Thpriest

On 7/4/2025 at 11:14 AM, MrSMW said:

Decision made, I am sticking with LUMIX regardless of what Nikon or Sony do next.

S1Rii inbound...

Here's my reasoning and intentions for those that are interested in such things!

Currently I am using:

S9 + 2x S5ii for my video work, plus a Sony A7RV and a Nikon Zf for stills.

That's 5 camera bodies plus 9 lenses spread over 3 systems with 3 different menus, batteries, handling/haptics etc.

In summary, it works, but not without issues.

I am switching to 4 camera bodies plus 7 lenses over 1 system.

I have 3 principal aims:

A: Reduce the amount of kit I have to work with and

B: Have it all within one single cross-compatible system.

C. Ability to pull 6k stills from video footage on a consistent basis.

Nikon is or was an option with Z8 + 2x Z6iii + Zf and all my Tamron e:Mount lenses would work just fine, but the negatives for me are mainly; no write to second card back up, Vlog is easier/better to grade and looks better to my eye (marginal but looks that way to me) and costs a few thousand more than an all LUMIX line up.

Sony has the best lens lineup options for me and I prefer the FX style bodies by a large margin, but no 6k camera (at least for now) kills it for me. 

Nikon may come out with this rumoured ZR for 2026 and it may answer some of my current Nikon criticisms...but it may not and if it does, c'est la vie, 'sideways' rather than anything I actually need.

Ditto Sony. It's the lens lineup mainly that is the draw and if there was a 6k camera available now, I would probably have gone in that direction and in FX style bodies, it would have sealed the deal, but again, even if that comes into being by the end of this year, too late for me and I'm not a brand hopper for the sake of the latest new thing just because it's the latest new thing, ie, this current crop of ex-Sony Shillsters to now LUMIX Shillsters are all going to be hopping back in the direction of Sony within the next 6 months for sure.

Nope, I can't and won't do that. If I have a Porsche, I might look at Ferrari or Aston and think, "yep, they're nice, but I already have a Porsche and it's fantastic". (I don't, - I have a used 150,000 miler Skoda Octavia Scout 😜 )

I'm 2 weddings in to a 17 wedding season and the new boy won't arrive in time for the next 2 which I leave for on Monday, but at least the 13 jobs after that will all be with the new system which will now comprise the following:

S1Rii with Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 until I have sold all the stuff I need to sell and then will be picking up the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 for indoor use and use my existing LUMIX 70-200mm f4 for outdoor use. I hate lenses that extend with zooming and neither of these do! Hybrid use, - mainly stills but I will also shoot video with this.

S9 with 18/50/85mm f1.8 on freestanding monopod which is my current and going forward will now share duties with the S1Rii as my 'run & gun' units.

Pair of S5ii's remain as my 2x statics with any 2 of the above 6 lenses that are not in use on the S1Rii or S9 at any given time, but at some point, I am going to add the Sigma 28-105mm f2.8 into the mix, ie, still 1 less body and 2 less lenses than I have currently been using this year and last, but the 28-105 will give me a bit more flexibility that my current L Mount lens lineup lacks.

The only thing that put me off doing this sooner really was the body design...

It's not that exciting and I was hoping for something more S1H or even Sony FX style but upon reflection, it's a better body than the S5ii being slightly chunkier, a MUCH better rear LCD and a few knobs and whistles that improve the overall use.

Dream camera? Probably not, but a very very solid move (for me) I think.

The bottom line is once you have pushed that button, how do you feel about it and will I miss the A7RV and Zf?

I feel good about it actually because the positives outweigh any negatives and the Sony + Nikon pairing has been stellar, but there is simply a better (for me) option now.

7.2k 30p Open Gate Vlog here we come...

 

 

A logical move I ‘d say. Better to have just one brand. I’d love the S1ii but I don’t see it being up to the task of events snd weddings during the Spanish summer. A shame but it makes me realise what a bargain I have with my S5iis.

The Canon C100 was a fantastic camera. Great images and ergonomics. It's main problem for me was it's size. It was hard to pack away quickly with a lens attached.

On 5/25/2025 at 3:35 PM, MrSMW said:

Even then, I very much doubt I will as I work with 3 (video) cameras and only 1 of them would need to full frame 6k 50p OG and that would be the one in my hand/monopod and the S5 body is a wee bit too heavy for my liking.

I mean it's not like it's a beast or anything, but now I am using the S9 in that role, it's actually a surprising difference.

Or could also be the fact that I have a very slim baseplate on the S9 whereas it was a Smallrig cage on the S5ii and using the f1.8 primes rather than the f2.8 Sigma 28-70, so all in, maybe around .5kg difference.

Otherwise I am just one camera away from a switch to Sony or Nikon because then I can drop 1 body and 4 lenses from my current 5 body 9 lens combo for stills and video...which is pretty considerable! I can't do it with L Mount in any combo of Lumix/Leica/Sigma.

I admire your ability to manage so much gear at a wedding! 

14 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Ditto, but I don’t want it enough to €2k+ per camera to trade for it!

Yeah, I’m in the same boat…for now at least. That could change when the offers start!

I’ve started shooting mostly in open gate on my S5ii. It’s really very handy. If I had 6K 50p open gate I’d probably use it 80% of the time.

I think the price hike is almost everywhere, not just the camera market. Just look at cars over the last 5 years. The Dacia Sandero used to have a model that cost around 8000€, now the cheapest is 14000€. Admittedly they have improved but for nearly double the price?

As for housing it’s mental. There’s inflation everywhere other than wages. If wages were inline with goods price hikes then we probably wouldn’t be complaining (as much!). At least that’s what I make of it. 

Depends on your needs and budget at the end of the day. Of course I'd like it to be cheaper and I think it will be quite soon.

7 hours ago, Thpriest said:

I don't see the S9 discounts in Spain but the new S1ii packs are out:

3.850,52 € for the S1ii and the 24-60 2.8. That looks a reasonable offer.

When comparing to an FX3 for example, which is 4.482,18 €.

Hopefully by spring the combo will be around 3500€ which is when I might look to buy them.

I don't see the S9 discounts in Spain but the new S1ii packs are out:

3.850,52 € for the S1ii and the 24-60 2.8. That looks a reasonable offer.

It was the GX80. Had it from the beginning but sold it when I moved to FF. Bought it again, still loved it but sold it again because I can't justify 2 systems.

The GX80 and Voigtlander 17.5 0.95 was a great combo.

4 hours ago, MrSMW said:

I'm not really seeing any difference between any of them; S5, S1H, S5ii.

Lovely shot.

I think they are all great, I've had the S1, S5 and S5ii. But I can't deny that the first generation just had something nicer about it, for want of a better word. Saying that, the S5ii has a great image and the handling is much improved.

I think that all the S line has produced very nice images and colours. I say that as someone who has noticed that the S5ii is not quite at the level of the original S1 and S5 but it’s still great.

I think the price is the only real problem. If they were both 400-500€ cheaper they’d probably sell a lot. Maybe this tariff stuff has altered the prices and Lumix was simply unlucky as the are the first to have to consider this with a big new launch.

I also agree that a 800-1000€ GX80 update with unlimited 4k 50p and maybe open gate would sell like hotcakes.

Call it 'Arry Log

What I haven't seen yet is a bundle price with the new lens.

I suppose it will depend on the Sony's price. Normally they are a fair bit higher. The FX3 was 4700€ (although it came with the XLR mount). The Lumix comparable XLR mount (not 32bit) is around 400€ new. So we'd still see an 800€ or so difference.

1 hour ago, stephen said:

Price in Europe is 3500 Euro as rumors suggested. I think this is a good strategy from Panasonic. Sell to the more impatient at higher price, then as time passes prices will go down. Nikon Z6 III started at more than 2600 Euro, now can be purchased brand new for 2000 Euro. Lumix S1 II is a true hybrid but more on the video side.

It actually looks almost perfect for me (being a Lumix user). I think I'll stick with my 2 S5iis until the S1ii is on offer next year. Then I'll probably sell a S5ii and the Sigma 28-70 and get a S1ii and 24-60 combo.

1 minute ago, ND64 said:

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

Hopefully because price is key (although I'm not sure if they raised the price in the EU etc as well). If we are talking 300€ cheaper than the original quotes, so 2500€ and 3200€, then it becomes quite interesting.

12 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

Which sites?  The stuff I see on l-rumors.com basically matches up to what's been posted here - an incredibly mediocre camera which, if the price rumors are true, will not be at an extremely competitive price.

In the comments there are some links etc. Buuuuut, it all seems to have been translated from Chinese so there is probably a lot of room for error!

Looking at the rumours on other sites I think tomorrow might be a lot more positive than some think.

As i'm a freelancer and can discount VAT I buy most of my kit new. Each country and market is different. The Sony A7iv is going for around 1800€ and the Lumix S5ii for around 1300€ on the second hand market here in Spain. That's a decent lens price difference.

When I bought the S5ii 2 years ago I got it with the Sigma 28-70 2.8 for 2590€. Discount the VAT and that's hard to compete with in my eyes. I looked at buying Sony but to buy a similar kit (2 cameras, 24-105 f4, 28-70 2.8 and 3 1.8 primes) was double the price.

I keep coming back to price and value. The Sonys are about 50% more expensive. Whilst the price of the new Lumixes seems a bit high for me at present, I'm sure that within a year the have great offers or bundles on all of the new cameras. That's when i usually pick them up. So far Lumix has offered me unbeatable value. I hope that continues.

Specs etc only tell us so much. Let’s see them at work. The thing I don’t really understand is whether they’ll have FF 4k 50p. If they don’t that would be a fatal mistake.

https://latam.connect.panasonic.com/mx/es/productos/lumix/lumix-s1iie
 

According to this it looks pretty interesting although I’m still not too clear on the difference between the models other than a white box.

I'd prefer a compact 24-60 over the 28-70 I have. I find those first 4mm much more useful than the last 10mm