GEAR PANASONIC LUMIX S1 II sweet spot right now for resolution versus low-light performance. It’s flawless at low ISO settings, very clean up to ISO 3200, and decent higher than that too. It’s a great sensor – and who really needs 8K? DIALLED IN The S1 II has all the right buttons in convenient places
spent, as Arri is famed for its beautiful colour rendition and huge choice of LUTs. This brings something similar to Alexa style to a sub-£3000 mirrorless. Footage shot in Arri LogC3 can easily be converted to your choice of looks from the Arri library that now has more than 80 high-quality styles. The online Arri simulator lets you browse and select the Arri Look File that best fits your shoot. It means the camera will play nicely with real Arris on multicam, big-budget projects. Although, as the S1 II offers ProRes Raw internally with V-Log, this means a huge amount of colour information that compressed codecs can’t match. So if you know what you’re doing, you can get many similar looks in grading anyway. But the Arri setting offers an easier way to lovely colours. It’s a bit of a shame the Arri setting is for video only and not stills. If you’re a massive fan of video Raw, the camera can output Raw files to an Atomos monitor-recorder for conversion to ProRes Raw or a Blackmagic device to use Blackmagic Raw (BRAW). It’s ideal for anyone who edits in DaVinci Resolve, which doesn’t really unlock the full power of ProRes Raw files. The £99/$99 Octopus Raw Studio is a good Raw converter plug-in that transforms workflows in Resolve.
One of the aces up the sleeve of the Lumix is its internal codec choices, with All-Intra, Long GOP, internal Apple ProRes and ProRes Raw recording up to 4.2Gbps via its CFexpress Type B card slot. Though the second slot is SD only, so isn’t quick enough to handle this. Another great feature is that footage can be written to an external SSD via USB. Best of all, if you have recorded onto the CFexpress card then you can plug in an SSD via USB-C and copy all the data to it without a laptop. It’s not particularly fast, but the ability to make instant backups in the field with no laptop is new and simply brilliant. In terms of gamma, there are lots of choices, and they’re all adjustable to your own taste. From standard and flat to the new Cinelike A2 – all with real-time LUT preview – you’ll find something that works. We found standard a bit too oversaturated, but it can all be tweaked or you can simply choose something different. Arri you experienced? If you are serious about cinema, then, like the GH7 series, the S1 II can accept an Arri LogC3 gamma via a paid firmware upgrade. It’s a bit of a faff to load up and activate – and it costs £179/$200 – but it’s money well
Video that pushes the limits What makes the S1 II stand out for filmmakers are features like its 6K/30p open gate recording, which captures the entire sensor area – great when reframing and for vertical workflows. The latest firmware will add multiple frame guides at once, so you can frame with a clear view of what a vertical or horizontal crop will look like in post. For content creators who need to film in both versions for social media, this is a great addition. As well as the 4K/120p with the 1.24x crop, in 5.7K you get up to 60p with full sensor width capture. Or try 4K or C4K downsampled for up to 60p in amazing quality. For really fast rates, 1080p will overcrank to 240fps in super slow-motion, and audio is captured too. Unlike some of the crop-heavy alternatives, the S1 II maintains a full- frame field of view, even at high frame rates – which proves a clear advantage for cinematic slow motion without compromised framing.
SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED
Taken at just 1/60sec, the IBIS worked well for this stills photo
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PRO MOVIEMAKER
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