After a six-year wait, Panasonic's S1 II is lastly right here and there's rather a lot to unpack. As you’d count on from this firm, it’s creator-centric with as much as 5.8K ProRes RAW inside video recording. On the identical time, it’s Panasonic’s quickest full-frame picture digicam ever with 70 fps burst speeds and decreased rolling shutter distortion due to the brand new partially stacked 24-megapixel sensor. And with an AI-powered hybrid part detect system, autofocus is not a weak level because it was with the unique S1.
There’s one concern although, and a shocking one for Panasonic: the worth. The $3,200 S1 II is much like Nikon’s Z6 III, proper right down to the partially stacked sensor and inside RAW video. Nonetheless, the latter is a few $700 cheaper and may typically be discovered on sale for even much less. Since Panasonic typically undercuts rivals, that places the S1 II within the uncommon place of being overpriced subsequent to the competitors. After testing it for the final month, I’ve discovered that whether or not it's value it depends upon your priorities.
Dealing with and design
The S1 II shares its glorious physique design with the higher-resolution S1R II and the cheaper, non-stacked S1 IIe. It’s significantly lighter than the unique S1 at 1.76 kilos and far smaller as properly, each of which make it much less burdensome. It’s additionally simple to carry due to the massive ridged grip. Nonetheless, it’s extra angular and has a more durable rubber pores and skin than Canon’s rival EOS R6 II, so it’s not fairly as snug over lengthy taking pictures periods.
The superb management structure makes the S1 II a breeze to make use of. It has all of the buttons and dials you want they usually’re properly situated — significantly the joystick and management dials. There’s a devoted change for photographs, video and gradual and fast (S&Q) modes, and every has separate changes so that you received’t combine them up. It additionally has a devoted autofocus change, two video report buttons (high and entrance), 10 different programmable buttons and a tally mild.
I not often wanted to seek for settings due to the logical color-coded tabs and easy-to-use fast menu, each accessible by contact or the joystick. Panasonic additionally made it easy to program buttons, dials and the fast menu to your private preferences and it lets you save them to a reminiscence card as a backup.
The S1 II’s digital viewfinder is vibrant and sharp, matching the Z6 III with a decision of 5.76 million dots and 0.78x magnification. The rear show not solely swivels out but in addition tilts up and down for overhead or hip-level pictures. Compared, Nikon’s Z6 III display screen doesn’t tilt, so it’s not as versatile.
As with the S1R II, battery life isn’t a robust level right here, with solely 360 photographs on a cost or 320 when utilizing the EVF. To be honest, that matches the Z6 III precisely (and Panasonic’s non-stacked S1 II is barely barely higher at 380 photographs), however Canon’s cheaper R6 II has greater than twice the battery life at 760 photographs.
So as to seize RAW video, the S1 II has a CFexpress Sort B card slot together with a slower SDXC UHS-II slot. Just like the S5 IIx and GH7 (and a number of other Fujifilm fashions), it additionally helps high-bandwidth RAW video seize to an SSD through the USB-C port.
The S1 II comes with a full-sized HDMI port that helps Blackmagic and ProRes RAW seize. You additionally get mic and headphone ports, and you may seize 32-bit float audio through the optionally available XLR2 accent to cut back the potential for clipping. Lastly, the S1 II has a carbon fiber curtain that comes down to guard the sensor like current Canon and Sony fashions.
Efficiency
The S1 II can fireplace bursts at a pedestrian 10 fps in mechanical shutter mode, however helps an excellent 70 RAW photographs per second with the digital shutter. And when you’re fearful about skewed photographs, don’t fret. Distortion is minimal in digital mode due to the partially-stacked sensor that has a speedy readout pace of round 12 milliseconds. That’s quick sufficient for sports activities or wildlife pictures, except the topic strikes very quickly.
Pre-burst seize, which begins if you half-press the shutter, can be out there on the highest speeds. That allows you to save as much as 1.5 seconds of photographs you may need in any other case missed when you absolutely press the shutter button. The buffer is a bit small, although, so you possibly can solely seize about three seconds (220 photographs) on the 70 fps pace.
The hybrid phase-detect autofocus is the perfect of any Panasonic digicam I’ve examined so far. Nonetheless, it’s not but as much as Sony and Canon’s requirements for pace and accuracy, and falls a bit wanting Nikon’s Z6 III. In case you’re taking pictures a fast-moving topic on the most burst charge of 70 fps, you might even see quite a lot of out-of-focus photographs.
The S1 II helps a number of AI modes — together with animals, birds and autos — on high of human eye-tracking modes. I had blended success with these because the digicam had hassle locking onto the eyes of some birds and marine mammals I shot on the Vancouver Aquarium. Nonetheless, it was higher with extra typical animal topics like canines, cats, horses and geese. Panasonic additionally launched an AF mode referred to as City Sports activities that improves monitoring for breakdancing, skateboarding and parkour. I examined that mode with some skate boarders on the highest burst settings and noticed a excessive proportion (90-plus) of in-focus photographs.
One space the place Panasonic tops its rivals is stabilization. That’s been boosted to eight stops (barely wanting the R6 II’s eight and a half stops), which allowed me to shoot at shutter speeds right down to a half second and nonetheless get sharp photographs. And as I’ll clarify shortly, the S1 II is peerless on the subject of video stabilization.
Picture high quality
I’ve been impressed with Panasonic’s coloration science of late, discovering that it matches Nikon in delivering a few of the most color-accurate photographs of any system. By comparability, Canon’s photographs skew hotter, and I really feel that Sony fashions just like the A7 IV lack some accuracy, significantly with blue-green colours.
The S1 II delivers pleasing JPEGs with a pleasant stability between sharpness and noise discount, although the latter can get overly aggressive at excessive ISO ranges. RAW photographs supply loads of element in mild and darkish areas of the picture, letting you tweak and proper to a positive diploma. Remember that utilizing the digital shutter in burst modes reduces RAW bit depth from 14 to 12.
The draw back of any stacked sensor is further noise, and the S1 II isn’t any exception. That is most obvious at larger ISO ranges the place the digicam displays a bit extra grain than Panasonic’s S5, which has the identical decision however isn’t stacked. That mentioned, the S1 II has about the identical low-light prowess because the Z6 III and beats most absolutely stacked cameras.
If the native 24MP decision isn’t sufficient, the S1 II presents a high-resolution mode that captures eight photographs with a barely offset sensor place and composes them right into a single 96-megapixel file (both RAW or JPEG). I used to be capable of take sharp photographs in that mode with out using a tripod due to the S1 II’s glorious in-body stabilization system.
Video
The S1 II doesn’t shoot 8K RAW just like the 44MP S1R II resulting from its decrease decision. Nonetheless, it does help 5.8K 30 fps ProRes RAW, open gate full sensor video and tremendous slow-mo (4K 120p) — all with far much less rolling shutter distortion. Due to that, I believe this can be a higher digicam total for creators.
In fact, the S1 II presents 10-bit video in each MP4 and Quicktime codecs on high of RAW. Panasonic’s V-Log can be on faucet to spice up dynamic vary, and due to a current firmware replace, you possibly can pay $200 to get ARRI LogC3 to match that firm’s professional digital cinema cameras.
With that very same firmware replace, the S1 II now helps 17 body facet ratios (up from 10), and permits simultaneous show of as much as three frames directly (not like the LogC3 replace, these are free). That may allow you to shoot open gate, as an example, whereas seeing how the picture will look in each vertical and horizontal facet ratios.
Total, video high quality is excellent with sharp oversampling, glorious coloration accuracy and respectable dynamic vary. The latter might be elevated utilizing Panasonic’s dynamic vary enhance possibility, though that successfully doubles rolling shutter distortion. With out the setting enabled, skew from rolling shutter is barely a problem with whip pans or very fast-moving topics.
Video AF is strong, preserving topics in focus so long as they don’t transfer too rapidly. Face, eye, animal, city sports activities and automobile detection work properly, although you’ll see a bit extra accuracy and pace on Canon and Sony’s newest fashions.
The S1 II presents higher video stabilization than its rivals, although. Optical stabilization supplies good outcomes for handheld video, whereas digital stabilization (EIS) supplies gimbal-like smoothness at the price of a major crop. As with different current Panasonic fashions, the S1 II additionally presents “cropless” EIS that corrects nook distortion when utilizing large lenses, whereas additionally decreasing rolling shutter.
Because of a built-in fan, overheating isn’t a problem with the S1 II. The one time I ever noticed an issue was with 5.8K at 60 fps and 5.1K open gate recording, when the digicam shut down after 50 minutes and 40 minutes respectively. That’s nonetheless glorious for a small mirrorless digicam. These limits are eradicated, by the best way, when you report to an SSD through the USB-C port.
Creators might surprise how the S1 II compares to Nikon’s Z6 III. The latter presents extra RAW choices, with the selection of 5.8K Nikon RAW (N-RAW) at as much as 60 fps slightly than simply 30 fps. Each supply related video high quality as they use the identical sensor. The Z6 III has barely higher autofocus, however the S5 II has superior stabilization and dealing with. Lastly, the S1 II has some good professional options like timecode, waveform monitoring and professional audio. I’d say the S1 II is barely higher for video shooters, however the Z6 III is considerably cheaper.
Wrap-up
Panasonic’s S1 II is a robust hybrid digicam, and if it wasn’t so costly, it might be a no brainer for creators. Nonetheless, Nikon’s Z6 III has practically the identical video capabilities, is a greater digicam for pictures and prices a minimum of $600 much less, so I’m inclined to suggest that mannequin for many customers.
An alternative choice at a lower cost is Panasonic’s new $2,500 S1 IIe, which was introduced concurrently the S1 II. It has the identical physique and principally the identical function set, however makes use of the non-stacked sensor from the S5 II, so rolling shutter is extra of a problem.
In case you favor pictures, the higher-resolution S1R II is a greater possibility and prices simply $100 extra. Nonetheless, when you’re a video professional who wants options like time code, ARRI LogC3 and superior monitoring or audio options, the S1 II is a strong selection. These of us may wish to look ahead to a sale although.
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