”. Yup, sums it up for me too. I’m glad I held on to my S1 in hopes that they will fix AF eventually. Also considering swapping my OM-1 for the G9ii.
Imo it is completely reasonable to buy a camera for a specific job if it does that job well. It is healthy to think of cameras as not some 'systems' but just... cameras. Who cares if you shoot with two different brands? We shouldn't and anyone that thinks this is silly is not fully appreciating the craft. I came pretty close this week to replacing my XS20 with a Canon R7 to see if my Sigma 18-35 performs better. I would still keep my XH2S regardless (that camera has become instrumental in my line of work for the price point and won't be leaving anytime soon). The Lumix looks like a great system tbh. Good choice.
Haha there is an aspect of the 2000s videogame console wars to the photography community - lots of loyalty to massive multi-national companies 😅 Personally the only downside I bump into with multiple systems is that I sometimes have the wrong one with me, like if I only take the S5IIX out but I see a good bird, and I don't have a long lens for it. So now I'm just a chronic over-packer taking way too much gear around with me 🙈 Have you tried out the R7 already? I've only played with it a bit at a trade show and it seemed good, but not sure how it compares to the XS20 🤔 That Sigma is a really interesting lens - surprised they haven't done a mirrorless version yet, as they've been a lot of crop-sensor lenses lately.
Question: Does your "AF-On" button have a "squishy", "clicky" sound? I sent my S5-IIx in for service and they told me all S5-IIx "AF-ON" buttons are that way. Does yours feel and sound different than all the other buttons?
Some of the extra features are things I actually want, like All-Intra recording and USB SSD support 😀 The blacked-out design does have street photography cred too, I suppose - no Henri Cartier-Bresson-style electrical tape required! 😆
Do you have a PC with an Intel CPU? A lot of the Intel CPUs have built-in GPUs which support hardware decoding and I think it is possible to use it at the same time as a card based GPU. But not 100% sure on that. I actually bought an Intel A380 card just so I could do AV1 encoding.
Unfortunately not! That's where I got a bit stuck - I'm running an AMD Ryzen 5900X and an NVIDIA 3080ti. Which should obviously be complete overkill for most stuff, and it happily live scrubs through 8K50p footage, but it can't handle 4K 4:2:2 10-bit in h.265 at all 😅 In fact, my iPad is faster for it. You are right that if I had an Intel CPU with built-in GPU instead that I'd be able to use that for the encoding/decoding. How have you found the A380 so far? I did debate picking one up as just an encoding card, which in hindsight would have saved me quite a lot of hassle.
@@Just-Nico Generally I'd agree! However as I only upload videos to RUclips it basically makes no difference to the final quality because YT makes it all crunchy anyway 😅 so I tend to prefer having more record time from h.264 where possible.
@@robert_may but with prores is not about quality but also it works very smooth when editing and it doesn't need an impressive pc for editing, at least in davinci works very nice.
Good question. Would depend on what sort of photos, I think. For video I prefer the S5IIX (better codec options, better image stabilisation), but for photos the X-H2S is a really nice camera. I like a lot of lenses on both systems (and I definitely miss the Fujifilm 16-55 f/2.8), but the main difference I'd say is that the S5IIX is a great low-light performer, and the X-H2S is significantly faster, making it better for action, and has better JPEG modes. Both are great hybrid cameras though, and the X-H2S closes the gap on video a bit if you use a Mac as more of its video codecs will be easily editable.
@@robert_may I defentely dont use JPG as I would like to deal with raws in postproduction, however I am hesitant to go with fuji route because of the firmware thing - as I can tell from videos, firmaware can really burry fuji for AF and it makes me wonder if for this is better to go with panasonic as you said panasonic has probably more latitude. Or would go with 4k pocket and seperate the other for photos But I hate carrying two systems and not budget friendly as well lol.
Good question! I think it will _probably_ work really well - I'm thinking of renting a longer lens for it in the near future and comparing how it performs to the Z9. @JeremyNeipp made some great videos about it back when the camera released: ruclips.net/video/PcQJlk4km_0/видео.html, and I have a video where I tested out the first S5 to see how that compared, despite not having phase-detect AF (but has some good examples of the low-light capabilities): ruclips.net/video/UIBr3IBLnDc/видео.html 😄
@@robert_may oh, if you test it with a longer lens, then please, do not forget to make a video on it. This is something I'd be very much interested to see. The price level of S5 is very reasonable.
@@elimajewski3384 Yeah the S5II compares very favourably in terms of price with the competition, like the A7IV and R6II. It's a little bit slower in terms of burst speeds, but it's amazing in low light, so I definitely think it has something to offer. I'd say its main competition are actually smaller sensor cameras, like the OM-1, G9II, or X-H2S 🤔 Even the first S5 performed well-enough for wildlife, so long as you weren't really going for action shots 😅
If you buy any digital camera thinking that the onboard ' profiles ', somehow simulate any film realistically, then you are wasting yur time and money. Over 45 years of shooting film in all formats, and over 20 years of digital has taught me that no digital camera can simulate film in a realistic manner. Buy a digital camera to suit your budget, style of photography and business if you are into making money from photography, otherwise they are all good these days, even the basic stuff. Makes me laugh that people who are into ' sports ' , keep buying Leica M cameras and then complain. Enjoy your new toy.
What a voice!!!
Man, you should definitely do voice acting or some kind of narration work.
Anyways...congratulations on the Lumix S5IIx.
Too funny; I was thinking the same thing. He has a soothing voice.
So nice to hear a calm reviewer. I am debating at this moment between S5ii/iiX It's very difficult because I'm sure many of the extra video codecs, livestreaming, etc are features I won't be using. But the price differential is so small I am thinking it might offer better resale down the road to buy the X. Funny you should mention the Blackout version resemblling IKEA pros. I agree completely , Plus, if they were going to do such a version they should have made the markings on dials etc. glow in the dark. I mean we're supposed to be taking advantage of low light right? Anyway, I didn't hear your reasoning for iiX over the ii version. Sorry if I missed it but would welcome your opinion. Thanks,
Oh glow in the dark dials would be great (or a light-up feature like the Z9 has). Thankfully I was still familiar with the controls from the first S5 as they are quite a bit harder to see on the S5IIX 😅
My reasons for choosing the X were All-Intra codecs and USB-SSD recording support. Though, ironically, I’ve barely used either so far, but I am planning to start recording in my office using both those features alongside 6K open gate recording so I can more easily chop my videos into vertical format for Shorts, as well as get slightly higher quality clips without having to buy larger and faster SD cards. I hope that helps! 😀
@@robert_may Thank you for the clarification.
Update...I ended up getting the MFT G9ii. Mainly because I have sufficient lenses and BH had the $500 Trade In bonus offer so the price new became $1398. I couldn't resist because it has many of the S5ii X features and while not glow in the dark, I can read the dials at least.🤗
@@keithnisbet Ooh great choice! That's a great deal. I got to play with one this past weekend and it's a really nice camera. Not having to rebuy all your lenses is always nice too 😅
made the jump from Nikon to Panasonic S5 iix back in August. having used this thing a ridiculous amount now for mostly photos and some videos, man am i glad i made the decision to get this!
Robert great video. I am an amateur photographer and have purchased the S5ii which I love. I am slowly going through the huge amount of settings to see which affect/setting works for me. I mainly shoot landscapes and would love to do more wildlife in the future. Please if you have time, make some more S5ii related videos as your way of explaining things is brilliant. Subscription added. Many thanks
Thanks very much! Will definitely have some more content on it soon - great choice of camera 😀
My experience started when I called BH in the US and asked what do you have that shoots ProRes without buying a Ninja? The helpful lady started right in telling me about the 5SiiX. Having alot invested in Olympus gear and liking not having to deal with all that, I bought the 5SiiX. Loving it so far. Thanks for your informative review.
For video it's just such an effortlessly easy camera, I can't recommend it enough 😀Making videos has gotten so much simpler since I picked it up. Glad you're enjoying it too!
The original S5 has most of those jpeg and grain simulations, but it lacks the LUTs. Autofocus apart (I always shoot video on manual lenses), it's a very agreeable camera. Not too big and all the buttons and dials are where you'd expect them to be. Which is as much as I ask of a digital camera.
I'm not sure why I never played with them much on the original S5 🤔And yeah so long as you can deal with its autofocus oddities (and it is at least good for AF-S in photos) it's currently a bit of a bargain. The ergonomics just work for me, except the play button being a bit awkward, and I might see if I can swap it with Disp. or something, as I'm used to the Nikon layout now.
@@robert_may The S5/S5II/X are very good all round hybrid cameras, whose photographic capabilities are unfairly overshadowed by their video excellence. This puts them off the still photography radar.
AF in S5 works for me in 50 fps area+ mode and Speed +3-5 0 sensibility...still not Sony but fine in AF C with native prime and works better in non vlog picture profile because it is contrast based...since latest update it is in some case usable...
@@filipmichalsaffray441 Yeah shooting it in 50p vastly improves the AF on the S5 - not a bad workaround if you chuck a wide lens on to offset the crop. I always suspected LOG caused the AF more trouble, good to know it wasn’t just me going crazy 😆
“I really just like using Panasonic cameras”. Yup, sums it up for me too. I’m glad I held on to my S1 in hopes that they will fix AF eventually. Also considering swapping my OM-1 for the G9ii.
Gonna be really interesting to see what their S1 replacement looks like this coming year. Could be a really exciting camera!
Imo it is completely reasonable to buy a camera for a specific job if it does that job well. It is healthy to think of cameras as not some 'systems' but just... cameras. Who cares if you shoot with two different brands? We shouldn't and anyone that thinks this is silly is not fully appreciating the craft.
I came pretty close this week to replacing my XS20 with a Canon R7 to see if my Sigma 18-35 performs better. I would still keep my XH2S regardless (that camera has become instrumental in my line of work for the price point and won't be leaving anytime soon).
The Lumix looks like a great system tbh. Good choice.
Haha there is an aspect of the 2000s videogame console wars to the photography community - lots of loyalty to massive multi-national companies 😅 Personally the only downside I bump into with multiple systems is that I sometimes have the wrong one with me, like if I only take the S5IIX out but I see a good bird, and I don't have a long lens for it. So now I'm just a chronic over-packer taking way too much gear around with me 🙈
Have you tried out the R7 already? I've only played with it a bit at a trade show and it seemed good, but not sure how it compares to the XS20 🤔 That Sigma is a really interesting lens - surprised they haven't done a mirrorless version yet, as they've been a lot of crop-sensor lenses lately.
Question: Does your "AF-On" button have a "squishy", "clicky" sound? I sent my S5-IIx in for service and they told me all S5-IIx "AF-ON" buttons are that way. Does yours feel and sound different than all the other buttons?
Interesting question! Yeah I'd say it has a slightly different response to the other buttons and is slightly squishier.
Great camera, features are unmatched. I just uploaded a short anamorphic montage and I love the look it produces.
Just curious, if you don’t care for the blacked out design (I think it looks beautiful) ….. then why didn’t you go for the standard S5ii instead?
Some of the extra features are things I actually want, like All-Intra recording and USB SSD support 😀 The blacked-out design does have street photography cred too, I suppose - no Henri Cartier-Bresson-style electrical tape required! 😆
Do you have a PC with an Intel CPU? A lot of the Intel CPUs have built-in GPUs which support hardware decoding and I think it is possible to use it at the same time as a card based GPU. But not 100% sure on that. I actually bought an Intel A380 card just so I could do AV1 encoding.
Unfortunately not! That's where I got a bit stuck - I'm running an AMD Ryzen 5900X and an NVIDIA 3080ti. Which should obviously be complete overkill for most stuff, and it happily live scrubs through 8K50p footage, but it can't handle 4K 4:2:2 10-bit in h.265 at all 😅 In fact, my iPad is faster for it. You are right that if I had an Intel CPU with built-in GPU instead that I'd be able to use that for the encoding/decoding.
How have you found the A380 so far? I did debate picking one up as just an encoding card, which in hindsight would have saved me quite a lot of hassle.
@@robert_may With the panasonic s5iix you have Prores 422 wich is so good to work with it and its the best solution for video editing.
@@Just-Nico Generally I'd agree! However as I only upload videos to RUclips it basically makes no difference to the final quality because YT makes it all crunchy anyway 😅 so I tend to prefer having more record time from h.264 where possible.
@@robert_may but with prores is not about quality but also it works very smooth when editing and it doesn't need an impressive pc for editing, at least in davinci works very nice.
would you choose this camera over fujifilm xh2s? for both photos and video.
Good question. Would depend on what sort of photos, I think. For video I prefer the S5IIX (better codec options, better image stabilisation), but for photos the X-H2S is a really nice camera. I like a lot of lenses on both systems (and I definitely miss the Fujifilm 16-55 f/2.8), but the main difference I'd say is that the S5IIX is a great low-light performer, and the X-H2S is significantly faster, making it better for action, and has better JPEG modes. Both are great hybrid cameras though, and the X-H2S closes the gap on video a bit if you use a Mac as more of its video codecs will be easily editable.
@@robert_may I defentely dont use JPG as I would like to deal with raws in postproduction, however I am hesitant to go with fuji route because of the firmware thing - as I can tell from videos, firmaware can really burry fuji for AF and it makes me wonder if for this is better to go with panasonic as you said panasonic has probably more latitude. Or would go with 4k pocket and seperate the other for photos But I hate carrying two systems and not budget friendly as well lol.
Interesting! Is the autofocus suitable for wildlife?
Good question! I think it will _probably_ work really well - I'm thinking of renting a longer lens for it in the near future and comparing how it performs to the Z9. @JeremyNeipp made some great videos about it back when the camera released: ruclips.net/video/PcQJlk4km_0/видео.html, and I have a video where I tested out the first S5 to see how that compared, despite not having phase-detect AF (but has some good examples of the low-light capabilities): ruclips.net/video/UIBr3IBLnDc/видео.html 😄
@@robert_may oh, if you test it with a longer lens, then please, do not forget to make a video on it. This is something I'd be very much interested to see. The price level of S5 is very reasonable.
@@elimajewski3384 Yeah the S5II compares very favourably in terms of price with the competition, like the A7IV and R6II. It's a little bit slower in terms of burst speeds, but it's amazing in low light, so I definitely think it has something to offer. I'd say its main competition are actually smaller sensor cameras, like the OM-1, G9II, or X-H2S 🤔 Even the first S5 performed well-enough for wildlife, so long as you weren't really going for action shots 😅
apparently, i've found the only person on youtube who dislikes the blacked-out appearance of the S5IIX 😂
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
If you buy any digital camera thinking that the onboard ' profiles ', somehow simulate any film realistically, then you are wasting yur time and money. Over 45 years of shooting film in all formats, and over 20 years of digital has taught me that no digital camera can simulate film in a realistic manner. Buy a digital camera to suit your budget, style of photography and business if you are into making money from photography, otherwise they are all good these days, even the basic stuff. Makes me laugh that people who are into ' sports ' , keep buying Leica M cameras and then complain. Enjoy your new toy.