PANASONIC S5II REVIEW | Is this their best camera ever? 

Real Time LUT is gonna make life so much easier! Can’t wait to get my hands on the S5II.

They did it. They finally did it. This will be a game-changing trend. I’ve been talking about that for years... the ability to make your own custom LUTs for photos.

Great video Dale, really appreciate your take!

The S5ii might be just the camera to bring me back to Panasonic. Even though the S5ii is a hybrid camera, I am mainly interested in video/filmmaking. The one thing - important to filmmakers - is the inclusion of shutter angle and waveforms on Panasonic cameras. A feature that most other brands only include in their expensive cinema cameras. I'm currently shooting with the Sony FX30. Which is a great "prosumer" cinema camera. Much more capable than many reviewers are suggesting. But, for me, Panasonic has always had better skin tones than most other brands. Right now, the reviews on the S5ii are using pre-production versions of the camera. I'm betting that Panasonic will fine tune the PDAF in forthcoming firmware updates. So, I'm confident that the AF for the S5ii will be greatly improved. Regarding slow motion features, I personally don't shoot a lot of that. And I see responses from others that make a big deal about what they consider to be limitations on the slow motion features. I think slow motion makes up a very tiny niche of filmmakers. Mostly wedding videographers and probably some sports shooters. So, I'm not concerned about that aspect. I'm grateful that you pointed out that the AF is quite dependent on the lenses being used. This has been ignored - or not mentioned - in 99% of the reviews I've seen on the S5ii, and is relevant to most cameras not just the S5ii. Rolling shutter? ZZZzzzzzzz. I personally do not find this an issue. At least in the cameras I've owned. If you're dumb enough to whip your camera left and right for no reason then you deserve bad rolling shutter. If you're doing a whip pan, from one subject to another subject, then what happens between the subjects really doesn't matter to me - or most audiences. I think the S5ii and S5iix are going to have a dramatic boost to Panasonic's market share. And that is a good thing. It might scare other brands into developing cameras around the same price point and with similar features. I mean. Shutter angle? Waveforms? Come on, Sony. Canon. Share the love. Bring these features to your more price friendly video/mirrorless cameras.

Excellent review as always, this makes me very excited for the S1Hii

Super pro as always mate !! Thanks a lot 🎉😅

Great video, very dynamic and well done!

Great Video. It really gives us insight on new technology. . What works and what doesn'. Thank you. .

Another GREAT REVIEW BRO!!!! thank you!

Excellent review

Love mine! Great review! The model is 🔥

Really good video and explanation of the camera and the video looks gorgeous young and wild!

The video you created with the fashion model was amazing 🔥🔥🔥

Loved your review and love this camera...so I bought it.

Great Talent as Photographer 👏 Thank you for the Review 👍

That was a good review ,thanks

Mindblowing for 2K dollars!

Just excellent, thanks !

LUT on photos is revolutionary. Absolutely awesome 👍🏾

Brilliant review! As an S5 owner, I'm buying the S5 IIX.

i have the S5, and both a blackmagic 4k and a 6k g2, and panasonic could learn a few things on how to present frame rate/codec/bit depth options from blackmagic. and yeah i'm waiting for the s5iix. just love my S5!

Great review as always! Would love to download and play with some of your JPEG’s. 🙌

Excellent review narrative. Very beautiful color, second to only Leica.

I'm buying the S5iiX today.

I appreciate your guidance.

Panasonic hit back hard, excellent features amazing value.

So tempted to get the S5 II but trying to hold off till the IIX comes out.

Really considering this camera as my step up from Sony zv-1. This might be the one to give my IG content a facelift.

Brilliant video mate 👍🏻 Panasonic please make an adapter so that all my expensive MFT Pro glass will fit the L-mount system - then I’ll 100% upgrade my GH5 II to the S5 IIX. Cheers from Western Australia 🇦🇺

Can it tether to computer as a streaming camera?

I'd love the video focused version but with all my MFT lenses i'll wait for the GH7 with phase auto focus.

6:21 Thank you for sharing this screen! Super helpful! The focus is on your eyeglasses frames and chin hairs, not on your eyes. This is my experience with the S5 and why I returned it. The crosshair is on the eye, but when you upload the photo to the computer, it's actually on the eyeglasses rim or eyebrows. For video it isn't super critical, but for portrait photography is absolutely is. It looks like Panasonic didn't fix this issue with the S II.

great video

first off, yours is best review i've seen and ive seen a lot. still happy with my gh5, THIS camera is , finally, the ONE. and the X? wow. saving $. thnx. Marty Sender You Tube. great review, you touched on all the stuff I wanted to know. Only problem? NO TALLEY light. but hey....small sacrifice. just point a finger and say GO.

Excellent review! Did you notice moire patterns on the s5ii due to the lack of AA filter to the sensor?And if so is it going to be a problem on professional work?

I'm almost certain that I'll upgrade from my S1 to the S5II X, however the crop in 4K 60P is still the one thing that makes me wonder if it's worth the upgrade. All-I and articulating screen are nice, but not radical improvements over the S1. And I don't really need the PDAF, for most of my work I use single point AF (a habit developed with the OG Canon 7D) and the DFD is really quite usable in most scenarios. Is there the slightest chance that Panasonic can fix the 4K60P crop through firmware, even if just in Long GOP mode?

If they didn't put PDAF, I was going to switch to Sony. Preordered s5iix and getting some glasses.

Does it have focus bracketting focus stack feature for photography i am really impressed by the video feature.

Your one complaint is easily fixed !: "Too many Frame rates + bit rates?" > Option 1: YOU can make a short list of the few settings e.g. 8 or 10 bit, mpeg or MOV etc.. and save them into the "'Short - list". it will only show your favorites, without the clutter. There is a second way of saving everything (that you like) and recall them with one just one button by saving them to C1, C2 or C3. So Panasonic always leaves stone un-turned.

I’m going to swim against the video tide here. This review (and every other) starts with ‘great hybrid camera, shoots stills and video equally’ then go on to describe every video feature but very little on stills. I shoot a bit of video and a lot of stills and it’s difficult to find anything other than vlogging focussed reviews.

What third-party WiFi apps are compatible with the Lumix S5ii camera, and how do they work in terms of range and control over features such as shutter, ISO, aperture, and more?

11:54 Ahhh man... I totally agree on this! It's a barfing of uncategorized options and difficult to identify (I choosed 420 instead of 422 a few times by mistake). I understand that it's a mirrorless hybrid camera and not a true cinema camera... but please someone give me ONE good reason why the menu could not be more intuitive/purified/graphic instead of list-form, a bit more like Blackmagic. I know that as an hybrid camera, it needs to have so many features and options, but it could be split in 2 ''types'' of menus (one very graphic and simple for very fast and easy access that would have all most important options (a WAY better alternative to the Q menu).. and a more traditionnal list menu for the others options. Also... the WB button! WHY is there always so much navigating to do to have access to a quick WB card snapshot. All cameras (photo/video/hybrid/cinema) should have the Blackmagic WB feature, which is a press and hold that pops out the WB target, and as soon as you release the button, it applies the capture. Nooo.. we have to click the WB button, scroll through the built-in presets, find the 4 ''custom'' preset icons and choose one, then press UP to make the target appear, then press Enter to take the snapshot, then press Enter to select this snapshot, apply it and exit the WB menu. This is so ridiculous to me, especially since maintaining a neutral light temperature is one of the biggest challenge in a shooting day. Also, WHY is the target that big?! it's sometimes not even possible to fill the rectangle if you're using a small WB card like a ColorCheck Passport and a wide lens, especially if you're on a tripod and you don't want to move the camera ot get closer. In DaVinci Resolve, you can WB with a mouse-click on a single pixel.. so they could easily make the target smaller, at least a small circle like the spot meter target. At the moment, pressing and holding the WB button doesn't do anything (it enters the WB menu just like a regular press). They could simply keep the WB menu as is, but just add that press and hold quick capture and it would be PERFECT. Am I right guys?!

king panasonic

Something funky is going on with the audio when you are talking, sounds like soap bubbles popping in my ear. I checked my equipment and it only happens during your video :)

@6.00 are you saying we can shoot 4K 60 fps full frame but it will be 4.2.0 ? If we want 4.2.2 , it will be cropped Please confirm . Thank you. Looking forward to your long term review, if you are still using this camera.

I’ve come back to this review a couple of times and for some reason RU-vid spits out an incredibly low video quality on this particular video, and it says quality settings are “unavailable.” This is on a fast iPad Pro with tested 500Mbps download/21 Mbps upload speeds. The content is great, but I’m wondering if your RU-vid upload spec could be better. On both occasions (different days) other videos were playing back fine at 1080p or higher.

Can it transfer photos to a computer while your taking them? I know Sony does wireless tethering, can’t seem to find out if the S5II does it.

Won't be surprised if this release is what makes Sony give us waveforms and shutter angle. Cause I tell you what, if the S1ii comes out and has good AF and that Panasonic UX, I'll be super happy to dump my eMount stuff and migrate over if no support for similar featuresets happens.

I’d take the Panasonic colors leaning slightly to magenta over Sony’s green that has haunted their cameras since I bought my EX1 may moons ago.

Any news on high res S1H2? Really. want to flip and tilt screen :)

thanks for such an in depth presentation. But i could easily tell in 2 seconds which one was 4:2:2 clip. Anyone who pays attention will notice, except for consumers who cant even tell difference between film and digital.

How does the S52 switch from photo to video, is it a simple process, are your last settings saved automatically

Real-time LUT is cool, but raw is raw, LUT is LUT. The reason or lack of reason for having LUT in a camera system bc the camera is supposed to be a hardware, which does one job, outputs a good raw. If LUT is introduced, the camera is really doing more than it is supposed to. It's cool nevertheless.

I would definitely prefer the HEIF file over the jpeg, but you can’t everything I guess.

do you mean applying lut in-camera to jpegs, while taking raws too? that is innovative, and very useful. is that what it does?

Nikon has been doing custom picture profiles forever. Same exact concept as the luts for jpgs as you just showed.

420 10 bit is misunderstood. It's color resolution RELATIVE to luma resolutiion. Not absolute amount of color information. 422 4k can be downsampled to 444 1080p. 6k 420 has the same color resolution as 4k 422. You arent actually losing anything. You just dont have the same amount of color information in relation to that resolution, which only would be relevant for very specific scenarios with 6k as the exported format (and with grading too, given 4:2:0 is also what most video mediums support anyways).

Are you middle eastern? The s5ii gives you an olive-y skin tone. Is that accurate?

can we shoot in 4:2:2 other than V-log?

a photo/video toggle switch is required for 2023

The Sony FX30 can burn in custom Luts

Can’t decide! S5II OR A7iv

The S5II has certainly the best AF between all Panasonic cameras, but their new engine is worse than the one from the S1 and S5.

So tired 0f watching these awesome promotional videos. But its working its creating that hype Lumix needs. Like with the GH3, 4, 5, 5S, 6....

I could tell xD 422 vs 420

Great video but you left out Ayla's socials. Everybody loses 😔😋

It’s definitely their most overhyped camera. They were so. Close. The rolling shutter performance hasnt improved since the original, meaning you need to scale down to an APSC crop. Suddenly we’re no longer talking about a true full frame camera. To make matters worse the lens selection is either overpriced or limited . Its not a bad video camera; its a bad video camera for the money. Oh, and then theres the moire issue. I suppose it all comes down to tradeoffs, but with its current price tag these tradeoffs shouldn’t be a thing.

not happy with this autofocus 😭 (g85 user)

XH2-S is much better option compared to that limited FF camera

:D :D :D :D LMAO "Can yoou see a difference between 422 and 420" Man, It affects grading , not the original colors!! When you will grade the footage, you will see the difference :D :D. Why you wouldnt put an 8bit sample also? :D :D :D I can tell you there will be no difference also

There is no video , its 24 frames per second , you know how painfull it is to watch 24 frames per second , gets your head spinning . Do you know why 24fps is used , because they couldn't use 15 fps , they would use 1 FPS if you would watch it , for film is expensive , digital film is not , and you have there option of 60FPS , please use it , jesus christ .