Lumix S5, best AF settings : 1) Camera Settings' Tuning (according to the review) AF Speed: -5 to -2 (or lower than 0) AF Sensitivity: +3 2) Panasonic lens AF performance > Sigma 3) Higher the contrast on the screen, the better the AF performance (like better AF using standard profile compared to V-Log) 4) Higher frame rate means better AF performance 5) Lower resolution (full HD) AF > 4K UHD 6) AF performance is better when using the camera LCD as compared to an external monitor Let's add more info if anyone else has it or maybe put the above in order.
I like this pin of how to get to your particular settings. Excellent video as always and hopefully we can catch up soon. Went through some low moments when COVID-19 became the new norm but feeling much better now. Thank you always for everything that you do.
Hey Rico, probably but we can't assume everyone knows that. There are a lot of people who will just be getting into video and photography and they will think every lens will work just as well as another so it's best to let them know.
@@StoryDrivenFilmmaking watched the whole video a minute ago. You did do an amazing job showcasing the autofocus. Personally I'm not quite sure what to think. I use a Panasonic GH5 and it's driving me nuts. Bought a Sony A6400 as a B cam to replace my G85 (love that thing though) and gradually move from Panasonic to Sony. The colors of the Panasonic are so incredibly nice in comparison to Sony, but the autofocus man... When it's pulsing, it's because it's trying to keep you in focus and does a good job but it is very distracting. There's one thing I'd like you to test out which I've missed in this video. What were the apertures? Having 3.5 or up will create less pulsing than lets say 1.7 or 2.8. I'm real curious to see the performance with similar and different f stops.
This is the first time, where Panasonic has a good Autofocus with a bit settings trimming. Its not as good as the Sony or Canon Autofocus, but a lot better than the old ones like in the GH5.
yea but at this point they just cripple themselves. They have no reason to keep this crappy autofocus system especially for the full frame line and with the autofocus being the one thing their customer base asks them to change. They simply don't listen.
Refreshing to see someone actually learn the camera and use it for more than one day before writing it off. It will work, it’s just canon and Sony are sooo good now that you basically never change any autofocus modes again and there’s nothing to learn. Cmon Panasonic your cameras are soooooo good, just give us PD autofocus even if it’s mostly for positive press/reviews. You really need those to gain traction while people are still transitioning to mirrorless.
Hi Danny, thank you. I totally agree, the S5 autofocus (with the settings I mentioned in this vid) has worked well for me, its just not as perfect as Canon and Sony's autofocus (Even Nikon has great auto-focus now!). I truly believe if Panasonic would have went with Dual Pixel auto-focus with the GH5 they would have been on top of the camera game! At this point I don't think they will leave their Contrast based system (I hope I am wrong though).
This is a good video, its not overly obnoxious self promotion bullshit, it reminds me of early YT videos from professionals, talking about a problem, then give us a solution to those very problems and structuring it into a nice story with good video footage thats not overly over the top and out of place. I love it, why you only have 4k subs, RU-vid algorithm aint fair thats for sure.
So happy to see someone don't just BS about the Panasonic AF but actually try to understand how to make it work and setup it. Instead to complain about it. I have the S1 and I got a really excellent result with the Af but I mostly do photo. But thank you for the advise about how to get rid of the pulsing will try that, it was the only thing I didn't like on the Panasonic when shooting video with AF and sadly it goes with how to work the DFD so I don't know how Panasonic will fix that. One little detail I don't see many talks about is about the Sigma lens. Don't buy the HSM lens, they are dlsr ( with kind of inbuild adaptor) and they have a horrible AF result on the Panasonic. If you go Sigma take only the DN models ( true mirrorless). But the truth is the Panasonic lens will always give a better AF result than sigma.
Hi Nicolas, I am glad you enjoyed the video. And I do agree, I would prefer to focus on the solution and not the problem. And while the S line of cameras autofocus is far from perfect it will work pretty well depending on how you are using it. Hopefully in 2021 Panasonic will move to a new auto-focus system (not holding my breath though).
Yo Nicholas! Im looking to get the Sigma 24-70mm for the S5. Assuming you've had experience with Sigmas and S series? How manageable is the AF system and how far off is the performance from the Panasonic lens? Thanks!
@@ahsanjawed3406 Sadly i don't have any experience with the Sigma or the Panasonic 24-70mm. But from my experience with the Sigma 85mm DG DN and the 105mm DG DN, I would say stick with Panasonic lens. For photo the AF on Sigma L mount is managable ( but really not great), while in video the 85mm is unusable if your subject move more than a cm or two. In other hand the AF on Panasonic lens i have ( 24-105, 70-200) work like a dream.
Lovely video mate. I love the hustle..I loveeee that you took the time to get to know your camera and test the hell out of it to find the best way to make it work great, unlike the other youtubers that are just like "ohh AF sucks out of the box, camera bad... " Will save this video to watch again over and over as im getting this camera soon!
There are Autofocus issues Because Panasonic gets their sensors from Sony. And they are the only company that takes Sony's sensors and beat them over the head with it. Sony knows this and will not sell the PDAF sensors to Panasonic. Do some research and you will know why. Sony fears the competition and bottlenecks them. This is why I will never buy another Sony product. If this kind of immature crap carries on, we will see the camera market disappear altogether. PS I own an S5 and the AF quality is damn good on that thing. This is from a G85, Gh4, G9 and GH5 user
Thats not true, because Nikon has PDAF sensors and Nikon has better autofocus than Sony does, although Nikon video specs are an afterthought, not that I blame them but thats gonna hurt their sales.
Bro this is one hell of a video! I had to pause it and give you your praise. For one, I just upgraded to the S5 from my G7 and had the same exact thoughts before purchasing. Moving up to full frame and not having great auto focus was such a compromise. But I love everything else about Panasonic. I've been making due with it so far, but these settings you demonstrated beat mines by a mile! Ironically, I'm shooting a bts mini branding session for a local photographer soon too. I'm not given the algorithm any credit here, this was straight from Baby Jesus! lol
🤣🤣 "Straight from baby Jesus". Listen, now that's it's been a few weeks since I made this video I now swear by these settings. In my latest video where "filming my first music video" I used the S5 to film that whole skit at the beginning of that vid (4k 24p). I stayed in focus the whole time.
@@ahsanjawed3406 a huge difference! The eye auto focus, human/animal face detection, less focus breathing, and overall speed of focusing between subjects are all reasons the S5 is better. Granted your mileage will vary depending on your lens selection and settings, but the S5 is in a whole different league compared to the G7.
@@ahsanjawed3406 it's funny you should ask that, I'm actually purchasing the Sigma 24-70 soon lol. From my research, the native Panasonic 24-70 will be slightly better. That's to be expected, but the difference is not worth the price. The money I will save getting the Sigma, I will put towards filters and other accessories lol.
You sir are godsend. Thank you so much for this. I just bought my s5 for travel where I will be using a good amount of AF. Thank you for all the time you've spent on this. Can't wait to watch more of your videos.
Great video. You might increase the performance of the autofocus a little more stopping down the lens. I can confirm that autofocus speed setting is a big factor on the s1 too
I literally have never seen better product reviews than what you produce bro! In any genre. My hat is off to you once again. My S5 constantly breathes and loses focus during my vlogs. It’s literally the ONLY complaint I have with this camera. But it’s a HUGE one. Glad your results have been better. I’ll try the +3 and see if it helps. Lumix lenses are better for sure. I’ve noticed Sigmas are tougher.
I read that it is because the dfd autofocus is so much based on pure processing power that, when an external recorder is connected, the af gets worse because the processor now needs to handle two tasks: 1. autofocussing and 2. Sending/compressing/whatever the image out to the recorder which takes away processing power for the autofocus
Great Tip for the proper Auto Focusing set up for Lumix S5. I subed instantly after I watched this video. Thank you for your really practical and informative video.
Before I say anything, well done for click baiting me in with the negative title! 👏🏾🍾 Great Video. Been on the hunt for the best AF settings for the s5 since I got if a couple days ago. This video helped a tonne!
Haha, you know it's funny I never do clickbait titles but I thought that title fit since so many people feel that way. Oh, and congrats on your new S5!
Solid man. Just maybe overlay settings and explain mode such as full frame, crop etc. Wanted to edit to say you have a great personality on camera, bro solid video. Subbed
I used to shoot with a pentax k3...and everyone complained about the AF. I hope Panasonic's is better, I'm waiting for the UPS truck to arrive with my new S5😊😊😊
Great video mate 👍i still haven't had the courage to use auto focus on the s5, i came from shooting video with the gh5 and got used to shoot in manual focus, but now might have it a go some time.
Subscribed! For one, I really like your presenting style! Thanks for the info - How are you finding the autofocus now? I shoot music videos and I struggle with manual focus, and I am hoping the S5 has improved its AF, as I love so many aspects of the camera. Cheers and keep up the good work!
I'm loving it! Have only done client photos so far but I am doing my first video on Monday and I'm trying to dial in the AF settings. I am shooting flat and RAW which seems to help with the contrast based AF issue, rather than shooting in log. Really appreciate your experiments with the sensitivity/speed settings in this video! It's a huge help.
Hi George, thank you! I really like the 20-60mm I just shot a little mini-doc in D.C this week and I use the 20-60mm and the sigma 35mm exclusively for the shoot. I like the 20-60mm because out of all of the L-mount lenses that I currently own for the S5, the AF works the best with the 20-60mm.
As an S5 user (photo) I appreciate the way you're testing the auto focus customization. I believe that most of the reviewer's that looked at this camera never dug deep enough into this menu and just stamped this camera as sub-par autofocus. Thank you for the insights!
@@StoryDrivenFilmmaking Hi Thomas, Not sure if you're into photography as well but I'd love some vids on deeper dives into photo autofocus settings. I've been messing around with the 6k photo and live composite modes which have opened up some new creative possibilities for me. This camera has so many different functions, as a new Lumix user (came from sony) I've got a long way to go! All the best Also really great tip for the S5 is when in the menu system and you're not sure what something does, while its selected hit the disp. button and a box will pop that explains what it does.
I don't do offer any photography services for clients but I do post quite a lot of pics on IG using the S5 and GH5 (@creatorswithvision). I've use the high resolution pic mode on the S5 for lots of images on my IG. That's a great tip regarding hitting the display button. Thanks!
Another Thomas gem! Your stuff is so well shot and narrated, one of the best on RU-vid. Interesting that the 1080 yielded the best results. The autofocus on my GH5 caused me to just manual focus all the time, which is ok for a lot of wildlife stuff I used to shoot. But, I'm getting the Sony 70-350mm for my a6400 this Christmas to hopefully get birds in flight or bees, etc. which is blind luck with my GH5, lol. I envy that S5, yummy images. Good one, Thomas!
Hi Randy, Thx! I am glad you are doing well. I can't wait to see what you can do with that 70-350mm! Yeah the AF on the GH5 is not its strongest feature lol.
Damn bro well done on this!! I started my hybrid shooting journey with the GH4 and G7 them G85...and micro 4/3 did wonders for me. But after my photography style changed amd I began shooting much more headshots I switched to film frame and gel in love with the depth using the Sony A73 amd then the EOS R for the past 18 months, I also shoot my family with Fujifilm on the weekends...but Ive come to really miss the LUMIX experience. So I’m considering the S5 along with the R6 now. I’m glad to hear of your experience with it!! Thanks, Adam
Thanks for this video. I'm shopping for an upgrade to my Canon M50 and have been binge-watching review videos. RU-vidrs love the Sony cameras but ergonomics and picture quality are important to me so the S5 looked intriguing. But the reviewers scare the $#!@ out of everybody with the autofocus. You showed that it's workable. Obviously not as good as Sony or Canon but workable. That's all I needed to know. The Sony cameras in this range are pretty good but the ergonomics suck (and I think they're ugly). Canon is expensive plus I'll never forgive them for what they did to us with the M50 Mark II. Leaning hard towards the S5.
Hey Jon, I am glad the vid was helpful. Yeah, there are so many camera choices out there right now it can be really tough to make a decision. I really like the S5 but I only trust the autofocus 100% for stationary shots. When subjects are walking toward the camera every now and again it will lose focus (which can be a deal breaker depending on what your filming). I just used it for my first wedding and for the aisle shots during the ceremony it did pretty well but it did lose focus about 3 times (thank God not for the bride shot). The reason why I rock with Panasonic is mainly because I know the cameras very well. I have really found my way with color grading the footage and I know the menu systems inside and out (which helps when I am on a shoot and need to change a setting quickly). Anyway, I hope you find a camera that makes senses for the projects your working on.
I love the honesty and effort you put in this quest for perfection. Or at least for what this S5 can achieve the best it can. Thanks a lot for this introspection. The result will for sure help me for my RU-vid video setting with my S1.
Mate have you ever tried taking photos of your pets? Any way to make the S5 focus on the eyed? Most of the time my shots focused on other things like the nose, it's frustrating.
Great video. I have a question though. I do wedding videography using canons, and for several reasons I'm looking to switch. I shoot most of the wedding on a gimball, with fluid movement and let the autofocus do most of the work. Do you think this camera's autofocus would hold up in those circumstances? Especially in the darker reception venues?
Hi McKay, the short answer is no. The problem with the S5 is when objects move toward the camera or away from it. If you want to get gimbal shots like that then your results will not be consistent. However for interviews or shots where you will be keeping the camera locked down I have not had a problem with the autofocus.
@@StoryDrivenFilmmaking thanks for the intelligent and well thought out video! This is exactly what I needed to know. Really like the S5 but I'm also a gimbal guy. Just subscribed, looking forward to watching more of your videos!
I think that this is one of the best videos regarding S5. Trust me I have seen a lot. I am about to buy a new camera. I am not a videographer neither a photographer I teach Spanish and I want a camera not only for my RU-vid videos or my lessons online but for my trips also. I have seen a lot of videos and ALL of them I mean ALL of them conclude that the AF sucks. Even though I am not an expert I got carried away by all these opinions and decided to look for something different. I don't know why but the S5 has something that makes me want to buy it. Seriously this was one of the most informative but above all unbiased reviews regarding the S5. I subbed and I am pretty sure that in a year from now your channel will definitely grow. :-) P.s I am between the S5 the Nikon z6 II and the A7C which one would you buy if you wanted to enter the mirorless realm? thank you in advance!
Hi, thank you very much! I am so happy that you found this video helpful. It's funny a lot of people who are entering the mirrorless space ask me the same question. It's so hard to answer the question "which camera should I buy" for someone else. But here are some of my suggestions for narrowing down your decision. First, when I am in the market for a new camera one of the first things I look at is the lenses available for the camera and how much will a full set of lenses cost me. Then I look at all of the features of all the new FF mirrorless cameras and tried to determine which features were most important to me. The conclusion I came to for myself was that image quality was most important to me. So I chose the S5 because I've been shooting with the GH5 for 3 years now and I know how to get the best image out of that camera so when I wanted to move up to full frame the S5 was the logical choice (even with its flaws: small lens line-up, far from perfect AF). If AF was at the top on my list I wouldn't have gotten the S5. My last tip for choosing a camera is try to think about which brand you want to rock with for the next few years. You'll be investing in their batteries, accessories, lenses etc.. So which company do you want to grow with. For me the answer was Panasonic (but I may be adding another camera to my line-up so that I can edit RAW in Davinci Resolve).
Great video! This definitely needs more views. Finally a video that doesn't pile on the S5 for it's "bad" AF. Truth is there is no perfect camera. Love the cheat codes! I may have missed it but do you have any cheat codes for 4k? I saw a video that the AF is better at 4K 50p with the sensitivity set to -2 and speed to -1.
Hi thank you very much I am glad you found it helpful. I do get while so many ppl hate on Panasonic. It's because the cameras have so many great features and for some reason they want to hold on to this lack luster AF system :-(. But I love their cameras so I just find it better not to complain and find the best way to get the best use out of the tool. I am glad you feel the same way. So for filming 4K, I actually use those same settings when filming in 24p and 60p. While I only need AF for just a few shots while I am filming a wedding, I actually used the S5 for 2 weddings thus far and I did use the same settings that I mentioned in the video and got some good results (-2 sen +3 speed). It will lose focus at times so I would not recommend filming an entire event while relying solely on the cameras AF system (Just for shots that would prove problematic rack focusing).
What a fun video to watch. Everything looks good! I've been thinking about getting a Panasonic to start with but not so sure now! I need something with good af
At 8.20 for example, is not really acrive the tracking. For confirm face you must click in the square/face and appear a middle line at half of every side of the the square. So is active face tracking.
Super helpful video! Entertaining and informative :) I'm also looking at the S5, coming from a G9, whose autofocus has never been particularly bad for any of my needs.
Thx. Was the audio messing up? I listened to it before it went live and it sounded fine but let me know. Regarding music selection for clients 9 times out of 10 I pick the music for their videos.
Me: Lumix is prefect in everyway to me except that dam auto focus. Like dam lumix why can't you just do like Canon or Sony? You know lumix you would be the perfect camera if you do this one thing, you know right????????? Lumix: I dont want to Me: X_x
@@buckwilde1511Then Panasonic needs to get off their collective ass and make their own tech..They have a professional cinema division,so that's on them...
Why? Because Panasonic gets their sensors from Sony. And they are the only company that takes Sony's sensors and beat them over the head with it. Sony knows this and will not sell the PDAF sensors to Panasonic. Do some research and you will know why. Sony fears the competition and bottlenecks them. Which is why I will never buy another Sony product. If this kind of immature crap cariies on, we will see the camera market disappear altogether
Wow. Your channel needs more subscribers and this video - more views. (New subscriber here too. 🙂) I love your videography style, and this video is so helpful. I love the S5 so much, especially for the stabilization, but I just can’t invest in something that has such bad autofocus. That’s one of the most important features in any camera IMO. (Crazy that it’s so unreliable.)Thank you so much for this video!
Hi Angela, thanks for checking out my video! I also love the S5. I wish I could say it was perfect but it’s definitely not. I definitely manual focus most of the time.
Great video, thank you. That was really helpful. Great tests and info, but also great footage. Man the shots of that model looked stunning. Especially the one where she’s coming towards you from the sofa with the heart shaped led. Fantastic dynamic range. I am shooting on a sigma fp - so no IBIS and no (usable) autofocus - well at least in video. I am using it on a Weebill S gimbal though, with a wireless follow focus. It’s a great camera when you don’t bother about IBIS and AF, and your focus is high quality files - since you can record 4K cDNG RAW in 12 bit at no crop, with a backlit 2 base ISO sensor which is also fantastic in low light. But when I heard the S5 can now record 5.9K 12 bit ProRes RAW via HDMI out on the ninja V, I started thinking about getting it. Do you plan on using it in that configuration? Really the only bummer about that is, that I am a davinci resolve user, which still doesn’t support ProRes RAW... so that really sucks. Which software do you use?
Hi Rokki, thank you! I am glad you enjoyed the vid. Regarding the S5's RAW I am in the same boat as you as I edit in Davinci and refuse to edit in Final Cut (and I will never ever go back to Premiere 😅). So I haven't gotten to try out one of the best features of the S5.
The thing with Panasonic AF is that it is mostly contrast based. Shooting in VLog, you have little to no contrast. It might be better to shoot in HLG which provides more contrast for the AF system and still gives you some dynamic range to work with in post. Here is a video I found that shows some helpful techniques in improving AF with the S5: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-apyAzQ0w7MI.html
Great video, thanks for the settings ideas! Have to test more but it also seems like putting a LUT preview display over V-log also seems to help the camera pick up focus a bit better in regards to increased contrast. Might be the equivalent of using a standard profile but with the advantage of V-log
@@StoryDrivenFilmmaking You’re welcome! Not clear if it’s in the path of the autofocus or just displayed but my face detect testing seemed a bit faster with the monitor LUT though YMMV
Hi Leonardo, I plan to, but I do have a few other things that I want to review first (and I am waiting for my rental house to get it before I pull the trigger to buy it).
Well Thomas, I’ve just traded in a GH5 and two lenses to up grade to the S5 and the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 lens. Will have to wait for a week or so for it to arrive, but looking forward to it joining my other GH5 and GH5’s.
Hey Gary, that's awesome. As a GH5 owner I really like the S5. I think your going to love it. I actually just sold my GH5S as I didnt think there was a reason to have 2 GH5's, 1 GH5S, and the S5. Since I had the GH5S for its low light capabilities and the S5 now fills that spot for me.
Thank you for the video. I want to buy this camera more for photography (I love Panasonic colors) but I want to be able to use video auto focus if I have to. Moving from Fuji. Thanks for the content.
