Panasonic Lumix S1R Mark II coming soon

[ArashM]

I pick mine up from the store on Monday, excited to check out my own files.

[ita149]

Got my S1RII and like I thought, I'm a bit disappointed.

Stills are great with very good resolution, the Dpreview studio test is odd because the camera is very sharp even when using not so sharp lenses like the 28-200mm. 
But there are better cameras for photography, AF implementation is weird, AF-S is only DFD and the buffer is a joke when shooting high fps pictures.

Video quality is the same than S5II, a bit less sharpening but still the same video engine, it still looks worse than the old gen, the resolution just feels not as good, no matter the mode or resolution used the image doesn't look really sharp in a good way, lines are not straight, some details are missing like if a filter or blur in some part of the image was added. The image looks like there is a slight oil painting touch softening the image at the core. Like on the S5II the rec 709 profiles are worse than V-log.
So it is a bit ironic from Lumix to say "discover unseen details" for their S1RII tagline. Because of this the moire is not too much prononced. Some will like this tradeoff. 

I tested Prores Raw 6K Pixel to Pixel and the image is much better, the weird processing is gone. But I can't get the image right when using Premiere Pro, colors are off, I don't think Prores Raw is really fully supported by Premiere. The crop and the data size also makes this mode hard to use and it is not supported at all by Resolve.
Using the Canon R5 or Z6III for raw is much easier as the files are better supported and there is no crop.

The rolling shutter is just bad when using the DR boost, I didn't think I could see it but I can see jello even with relatively slow movements. In addition 24fps is the max fps we can use with DR boost and Open Gate. I can't select 30fps, maybe a bug.
I think the best modes are 6k or 4k 60fps, there is only a slight crop, worse DR because no DR boost and the image quality becomes even slighltly worse but there is not a big difference with the 30fps and the rolling shutter is better.

I quickly tested the 4k 120fps and as if it isn't enough that the 4k30fps was not great, the 120fps is even worse : blurry, bad details, just unusable. When selecting Pixel to Pixel, the quality is better but again these crop make these Pixel to Pixel modes hard to use and feel like we are using a S35 camera. 

Stabilization is the best in the market and for me it's the main reason I still use Panasonic (with Open Gate too). But the S5II is as good ...
 
The S1RII feels like it was created for people taking mostly photography of still subjects. And for this the camera is good, not the best DR performance but nice colors and impressive 177MP handheld mode (the image makes a very long time to create though, much longer than on the S5II). For video it comes with marketing bait as 8k and 4k 120fps. The 8k like every other modes except raw is too much processed, it has high rolling shutter when the DR boost is enabled and the 4k120fps is not good at all. Yes we can do a lot of things with this camera but with big penalties most of the time.
The added Prores Raw is questionable too, the files are not supported in Resolve and the crop is really disappointing.

The fact remains, however, than the S1RII is the only affordable high resolution camera with acceptable autofocus for L mount. However, I don't see anything which could attract new users to Lumix or L mount, the S5II is a much better value for Youtube and other social media creators. And the A7RIV is much cheaper and has better AF for stills. 3600€ is a lot of money but I would have happily spend a bit more to get better video engine, better rolling shutter and 8k raw. 
As things stand at the moment with the current firmware, I think the right price should be more about 3200€.


About the reviews available online like the one from Northrup, I think the best is to always wait for some Chinese or Korean reviews, they provides much more informations and are much more unbiased than any Northrup or Undone reviews.

Here is an exemple of a good and accurate review :

 

[MrSMW]

5 hours ago, ita149 said:

Got my S1RII and like I thought, I'm a bit disappointed

I’ve got €1000 burning a hole in my pocket if you want? 😉

5 hours ago, ita149 said:

The S1RII feels like it was created for people taking mostly photography

That was and still is my feeling as in it has more video capability over stills compared with it’s predecessor, but is no updated replacement for the S1H.

I still think I’d go for one if I didn’t have my A7RV, if only to keep both my stills and video within the same family, but the simple reality is for stills alone, I still (no pun intended) prefer the Sony and bring lenses into the equation and it’s even more clear cut for me.

It will be interesting however if Sigma do bring out a longer sibling to the 28-45mm f1.8 because if it’s anything like a 45-90mm f1.8, we now have parity on glass as both L and Sony can take these lenses.

At that point…and only that point, would I consider a flip. And there is no sign of that second lens as things stand, just ever more long zoom lenses 😏

[ita149]

1 hour ago, MrSMW said:

I’ve got €1000 burning a hole in my pocket if you want? 😉

That was and still is my feeling as in it has more video capability over stills compared with it’s predecessor, but is no updated replacement for the S1H.

I still think I’d go for one if I didn’t have my A7RV, if only to keep both my stills and video within the same family, but the simple reality is for stills alone, I still (no pun intended) prefer the Sony and bring lenses into the equation and it’s even more clear cut for me.

It will be interesting however if Sigma do bring out a longer sibling to the 28-45mm f1.8 because if it’s anything like a 45-90mm f1.8, we now have parity on glass as both L and Sony can take these lenses.

At that point…and only that point, would I consider a flip. And there is no sign of that second lens as things stand, just ever more long zoom lenses 😏

I bought the S1RII for 3250€, I think it's a good price for this camera, not sure I would have bought it at 3600€.
By the way, I spoke with someone who said he was able to remove most of the noise reduction inside of the V-log footage of the S1RII, if it's true the camera will be much more interesting.

The A7RV is a great camera for still, but for video I would prefer to use Panasonic, just for IBIS and Open Gate.

Yes both the 28-45mm and 45-90mm would make a killer combo. And why not the rumored 200mm f1.8 to get the perfect trio ...

[wushuliu]

"The S1RII feels like it was created for people taking mostly photography of still subjects."

I guess I don't understand how anyone thought it would be otherwise. I mean, that's what the R stands for. I continue to be amazed at how the online crowd managed to psyche themselves into thinking camera was going to be something it was never intended to be. It's a photo-centric camera with a massive video bonus. It's not an S1HII. It's not a Sony A1II. Especially considering only 6 weeks ago we all thought it was going to be just a cheaper Leica SL3 (cue the moaners saying 'I wish it was' as if there wouldn't be a horde of complaints). 

I just got mine and it's exactly what I wanted. Now I can get off the terminally negative online train and get snapping.

[MurtlandPhoto]

My S1Rii is currently sitting in an unopened shipping box in the corner of my office. I'm waiting to see what NAB brings (if anything) from Panasonic before opening it. I'll find it a bit odd if Panasonic does announce another camera so close to the release of this one, but the rumor sites seem pretty confident that something is coming.

[MrSMW]

13 hours ago, wushuliu said:

we all thought it was going to be just a cheaper Leica SL3 (cue the moaners saying 'I wish it was' as if there wouldn't be a horde of complaints).

I hoped and I wished but I only moaned slightly!

[Walter H]

1 hour ago, ita149 said:

By the way, I spoke with someone who said he was able to remove most of the noise reduction inside of the V-log footage of the S1RII, if it's true the camera will be much more interesting.

Very interested to hear more about this!

Thanks for your thorough reflections.

[ntblowz]

The price of S1RII is higher than R5II here (R5ii running on promo), that definitely makes it harder to attract new people except for the Lumix users.