ND64

What's interesting about Japanese market, which by no means representing the global market tho, is not Nikon taking the lead, which is a sudden jump by a single product, but Sony's steady decline, despite all previous generation alpha cameras they were selling at lower prices.

 
 

A few interesting quotes from the BCN web page where the chart orrginates from (my bold):
Nikon is basically going for a 'pile it high and sell it cheap' strategy in the full-frame MILCs - but as the last to enter that market, they probably don't have much choice when up against Canon and Sony (Panasonic is almost a niche player but could easily suffer collateral damage from the battle).

What's interesting about Japanese market, which by no means representing the global market tho, is not Nikon taking the lead, which is a sudden jump by a single product, but Sony's steady decline, despite all previous generation alpha cameras they were selling at lower prices.

 
 

In his world view globalism is good if it lets him have access to foreign real estate market, otherwise its evil.

Easily doable even with the Z mount, but I doubt Nikon goes so big. So far, nobody among Japanese camera makers have implemeted 5 inch display into their morrorless bodies. Its like a taboo over there. Maybe because they think it ruins the ergonomics of the body.

from Nikon Rumors:
Brick-shaped, video-oriented design, without pentaprism and EVF – a combination of the current RED models design, the Sony FX3, and the Nikon Z30
Many features and tech from RED will be incorporated inside (not a new RED camera with Z-mount – we already got that)
Z6 III sensor inside
Very large LCD screen
The official announcement is expected later this year, most likely in the third or fourth quarter of 2025
 
I don't know what Frankenstein of a brick body would be the combination of RED/FX3/Z30, but "very large" LCD gives hope its a bit different from whats already available in the market.

If I were the modern day Chris and Jordan in a camera store somewhere I would try and explain it like this...
Buy the S5 II as it's cheapest, unless you need a few extra video features, which I'll explain in a moment. But if you're a photographer it's an easy choice, definitely S5 II best and cheapest. Unless you compare it to the Canon R8, Nikon Z6 II, Sony a7c, or wait actually I forgot the S9... That is the cheapest for photographers, except not if you are a photographer that needs to look through an EVF or wants a mechanical shutter. I'll explain what that does in a moment. But first, you say you're actually quite interested in video, so I'd recommend the S1 IIE instead, as the S5 II is already made obsolete by it, so pay the extra for the E version and you will get... erm... An E on the badge. Also are you sure you don't want to go all the way out to $3500 for the S1 II, yes that is $1000 more than a Z6 III for the same sensor and no N-RAW, worse body design, but it is the best Panasonic... for video... I think... At least for a month or 2 before the S1H II might come out, or it might not... Oh shit, we're forgetting the S1R II. That does 8K open gate now, they just gave it a firmware update. Hey, Johnny where're you're going... Come back Johnny! HEY! STAY AWAY FROM THAT CANON EOS R5 II FFS!

from Nikon Rumors:
Brick-shaped, video-oriented design, without pentaprism and EVF – a combination of the current RED models design, the Sony FX3, and the Nikon Z30
Many features and tech from RED will be incorporated inside (not a new RED camera with Z-mount – we already got that)
Z6 III sensor inside
Very large LCD screen
The official announcement is expected later this year, most likely in the third or fourth quarter of 2025
 
I don't know what Frankenstein of a brick body would be the combination of RED/FX3/Z30, but "very large" LCD gives hope its a bit different from whats already available in the market.

Thom Hogan:
"Nowhere in Panasonic's press releases or marketing information I've seen so far do they actually seem to know how to market their six different 24mp cameras (S1II, S1IIE, S5II, S5IIX, S9, and BS1H). In the S1IIE features list the sensor is listed as "inspired by the performance characteristics of the Lumix S5II," which tells you nothing. Those of us in the press these days are dealing with AI driven press releases, but I'm failing to even see the I in Panasonic's. Nothing tells me which 24mp camera to buy, let alone why I should buy it instead of Canon's, Nikon's, or Sony's. This feels like "stuff the channel and see if it sells" product management, not clear, user centric marketing."

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! 

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! 

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! 

Nikon now can do the funniest firmware update in history of hybrid mirrorless industry. 

Price will be probably lower. This $3500 is likely post-crazy-tariffs calculation and they would revise that, given the newly released tariff numbers. 

Its amazing that this situation doesn't change a bit with every new product announcement.

Its amazing that this situation doesn't change a bit with every new product announcement.

Its amazing that this situation doesn't change a bit with every new product announcement.

The only way for them to remedy the Z6iii sensor's flickering is using a better noise reduction. Its too late for a hardware tweak. Meanwhile I hope this rumor of Sony Semi becoming independent entity is true. 

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 :

 

I don't know it's educational system issue or purely political issue, but it should be clear for anyone with IQ above the "retarded" territory that the whole purpose of the trade, (even since thousands of years ago), is provide the best goods available in the world at cheapest possible price for "our" people. So even from a nationalist point of view, if my people get the best goods very cheap, my country wins. With tariffs, my fellow citizens get worse goods (because of less competition) at higher prices! Its completely opposite of the purpose of the trade.
We're living in a timeline that Christians support billionaires who publicly despise the poor, and nationalists support the losing position for the nation. 

I don't know it's educational system issue or purely political issue, but it should be clear for anyone with IQ above the "retarded" territory that the whole purpose of the trade, (even since thousands of years ago), is provide the best goods available in the world at cheapest possible price for "our" people. So even from a nationalist point of view, if my people get the best goods very cheap, my country wins. With tariffs, my fellow citizens get worse goods (because of less competition) at higher prices! Its completely opposite of the purpose of the trade.
We're living in a timeline that Christians support billionaires who publicly despise the poor, and nationalists support the losing position for the nation. 

How they calculated that? Is it Made in China? 

How they calculated that? Is it Made in China? 

But tariffs apply at import point not at the retail. Its "import value" is not $5k. For example if Canon R5ii is $4k, Canon USA will take its profit from that, and then B&H. So the import value could be $3k (I don't know how much each middle man takes from MSRP, but I know its not insignificant). So 33% tariff should be applied to the $3k price, which makes it $4k, then add to that the distributer and retailer profit, which was $1k, and then it will be $5k for the customer. But if you apply that to the original retail price of $4k, it becomes $5330. So somebody other than the government pocket that extra $330. 

I don't know it's educational system issue or purely political issue, but it should be clear for anyone with IQ above the "retarded" territory that the whole purpose of the trade, (even since thousands of years ago), is provide the best goods available in the world at cheapest possible price for "our" people. So even from a nationalist point of view, if my people get the best goods very cheap, my country wins. With tariffs, my fellow citizens get worse goods (because of less competition) at higher prices! Its completely opposite of the purpose of the trade.
We're living in a timeline that Christians support billionaires who publicly despise the poor, and nationalists support the losing position for the nation.