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Feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone where Gerald releases a glowing review of it, while Lumix users are stressing out about it before using it. It's usually the opposite!

It is a friendship, just a very transactional one. Only in this case the prostitute is not waiting patiently in Knightsbridge at a fancy bar. It's me.

Here is the summary: give Panasonic engineers a random sensor, and they give you the most video featured camera around that sensor that you could imagine. The problem is 1. Nobody gives them the state of the art sensor (or they don't like to pay high price) 2. They're asked to repeat themselves for similar sensor/bodies with overlapping customer target. 3. What they do is attractive for niche part of the hybrid market and not enough to absorb new customers. 4. "Similar offering to big three but at cheaper price" could kick the can down the road for a while, but even that strategy is no more with these prices. 5. When a market is saturated, and there are big players in that saturated market, the only way to survive is to be bold and different. Just like what Chinese discovered in the lens market, and so we're seeing 15mm macro!

I've now got a vision of the prostitute reaching for the marketing team's trousers and whispering "Lets Get Undone". Thanks for that.

Here’s a little tip for anyone being gaslit into believing they are friends with a corporation. Friends don’t have to threaten friends with a €35K fine for releasing their free marketing material a few minutes early. Friends don’t even have to ask.

At the start of this Canadian video somebody says that although Panasonic paid for their hotel, travel and lunch, and that they rubbed shoulders with Panasonic people and consider them friends, that definitely in no way influences the positive opinions they have about Panasonic's products, which is nicely convenient, imagine how embarrassing it would be otherwise. No matter which way the client YouTubers spin it, the S1 II price is too high and it is being released at least 2 years too late (and that is being kind, as the original was a 2018 launch). My problem with it is not the extensive feature set and specs, it's that huge 7 year gap and the pricing strategy, along with the rest of the product strategy which is batshit crazy, and I put my money where my mouth is by refusing the invite by Panasonic to go and praise it along with a bunch of client social media click weasels. There are so many similar options with better lens mounts to choose from now. And the complexity is not always a good thing. Look at how much more fun the Sigma Bf is or the minimalist Leica approach. Had the S1 II been 2.5k and the year was 2022... Sign me up. But as it is, I am going to pass. May get an S9 again though as it's now under a grand, it's a fun toy. With regards to the 51st state of shilling, if you just ignore the impact this is having on independent media, the non-embargoed opinions and journalism as a whole, then it's a perfectly mediocre review that can fit on a single side of a4. If you get big picture though, it's near enough fascism. An entire media platform singing in tune under a corporate embargo. Charlie Brooker should make a Black Mirror episode out of it. I might write one myself. It would be far more enjoyable than making your average 2025 camera 'review'.

Not FX3II consider they just released in FX3A, the next Sony release is the camera with tilt EVF

Maybe they went with that old fashioned notion of believing that the actual President of the United States wouldn't say that Canada is the 51st state unless it had any basis in reality whatsoever. Schoolboy error that one.

I think it's a good release, just a bit overpriced. $2500-2800 would be a much more competitive price point. I imagine it'll be under $3000 soon enough. I'll stick with my S5s and S5II X though. I do like the new lens. I like that it's size. But I think I'll stick with the 20-60 kit lens. That 20mm focal length is really nice to have.

I want one if the video isn't overly sharp in the details. I will wait and see though. I expect sales will not be super high, but being already set up with L-bodies this is a compelling camera.

Look at this hyperbole. Depressing. This is why I quit regular camera reviews, there are far more enjoyable and creative ways to do Youtube and journalism. Why doesn't Gerald yearn to make a film instead or shoot instead? He has no interest in it. He knows his job and his role in this industry is to sell cameras.

Just some thoughts on the current situation. https://www.eoshd.com/news/the-panasonic-s1-ii-pricing-is-wrong-so-is-the-entire-product-strategy/ TLDR: You can't charge £3000+ for a 24 megapixel camera in 2025 without a flagship sensor anywhere to be seen. Plus, they have made us wait 7 years for it. Autofocus performance only 5th, behind Sony, Nikon, Canon, OM System. There's still no rangefinder-style L-mount camera from Panasonic to replace the Micro Four Thirds stuff, GX80, GX9, and so on. (S9 doesn't count as it doesn't have an EVF or a proper shutter in it). Engineering doing a great job, product planning, marketing and ergonomic design is the problem. And to add to that, sensor procurement and the too-low R&D budget since 2020. Competition have better sensors, and lower prices, and more lenses, and more popular branding, and more popular lens mounts. Not good. Conclusion is that Panasonic's sales may fold.

That Kofi review I linked up-thread does just that, funnily enough.

Also a valid point for me because if I do end up swapping my S9 and pair of S5ii’s for an FX3 and a pair of FX30’s it will be for pure video use as it is now. I’m already with Sony for stills and having it all within one system as being able to share batteries and lenses, makes a lot of sense for me. Plus as mentioned in another topic, it would allow me to operate with 1 less body and 2 less lenses. And that is a good thing. And at very minimal cost to do so. Another very good thing!

As expected, Camera Conspiracies is not a fan. As always, it's recommended that fanboys of any system take his trolling with the biggest grain of salt.

Yeah, those aren't hybrid cameras and the intended user isn't here in this forum IMO (maybe the use ones). However, I would like to see a S1ii pitted against an Alexa shooting Arri Log. That would be interesting! The A9iii is roughly double the price of the S1ii. However, the R5C is not only less expensive than the S1ii, it seems to be more cinema oriented. I still be you'll have moiré with it though. Still, you're dealing with Canon, something I don't want to ever do personally. I think Panasonic, like what they did with their DFD shenanigans, are just hoping processing and software will "fix" moiré. Personally, I cannot believe, in 2025, we still don't really have AI options to fix it. We can basically make a whole film with only AI, but can't fix moiré in post simply and easily with the push of a button. Go figure.

I know why moiré and aliasing occurs and of course there are differences but as someone who has had important shots ruined by it and a as someone with a heavy addiction I’ve owned and tested more cameras than what is considered to be sane. And I can tell you this: a good olpf clearly makes a whole lot of difference both with regards to moiré suppression and the texture of details in the image. Canon R5(c) and the Sony A9iii has stood out to me when it comes to this. The whole A9-series have very good OLPFs and the latest iteration is no exception. Canon usually does well in the cinema department too and the perfect downscaled 8K to 4K and an OLPF is very effective on the R5-series. There is a reason the Sony Venice and the Alexas have dedicated teams who only work on producing the most effective OLPF possible.

The 51st state of American YouTube

I don't know about the S1II, but owning the S1RII, the mushy fine details and chroma NR are still there. Only the sharpening has been decreased a bit when using the 709 profiles. Prores Raw is better and has nicer fine details, almost as good as on the S1 and S5 H264/H265, but it's not a replacement for me as it is cropped (on the S1RII), the files are huge, there is no lens correction (as opposed to N-raw) and there are sometimes some black/colored pixels I can see when cropping inside the footage. This is something the Panasonic ambassadors will never speak about. About dynamic range I really wonder if there is a real difference between the S1II (without DR Boost) and the Z6III, because Gerald Undone only tested the DR of the Z6III raw video but not the S1II (he only tested Prores HQ and not Prores Raw). It seems nobody want to test the internal raw video mode on the S1II, I understand Prores Raw is not supported by Resolve, but still ... It could be a good indicator of the real performance of both cameras as there is almost always backed in NR without raw.

While I agree with most of the criticisms of Panasonic's marketing, as far as pricing goes I feel they may be getting treated a bit harshly. The S1 launched at $2500 in 2019; with inflation that's about $3150 in today's money. So not really much of a price increase, although of course overall wages have not kept up with inflation, rates on video jobs are always being squeezed, etc. Then there's the US tariff fiasco to take into account, that has to be affecting the pricing somewhat. I bet in a year's time when the counterpart models from the other brands are out that their pricing will be similar because they're dealing with the same fees and uncertainty. Not entirely fair to compare the pricing of one of the first cameras to come out post-tariff-ridiculousness with that of models from before. The S1ii is in at least one way very similar to its predecessor, which was also using a newish Sony sensor that had debuted the year before (IMX410 in the A7iii), but did an arguably better job with it than Sony did.

I don't see why an FX3 would even enter the conversation with a S1ii- one is a hybrid, the other not. No one would seriously take photos professionally with an FX3; they would with the S1ii.

And, as Sham 69 once said... 'urry up 'arry.

I will wait too. The S1ii extra DR sounds nice, but not at the expence of overly sharp details with too much baked in NR. If the PRRaw is the only option to get rid of this with S1ii, Z6iii and N-Raw is the better option, as it works with Resolve and file sizes are less than half of PRRaw. After Z6iii got the latest 1.10 firmware update, there’s not much to complain about the Z6iii IQ in shadows, no need to use NR any more, unless you need to lift shadows over 1 or 2 stops. Could be the 135mm 1.8 Plena is doing it’s magic too in low light. After 2.5 months shooting only N-Raw with normal quality I’ve got 1.5TB of footage. With PRRaw that would be over 3TB, and with H.265 only around 300GB🤪

I don't think Lumix gets nearly the credit they deserve for everything they throw into these cameras. You could argue that they almost put too much in. The codecs, frame rates, and aspect ratio options could be considered overwhelming by some folks.

The summary for me is: Decent spec in a decent enough but not exactly inspiring body but it will do, somewhat over-priced, in a competitive space in challenging times. OK, can’t do much about the latter, but could very much have done something about all of the former (other than the tech spec I personally can’t complain about). How much is a used FX3 and a pair of FX30’s going to be in 2026, because I already have all the glass?

The S1H with an OLPF and Netflix approval also had moiré in some cases. It's more a function of distance to the repetitive pattern and readout mode. Basically, some are better than others in certain situations, but none are perfect. I agree. It's the wild west right now, making it hard for anyone to make a purchase decision. Still, the S1ii is easily worth it in my opinion, several hundred cheaper than the A7Siii which was a video-only camera (and there's significant inflation since then). This camera will sell well.

Everyone is approaching this in their own way I suppose. YouTuber's want to bring the hype in their main role as client journalists, I use the term journalist very lightly, the aim to strengthen their access to future launches and to reward the paymaster. Of course they've also got an eye on the view-counts and click-revenue, it's all going down as the camera market shrinks. They need to hype stuff, to get the numbers up. The more the numbers fall, the more repetitive embargoed hyperbolic shit you will see from these channels. Panasonic loyal users are approaching it from the angle of, well, we waited 7 years and still love our S1H/S1, etc. and the S1 II is by no means a bad camera, new sensor and lots of nice video modes, so £3000 isn't so bad and I will agree with them and the reasons they have for making the purchase. I meanwhile am coming at it less from the specs and image quality side at the moment (I don't have the demo units and don't plan to buy it either), so coming at it more from the big picture stuff, the market strategy and industry POV especially where it concerns Panasonic's survival, and whether they are doing enough to take market share off Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm, so that their higher-ups can justify them existing for much longer. This is very important for me, as I have a long history with Panasonic's products and we can't afford to lose a brand as important as Lumix from cameras. Plus I just want to see some fucking creativity. I am so tired of the same old formula of camera design and the lack of a basic exposure feature such as an ND filter is a tragic joke at this point.

And if the price keeps increasing on the current trajectory, there will be no camera market to speak of anyway.

So then which of the 5 of the 24 megapixel bodies are you guys going to choose... The S1 II, S1 IIe, S5X, S5 II or S9? The price of the S1 II is $600 more than the nearest competitors from Canon and Nikon, which is just absolutely deranged. May as well get the S1R II instead? And the S1 IIe cannibalises both the S5X and S5 II, which may as well now be dead. It's one of the worst examples of product planning I've ever witnessed in the camera industry.

Part of the problem is that the difference in prices is enough that the impatient might just decide to ditch their Lumix gear and buy Nikon. "You can have the same sensor, but with worse RS and a little more DR, and btw, it costs almost 2x as much" is not the selling point that one might think.

I am a bit worried about Arri suing me 🙂 Might have to be a secret release