Camera test 67
Photography News | Issue 64 | photographynews.co.uk
Performance: exposure latitude
At the time of testing, Lightroom could not process S1R’s Raws, so Silkypix Developer Studio Pro8 was used. On this software, the limit for exposure correction was +/-3EV. The shot was taken using the 50mm f/1.4 lens and the metered correct exposure was 1/250sec at f/6.3, ISO 100. On the evidence of this test with this software, the ability of S1R’s Raws to handle overexposure isn’t overly impressive. The +3EV shot looked unacceptable, with flat grey highlights, although the shadowdetails looked absolutely fine. Even the +2EV shot didn’t look great, with the blue sky picking up a cyan cast, although this can be corrected with more
diligent processing. Again, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the shadows. On underexposure, there were no real issues. The -3EV and -2EV shots looked fine after software recovery in tonality and colour saturation. Viewed on-screenat 100%, the -3EVshot showed visible noise – notably in shadows – but it was acceptable and could be minimised in software if needed. The -2EV shot looked cleaner, while the -1EV image was identical to the correctly exposed frame. The Panasonic Lumix S1R’s Raw showed a reasonable, but not spectacular, resistance to exposure abuse, and ideally you need to be within +/-2EV.
Above The Lumix S1R’s camera layout is elegant and simple and should hold no fears for keen photographers
especially with older EVFs, where a flickering, smeary, low-resolution, laggy image is off-putting. Give a photographer a camera and the first thing they do (after turning it on) is put it up to the eye, so the viewfinder is a crucial feature. Panasonic has done a great job here, because the S1R’s EVF is excellent and a world away from EVFs of old. If your experience with EVFs has not been good to date, check out the S1R’s, because I’m certain you’ll be impressed. It’s a high-resolution 5760K EVF and it resolves fine detail superbly and, having used all of the latest cameras, the S1R’s EVF is the closest I’ve seen to being optical. It has two refresh rates, 60fps and the better, but more power hungry, 120fps. I also like having the option of three magnifications, and camera settings are shown in a black surround outside the image area. The adjustable monitor works well and the touch functionality for menu setting and picture reviewing was fine. Inmechanical shuttermode, push the shutter button and you get a low- pitched sound and any vibration is nicely absorbed by the hefty body. Handholding at slow shutter speeds is perfectly manageable, with the in-body, five-axis system claiming a 5.5EV benefit and 6EV with lenses installed with OIS.
The S1R packs a 47.3-megapixel resolution, the highest of any full-frame camera currently available
Original image
I did some handholding tests, shooting stills and video with the 50mm f/1.4 and 70-200mm f/4. With video, walking and filming you do get remarkably steady results, while in stills with the 50mm I was more than happy with sharpness at 1/4sec and I had a high success rate at that speed. By success rate, I mean the results were razor-sharp. Going to 1/2sec and 1sec proved less successful and, while I am unfairly comparing apples with oranges, the OIS skills of the Olympus OM-D E-M1X, also tested in this issue, are more impressive. Perhaps we should talk about the camera’s resolution and a key point of difference between the S1R and S1. The S1R packs a 47.3-megapixel resolution, the highest of any full- frame camera currently available. This does mean if you shoot Raws, you get big files – Fine JPEGs are around 20MB and Raws 65MB. Open files up and you get 8368x5584 pixels, which equates to prints of 27.9x18.6in at 300ppi without
interpolation – A2 is 23.4x16.5in. It also means if you like cropping in editing you have lots of pixels at your disposal. Panasonic supplied Silkypix Developer Studio Pro8 for Raw processing – the Adobe software had not been updated to deal with the Panasonic’s Raws at the time of writing this test. Processed Raw images, almost regardless of ISO, looked amazing. Even dull shots looked beautiful, with sharpness and detail. It’s true many of my shots were taken with the £2299 50mm f/1.4 lens, so you’d expect great results, but expectations were exceeded – and by some way. The S1R offers even more, with a high resolutionmode to capture even more detail and tominimise noise. In thismode, eight shots are taken, with the sensor moving between shots. Use this and you get an equivalent resolution of 187 megapixels – file sizes are around 350MB. These open up to 16,736x11,168 pixels – this means prints of 55x36in. With some interpolation, you’ll be able to get
-3EV
-2EV
-1EV
0
Performance: in-body image stabilisation
The S1R features five-axis, in- body image stabilisation, offering up to a 5.5EV benefit on its own and 6EV with lenses featuring IS, such as the 24-105mm f/4 OIS.
With an OIS lens, the in-body feature gives Dual IS, with the two systems working together to give extra correction for yaw and pitch. The shot below was
taken with a handheld S1R with a 50mm f/1.4 lens and a shutter speed of 1/4sec. As you can see, five shots taken at this speed of this scene were all pin-sharp.
+1EV
+2EV
Images The Raw exposure bracket shot with a Lumix S1R corrected nicely in the +/-2EV range. Go beyond that, though, especially with overexposure, and the exposure corrected results do not look so good
+3EV
Images The effectiveness of the S1R’s IBIS system is helped by the camera’s heft, which aids stability
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