Panasonic Lumix S1R Mark II coming soon

[MrSMW]

On 8/17/2025 at 12:38 PM, Thpriest said:

As for being perfect, where’s the fun in that?

I like perfection because you can muddy it up but as the saying goes, you can’t polish a turd.

Anything I can do that makes my workflow better, enhances creativity because it allows a greater effort to be focused in that regard.

I feel and have felt for a long time that the tools have been getting in the way hence the streamlining.

Arguably the tools have been good enough for quite some time, but there have always been real world niggles.

No excuses now, anything I don’t manage or get wrong is on me.

Again, has been arguably for a long time, but being realistic, as a one man band hybrid shooter and with no manual, it’s been a learning curve and though that curve has flattened significantly long since the 15 years I started (shooting hybrid), it’s still a ‘work in progress’. And always will be.

[MrSMW]

Mid season report.

Actually, I am nearing end of season with just 2 more jobs to go this year until June next…which is quite normal for me.

The TDLR is I almost love it…

Why ‘almost’? 
I’ll get to that…

The Good =

The body design actually. Yes I would rather Lumix had moved to a body style more like the FX3, but I guess they thought that might scare photographers who expect a hump. Whatever the reason, it’s not as innovative as it could have been and despite not having a top screen, really is like a smaller S1H in the hand and IMO, that is a good thing. In my hands, with no battery grip or any other adornment other than the smallest Senheisser mic, it feels just right in terms of size, weight, build, comfort, ergos.

It’s a true hybrid. It would be even better with an internal electronic VND, but hey ho, maybe that will come with the S1H2? With 5x C1-5 custom settings and a simple photo-video switch, it’s fabulous for hybrid work. I don’t even use all 5 photo and 5 video settings, but have it set up basically as: landscape photo, portrait/candid outdoor, portrait/candid indoor and low-light, all with a starting f stop, aperture, WB, ISO and equivalent matching settings for video so it’s actually only one flick of a switch to flip between video and stills in any given scenario. Brilliant.

The sensor. 44mp. Perfect 👌 for me sweet spot between the more traditional 24mp and the 100mp of the bigger MF sensors. Suits both photo and video.

Video files and capability. I shoot 7.2k 30p open gate and the file sizes are not huge or slow to work with. With baked in conversion LUT, SOOC I love them. Yes raw would be even better, but an almighty faff and overkill for my needs. The open gate allows any number of crops, 30p a 20% reduction in speed on a timeline and the 7.2k quite a bit of scope for punching in etc. Having said that, not fully edited a finished production yet but I have checked and edited a few bits here and there and it’s even better than the 6K I was using before which itself was better than the 4K from Lumix FF cameras so thumbs up.

The Not So Good =

Battery life is pretty poor. I’ve always scoffed at people reporting poor battery life and never experienced it on any camera. Until now. It’s not great, but a spare battery in my pocket at all times is how I now roll and is what it is.

AF accuracy for video is good but not Sony level. Ditto for photo. Having come directly from an A7RV, I’d give the nod to the Sony for ultimate outright stills quality and AF, but the S1RII gets the nod for video and body.

I don’t think there is anything else other than I have a pair of them matched with the 35mm f1.8 on one and the 85mm f1.8 on the other.

The S9 is on lighter duties of video only, mostly longer than clips and sometimes even full length ceremonies and speeches and has only overheated once and that was on a very hot day in direct sunlight. The S1RII by the way, I have never even had a warning and has never got hot to touch, - just the usual warmth you might expect shooting a thing all day long. I may replace the S9 next year with an S1IIE for a bit more robustness and utility, but waiting to see if any S1H2 appears before doing that, if I do that. Almost certainly will trade the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 for the new Lumix 24-60mm f2.8 next year as I think it will suit my needs better and appears to offer better AF and detail/rendering.

S5II soldiers on in its static role and just does what I need it to do. I do need to find a way to get rid of the battery grip and the heavy tripod however and working on that…

So ‘almost’ love it. It’s the battery life and good but not stellar AF plus the less than exciting body design that drops it 2 points for me so I’ll give it an 8/10.

Along with the Z8, probably the best all round hybrid camera available today? At least for my needs. Taking into account lens options and prices.

[MrSMW]

New firmware dropped today, apparently S2 cameras no longer catch fire and several 8k open gate tests have been shown to outlast battery life.

No mention of the latter being improved and maybe they sneaked something in there in that regard as it’s less than I am used to and my only real criticism of the camera.

New Sigma 17-40mm f1.8 landed for me personally also.

So far, so good.

Internal zoom, hurrah.

Not big nor heavy, hurrah.

Bright f1.8 constant aperture, hurrah.

Hybrid zoom works with 4k 50p and there is a 422 all-intra mode, albeit at 800mbps, another lower one at 600mbps and a long gop 420 at just 200mbps and most likely going with that with the new Cinelike A2 profile that is not as flat as the D2 or as punchy as the V2.

With the hybrid zoom enabled plus the standard level (ie there is a higher level with more punch in) EIS engaged, gives a good FF equivalent range of 28-66mm which is perfect for my needs.

I think we’re going to get along beautifully and should do exactly what I needed which was to reduce kit (bodies, lenses, lens swaps etc) down to a more compact level.

The proof of course will be out in the field but it’s a mild evolution than any kind of revolution after 5 years now with LUMIX, so not expecting any surprises…

[eatstoomuchjam]

Media Division did a deep dive.  Big improvements for sure.  They were able to trigger overheating in some pretty extreme scenarios, but it no longer seems to be a likelihood in any reasonable shooting situation.

 

 

[Davide DB]

And a lot of small improvements too

[MrSMW]

13 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

Media Division did a deep dive

One of the best channels on YouTube in this industry.

Thorough, no hype and do actually make quality productions out in the field and not simply spout BS from behind a desk, holding a lav mic wearing clothing back to front.

[John Matthews]

Now that many of the overheating problems are fixed, I can't wait to see all the videos saying Panasonic has fixed the issues. Oh wait, that might not attract the views.

[eatstoomuchjam]

And while it's not nearly as ridiculous as the EOS R5's overheating problems that were almost entirely caused by the Canon 🔨, when you bring out an S1R on any number of shoots for a long time, someone's bound to start going on about how it overheats.  I still get that when I bring out my R5 for slider shots/suction cupping to windshields/etc.

"Aren't you worried that's gonna overheat?  I heard that camera overheats a lot."
"They corrected most of that a while ago and I'm pretty sure it'll make it through this 45 second take, regardless."

[Andrew Reid]

I have never understood why someone would shoot a 30 minute continuous take at 120fps.

It's absolutely fucking bonkers.

120fps is for slow mo.

If you slowed-down an hour long continuous take from 120fps to the cinema standard of 24p, it would last for 5 hours.

Who the fuck is sitting through that?

[MrSMW]

8 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

 

I have never understood why someone would shoot a 30 minute continuous take at 120fps

 

You won’t be buying tickets to my new feature, ‘Escargot!’ then will you?!

It’s a 5 hour documentary about the life of garden snails in rural France and with every ticket sold you, you get a free lettuce.

 

[Jahleh]

9 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I have never understood why someone would shoot a 30 minute continuous take at 120fps.

It's absolutely fucking bonkers.

120fps is for slow mo.

If you slowed-down an hour long continuous take from 120fps to the cinema standard of 24p, it would last for 5 hours.

Who the fuck is sitting through that?

Well, if you do fast sports alone and want to capture the certain moment in slow mo when it happens if it happens at all,  the only way is to set the camera to tripod, hit record and go do the sports you do. 

Then you trim and save only that special moment, not the whole clip. Oh wait, with R3D NE you can’t do that at the moment🤯

[eatstoomuchjam]

A compressed format seems a lot more appropriate for that use case than raw.

[Jahleh]

Maybe, but if you happen to shoot a lot outside during nice sunset light and with a beautiful view behind where the action happens why on earth would you shoot only h.265, especially with the ZR, if you can shoot R3D NE or Nraw and be happy about the small IQ and ease of color grading improvements. 
 

This shooting being just a hobby to me that I can combine with other hobbies even small IQ improvements are worth it, if it makes you spend more time with the hobbies and be happier what you manage to capture.

With Pana’s over sharpened h.265 it became more like set the camera and forget, and I had not that much interest chenking the captured footage nor edit it. 
But you do what suits you the best.

[Davide DB]

6 hours ago, Jahleh said:

Well, if you do fast sports alone and want to capture the certain moment in slow mo when it happens if it happens at all,  the only way is to set the camera to tripod, hit record and go do the sports you do. 

Then you trim and save only that special moment, not the whole clip. Oh wait, with R3D NE you can’t do that at the moment🤯

Or you have pre-recording 😙

[Jahleh]

28 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

Or you have pre-recording 😙

Pretty sure pre-recording does not cover a minute or two longer periods and it probably needs someone to press the shutter or record button before action starts.
Nikon has this auto capture, that would be a better solution if it works reliably and starts when subject enters the frame as configured in the settings and stops too. 
Still, in certain sports you need to start the camera well before execution, and not worry what it is doing, if you want to be able to perform.