ntblowz

There is an R5/R6 user experience thread so I figured it was safe to start a Panasonic S5 user experience thread.  I've only shot with it for a few hours, mostly setting up (and learning) the menus and I know there are already endless YouTube reviews, but I thought I'd share my thoughts on my experience so far; completely unbiased, unsponsored and as someone who will use this camera for everything from music videos to weddings and if all goes well I might even use it for photo shoots.

Since there is so much that I like about this camera I've decided to just put my dislikes first because it is such a short list.
The Grip - This is my biggest dislike. holding the camera is so uncomfortable. The grip is really shallow and the strap mount sticks out and digs into your hand when you are holding it in a landscape configuration. Not so much a problem with video for me since I use the back display, but using the viewfinder for images is very uncomfortable. I'm going to try getting a dual battery grip to see if that improves it. The R6 by comparison feels like it was custom molded for my hands. The Lens Mount - I knew this going into it, but there are so few native Panasonic lenses for this camera that I will have to use an adapter which I hate doing. I know more lenses are coming but they are very expensive and everything I've read says the Sigma versions focus very slowly. I would love a Voigtlander fully manual 35mm lens for gimbal work like I have for the GH5. I have no idea yet what I will do for photography or if I will ever trust this camera for paid photo shoots. The Battery - I don't understand the battery at all. It fits the GH5 and has contacts for the GH5 yet for the S5 the contacts are on the other side? Why didn't they do what Canon did and simply make a higher capacity battery with the same contacts?  Not only are spare batteries impossible to find right now, this means all of my GH5 batteries won't work in this camera....so annoying. Ok, short list over now lets get to the stuff I care about that made me realize this was truly the camera for me. I first ordered the R6 and returned it (horrible user experience for my needs) so I am going to kind of compare my experience with the S5 to the R6 since they probably kind of are targeted to the same buyer and since it is hard to ignore the Canon hype machine even when you know about the R6's overheating issues. 
No Overheating - Ok we all know that but I had to put it out there anyway. This was the number one reason I returned the R6. The S5 on the other hand shoots glorious 4K until the card fills up (some limitations of course for 10 bit and 60FPS but it does have unlimited modes). Even if the R6 didn't overheat you would still hit that 30min limit and every single 4K mode overheated. Dual Slot Video Recording - The S5 gives me every option I could want and even a few I don't care about. The R6 will only record to a single slot. Electronic Level Meter - The S5 has it....of course, and it actually stays on while recording video. For some crazy reason the R6 disables the electronic level from showing on screen while recording video. XLR Audio Module - As annoyed as I am at Panasonic for the battery situation, the XLR module from the GH5 works with the S5 so all is almost forgiven. The R6 of course has nothing for XLR. I tested the module today, the S5 recognized it instantly and the audio was perfect. Free VLOG - Ok "Free" is a very generous term, but it does not cost extra. And this is real VLOG not some flavor that just flattens the profile, unlike the R6 which currently ships with CLOG. Canon said CLOG3 was coming in the future, but who knows if it will actually include the R6 or when "the future" really is. Body Quality - The S5 actually feels slightly lower quality than the body of the GH5, but that could be because it is lighter and smaller. Regardless, the quality feels way better than the R6. Sync/Desync Photo/Video Settings - It took me a long time to find, but it is possible to separate the photo and video settings and you even get to pick which ones stay synced with the other. When running and gunning you want shutter angle, VLOG, etc for video and shutter speed, Natural profile, etc for photos. You can set it so that they are completely separate, not all cameras let you do that and even the R6 did not let me pick which settings to keep in sync (i.e. keep just ISO the same between the two).  Dial Position - It is great to have the video mode and Manual photo mode side by side on the dial. The R6 had them at literally opposite ends of the dial....very annoying. Dedicated Buttons - There is a dedicated ISO button and a AF/MF switch on the lens. The R6 had neither. I use the AF / MF lens switch all the time, its the fastest way to be 100% certain all of the AF stuff is off, especially if you are switching between photos and video. Video Footage - The footage out of the camera so far to me in with my very limited testing is incredible, I didn't think Panasonic had it in them. The colors are perfect to my eyes, the codecs are super easy to play back in VLC and actually easier to edit in Davinci Resolve than the GH5's footage. Both 4K60FPS and 4K30FPS play smoothly even after color grading. So far the footage grades as easily as the R6 footage with the added benefits of not needing proxies. Codecs - You get to pick H.264 or H.265 and still get to shoot in VLOG and 4:2:2 10bit. For some crazy reason Canon with the R6 forces you to shoot in H.265 if you want to use CLOG. I will happily sacrifice a little storage space to never have to try to edit H.265 again. Manual Focus Features - I hated the focus rings on the Panasonic MFT lenses, they were non linear which made manual focusing nearly impossible. I ended up getting manual Voigtlander lenses instead. Panasonic has fixed that big time; not only can you now pick linear you can even pick how many degrees to go from stop to stop. I think the R6 let me pick linear but not the focus throw. I do miss Canon's 3 little triangles when manually focusing, to me that's still the best MF guide in the industry. On my S5, focus peaking doesn't seem to work; its on but I can't see it so I have to play with that some more. Timelapse Photography - Ok I had to throw this one in there. Maybe other cameras have this, but this is literally the first camera I have ever owned that lets you do a time lapse in body without an intervalometer AND that lets you take more than 99 images. That's always been a pet peeve of mine for most cameras.  Wireless Flash Control - Another pet peeve of mine answered by Panasonic, it can wirelessly control up to 4 flashes without needing an additional transmitter. Of course I'll never use this feature since I already have a complete flash system, but for someone starting out this means even less gear to lug around and to buy. Big Red Recording Box - Who hasn't thought they were recording when they weren't? I turned on the big red box right away (as soon as I found it). This is great, and will definitely help in the future. The R6 of course didn't have this. LVF Button - I didn't understand how important this was until I shot with the R6. It was so annoying in the R6 to have to  pick view finder or back screen display. If you picked view finder you had to go into the view finder and navigate back to the setting to change it back. If you picked auto, the screen kept shutting off on me when the camera got to close to my hand or body. Maybe you could map a custom button but I like leaving all of them at their defaults. For the S5 if you want to turn off the viewfinder sensor just press the LVF button...switch to just the VF press it again, switch to auto press it again. So easy to disable/enable one or the other. Auto mode is terrible, switches off the screen all the time if anything gets near the sensor. Here is my neutral list, either I don't really have an opinion yet either way, or I haven't tested the camera enough to feel good or bad about it.
Photography Capabilities - I'm still kind of neutral on the photography department. All I have is the kit lens and didn't have time to try the photography part. If it comes even close to the R6's photo performance that will be good enough for me.  My Sigma adapter gets here Friday so I will be able to test it with my Canon lenses. Auto Focus - I never used it in the GH5 but this time around it is different because I want to try the photography features as well. In my brief testing, the AF worked fine for photography. It still has the hybrid AF option where you half press the shutter button for the initial focus then can fine tune it using the focus ring so that's good enough for me for video. Menu System - It is improved a bit over the GH5 but still nowhere near as intuitive to me as Canon's menus. I think once I set up my Favorites menu it will be fine, but there's so many features I'm having a hard time finding some of them. I never did learn the GH5's menus, I just created a video Favorites list and that's all I use. My 5DIV is a different story.  
Final Thoughts - This camera makes me wish I was a travel photographer/videographer. It has so many uncompromised features that would be so useful when traveling that you could practically literally bring just this camera, a wireless flash, XLR module, a few lav mics, variable ND filters, a small video light, travel tripod, and shoot just about anything photo or video. I'm already thinking about projects that I want to shoot with this camera vs the R6 where all I could think about was if it would even make it through the shoot.

Rode Wireless Go and Blink 500 are only good for short distance, for long distance or have view blocked (like body facing away from camera) a G3/G4 will be much better. So it depend on your distance

Surely you meant HOURS not days? Otherwise CAD$3800 is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay undercharging!

That is very true, hence I m moving away from wedding, profit margin just too low vs corporate or motorspot for billionaire.
 

I haven't tried the 24/25/30p so can't comment, theoretically it should give less heat than 4KHQ
 
Well here is my thought on the R5 after the race day
 
1. AF   The most reliable method for me is the Zone AF, tracking AF on cars can get lost when I also do the panning or when the car is down to certain area on screen or if there is a lot of cars which can block the view. Expand AF can get OoF once the car goes past and I have to use manual to get back in focus quickly otherwise it is really really slow to get back to focus. (with telephoto lens), There is still occasional focus hunt when I panning across to follow the car (from forward to sideway)
2. Custom Video Mode Major advantage over R6 is the custom video mode, currently I have set to FHD/4K50P/4K100P, so when I want to change I just press the mode and change. I can totally feel the pain for R6 user which currently doesn't have this, Canon should really update R6 for this feature.
3. Movie Crop Mode You can't set the movie crop mode to a custom key which is super dumb, I have to go to menu each time i want to do crop mode, on Sony and Panasonic you can set key for much faster access.  If you shoot in crop mode and change to your custom mode it will still shoot in crop mode (unless in 4K100/120/8K).
4. NTSC/PAL Selector  Much better done on Canon than Sony or Panasonic, just change the frequency and shoot, no need to format card (Sony) or restart camera (Panasonic), so if I need more slowmo I just change to NTSC and keep on shooting.
5. Battery Issue  I had problem where it just suddenly give me error when using EF Lens on the adapter on the genuine LP-E6N battery, I have to use LP-E6NH to make the problem go away. I will need to investigate this more. Though I feel I might get more LP-E6NH at end and sell the old LP-E6N.
6. No CLOG on H.264 This is probably the most dumbest move on Canon, we get that HEVC offer twice the efficiency but the bitrate is quite healthy on the H.264, there is absolute no technical issue for clog not on H.264! Hope Canon can really fix this as X.265 is so awful to edit.  There is HDR PQ to increase DR on H.264 if you dont want X.265 or Andrew's EOSHD Clog to emulate Clog on H.264, I used cinestyle as it matches up with the 1DX2 which also use cinestyle to help with edit in post as the video is due next day.  My editor have no problem editing the 4K50P on H.264, though 4K100P is still lag feast on Ryzen 7 4800H.
 
Other than that the editor say the video quality is definitely better than the C100MKII I shot on previous race, unfortunately we can't share our video as it belongs to the TV station (for subscriber only) but here is the  video from the team's media team  (some of my R5 footage is from 4:36 onwards)
 
 
 

Yes, CLOG. On my 2016 MBP I have to create proxies. On the 2020 model, it's not smooth like butter, but absolutely usable without proxies. 
I shot my first event this past weekend with the R6 (mainly photos, I had my Ursa G2 for video) and it preformed well in 100º weather. The event was Subaru of America's Guinness World Record attempt in Los Angeles. I also photographed the 2022 BRZ teaser shots for them (those hit all the car sites yesterday), but I used my Olympus EM1X for that since I don't have the flash transmitter for the Canon yet. 

For video, I did use it to film a car in the desert the day prior. It was 110º and, as expected, video was near useless. It fell to only a minute usable after about 10 minutes of shooting various, very short clips. I do like the camera though, and I have lots  of other options for video so I'm going to keep it anyhow. Just would be nice if it was a bit more useful. 

I haven't tried the 24/25/30p so can't comment, theoretically it should give less heat than 4KHQ
 
Well here is my thought on the R5 after the race day
 
1. AF   The most reliable method for me is the Zone AF, tracking AF on cars can get lost when I also do the panning or when the car is down to certain area on screen or if there is a lot of cars which can block the view. Expand AF can get OoF once the car goes past and I have to use manual to get back in focus quickly otherwise it is really really slow to get back to focus. (with telephoto lens), There is still occasional focus hunt when I panning across to follow the car (from forward to sideway)
2. Custom Video Mode Major advantage over R6 is the custom video mode, currently I have set to FHD/4K50P/4K100P, so when I want to change I just press the mode and change. I can totally feel the pain for R6 user which currently doesn't have this, Canon should really update R6 for this feature.
3. Movie Crop Mode You can't set the movie crop mode to a custom key which is super dumb, I have to go to menu each time i want to do crop mode, on Sony and Panasonic you can set key for much faster access.  If you shoot in crop mode and change to your custom mode it will still shoot in crop mode (unless in 4K100/120/8K).
4. NTSC/PAL Selector  Much better done on Canon than Sony or Panasonic, just change the frequency and shoot, no need to format card (Sony) or restart camera (Panasonic), so if I need more slowmo I just change to NTSC and keep on shooting.
5. Battery Issue  I had problem where it just suddenly give me error when using EF Lens on the adapter on the genuine LP-E6N battery, I have to use LP-E6NH to make the problem go away. I will need to investigate this more. Though I feel I might get more LP-E6NH at end and sell the old LP-E6N.
6. No CLOG on H.264 This is probably the most dumbest move on Canon, we get that HEVC offer twice the efficiency but the bitrate is quite healthy on the H.264, there is absolute no technical issue for clog not on H.264! Hope Canon can really fix this as X.265 is so awful to edit.  There is HDR PQ to increase DR on H.264 if you dont want X.265 or Andrew's EOSHD Clog to emulate Clog on H.264, I used cinestyle as it matches up with the 1DX2 which also use cinestyle to help with edit in post as the video is due next day.  My editor have no problem editing the 4K50P on H.264, though 4K100P is still lag feast on Ryzen 7 4800H.
 
Other than that the editor say the video quality is definitely better than the C100MKII I shot on previous race, unfortunately we can't share our video as it belongs to the TV station (for subscriber only) but here is the  video from the team's media team  (some of my R5 footage is from 4:36 onwards)
 
 
 

Well I just took my S5 out on a proper full day's video job!
I think it went quite well and will post up the result once I've edited the job.
Takes a bit of used to with the familiarity of the controls etc and just the ergonomics/muscle memory coming from Fuji XT3 but looked good on the back of the camera.
So far, so good...

The description of clients is so true. Many simply don't value the skill of a videographer. They think they hire us because we own a camera and if they do, they can easily do our jobs. How hard can it be, when they're already making videos or taking stills with their smartphone? 
To convince a client the value of quality gear and skillful videographer is very hard until they can see the result. I have a client who thought I charge too much so he decided to hire his friend to film the next corporate event. Then he knew I didn't get paid because I owned a big and bulky FS5. 😆
Anyway, I don't own any camera at the moment because the lack of work. I sold many lens as well. I can't justify having them sitting on the shelf, collecting dust, while I am struggling to pay rent. I go to rental house when I have a paid job to do. 

I hope so, but if not I understand.  
Im feeling like such a schmuck.  Seemed harmless at the time, but now I see that eoshd is a real community with people who watch out for and protect that community. And THAT is a real rarity online and one that I want to be a part of and make things right with.
I will do what ever is asked to repair and make amends for what I did.  I really appreciate the offer of forgiveness, that means a lot.

I haven't tried the 24/25/30p so can't comment, theoretically it should give less heat than 4KHQ
 
Well here is my thought on the R5 after the race day
 
1. AF   The most reliable method for me is the Zone AF, tracking AF on cars can get lost when I also do the panning or when the car is down to certain area on screen or if there is a lot of cars which can block the view. Expand AF can get OoF once the car goes past and I have to use manual to get back in focus quickly otherwise it is really really slow to get back to focus. (with telephoto lens), There is still occasional focus hunt when I panning across to follow the car (from forward to sideway)
2. Custom Video Mode Major advantage over R6 is the custom video mode, currently I have set to FHD/4K50P/4K100P, so when I want to change I just press the mode and change. I can totally feel the pain for R6 user which currently doesn't have this, Canon should really update R6 for this feature.
3. Movie Crop Mode You can't set the movie crop mode to a custom key which is super dumb, I have to go to menu each time i want to do crop mode, on Sony and Panasonic you can set key for much faster access.  If you shoot in crop mode and change to your custom mode it will still shoot in crop mode (unless in 4K100/120/8K).
4. NTSC/PAL Selector  Much better done on Canon than Sony or Panasonic, just change the frequency and shoot, no need to format card (Sony) or restart camera (Panasonic), so if I need more slowmo I just change to NTSC and keep on shooting.
5. Battery Issue  I had problem where it just suddenly give me error when using EF Lens on the adapter on the genuine LP-E6N battery, I have to use LP-E6NH to make the problem go away. I will need to investigate this more. Though I feel I might get more LP-E6NH at end and sell the old LP-E6N.
6. No CLOG on H.264 This is probably the most dumbest move on Canon, we get that HEVC offer twice the efficiency but the bitrate is quite healthy on the H.264, there is absolute no technical issue for clog not on H.264! Hope Canon can really fix this as X.265 is so awful to edit.  There is HDR PQ to increase DR on H.264 if you dont want X.265 or Andrew's EOSHD Clog to emulate Clog on H.264, I used cinestyle as it matches up with the 1DX2 which also use cinestyle to help with edit in post as the video is due next day.  My editor have no problem editing the 4K50P on H.264, though 4K100P is still lag feast on Ryzen 7 4800H.
 
Other than that the editor say the video quality is definitely better than the C100MKII I shot on previous race, unfortunately we can't share our video as it belongs to the TV station (for subscriber only) but here is the  video from the team's media team  (some of my R5 footage is from 4:36 onwards)
 
 
 

I haven't tried the 24/25/30p so can't comment, theoretically it should give less heat than 4KHQ
 
Well here is my thought on the R5 after the race day
 
1. AF   The most reliable method for me is the Zone AF, tracking AF on cars can get lost when I also do the panning or when the car is down to certain area on screen or if there is a lot of cars which can block the view. Expand AF can get OoF once the car goes past and I have to use manual to get back in focus quickly otherwise it is really really slow to get back to focus. (with telephoto lens), There is still occasional focus hunt when I panning across to follow the car (from forward to sideway)
2. Custom Video Mode Major advantage over R6 is the custom video mode, currently I have set to FHD/4K50P/4K100P, so when I want to change I just press the mode and change. I can totally feel the pain for R6 user which currently doesn't have this, Canon should really update R6 for this feature.
3. Movie Crop Mode You can't set the movie crop mode to a custom key which is super dumb, I have to go to menu each time i want to do crop mode, on Sony and Panasonic you can set key for much faster access.  If you shoot in crop mode and change to your custom mode it will still shoot in crop mode (unless in 4K100/120/8K).
4. NTSC/PAL Selector  Much better done on Canon than Sony or Panasonic, just change the frequency and shoot, no need to format card (Sony) or restart camera (Panasonic), so if I need more slowmo I just change to NTSC and keep on shooting.
5. Battery Issue  I had problem where it just suddenly give me error when using EF Lens on the adapter on the genuine LP-E6N battery, I have to use LP-E6NH to make the problem go away. I will need to investigate this more. Though I feel I might get more LP-E6NH at end and sell the old LP-E6N.
6. No CLOG on H.264 This is probably the most dumbest move on Canon, we get that HEVC offer twice the efficiency but the bitrate is quite healthy on the H.264, there is absolute no technical issue for clog not on H.264! Hope Canon can really fix this as X.265 is so awful to edit.  There is HDR PQ to increase DR on H.264 if you dont want X.265 or Andrew's EOSHD Clog to emulate Clog on H.264, I used cinestyle as it matches up with the 1DX2 which also use cinestyle to help with edit in post as the video is due next day.  My editor have no problem editing the 4K50P on H.264, though 4K100P is still lag feast on Ryzen 7 4800H.
 
Other than that the editor say the video quality is definitely better than the C100MKII I shot on previous race, unfortunately we can't share our video as it belongs to the TV station (for subscriber only) but here is the  video from the team's media team  (some of my R5 footage is from 4:36 onwards)
 
 
 

OK, I'll give you some feedback then.
You created an account which was not only being used to boost the posts of your main one but was actually interacting with those posts as though it was a real person.
That wasn't done accidentally or unconsciously was it?
You were then caught red handed and would no doubt have just continued with this deception if you hadn't been.
Your response to this deliberate shithousery being exposed was a six paragraph post in which the word "sorry" didn't only not appear but it wasn't even implied.
That complete lack of contrition is as bad as the initial deception.
 

So breaking forum rule is ok without remorse at all?  Doesnt seem fair to us who try to follow the rule?

No products or services to sell.  I only mentioned Leeming LUTs because I thought they were considered neutral corrective LUTs. I don't care what LUTs people use, but do want to communicate what I have chosen to start with.  I shared a Vimeo link because its better quality than YouTube and no commercials.  
I just want to share what I could on a camera I've been waiting a long time for and learn and work through the new options. 
Its hard starting out on these bigger forums and getting any feedback.  If you look back over my posts, I think you will see how much I've shared what ever I could find and put a lot of time into it.
Right now I'm trying to work through my new A7S3 so I can get the most out of it.  Im new to 10bit and RAW, so was hoping to get these new workflows dialed in.   Along the way I was planning to share what I learned.
Sony agent? Now that made me chuckle.  I do have a Sony PRO Support account and try to get info from them to share here, and have.  Even taking questions from here and getting accurate answers from Support.  I do have mostly Sony gear,  kind of stuck now, too much glass and time with the system.  
In the past I just made hammocking videos and published to my tiny YT channel, named after my trailname Hang4Fun)..  But this year I am starting to do paid shoots.  Been trying to learn the ropes and share as I go. 

I got less time on S35 in 4K50P than FF 4K50p (20min vs 30min), FF 4K50p/60p is not oversampled.
 
4K Screengrab from R5, I think i can just grab stills from video.. much easier this way., rolling shutter is quite acceptable on R5.

Those are great shots, if I shot sports or fast moving objects the S5 definitely wouldn't have been my choice.  I look forward to seeing how you like the S5, I plan on using it as my GH5 gimbal cam replacement and as a b cam to my C200 on bigger shoots.  I'm even cautiously optimistic that it may serve as my A cam on smaller hybrid photo/video shoots. Never thought I would say that about anything other than a Canon camera but like @Andrew Reid stated....it seems like Panasonic is one of the few companies offering everything people want (except AF) and I don't use AF at all  for video.
Everyone raves about the Canon's AF but it was shockingly bad when trying to film a dance group this weekend with the R6. It kept getting lost when they did certain moves and would lock onto an audience member in the background until I tapped the screen. I switched to MF after the first take. I think good AF definitely has its place, but for most of my work every time I've tried it it fails.

When they add the lower bitrate Canon RAW Lite to the R5, it would be great if they added it for the APSC mode (5.1K) and up to 60p. 

Ah don't need the explanation after all.
Better remember to log out of your shill account before posting with your main account next time @Hangs4Fun

Frame grab from today's interview. Just made basic adjustments to balance the RGB parade, nothing else. WB needs a little tweaking and I feel like I never add enough contrast...
Shot at 4k24p roughly 50mm and f/4 or 5.6, can't remember which one as it was getting brighter and my ND only went to 5-stops, so I had to stop down to prevent hotspots on the boats in the BG.
Chris

Can anyone walk me through this sequence of events ?
 



 
 

This video kinda confirms what I see.. Panasonic Vlog is the most robust codec so far, can be over and under exposure and still can get away, Sony you will have to use non log profile to have "clean" lowlight, underexposed slog is so ugly.
 
 
 

This video kinda confirms what I see.. Panasonic Vlog is the most robust codec so far, can be over and under exposure and still can get away, Sony you will have to use non log profile to have "clean" lowlight, underexposed slog is so ugly.
 
 
 

Yeah the devil is in the detail!  R6 dont have reliable long session 4k is a huge bummer, the C70's AF apparently is just slightly better than C300 III but nowhere near the same as DPAF II on the R5/R6/1DXIII.
This race I was shooting in cinestyle instead of clog because of fast turnaround we need (due next morning), editor have no problem editing 4k50p on H.264, 4k100p is still quite laggy but we do not using too many of those as our is for TV segment while the main media team is the artsy stuff.
S5 should be really good for your use,  I got S5 myself cause it is quite good for the price you pay for the features and more for my side jobs (with anamorphic and stuff).  R5 is mainly for company work and some photography.  The main video guy for this race team is still on GH5.
 
Here is photo I took on R5 with the RF 600mm, the 600mm is pretty good for the price/size/weight.

Yeah the devil is in the detail!  R6 dont have reliable long session 4k is a huge bummer, the C70's AF apparently is just slightly better than C300 III but nowhere near the same as DPAF II on the R5/R6/1DXIII.
This race I was shooting in cinestyle instead of clog because of fast turnaround we need (due next morning), editor have no problem editing 4k50p on H.264, 4k100p is still quite laggy but we do not using too many of those as our is for TV segment while the main media team is the artsy stuff.
S5 should be really good for your use,  I got S5 myself cause it is quite good for the price you pay for the features and more for my side jobs (with anamorphic and stuff).  R5 is mainly for company work and some photography.  The main video guy for this race team is still on GH5.
 
Here is photo I took on R5 with the RF 600mm, the 600mm is pretty good for the price/size/weight.