Leaderboard

XH2 first impressions vs Lumix S1R Nice semi matte paint job and build quality initially seems around comparable. Not that much smaller but considerably lighter with equivalent lens. I weighed them both with battery, cards and 24-105mm f4 Lumix and Tamron 17-70mm f2.8 (25-105 equiv) and the difference was exactly 505g, ie, 1/2 kilo or basically 1lb difference. Handling/ergo-wise, the S1R takes all my fingers around the grip but the XH2, just 3 so for me needs either something like a Smallrig L bracket or battery grip. As things stand, I still have to test the thing for photo & video but all things being well, this would become my prime stills workhorse and I think I’d go for the battery grip as it would bring the weight up to more or less the the same as the S1R, albeit physically bigger but with at least double the battery life. I was looking at the Nikon Z9 so the battery gripped XH2 could be looked at as the poor man’s Z9. And actually available to buy! I will do some video (and stills) tests over the coming weeks but looking good so far…

Honestly the more I use this camera the more I love it. After filming a couple events I'm really impressed. I am considering selling my entire M43 kit, or at least most of it, to get another one. I'll maybe keep the GH5 and the 12-35mm and 35-100mm, and sell the rest. I really like the sooc colors I get using the natural profile. Sometimes I will tweak it just a little, but most of the time it looks really good without any kind of corrections. I'm glad that more people are taking note of the S5. I really don't know that you can beat it for the price.