Panasonic S5 User Experience

[IronFilm]

On 6/28/2021 at 4:32 PM, MrSMW said:

I think the GH6 will have PDAF

Someone woke up this morning feeling cheerfully bright and optimistic!

 

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

Someone woke up this morning feeling cheerfully bright and optimistic!

 

I think it’s more likely than not likely on the basis that the photography community is literally screaming at them to do so and also because the GH6 cannot be a GH5iii.

I would still rather have an S5H though!

[Avenger 2.0]

25 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

I think it’s more likely than not likely on the basis that the photography community is literally screaming at them to do so and also because the GH6 cannot be a GH5iii.

I'm thinking DFD++ 😋

Somehow Panasonic won't or can't implement PDAF.
But if they somehow do, I can buy a cheap S1/S5 real soon 😎

[MrSMW]

Well if they can somehow improve DFD to something close to PDAF, then in one sense, that will be good.

But...and it's a big BUT, the problem Panny have is the whole lack of PDAF thing is just one massive negative for them.

It doesn't matter that in the real world, the CDAF works just as well as any PDAF for stills and is actually more than pretty decent for video use in anything but consistent tracking.

The reputation for 'crappy AF' already exists and probably the only way they can truly squash that is by going PDAF if only for marketing purposes.

But as has been discussed before, whether they can actually implement PDAF is another matter, but the fact that L Mount partner Sigma has just done that with the FP-L, suggest to me it's not an insurmountable obstacle.

We shall find out at some point fairly soon I imagine...

[Chrad]

Matt Frazer from Panasonic said something interesting in the stream after the GH6 was announced. When dismissing rumours that they were exiting M43, he said it's their 'testbed for new features' which later filter up. In light of that and the recent rumours I think  they'll introduce DPAF with GH6 and later it will come to L-mount bodies.

[IronFilm]

9 hours ago, MrSMW said:

I think it’s more likely than not likely on the basis that the photography community is literally screaming at them to do so and also because the GH6 cannot be a GH5iii.

I would still rather have an S5H though!

The problem is when you think of "PDAF", you think of the very latest generation PDAF. 

But if Panasonic was crazy enough (if they even have that option? Assuming no licensing/patent/etc issues) to jump onto the PDAF bangwagon, what would the GH6 with their  brand new v0.1 PDAF be like? Very likely not a massively huge leap over further refined DFD being implemented instead.

Panasonic has made a big bet on DFD being the right path for the long term future, as processing power gets more and more powerful in an ever more miniature form factor, then DFD has the potential to be just as good (perhaps even better) as PDAF but without any of the downsides of the PDAF approach. 

The problem is, this point off in the future might be too far away to save Panasonic's market share.

[herein2020]

9 hours ago, IronFilm said:

The problem is, this point off in the future might be too far away to save Panasonic's market share camera division

There..fixed that for you 🙂

 

Am I selfish to wish they had just dropped MFT and released an S5II instead?

[TomTheDP]

On 7/1/2021 at 8:49 PM, herein2020 said:

There..fixed that for you 🙂

 

Am I selfish to wish they had just dropped MFT and released an S5II instead?

it'll happen eventually 

[herein2020]

On 7/1/2021 at 4:41 AM, MrSMW said:

Well if they can somehow improve DFD to something close to PDAF, then in one sense, that will be good.

But...and it's a big BUT, the problem Panny have is the whole lack of PDAF thing is just one massive negative for them.

It doesn't matter that in the real world, the CDAF works just as well as any PDAF for stills and is actually more than pretty decent for video use in anything but consistent tracking.

The reputation for 'crappy AF' already exists and probably the only way they can truly squash that is by going PDAF if only for marketing purposes.

But as has been discussed before, whether they can actually implement PDAF is another matter, but the fact that L Mount partner Sigma has just done that with the FP-L, suggest to me it's not an insurmountable obstacle.

We shall find out at some point fairly soon I imagine...

I have problems with DFD even without CAF.....it simply will not focus in certain situations that I am certain would be effortless for other focusing systems. In those situations I have to manually focus or just keep trying until it locks on; sitting there watching it struggle and the whole scene pulsing is just painful. I am using a EF adapter and EF lenses so I still give Panny the benefit of the doubt.

[MrSMW]

9 hours ago, herein2020 said:

I am using a EF adapter and EF lenses so I still give Panny the benefit of the doubt.

Well there is your problem right there. This does not exist with native Panasonic lenses or Sigma glass.

Sigma is not quite as fast or accurate but it’s very little difference.

And the thing about CDAF is it is a little slower by it’s nature than phase, but more accurate.

For stills, there just does not need to be any issues.

For général video use, not really either as long as you use the system properly and just take that little bit of extra time.

It’s the fast paced stuff where it can fall down.

Stills I don’t know (I wouldn’t use anything adapted personally) but for anything video, I’d only trust manual focus for adapted lenses.

in short, you are asking it to fight a battle it cannot win.

[herein2020]

On 7/4/2021 at 2:41 AM, MrSMW said:

Well there is your problem right there. This does not exist with native Panasonic lenses or Sigma glass.

Sigma is not quite as fast or accurate but it’s very little difference.

And the thing about CDAF is it is a little slower by it’s nature than phase, but more accurate.

For stills, there just does not need to be any issues.

For général video use, not really either as long as you use the system properly and just take that little bit of extra time.

It’s the fast paced stuff where it can fall down.

Stills I don’t know (I wouldn’t use anything adapted personally) but for anything video, I’d only trust manual focus for adapted lenses.

in short, you are asking it to fight a battle it cannot win.

 

Yes I'm just stuck in this odd middle ground where nothing is perfect or terrible. I would love CAF but having my entire collection of EF glass available to all of my cameras (5DIV, C200, S5) is worth more to me than CAF.  The EF adapter is such a pain to remove due to my S5 cage setup that it has never come off after putting it on. Hybrid AF works pretty good most of the time with the adapter (half press to achieve focus then flip the MF button on the lens to lock focus).

I will probably hang on like this until I see what disappointments the R5c manages to bring next year. If they somehow get it right, I'll finally move to a more native EF system (even though the R5c is RF mount).  If Canon manages to colosally disappoint yet again then I'll just stick with what I have for a couple more years. If the R5c is even 80% what the S1H is, then Canon will have a winner but I don't see that happening since they already have the C70.

In my perfect world I would have two identical bodies that can use all of my existing EF glass; both as good at photography as the R5 and as good at video as the S5 but with the R5's AF and the S5's XLR module, dual slot video recording, and dual ISO. One rigged for video (cage, XLR module), and one rigged for photography (no cage, dual battery grip, hotshoe free for flash triggers).  Then on a shoot I can mix and match where the areas overlap when I need a quick video clip during a photo shoot, or a few images throughout a video shoot and where in a pinch I can use both bodies for the same purpose such as multi-angle interviews or both cameras rigged for photography for a wedding.

So far its an unachievable dream but who knows what the future holds. My bank account thanks Canon every day for not making this dream possible.

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

On 7/3/2021 at 6:31 PM, herein2020 said:

I have problems with DFD even without CAF.....it simply will not focus in certain situations that I am certain would be effortless for other focusing systems. In those situations I have to manually focus or just keep trying until it locks on; sitting there watching it struggle and the whole scene pulsing is just painful. I am using a EF adapter and EF lenses so I still give Panny the benefit of the doubt.

Dunno how it is working in L Mount (in fact, never saw any statement from Panasonic), but in m43 DFD only works with Panasonic native glass - even with Olympus lenses, DFD don't work and the camera falls back to traditional CDAF autofocus.

For sure DFD is not working in your case.

[DoorsFreak]

Hi guys. I’m a new poster here, albeit I’ve been checking out the forums for years since the 5d days. I just got an s5 and I am having an issue with focus peaking. When I try to set the sensitivity I get the message, This item can’t be selected”. Has anyone had this problem? 

[zerocool22]

On 7/13/2021 at 3:07 AM, DoorsFreak said:

Hi guys. I’m a new poster here, albeit I’ve been checking out the forums for years since the 5d days. I just got an s5 and I am having an issue with focus peaking. When I try to set the sensitivity I get the message, This item can’t be selected”. Has anyone had this problem? 

do you happen to be in v-log?

[DoorsFreak]

I was using multiple profiles. I was able to fix it by resetting to factory settings. I then proceeded to restore the settings from the lumix sync app and still had the same problem. So I had to manually change back all my settings including custom modes. Very strange. I wanted to fix this before the big 2.3 firmware. 

[herein2020]

4 hours ago, DoorsFreak said:

I was using multiple profiles. I was able to fix it by resetting to factory settings. I then proceeded to restore the settings from the lumix sync app and still had the same problem. So I had to manually change back all my settings including custom modes. Very strange. I wanted to fix this before the big 2.3 firmware. 

You may have a conflict of settings; there's a setting that states do not show focus peaking during AF. If you have the AF switch turned on then try to set focus peaking but you also have the setting configured to not show focus peaking during AF then I think the focus peaking settings will be unavailable. The way to fix it is to either switch the lens or the focus selector to MF or turn off the setting that disables focus peaking when AF is enabled.

It is definitely not the picture profile because I only shoot in VLOG and use focus peaking religiously.

[Thpriest]

How do i set shutter angle so that it's always 180? is it possible?

[Thpriest]

Anyway, sold the GH5 and have an S5 now. First wedding today. Let's see how it does! 

[stephen]

11 hours ago, Thpriest said:

How do i set shutter angle so that it's always 180? is it possible?

Yes it is possible. Switch to film mode, then first menu/tab on the right (camera like), scroll down on the left and look for SS/Gain operation. On my S1 it is the second sub menu. Choose angle/ISO, then adjust to 180 degree from camera.

[MrSMW]

8 hours ago, Thpriest said:

Anyway, sold the GH5 and have an S5 now. First wedding today. Let's see how it does! 

It should do very well.

I may have now had postponed or cancelled 45 (and counting) weddings, but shot various other projects and events and it’s great.

OK, it became my B cam for both stills and video after getting the S1H, but the output is basically the same.

I hope it went well.