Video test
speed can be set to shutter angle – which is always a nice feature. There’s peaking, and the 2200mAh battery can be charged in use via the USB-C port. Plugged in, it takes around four hours to fully charge from flat. The camera doesn’t come with a dedicated battery charger, though, so you’ll probably want to buy one – as well as some spare batteries in case of all-day shooting. For stills, the electronic shutter will rattle through frames at 30fps, or 7fps mechanical. A high-resolution mode can combine four shots to produce a 96-megapixel still. Stills produced are of excellent quality, with very natural colours and loads of detail. However, the lack of a stacked sensor does make a difference when shooting action stills at 30fps, since there is a slight delay in the viewfinder. It’s not a camera for sports or wildlife aficionados, but for anyone else it’s a perfectly good stills machine. The real test for filmmaking comes in its actual performance – and the S5 II delivers a huge amount. For starters, image stabilisation is phenomenal. Panasonic’s in-body, five-axis system works with the brand’s own OIS lenses to provide really smooth footage. It’s among the best we’ve used in a full-frame camera. There’s also Boost IS for video, which makes it feel almost like the camera is on a tripod. This option isn’t for panning or moving the camera at all, but prepare to be amazed when you use it handheld and keep the camera still. More important is the new phase detection autofocus system, which includes all the face, body and head tracking, plus multi-zones and multi- adjustable speeds. It’s far better than
crop. There’s C4K and 4K in 25p 4:2:2 10-bit internal with no crop though. Go to 4K/25p in 4:2:0 10-bit and you can access high frame rate settings up to 60p with no crop, but there’s no audio recorded. Any normal 4K frame rates have an APS-C crop when going to slow motion settings. So you have to be really careful with the settings you choose. With many of the latest cameras offering full-frame 4:2:2 10-bit All- Intra, with 4K/120p and HD up to 240fps, the S5 II can look a little limited at the extremes. But you need to ask yourself how often you absolutely need those settings. With a body-only price of £1999 for a full- frame camera, there will always be compromises somewhere against pricier rivals. That isn’t to say the S5 II is lacking as a camera primarily aimed at filmmaking – it’s packed with features that make shooting video easier. Like the S5, it has full V-Log colour gamma, full LUT support and anamorphic capture with in-camera de-squeeze – not to mention HLG colour for easy HDR recording. There’s waveform and vectorscope monitoring, four-channel audio recording if you use the optional DMW-XLR1 adapter, plus shutter “THE VIDEO RESOLUTION HAS BEEN UPPED FROM 4K TO 6K OPEN GATE – IDEAL FOR SHOOTING ANAMORPHIC”
more detailed OLED with 3.68m dots (compared to 2.3m) and real-time LUTs that can be baked into the photos and videos, if you wish. Both SD card slots are now UHS-II, where the S5 only had one slot of that speed. Best of all is that the video res has been upped from 4K to 6K open gate – ideal for shooting anamorphic. Drop to 17:9 for a more conventional widescreen view and you can shoot in 5.9K up to 30p. However, all these full-frame codecs max out at 4:2:0 10-bit Long GOP, rather than the more detailed 4:2:2 10-bit All-Intra – although in the real world, there isn’t a huge difference, especially for general use and in well-exposed footage. If you must have 4:2:2 10-bit All-Intra – and even ProRes codecs internally – the more expensive S5 II X camera will be what you need. The S5 II does offer C4K/60p in 4:2:2 10-bit, but this has an APS-C NOW FOCUS The addition of new AF settings, plus features like dual native ISO and variable shutter angles, show that the S5 II means serious business
GET CONNECTED With slots for a mic, headphones, an HDMI output plus a USB-C connection, you have the ability to use the Lumix S5 II as a foundation for building a formidable filmmaking rig
like it’s one firmware upgrade away from being on par with Sony and Canon. The camera we used was a prototype, so it could well be tweaked on the production versions. As a first attempt, it’s solid, and makes the S5 II the first Panasonic Lumix where you can trust AF in most circumstances. As our test camera was not a final production version, it can be misleading to look at the actual quality of the footage in case it’s upgraded before a public launch. But in this case, the Panasonic S5 II produces such amazing-quality files that we’re happy to praise it highly. The 6K footage is highly detailed, of course, but we’re more interested in the C4K and 4K output that most working filmmakers will use. And 4:2:2/4:2:0 or not, the footage is excellent. Colours are beautifully rendered with lots of detail, loads of dynamic range and that look you only get from Panasonic cameras. Even in standard gammas, it’s organic and not too ‘digital’. And for a more filmic look, the flatter V-Log setting increases dynamic range and is easy to grade how you want. The sweet spot of resolution seems to be around 24 megapixels, since this gives low noise yet is still detailed enough for great 6K footage – with the 4K superb, too. Control of rolling shutter is good, but you won’t always want to do whip pans. As there’s no 4K/120p and the 4K/60p is either cropped or has no audio, it’s not the best for sports shooters. And there’s no 240fps even in HD. For everyone else – that is, the majority of filmmakers – the S5 II gives stunning performance and spec at an attractive price. And finally, phase detection AF makes it a far more capable all-round camera. PN
the old system on the S5 or pretty much any of the S-series cameras. Face detection works very well. The human and animal detection is great, too, although it can get confused when objects come in front of a very obvious subject – and sometimes, it simply fails to see a clear target. The system takes some getting used to, but works well when you get to grips. However, it still feels
PACKED WITH GOODIES Despite having a new cooling fan squeezed in, the Lumix S5 II’s body has kept the same dimensions as its predecessor
50 Photography News | Issue 104
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