The Panasonic S1 II pricing is wrong, and so is the entire product strategy since 2018

[MrSMW]

2 hours ago, Thpriest said:

First job today, video and photos. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations!

My prediction is it will and it is a step up from the S5II.

I’d also choose lens but Sigma 28-70 will soldier on for now as I prefer 28 over 24 personally and 70 over 60, but the Lumix 24-60 is probably the better lens now.

 

[Thpriest]

5 hours ago, MrSMW said:

My prediction is it will and it is a step up from the S5II.

And your prediction is correct! A huge difference in responsiveness in general and so much easier to use when switching between video and photo. I felt it worked a lot better with my Godox flash as well (I’m still pretty new to flash). I feel I have way more “keepers”. The screen and evf are great. I had it on for 5 hours pretty much non stop with no problem although it was probably only about 20 degrees in the venue.

Tomorrow I have another similar event (video and photo) and on Saturday anther event with photos only. I think they are going to be a lot easier to manage than they would have been with the S5ii. I would probably have had 2 S5iis, 1for doing photo and 1 for video. Now I can do the same with one camera!

[MrSMW]

That ability to flip between stills and video is great…as long as you either:

A. Don’t mind using an ND for stills. Personally I do mind.

B. Or don’t mind cranking the shutter for video. Personally I don’t mind and last 3 weddings I shot with zero ND and did not notice any difference to the quality of the video other than the image quality was better than the previous 3 jobs shot with a VND.

C. Or use a flip up or magnetic filter and I have tried both and didn’t care for either.

I think one of the beauties of shooting video with the S1RII is base 200 ISO in log (and 160 with ARRI log C but personally think Vlog looks better most of the time bit could make a better base if also baking in a LUT) meaning less requirement for using ND anyway.

I have however decided to go back to having separate bodies for stills and video because it just works better for me, with less kit, more range, near zero lens swaps.

On that basis, I currently have one of my S1RII’s dedicated to stills with the 28-70 with hybrid zoom (28-105 and still achieving 18mp stills at the long end) enabled for outdoor use, with the 35mm f1.8 as my low-light indoor option.

The second S1RII I bought used came with the Arri Log preinstalled and I have this one paired with the 17-40 crop lens (and with EIS enabled it’s giving me a FF equivalent range of approx 28-66) as my dedicated run & gun video unit, with 18mm f1.8 as my wide angle FF option, especially for indoor low light, tighter scenarios.

S9 has had a stay of execution and I have welded the 85mm f1.8 to it and mounted it on a lightweight tripod as my sniper video unit, plus is serves as a back up to any or all of my 3 main cams.

The 3rd main cam being the same S5II workhorse with the 70-200 f4 on heavy tripod for all my static and long form capture stuff. I also have the 50mm f1.8 in reserve for it for tighter, lower light, indoor scenarios, so all bases as covered as they can be.

But going back to the video/stills settings, being able to have I think 9 dedicated stills settings and 9 video at the turn of a single dial is fantastic. I only have 4 settings set up and these are; outdoor landscape, outdoor people, indoor lower light and indoor/outdoor extreme low light as in after dark, each with appropriate ISO ranges and WB etc.

It’s crazy really how good this kit now is and the S1RII might not be my favourite camera of all time, but it is easily the most capable and zero complaints other than yes, I would have preferred the more rangefinderesque body style (and hope Panny makes one or at least a Leica Q3 43 rival) and average at best battery life. And obviously, the 4” screen a la ZR would be very welcome, but I’d personally want it with the S1RII style mech and not flipped out to the side. I’d prefer just tilt even to flip out to the side!

Best video quality I have had out of a camera and it’s pretty robust with equal image quality to the best I have ever had which was Sony A7RV.

As a pure stills camera, I think the A7RV does still have the edge being honest, but it’s a narrow margin and as a hybrid, the LUMIX comfortably tops it.

Not updated the firmware yet but that was very welcome.

I hope your shoot goes as well tomorrow.