Lumix S1RII coming soon

[Emanuel]

TBH I think overheating performance (let alone DR + low light) and price under $2.9K (€2.762 from my supplier) without VAT (for professionals, not consumers) for such small form factor (under 800gr!) are both a must : ) How come not having an active cooling system along with? Or a cheap semiconductor route instead, as Andrew mentions? 

60p up to 5.8K is the price to pay for?

Other than that, imagerie coming out from such features combo like IBIS + their same hybrid AF, once more this time for a 2nd round and turn to follow the S5 II, look like pretty hard to resist and stellar to me... I'll probably see myself to bite : P Who not, sooner or later? : X 

https://petapixel.com/2025/02/25/panasonic-s1r-ii-first-look-the-ultimate-hybrid/

 

PS: Something I guess I like to see going with them... they usually try to bring some cherry to the top, most of their tradition is that, more than any other brand except Blackmagic IMO who tend not to leave any rabbit out of their hat for next time, hence my hat. 

Their newer is their best can certainly be a good motto. 

I am sick of a few minutes before overheating, when it's supposed a professional use even being a hybrid one, no excuse, it's not a smartphone! You can go and burn in hell, shame on them, Canon and Nikon... They play games on us... Makes little to no sense to my book to say the least :- )

 

[Simon Young]

4 hours ago, Ninpo33 said:

Why the hell would you put an OLPF in a photography focused stills camera?

Ask Canon why they put an OLPF in their photography focused R5.

[Davide DB]

Some comments reported that on the line skipped 4K@120p  AF is DFD only

[Emanuel]

36 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

Some comments reported that on the line skipped 4K@120p  AF is DFD only

You mean strictly on and for 4K@120fps?

Are they joining the party then? : D If so, I should either be quiet on the best of my fanboyism or Andrew is also right on his prediction ; )

For some reason I've found myself on Sony camp most recently... Plenty of irony to someone coming from 90s, really, but it is what it is, I'm afraid :- )

[Davide DB]

2 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

You mean on 4K@120fps?

Are they joining the party then? : D 

Yes 

[ND64]

10 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

Some comments reported that on the line skipped 4K@120p  AF is DFD only

As I predicted, its CPU must be ancient. But maybe the number of masked AF pixels is lower than Sony/Nikon so line skipping reduces the phase data to the point that is practically useless. 

[John Matthews]

I think it's clear: if you prefer RS performance over DR and tools, go for the Sony, Canon, or Nikon (and if you don't mind paying significantly more too). I'm sure there will be in-camera workarounds like with the S5ii (shooting in APSC).

I'm betting the S1rii will get significant improvements over the next 2 years. Who knows what the final product will be by then. However, Sony, Canon, and Nikon are practically WYSIWYG. To get more features, you'll need to shell out another 3 grand or so after selling the old one.

[ac6000cw]

1 hour ago, Emanuel said:

TBH I think overheating performance (let alone DR + low light) and price under $2.9K without VAT (for professionals, not consumers) for such small form factor (under 800gr!) are both a must : ) How come not having an active cooling system along with? Or a cheap semiconductor route instead, as Andrew mentions? 

It does have active cooling (AFAIK the same system as used on the S5 ii).

But it's having to deal with a lot more heat due to almost 2x the data rates if reading the full sensor area (compared to the S5 ii), and 8K video is 4x the pixels per frame vs. 4K video so the processing and encoding pipeline is working much harder. Based on the review comments and RS results, the less-than-8k video is oversampled from 8k capture, so probably great quality but a lot of heat to deal with (and short battery life).

[cosarth]

Personally, I don't care about RS anyway so it's a non issue for my way of filming.

But some things feel rushed in a way that they made it more complex it needed to be. For example, you can use our dual native ISO but if you want DR Boost you now have new base ISO settings. It feels counter intuitive to calculate small things like that while shooting for a gig. In a way it reminds me of the GH6 when it came out, in which you had to film in 2000 ISO when using with DR Boost on. Then a year later the G9II comes out and its like "dude just set your ISO level and I will boost the DR for you no matter what".

And what's with the 120fps tops? Even my old S1 can shoot 180fps in FHD (crappy image but still).

However, they finally have no crop up to 4K60, the moire issues of the past are non-existent and the beefy colour rendering (subjective) coming out of the image is more than welcome. I like the fact that they stuffed in every little thing they could, with not much left to be desired.

I don't know/care if it's going to make Sony or Canon shooters swap, for me it's a safe upgrade path from the original S1 series.

[Davide DB]

IMHO Best overall review so far, very long but you can jump the desired chapter:

 

 

[Jahleh]

8 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Could I be your wife please?

I forgot to mention that I of course traded in her GH6 to compensate the cost of my Z6iii😆

Damn, this S1RII feels kind of tempting, but after checking a few reviews it is not that clear what is actually improved and what is worse than in S5II. 
 

It seems like 6k version of S1RII would be better for video, and I already have the Z6iii, and Nikkor 35 F1.4, 40 F2, 50 F1.2 and 85 F1.8. And it depens if even Z8 is worth the upgrade to me. 
Most likely will update next the Macbook, as even with 6k footage it seems you need more unified RAM than 18GB in Resolve, if you want to avoid swapping. 

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, Jahleh said:

It seems like 6k version of S1RII would be better for video

Which is pretty much what every LUMIX user wanted, not 8k.

Even if it’s 8k capable, IMO they should have launched it with up to 6k spec and left everything 8k for the future firmware upgrade.

Except they botched yet another release.

With the S9, it was that stupid f8 lens.

I think 8k at this time is a similar scenario because you want folks talking about what it CAN do.

LUMIX has a problem with the number 8.

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

5 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Shutter feel and sound still unknown.

See the Manny Ortiz review, he loved he shutter sound, heheheh

[MrSMW]

Just now, Marcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

See the Manny Ortiz review, he loved he shutter sound, heheheh

OK and he is more photo than video…

[Davide DB]

1 hour ago, Jahleh said:

Damn, this S1RII feels kind of tempting, but after checking a few reviews it is not that clear what is actually improved and what is worse than in S5II. 

The review I linked above has a lot of comparisons with S5II, A7CR and for IBIS even Z6III

[Simon Young]

Funnily enough the S1Rii makes the OG Canon R5 look like a bargain. The R5 used prices here in Sweden is about half the price of a new S1rii and after all the firmware updates the R5 (initial overheating notwithstanding) is reliable  in all recording modes under 30p. And has a far faster sensor even though it's not stacked.

As a photo camera I only imagine it's vastly more refined than the Lumix. 

[MrSMW]

24 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

OK and he is more photo than video…

Shutter sound passes the test, but it seems that detail and DR plus latitude are below the A7RV, though more at a pixel peeping level than real world.

It’s still a pass for me for 2025.

[Walter H]

3 hours ago, cosarth said:

Personally, I don't care about RS anyway so it's a non issue for my way of filming.

I don't know/care if it's going to make Sony or Canon shooters swap, for me it's a safe upgrade path from the original S1 series.

I may feel the same… But was there a post a few pages back that pointed toward RS impacting the head movement of a sitting subject? I’ve scrolled through the posts repeatedly and cannot find it again. Of course, if this was filmed in Open Gate or in 8k but isn’t an issue in 4k, I’m not too worried about it. 

All of these f-ing compromises.

The HUGE fixes from me coming from the S1, correct amount of resolution (for me), proper fast switching between photo/video, exceptional IBIS, cropped and hybrid zoom modes, no low light compromise, and perhaps the Goldilocks size.

The wait-n-see really has to do with AF performance, especially in lower light (think events) and particularly with darkly complected subjects. Bluntly, I’m done with autofocus that can only find and focus on white people in poor light. This alone might have me switching to Nikon. (Curious how the just released Z6 FW knocks down the NLOG shadow flicker.)

The meh is also possibly the RS. I don’t shoot open gate but I can see its usefulness more and more and this camera is clearly incapable. Does it need to be a part of my priority package? Not sure yet. 

Will be an interesting six weeks for me to evaluate.

[Davide DB]

From the reviews seen so far there is everything and nothing.
GU tested it in "lab mode" and slaughtered it. He was smart to report the bugs to Pana who fixed them for him via fw updates.
Other youtubers reported problems found by GU but they didn't get the updates and didn't even know they existed. So people who look at their reviews think it all sucks. For example, some say AF is not up to par. If you look at Richard Wong's review the AF is perfect and aligned with Sony. He has fw 1.0. he is the only one who tested extensively on animals and cars and there are some smart features.
Other youtubers have tried it on real projects or real use cases and there is very little criticism and they speak very highly of it.

Moving the camera left and right like crazy and screaming that the RS is terrible or claiming on paper that having only 12 stops without DR is like swearing in church, seems like bullshit to me. The beloved 5DMKII ML had 9 stops of DR and yet everyone was wetting their pants.
In short, lab is one thing and reality is another.

BTW the same youtubers who now blast the S1RII are the ones who would hate an S1R that we like a lot.

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

1 hour ago, MrSMW said:

Shutter sound passes the test, but it seems that detail and DR plus latitude are below the A7RV, though more at a pixel peeping level than real world.

It’s still a pass for me for 2025.

The Lumix have some special modes for DR, maybe it needs some time to figure it out - even Manny will use it more before a final result.