Panasonic Lumix S1R Mark II coming soon

[Emanuel]

I found his video very long. Much yadda yadda. To me. Couldn't hold for long. Others think the same of me! LOL So, all OK : ) Out of curiosy, I even had to go back (either outside there or here abovementioned and posted) for so much buzz... 

A short note anyway: if I'd write the history of this release, I wouldn't focus on his subscribers mark, not even the criticism about the guy. Only the cons of this camera. How to overcome it, no less. And how this compares with the competition (with... not compared to ; )

That and the recent Z8 talk here on EOSHD is something much more interesting IMHO.

The pros, we're already aware of it in a camera release launched this year of 2025.

[greenscreen]

They could have launched it earlier. A bit late to the party in 2025.

[shooter]

PDAF is also late.

[greenscreen]

23 minutes ago, shooter said:

PDAF is also late.

Better late than never and it was high time that Panasonic had recognized this.

[shooter]

23 minutes ago, greenscreen said:

Better late than never and it was high time that Panasonic had recognized this.

Yup, and how this compares with Nikon? Whereas Z6 and Z7 look to struggle a bit, users say Z8 is better. How do they compare with this Panasonic?

[greenscreen]

18 minutes ago, shooter said:

Yup, and how this compares with Nikon? Whereas Z6 and Z7 look to struggle a bit, users say Z8 is better. How do they compare with this Panasonic?

The PDAF sensors are horizontally oriented. They work all the same. In real life you have to try hard to make it fail.

[ntblowz]

 

The DR on S1RII is definitely better than FX3

4k120p on FX3 is much better though.

[wolf33d]

On 3/8/2025 at 2:34 AM, eatstoomuchjam said:

I only see two posts and the account has only two followers.  Is it right?  You mentioned 10k followers later in the post so I'm assuming that either it was posted incorrectly or my copy/paste skills have decayed.

Oops. IG is landscapturer*

[Caleb Genheimer]

The thing I don’t get… and mind you, I work as a 1st AC… even if you’re mostly technically minded, and interested primarily in the technical aspects of cameras, there is still a LOT more to that that Gerald doesn’t get into. Especially with these hybrid cameras, what about rigging? Where are the cage reviews? Favorite top handles? Power distribution? Cable management? 
 

Back to the S1RII, honestly my main gripe with LUMIX is their slowness to create cameras that are *physically* geared towards filmmaking. I worked pretty hard on my S1H rig, I don’t think it could get better, and it’s still awkward. I’d rather have a Pyxis. But it’s a tool like anything else, and right now, the S1H is a good tool versus the cost of jumping to something else. I don’t want to rig a new hybrid mirrorless again. 

[Walter H]

15 minutes ago, Caleb Genheimer said:

Back to the S1RII, honestly my main gripe with LUMIX is their slowness to create cameras that are *physically* geared towards filmmaking. I worked pretty hard on my S1H rig, I don’t think it could get better, and it’s still awkward. I’d rather have a Pyxis. But it’s a tool like anything else, and right now, the S1H is a good tool versus the cost of jumping to something else. I don’t want to rig a new hybrid mirrorless again. 

Which again is why I think/hope/prefer the S1Hii would not be a DSLR form-factor. People want "game changing" attributes and internal ND and fast readouts to for 8K 60P open-gate, etc. Have a body that provides the space to properly cool, to be rigged out in a streamlined way, that has the features of multi-channel, 32-bit float built-in rather than added on. 

Now if 8K is the limiter, I'd much prefer to skip it and have a 30mp sensor, focus on excellent open-gate 6K. If a slightly larger body could facilitate the better cooling required and for the electronics for 32-bit audio and internal electronic ND, sure, I'd be into it as a larger DSLR with all of the still capability and better low-light. But for a video-centric camera, why not go to a box?

[Caleb Genheimer]

30 minutes ago, Walter H said:

Which again is why I think/hope/prefer the S1Hii would not be a DSLR form-factor. People want "game changing" attributes and internal ND and fast readouts to for 8K 60P open-gate, etc. Have a body that provides the space to properly cool, to be rigged out in a streamlined way, that has the features of multi-channel, 32-bit float built-in rather than added on. 

Now if 8K is the limiter, I'd much prefer to skip it and have a 30mp sensor, focus on excellent open-gate 6K. If a slightly larger body could facilitate the better cooling required and for the electronics for 32-bit audio and internal electronic ND, sure, I'd be into it as a larger DSLR with all of the still capability and better low-light. But for a video-centric camera, why not go to a box?

Agreed. One look at cameras like the C70 gives you all the info you need to assess why “stills” shaped bodies are an awkward form factor for video once there are extensive video features involved. 

[Andrew Reid]

I rate 4K/120p as a sign of a fast readout. It's not a slow sensor in all modes. It just lacks the latest cutting edge design attributes from Sony Semiconductors to do an 8K readout at under 15ms.

So a nearly, but not quite the best sensor in the 40 megapixel range. The EOS R5 and Z8 are better and a few years older.

Panasonic are making a bit of a habit of being nearly good, and 5 years late.

BTW just watched the full Gerald meltdown.

The ending is quite illuminating... He says he's got this great money spinner of a channel and doesn't want people to pull at the yarn to unravel his enjoyment of it. The way he frames it is that the channel is a community, blah bah blah. But this is really about his job satisfaction and he's clearly had it.

In some ways I am empathetic.

I understand too how annoying people can be.

But why does it have to be about the S1R II in particular, he gets loads of other criticism on all sorts of topic.

Seems unfair on loyal Panasonic users to pin them as the attack-dog types.

Sony fanboys are far worse 🙂

[Walter H]

44 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

I rate 4K/120p as a sign of a fast readout. It's not a slow sensor in all modes. It just lacks the latest cutting edge design attributes from Sony Semiconductors to do an 8K readout at under 15ms.

Which is interesting when in the video linked just above the S1Rii's 4K/120 looked much worse than the FX3's when punched in. Now I've seen some very nice 4K/120 from the S1Rii so it's a bummer that these reviewers are not clearly stating what modes he is filming in beyond VLOG. We've read that by changing to pixel-to-pixel mode in 4K/120 maintains PDAF. Will there be other image quality impacts/improvements as well? 

I'm not conflating fast readout wiht image quality necessarily. Just noting things.

[PannySVHS]

Pixel to pixel mode should show the same resolution as the FX3, just in MFT gate. @Walter H Penalty regarding noise could be okay, since the S1RII has very good noise performance.

It's a 6K60p full frame camera with the 4K120p mode of a GH7 as a give away. I know the GH7 does it oversampled. Then it's a Sony 4K120 FX30 thrown in for free.:)

I would love to see the 28mm Vivitar in action.:) @Ninpo33 It looks like a Vivitar I lens in body design and sturdiness, doesn't it?  Iirc from my ebay tours some years ago, it looks just as cool. Is the 135mm as nice as the 90mm? Have you shot with the 90mm? cheers

[Andrew Reid]

44 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

It's a 6K60p full frame camera with the 4K120p mode of a GH7 as a give away. I know the GH7 does it oversampled. Then it's a Sony 4K120 FX30 thrown in for free.:)

Pretty standard that 4K 120p is pixel binned on FF cameras. EOS R5, Sony a1 and Nikon Z8... now Pana has caught up a few years later.

Only the full frame FX3 and Sony a7S III can do it without pixel binning due to their silly low megapixel count.

Crop sensor 4K/120p got more options. GH6, GH7 are pretty good.

X-H2S it is a further crop but still looks nice.

I would say the 6K/60p of the S1R II is the mode that should have got the most attention in reviews though.

There's no crop in 6K/60p right? And the rolling shutter is much better than in 8K?

I still won't be getting one though. There's no way it is better than the Z8 for 3500 euros.

[Ninpo33]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

I would say the 6K/60p of the S1R II is the mode that should have got the most attention in reviews though.There's no crop in 6K/60p right? And the rolling shutter is much better than in 8K?

I still won't be getting one though. There's no way it is better than the Z8 for 3500 euros.

Yeah, 15.3ms on the 60p modes

7.3ms on the 100/120p modes.

it's funny how Lumix were so late to the party with FF 4k 60p but then once we finally get it everyone is all bent out of shape about other features and the 60p just gets passed over. 

 

If you're talking about overall specs and performance that might true but it depends on what you're upgrading from. I think it's pretty close when you factor in usability and familiarity of Lumix products. After years with Lumix cameras and workflow it's nice to not have a steep learning curve in menus, functions and post processing. We've talked about being invested in a system and the true cost of ownership will depend on other factors. I shoot a lot of anamorphic so Panasonic has always had an advantage when it comes to crop modes and IBIS specific to that format. That alone makes it really stand out for me. I'm probably going to pick one up once I can get it for below $3k open box/used. I was really close to getting a used SL2 or a S1R and bid on several deals the last 2 months. But now at $2k the SL2 just isn't practical when the S1Rii can be had for just $3k or so. Same goes for the Sony A1 mk1. For $3k used and several years old now it feels like it's loosing its mojo for me compared to what's coming. 

[eatstoomuchjam]

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The way he frames it is that the channel is a community, blah bah blah. But this is really about his job satisfaction and he's clearly had it.

In a lot of cases, when bigger YouTubers describe their channel as a "community," I think it's really just part of a strategy to emphasize the parasocial relationship that viewers have with them.  If a long-time viewer/commenter on GU's videos was in Toronto for a work trip, would GU meet them for a beer?  Doubt it.  Are there GU viewer meetups in various cities where viewers all meet up for parties/hangouts?  Doubt it.  Are there a bunch of mostly-anonymous people commenting on his videos and sometimes he decides to care what they say?  Sure.

5 hours ago, wolf33d said:

Oops. IG is landscapturer*

Some really nice work on there!  Also, I dig the pop-up camper!

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

So a nearly, but not quite the best sensor in the 40 megapixel range. The EOS R5 and Z8 are better and a few years older.

I'm not sure - the more that comes out about the S1R II sensor, the more it sounds like the Ronin 4D 8K sensor - just with the weird anomaly about readout speed in 8K FF non-EDR mode (24 vs 16ms).  If so, the sensor is less "worse" than the R5 and more "just different."  My Ronin in 8K standard mode is a bit better than the R5 in low light and in EDR mode, it's substantially better.  I don't have an A7S III (or FX3 or other camera with similar sensor) to compare to it, but at least a few reviewers have said it's equal or better (but 8K).
Anyway, assuming that it's the same sensor (or variant thereof), it's also more than a year old.

Once the dust dies down from the internet's outrage about rolling shutter, if it's the same or similar to the R4D 8K, I think that users are going to fall in love with the image.  People love it so much on the Ronin that they do silly things like turn off the gimbal and add rods to hold the lens steady so that they can use big heavy lenses with it.  Those people might also end up loving the S1R II as as a less silly way to use big lenses without turning their R4D into an R0D.

[Ninpo33]

2 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

I would love to see the 28mm Vivitar in action.:) @Ninpo33 It looks like a Vivitar I lens in body design and sturdiness, doesn't it?  Iirc from my ebay tours some years ago, it looks just as cool. Is the 135mm as nice as the 90mm? Have you shot with the 90mm? cheers

135mm is a nice little compact design and made by Komine. I love the look of the Series 1 lenses with the little cut out/ aperature window on the lens body. 

Yes, It gets a little confusing with all the different companies making lenses for Vivitar at the time. There were a couple models and you can tell them apart by serial number. 

All of them are good build quality and a good deal. Performance is nice, especially for the price but some of them have an issue with oil leaking onto the blades. 

22XXX - Kiron/Kino Precision Optical made lens - 

37XXX - Tokina made lens

28XXX - Komine made lens

 

[Caleb Genheimer]

2 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

There's no crop in 6K/60p right? And the rolling shutter is much better than in 8K?

This all highlights something else that I feel plagues Panasonic: too many modes. I don’t know how they pare that down, people would surely complain? They should possibly consider ditching an entire codec just to start. Having internal ProRes basically tops everything, do they really need h.264, h.265, long-GOP, Intra…

the endless scrolling list of slight permutations is also a HORRENDOUS way to lay it out. 

[Walter H]

1 hour ago, Ninpo33 said:

I'm probably going to pick one up once I can get it for below $3k open box/used.

Keep in mind that if you are also a stills shooter using Capture One and if you would need to upgrade C1 to use the S1Rii, you can preorder the camera from Adorama and between the free media and the discounted C1, it is a $3k camera.

This might be the first time I jump at the pre-order phase. No doubt there may be some realtive deals (open box or otherwise) by mid & late summer, but for the maybe couple hundred dollars of additional savings, I think this camera will be making my professional life much easier for months already. False color and switchable, discrete photo/video modes alone is worth several hundred over four months to me. Then pile on everything else.