Photography News Issue 63

First look 33

Photography News | Issue 63 | photographynews.co.uk

Yosuke Yamane

PN got the chance to find out a littlemore about the S serieswith Yosuke Yamane, division president,

ImagingNetwork Business Division, Panasonic Corp.

PhotographyNews: Howdo you feel now that the S series has been revealed? Yosuke Yamane: I feel like my baby has started walking. I am very happy. PN: The S series is aimed at pros butmost are committed toCanon andNikon; sowhere are customers going to come from? YY: We want existing MFT users who want to step up as well as users fromother companies. We know that MFT users stepping up is a small market and does not help us expand our business. We know that it will be very difficult but that is why we dare to challenge and we would like as many DSLR users from Canon and Nikon as possible. PN: What was initial motivation in going full-frame? YY: We actually started planning for full-frame mirrorless eight years ago. We were focused on MFT but we knew people wantedmore depth-of-field control and to have higher expression in their pictures. Video and still imaging convergency is the trend for the camera industry. We have to lead this trend, to have an advantage over Canon and Nikon – that is why we decided to develop full-frame. PN: We are at 47.3megapixels: where do you stop? YY: Regarding sensor evolution, 100 megapixels is already inmedium format and 100megapixels in full- frame will be possible. But with 100 megapixels the data will be heavy, so it is very difficult to operate and what is the purpose of this to the customer? This is the thing we have to find out before we develop the product.

Above This straight out of camera JPEG was shot at ISO 200 in the standard colour setting and it shows excellent saturation

Three S lenses

If you need or want seriously large prints, go for the high-res mode

Lumix S 24-105mm f/4MacroOIS Prices £1299.99 Optical construction 16 elements in 13 groups Closest focusing distance 30cm Filter size 77mm Dimensions (lxd) 118x84mm Weight 680g

Lumix S Pro 50mm f/1.4 Prices £2299.99 Optical construction 13 elements in 11 groups Closest focusing distance 44cm Filter size 77mm Dimensions (lxd) 130x90mm Weight 955g

Lumix S Pro 70- 200mmf/4OIS Prices £1745.99

Optical construction 23 elements in 17 groups Closest focusing distance 92cm Filter size 77mm Dimensions (lxd) 179x84.4mm Weight 985g

out of the S1R. But if you need or want seriously large prints (of a suitable subject), go for the high-res mode that gives resolution of 187 megapixels. Here, eight shots, with the sensor moving between shots gives Raws of 350MB and these open up to 16,736x11,168 pixels – this means prints of 55x36in. That is way, way, way more than most users will ever need but if you are a fan of the finest detail the option is there. High-res mode needs the camera to be on a solid tripod and you need static subjects. You can set a time delay to make sure the camera is utterly stable during the eight shot

sequence and after shooting the Raw takes about ten seconds to write and in that time the camera is locked up. Gentle movement, such as the leaves of a tree in a breeze, can be handled by the Mode 2 option in high-res mode and this works by comparing the detail of the eight images. The process takes no longer than normal high-res mode. I shot normal Raws, JPEGs and high-res files. The Raws were processed through SilkyPix Developer Studio 8 SE and on a 27in 4k monitor looked really, really good. I use a 45.7-megapixel DSLR and my initial feeling (but

PN: What aspect of the S series makes you personallymost proud?

YY: The thing that makes me most proud is that we never

compromised. So in each area – EVF, AF, OIS, lenses, sensor, engine – we made no compromises. Each part is like a part of a baby’s body, so we are proud of everything in the cameras, and we are sure professionals will be satisfied with each function and each aspect of performance.