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Panasonic Lumix DC-S1II preview
Product photos: Richard Butler
The Panasonic Lumix DC-S1II is the company's second-generation, high-end 24MP full-frame mirrorless camera, now based around a Stacked CMOS sensor, and the same body introduced as the S1RII.
Key specifications- 24MP partially-stacked BSI CMOS sensor
- Up to 70fps shooting, including Raw
- 1.5 seconds pre-burst capture
- 96MP multi-shot mode with in-cam combination and motion correction
- 10-bit HLG HEIF still images
- In-body stabilization rated at up to 8.0EV of correction
- Open-gate 6K video up to 30p
- Full-width 5.9K or 4K up to 60p
- 4K/120p video with slight crop
- 6K Raw output over HDMI
- Built-in fan for extended recording
- External SSD output for video
- V-Log with 15-stops in DR Boost mode
- Arri C-Log3 paid upgrade option
- 4 channel and 32-bit float audio with XLR2 adapter
- Bluetooth timecode sync
The Panasonic S1II will be available from June 2025 at a recommended price of $3199. As with the launch of the original S1, this is a around $600 more than the list price of its nearest competitors from Nikon or Canon.
Index:- What's new
- How it compares
- Body and handling
- Video capabilities
- Sample gallery
- Specifications
- Press release
The S1II becomes the second camera we've encountered to promise a 'partially stacked' CMOS sensor. This is a conventional BSI sensor with more complex readout circuitry applied as an additional layer around the edges of the sensor. This allows faster readout than with a BSI chip with single-layer readout circuitry, but without the significantly higher manufacturing complexity and cost of a fully Stacked CMOS design.
Panasonic says the 24MP sensor it's using is 3.5x quicker to read out than the BSI chip used elsewhere in its range. It's unlikely to be a coincidence that this is the same figure Nikon gave the the improvement it saw between the Z6 II and Z6III.
The sensor allows the S1II to shoot stills at up to 70fps (10fps with mechanical shutter). Panasonic highlights that this capability, combined with pre-shot capture, is designed to help capture key moments, not to make it an out-and-out sports camera. We found it could shoot for around 3 seconds at full speed, which is going to be more than enough for most people's photography.
ISO and dual gainThe sensor's base ISO is 100, when using the camera's Standard Photo Style. Other response modes have higher base ISO ratings to encourage the use of lower exposures to capture additional highlight information. The sensor is a dual conversion gain design on which Panasonic lets you manually select which gain mode the camera is using.
Low gain mode High gain mode Standard Photo Style ISO 100 ISO 800 Cinelike A2, D2, V2 ISO 200 ISO 1600 Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) ISO 400 ISO 3200 V-Log ISO 640 ISO 5000 HLG HEIFThe S1II gains the ability to shoot 10-bit HEIF files using the HLG high-dynamic range tone curve. You can shoot with the standard color response, a mono mode or with a custom LUT applied. This allows you to shoot true HDR photos in-camera and do so while still capturing a Raw file alongside.
You can convert the HEIF to an SDR JPEG or, alternatively, you can re-process the Raw in-camera and output an adjusted version as a HEIF. This only works for Raws taken with the camera in HEIF mode, though: Raws shot alongside JPEGs can only be re-processed as SDR HEIFs or JPEGs.
This brings us another step closer to cameras being able to exploit the increasing prevalence of HDR displays. The HEIF format still isn't widely, reliably supported, and HLG files don't always live up to the promise of working equally well on SDR and HDR displays, but with Panasonic, Sony and Nikon all offering HLG HEIFs as an HDR option, it looks like the industry is approaching the adoption of a common standard.
Urban sports AFThe S1II gains a new subject recognition mode, Urban Sports recognition. This is designed for the likes of breakdancing or skateboarding, essentially: situations in which humans are making shapes that the basic human recognition mode isn't necessarily trained to recognize.
Settings backup and transferThe S1II gains the ability to back-up its settings to an SD card. These can then be used to reset the camera to your preferred settings or to quick-configure other cameras. Panasonic says this capability will be extended to other models, with mutually-supported settings carrying over from one model to another.
Video capabilitiesIt shouldn't come as a surprise to find the S1II's video feature set is extensive, building on the large array of options provided by the S1RII but underpinned by a much faster-reading sensor.
We detail the options as fully as possible, later in this article, but the headlines features are:
- Open gate recording
The S1II can record 6K footage from its entire 6000 x 4000 sensor at up to 30p or 5.1K footage derived from the same region at up to 60p - 4K up to 120p
4K video can be captured in DCI or UHD 4K at up to 60p from the full width of the sensor or in 5.9/5.8K resolution from the same regions. Alternatively, with a small crop, the camera can capture 4K/120p - Cinemascope 120p
Another option is to shoot a very wide 'Cinemascope' style 2.4:1 region of the sensor in 4K resolution at up to 120p - Anamorphic shooting
Videographers using anamorphic lenses can capture 4.8K video from a 4:3 region the full height of the sensor at up to 60p - ProRes RAW capture
The S1II can also capture 1.89:1 ProRes RAW video from either the full sensor width at up to 30p or from a native DCI 4K region at up to 60p
Beyond this, the S1II offers highlight warnings set at two different thresholds (dual zebras), false color, the ability to specify exposure in terms of shutter angle (especially valuable on a camera that can so easily switch between frame rates), and the ability to preview corrected Log footage and record proxies.
Cinelike A2Like the S1RII, the S1II gains the new Cinelike A2 color profile. It's essentially a midway between the low-contrast Cinelike D2 profile and the punchier, ready-to-use Cinelike V2 one. The color response is designed to be a little more like that of a major cinema camera maker.
On a similar note, Panasonic says that the ability to natively shoot Arri's Log C3 profile will be offered as an extra cost firmware upgrade to the S1II. They say this uses Arri's Log response natively, not shooting V-Log and —trying to map across to an approximation of C3.
DR BoostThe S1II has a Dynamic Range Boost mode, allowing it to capture up to 15 stops of dynamic range. We were not given details on how it's being delivered.
All we were able to establish is that it's not comparable to the GH7's DR Boost function that combines parallel readout paths, shot simultaneously (but with no option to turn the function off). Nor is it the same as the DR Expansion function on the S1RII, which changes the readout bit-depth to gain DR at the expense of more rolling shutter.
There is a significant rolling shutter impact for DR Boost on the S1II, and the available video modes top out at 30p (24p for the full-height 6K, 5.1K and 4.8K modes). Base ISO in V-Log mode increases by 2/3EV to ISO 1000, when engaged.
DR Boost Off DR Boost On 6K Open Gate /30 14.6ms — 6K Open Gate /24 14.6ms 34.1 ms UHD 4K /24 12.5 ms 30.4 msPanasonic promises a DR increase from "14+ stops" to "15 stops" of dynamic range if you engage DR Boost mode, but its lower speed not only makes many of the camera's video modes impossible, it also means you should only use it in situations with very little motion in the scene.
32-bit Float capabilityAs with other recent Panasonic cameras, the S1II is compatible with the optional DMW-XLR2 adapter, making it one of the only cameras able to capture 32-bit Float audio. This uses two different gain levels and clever data encoding to allow very quiet and very loud signals to be captured simultaeously, meaning you don't have to worry about audio levels.
AI-AWBAs well as the ability to re-process Raws as HEIFs (so long as you were shooting HEIF at the point of capture), the S1II gains a new, "AI Auto White Balance" option if you re-process a Raw file in the camera.
The mode is too processor-intensive to use as you shoot but will try to analyse the scene to give the best white balance. Panasonic also says additional processing should allow it to cope better with shots taken under mixed lighting.
How it comparesThe S1II comes in at something of a premium, compared with its apparent peers. Its $3200 price tag makes it a fair bit more expensive than the likes of Nikon's Z6III, with which it shares a sensor, or the Sony a7IV and Canon EOS R6 II with which the Nikon competes.
There aren't currently many other cameras that sit between the mass-market $2500 models and the high-end, high-res options, for nearer $4000. This essentially means one of its only direct competitors is its own sibling, the S1RII, whose list price is just $100 more, giving a high speed or high-res choice of second-gen S1 cameras.
Here we're going to show it against the Nikon, the Canon and its less-expensive sister model, the S1IIE (the 'E' stands for "essentials," Panasonic tells us).
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1II Panasonic Lumix DC-S1IIE Nikon Z6III Canon EOS R6 II MSRP $3199 $2499 $2499 $2499 Pixel Count 24MP 24MP 24MP 24MP Stabilization Up to 8EV Up to 8EV Up to 8EV Up to 8EV (with lens sync) Max burst rate 10fps mech. (continuous AF)70fps e-shutter (continuous AF)
10fps mech. (continuous AF)
30fps e-shutter (continuous AF)
60fps e-shutter JPEG only 12 fps mech.
40fps e-shutter (12-bit) Pre-burst capture Up to 1.5 sec Up to 1.5 sec Up to 1 sec JPEG-only Up to 0.5 sec in Raw Burst mode Viewfinder res / mag 5.76M dot OLED / 0.78x 5.76M dot OLED / 0.78x 5.76M dots / OLED 0.8x 3.69M dots/ OLED 0.76x Rear screen 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot fully articulated 3.0" 1.62M-dot fully articulated Max video resolution 6K/30 (3:2)
5.9K/60p (16:9)
DCI 4K/96, 120p w/ 1.17x crop
6K/30 (3:2)
5.9K / 4K UHD 30p
6K/60 (2.4:1) 6K/60 (Raw)
5.4K 60p
UHD 4K/60, 120 w/ APS-C crop UHD 4K/60 (full width, from 6K) Rolling shutter rate (UHD 24p) 12.8ms 21.6ms 9.4ms 16.3ms Video format options H.264
H.265
ProRes
ProRes HQ
ProRes Raw
H.264
H.265
ProRes
ProRes HQ
ProRes Raw
H.264
H.265
ProRes HQ
ProRes Raw
N-Raw
H.264
H.265
Raw output over HDMI
1x CFe B
External SSD 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B
External SSD 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B 2x UHS-II SD HDR output (stills / video) HLG HEIF / HLG HLG HEIF / HLG HLG HEIF / HLG PQ HEIF / PQ USB USB-C
10 Gbps
UVC USB-C
10 Gbps
UVC USB-C
5Gbps USB-C
10Gbps
UVC Battery life LCD / EVF (CIPA) 360 / 320 380 / 340 360 / 390 580 / 320 Dimensions 134 x 102 x 92 mm 134 x 102 x 92 mm 139 x 102 x 74 mm 138 x 98 x 88 mm Weight 800g (28.2oz) 795g (28oz) 760g (26.8oz) 670g (23.6oz)
The Panasonic S1II is competitive on paper with all its immediate peers, even pulling ahead in terms of continuous shooting rate and its vast array of video modes. Its peers are starting to compete with the range of video support tools provided but the Panasonic still outshines them with specialist options such as full support for anamorphic shooting. The Panasonics are also the only cameras in this class to let you shoot multi-shot high-res images and have them automatically combined in camera (Raw and JPEG).
Only its price counts against it, with it commanding a significant premium compared with its immediate peers.
Body and handlingThe S1II's body is essentially identical to that of the S1RII: similar in size to the more basic S5 models but with a better grip design and a carefully-struck balance between being compact and giving an excellent level of direct control.
The camera is appreciably smaller and lighter than the original S1 model but still feels solidly built. It maintains an extensively environmentally-sealed design with gaskets at all the joins. Its feels solid in the had with a pleasant density to it.
The mic socket sits high up on the left hand side of the camera, comfortably clear of the rear monitor, which pulls out on a tilting cradle, as well as then flipping out and rotating, which lets you keep it clear of the headphone socket, further down its flank. A USB C socket with 10 Gbps transfer speeds sits below this, allowing charging tethered shooting and video recording to SSD. A full-sized HDMI socket completes the left-side ports.
On the right-hand side of the camera is a 2.5mm remote socket. There's no flash sync socket on the S1II but anyone looking to sync timecode from the camera will find the S1 compatible with Atomos' Bluetooth timecode sync system.
Like the S1RII, and distinct from the S5 models, the S1II has one CFexpress Type B slot and one UHS-II SD card slot. It can also output video over its USB socket to an external SSD.
It has both the viewfinder and the adjacent cooling fans of the S1RII, meaning it has a 5.76M dot display (1600 x 1200 pixels). It has 0.78x magnification, making it pretty large. An eyepoint of 21mm means it can be a little difficult to see the extreme corners, if you wear glasses.
BatteryThe S1II takes the same 15.8Wh DMW-BLK22 battery as most of the rest of Panasonic's range. This powers it to a CIPA rating of 360 shots per charge via the rear LCD or 320 shots using the viewfinder. Both figures are measured using an SD card, with both declining by 10 shots per charge if you use a CFexpress card. As always, these numbers are likely to significantly under-represent how many shots you're likely to achieve, but they provide a reasonably like-for-like comparison and these are reasonable numbers for this class of camera.
The S1II is compatible with the DMW-BG2, introduced alongside the S1RII. This adds a second battery and has a sensor on the battery door that switches the camera over to the internal battery when its open, allowing you to hot-swap batteries.
Video capabilitiesAs you'd expect from Panasonic, especially one with a relatively quick sensor, the S1II has an extensive array of video features. In addition to its many, many recording modes, the camera has a considerable array of supporting features to help you get the best results.
The S1II lets you control exposure in terms of shutter angle (handy for quick changes when using different frame rates), waveforms, false color and dual zebras for setting exposure, a vectorscope display for matching color, the ability to show a corrected view for Log or HLG shooting.
There's a tally lamp to make it clear when the camera is recording, the ability to record low-res proxy versions alongside your primary footage, a choice if mic gain levels. The list is near endless. On which note: the ability to add video modes to a custom list by pressing the 'Q' button, letting you quickly access just the modes you want to use is hugely valuable on a camera with this many video modes.
Open gate and Anamorphic modesUsers wanting to crop after the fact or add digital stabilization during their edit are likely to appreciate the S1II's open gate recording mode, which captures the full area of the sensor.
As has become standard for Panasonic, the S1II can alternatively capture a full-height 4:3 region of the sensor for use with anamorphic lenses. It comes with the option to show a desqueezed preview when working with anamorphic lenses and, in a feature unique to Panasonic, lets you set the stabilization system to correct shake with anamorphic lenses.
Widescreen modesThe S1II's partially stacked sensor reads out faster than any in a previous S-series cameras, allowing it to offer full-width 60p capture or 4K/120 with a moderate crop.
There are also a host of 5.xK modes that capture most of the sensor width natively, rather than downsampling to 4K. The S1II, like its 'E' sister model, adds a very widescreen 2.41:1 mode, mimicking the CinemaScope movie aspect ratio of the 1960s. Conveniently, this is also uses about the maximum height of the sensor that can be read fast enough for 120p output, without having to crop horizontally.
Internal RawThe S1II can capture ProRes RAW footage, either in the standard or HQ levels of compression. These are taken either from a 5760 x 3040 region of the sensor or a native 4096 x 2160 pixel region. In both instances, footage can be recorded either to the camera's CFexpress slot or to an external SSD.
Dimensions Rates Crop MOV ProRes 1.89:1 5.8K 5760 x 3040 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:0 Up to 30p 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.04 — Raw DCI 4K 4096 x 2160 96*, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:2 Up to 60p 120, 100 1.17 4:2:0 120, 100, 96, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.45 4:2:0 Up to 60p 60, 50, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.46 — Raw 16:9 modes 5.9K 5888 x 3312 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:0 UHD 4K 3840 x 2160 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:2 Up to 60p 120, 100 1.24 4:2:0 120, 100, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.51 4:2:0 Up to 60p 2.4:1 'Cinemascope' 6K 5952 x 2512 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:0 Cs4K 4096 x 1728 120, 100, 96, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:2 Up to 60p 120, 100, 96, 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.45 4:2:0 3:2 Open gate 6K 5952 x 3968 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:0 5.1K 5088 x 3392 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.00 4:2:0 4:3 for anamorphic shooting 4.8K 4800 x 3600 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.13 4:2:0 Up to 30p 3.3K 3328 x 2496 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.63 4:2:2 Up to 60p 120, 100 1.72 4:2:0Despite this table covering 166 different modes without even deliving into different compression levels or including MP4 options, it's not quite complete, as there are instances of Pixel/Pixel and APS-C modes that have identical options and virtually identical crops existing alongside one another. For reasons of sanity, we've not tried to measure them all.
For similar reasons, we'd strongly suggest the use of the camera's 'My List' feature, that lets you quickly create a list of the modes you plan to use, preventing accidental use of a mode with the wrong frame rate, chroma subsampling method or crop factor and avoiding you needing to scroll through the whole list.
Raw over HDMIAlternatively, if you have an Atomos or Blackmagic external recorder, the S1II can output a Raw stream over its HDMI port, which can be encoded into ProRes RAW or Blackmagic Raw.
Resolution Aspect ratio Frame rates Crop 6K 6000 x 4000 3:2 30, 25, 23.98 1.00 (Full height) 5.9K 5888 x 3312 16:9 30, 25, 23.98 1.00 5.7K 5738 x 3024 1.89:1 60, 50, 30, 25, 23.98 1.00 4.8K 4800 x 3600 4:3 60, 50, 30, 25, 23.98 1.20 (Full height) C4K 4096 x 2160 1.89:1 120, 100, 60, 50, 30, 25, 23.98 1.46 3.5K 3535 x 2656 4:3 60, 50, 30, 25, 24, 23.98 1.63 Sample galleryPlease do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.Panasonic Lumix DC-S1IIE preview
Product Photos: Mitchell Clark
The Panasonic Lumix S1IIE is a 24MP full-frame camera aimed at stills and video shooters. It uses the same BSI sensor found in the Panasonic S5II and S5IIX but paired with the body of the S1II and S1RII, giving it some additional capabilities and features not found in the S5-series.
Key Features- 24MP BSI CMOS sensor
- Up to 30fps e-shutter shooting with C-AF and Raw
- 1.5 seconds pre-burst capture
- 10-bit HEIF recording
- 6K 4:2:0 open-gate recording up to 30p
- Internal Raw recording
- 32-bit float recording via optional XLR 2 adapter
- 2.1M dot flip-out and tilting display
- 5.76M dot viewfinder
The S1IIE will be available starting in late June for a recommended price of $2499.
Index: What's NewAs a blend of existing cameras, the S1IIE doesn't have anything entirely its own. However, some of the features are brand-new on the S1II, announced the same day as the S1IIE, so it's worth looking at what it inherited from that camera and the S1RII and what it keeps the same as the S5II/X.
HLG HEIFLike the S1II, the S1IIE can record stills to a 10-bit HEIF file using the HLG high-dynamic range tone curve, which can also be paired with mono and LUT color modes. This lets you get HDR images straight-out-of-camera without the need to process Raws, though HEIFs aren't nearly as widely supported as JPEGs.
You can do an in-camera HEIF to SDR JPEG conversion, though there is a strange limitation when outputting HDR HEIFs. If you originally shot the image as HEIF+Raw, you can reprocess the Raw and output an HDR HEIF, adjusting settings such as white balance. However, if you shot the image as JPG+Raw, you can only reprocess the Raw into an SDR HEIF. Of course, you can always bring that Raw into desktop editing software to output it however you like, but it is strange that the in-camera processor can only output HDR HEIFs in certain circumstances.
AI white balancing Image Comparison SliderThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Photo taken in a challenging condition with daylight coming in through a window and indoor lighting. The AI white balance tool was much closer to what it looked like in real life.S1IIE | Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG DN Art | 1/250 sec | F1.4 | ISO 100 | Cropped to taste
Speaking of the in-camera Raw processing, the S1IIE has the same "AI Auto White Balance" feature as the S1II. It's only available in post-processing, but Panasonic says it should be better at producing pleasing colors in difficult lighting situations.
New BodyThe S1IIE has the same body as the S1RII and S1II, which makes it just a tad bigger than the S5II. That means it has the same control layout, complete with a dial for switching between stills, video and slow and quick modes, the lock switch and extra custom modes. It also has the large, high-resolution viewfinder and the tilting/fully-articulating display.
Updated autofocusThe S5II brought phase-detect autofocus to Panasonic's full-frame lineup, and the system the S1IIE inherits from the S1RII is a refinement of that. It has the enhanced human subject recognition, complete with support for "urban sports" like breakdancing or skateboarding, where people will be moving their bodies into positions that the previous system may not have recognized.
Compared to the S5II, there's a key difference in the autofocus user interface: the S1IIE, like the S1RII, doesn't fall back to its generic tracking if it's in subject detection mode but doesn't recognize a subject in the scene.
New movie capabilitiesDespite using the same sensor, the S1IIE has 30 more recording modes than the S5IIX. Some of those are the "Cinemascope" modes, which offer a 2.4:1 aspect ratio, as well as the ability to shoot in 60/50/48p in full-width 6K and 4K. Like the S5IIX, it's essentially achieving the faster frame rates by dropping down to an APS-C region of its sensor, just a super-wide one.
The S1IIE also includes the "Cinelike A2" color profile, the ability to record ProRes Raw internally to a CFexpress Type B card, proxy recording to a second card and 32-bit float audio recording via an add-on XLR 2 adapter. You can also use it with Bluetooth timecode synchronization devices and Panasonic's Lumix Flow app, which aims to streamline the process of writing a script, creating storyboards and shotlists and sorting captured footage.
It has the S1II's upgraded stabilization system as well, which the company says is "60% more efficient" than the S5II's. That includes the "cropless" electronic image stabilization mode that's compatible with the company's S-series lenses, though not other L-mount options from Sigma or Leica.
And even more...As is becoming tradition, Panasonic has promised even more features coming via a future firmware update. Those include:
- A paid upgrade for Arri LogC3
- Multiple frame markers, like the S9 and S5II
- Bluetooth connectivity to DJI gimbals
The S1IIE is playing in a relatively crowded field; every manufacturer is pitching their mid-level full-frame cameras as a great hybrid option for stills and videos. We're comparing the S1IIE to Nikon and Canon's similarly-positioned Z6III and EOS R6 II. We've also compared it to the S5IIX, which Panasonic has said will remain in its lineup for now, as the S1IIE is essentially an upgraded version of that camera.
Lumix S1IIE Lumix S5IIX Nikon Z6III Canon EOS R6 II MSRP $2499 $2199 $2499 $2499 Pixel Count 24MP 24MP 24MP 24MP Stabilization (IBIS / Synced) Up to 8EV Up to 6.5EV Up to 8.0EV Up to 8EV Max burst rate10fps mech. (continuous AF)
30fps e-shutter (continuous AF)
30fps e-shutter (continuous AF) 14fps mech. 20fps e-shutter
120fps JPEG only, APS-C 12 fps mech.
40fps e-shutter (12-bit) Pre-burst capture Up to 1.5 sec Up to 1.5 sec Up to 1 sec JPEG-only Up to 0.5 sec in Raw Burst mode Viewfinder res / mag 5.76M dot OLED / 0.78x 3.8M dot OLED / 0.78x 5.76M dots / 0.8x 3.69M dots/ 0.76x Rear screen 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3" 1.84M dot fully articulated 3.2" 2.1M dot fully articulated 3.0" 1.62M-dot fully articulated Max video resolution 6K 30p (3:2)
5.9K / 4K UHD 30p
6K 60p (2.4:1) 6K 30p (3:2)
5.9K / 4K UHD 30p 6K (Raw) 60p
5.4K 60p
UHD 4K 60p / 120p w/ APS-C crop UHD 4K 60p (full width, from 6K) Video format options
H.264
H.265
ProRes
ProRes HQ
ProRes Raw
H.264
H.265
ProRes
Raw (via HDMI)
H.264
H.265
ProRes HQ
ProRes Raw
N-Raw
H.264
H.265
ProRes RAW (w/ Atomos recorder)
1x CFe B
External SSD 2x UHS-II SD 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B 2x UHS-II SD HDR output (stills / video) HLG HEIF / HLG - / HLG HLG HEIF / HLG PQ HEIF / PQ USB USB-C
10 Gbps
UVC USB-C
10Gbps
USB-C
5Gbps USB-C
10Gbps
UVC Battery life LCD / EVF (CIPA) 380 / 340 370 / 370 360 / 390 580 / 320 Dimensions 134 x 102 x 92 mm 134 x 102 x 90 mm 139 x 102 x 74 mm 138 x 98 x 88 mm Weight 795g (28oz) 740g (26.1oz) 760g (26.8oz) 670g (23.6oz)
The Z6II and EOS R6 II are both strong competitors, and we've found their autofocus systems to be quite capable of shooting moving subjects and action, which wasn't always the case for Panasonic's system when we tested it in other cameras. With such feature-packed cameras, though, the differences are going to come down to the details like the fact that the Canon can't do internal Raw video, the Z6III's highest burst rates being limited to JPEG-only, or that the S1IIE doesn't have an automatic subject detection mode like the Z6III and EOS R6 II do.
Those who focus on video have to deal with even more nuance. Nikon's use of a partially-Stacked sensor lets it shoot at quite high framerates, though sometimes only in Raw. While the S1IIE doesn't have the same level of speed, Panasonic has loaded it with resolution and aspect ratio options and an army of assistance features. Those are things like waveforms, vectorscopes and false color monitoring to help you nail exposure, a desqueezed preview if you're shooting with anamorphic lenses and its real-time LUT system that lets you use industry-standard color profiles to grade your footage straight out of camera.
Body and handling The S1IIE's buttons and dials are well-placed, making it easy to almost completely control the camera using one hand.The S1IIE's body will be familiar to anyone who's used an S5II/X, and even more so to those who've used an S1RII. It's a tiny bit larger and heavier than the S5-series and has a larger grip, but otherwise feels quite similar in the hand. The control layout is largely similar, with the same autofocus layout and dial setup that should make it easy to avoid the menu system during a shoot.
Compared to the S5II, the S1IIE gains a lock switch, which can be customized to lock different buttons depending on whether you're shooting stills or video, a mode dial for stills, video and slow and quick mode and a slightly deeper grip. There's also now a record button on the left front corner of the camera, which we've found is extremely easy to accidentally press, though you can set it to do nothing in stills mode.
The camera's ports now get their own individual doors, which makes for less flapping around if you only have a few things plugged in.
Rear DisplayThe S1IIE inherits the combination tilting / articulating screen from the S1RII, giving you the versatility of a fully articulating screen that can be viewed from the front without sacrificing the ability to position it for waist-level or above-the-head shooting with a single motion. It also provides plenty of clearance, even with a microphone and headphones plugged into the camera.
BatteryThe S1IIE uses the same 15.8Wh DMW-BLK22 battery as the S5II and the rest of the S1II family. It's CIPA-rated to provide 380 shots when using the LCD. You'll likely be able to shoot many more photos than that on a single charge, but the rating provides a consistent point of comparison between cameras. It's not the best in class, but it should get you through a weekend of light-to-moderate shooting.
You can charge it via USB-C, and it's compatible with the DMW-BG2 battery grip launched with the S1RII, which should roughly double its battery life.
The company says it can record an approximately 100-minute continuous 4K 60p clip on a charge, and about half that if you're repeatedly starting and stopping recording.
Initial ImpressionsLet's get this out of the way: there's a lot to like about the S1IIE. It'd be shocking if there wasn't, given that it's essentially a blend of the S1RII and S5IIX, both of which are more than solid in their own right. While we haven't put it through our thorough testing process yet, it's pretty much a given that it'll provide great image quality, sturdy ergonomics and more video features than most people would use in a lifetime.
While the formula isn't new, the S1IIE is in a bit of a complicated position. On one hand, it's a version of the S1II that costs substantially less and comes with a lot of the same features but has a slower sensor that limits burst rates and 4K-and-above framerates. But you could also look at it as a slightly fancier S5IIX; its capabilities are quite similar, but its upgraded processor, refined design and higher price tag will give you a more premium experience.
You now have to consider five cameras if you want a 24MP hybrid camera from PanasonicFor certain users, that'll be worth it. Depending on what you need from a camera, the S1IIE's support for Capture One tethering could be a deciding factor on its own. But if you don't have a slam-dunk reason to buy it, you now have to consider five different cameras (the S5II, S5IIX, S1II, S1IIE and S9) if you're looking to get a 24MP hybrid camera from Panasonic.
Even as a reviewer, it can be hard to keep the differences straight in my head, and I feel like I'd need to have a 15-minute conversation with someone before I'd feel confident that I knew which model(s?) they should consider. And that's before you even consider the competition: the S5IIE is up against cameras with just plain faster sensors, which allow for higher framerates and better rolling shutter performance.
Panasonic still includes plenty of features that make its cameras stand out, like shutter angle, timecode sync, in-camera multi-shot and support for anamorphic lenses. However, some of those will only appeal to people with quite specific needs, and the base video capabilities that used to be Panasonic's competitive advantage are now relatively common. We'll have to fully test the S1IIE to see if it does enough to stand out among the rest.
Sample GalleryPlease do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.Sigma BF review
Product photos: Richard Butler
The Sigma BF is a minimalist 24MP full-frame mirrorless camera that offers distinctive design and an unconventional user interface.
Key specifications- 24MP full-frame CMOS sensor
- Phase detection AF with human and animal detection
- Full-time HDR capture embedded in JPEGs
- No mechanical shutter
- 3.2" 2.1M dot rear touchscreen
- Pressure-sensitive buttons with haptic feedback
- 6K video up to 30p, 4K up to 30p
- 1080 up to 120p
- Leica L-Log profile
- Zebras and False Color exposure displays
- 230GB of internal memory
- 10Gbps USB-C port, external mic compatible
The Sigma BF is available in Black or Silver at a cost of $2000. Sigma has also made versions of all its i-series primes to match the silver version of the camera.
Index:- What is it?
- Body and controls
- Initial impressions
- Shooting experience
- Image quality
- Autofocus
- Video
- Sample gallery
- Specifications
Buy now:
Buy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo- Mar 13: Initial review published
- Apr 21: Shooting experience and additional galleries added
- May 12: IQ, AF, Video and conclusion added
The Sigma BF is explicitly not trying to be a do-everything, Swiss Army Knife of a camera. Sony's a7C II already exists, bringing an EVF, multiple dials, a mechanical second-curtain shutter mechanism and in-body image stabilization, for a list price just 10% higher than the BF's.
But if Sigma was trying to go head-to-head with Sony in the mass market, it probably wouldn't be spending seven hours milling each camera out of blocks of aluminium, nor doing so in Japan: neither of which is the approach you take if you're primarily driven to hit a specific price point.
Similarly, just looking at the specs, the BF might be mistaken for an unstabilized Panasonic S9 in a fancier body, but despite sharing a sensor, the two cameras couldn't be more different.
Instead Sigma explicitly says the BF is designed for 'everyday' photography. An elegant object designed to be carried with you, rather than a utilitarian device you take when you're taking photos. It's absolutely not optimized for rapid operation, it's not teeming with clever features. Instead it includes only the bare essentials for photography (or, arguably, slightly less than that, given its lack of mechanical shutter).
Think of it like a Moleskine notebook: in many respects it's not as practical for taking notes and recording ideas as the smartphone you're already carrying, but the very process of carrying it with you acts as a prompt to look at the world and capture the thoughts you were having. The BF is trying to do the same.
It's the difference between a camera that you'd grab when you want to go and take photos of something, vs a tool that encourages you to look for things to photograph.
Body and controls User interfaceThe best way to understand the BF is to note the dedicated settings display towards the top right-hand corner on the back of the camera. This displays one of ten parameters:
Drive mode File format Aspect ratio Focus mode White balance Shutter speed Aperture value Exp comp. ISO Color modeThese are also the ten parameters that appear on the main screen if you press the center button on the back of the camera, in the pattern shown in the table above.
You can navigate between them by pressing the cardinal points on the rear dial, then scroll the dial to change the current setting.
Pressing the center button lets you see and edit the camera's core ten parameters, but the chosen setting is also shown in the dedicated settings display to the top right of the screen.
In this instance the aperture value is shown in dark grey because it's being controlled from the lens.
But you don't have to press the center button and bring them up on the main screen: once you've learned their relative positions (and chances are it's the ones in the bottom row you'll change regularly), you can navigate around them just using the settings display. And, for me, that's the key to understanding the BF: it's designed so that the core settings can be adjusted without looking at the main screen. You can set the camera to show all the settings on the main screen,
In keeping with this idea, the touchscreen is almost solely used for positioning the AF point or selecting a subject to track: even if you summon-up the settings on the main screen, you can't tap to change settings, just choose what to focus on.
Exposure modesThe BF has no mode dial, so exposure mode is set by selecting which parameters you want to be controlled by the camera. This is done via the main screen. Press the center button to bring up the settings then press it again to edit them, and the ISO, aperture value and shutter speed indicators show 'Auto' options above them, letting you engage and disengage automated control of each parameter.
Any of the exposure parameters that can't be changed by spinning the dial, either because they're set to Auto or because aperture value is being set by an aperture ring, is rendered in darker grey, both in the settings display and on the main screen display.
Other settings Ten further settings, including the level gauge and options to display information such as focal length and focus distance are accessed via the three-dot button. Navigating down to the word 'System' takes you to the menu where fundamental settings such as date and time are edited.Another ten settings, six of which relate to how much detail appears on the main screen (exposure parameters, guides, virtual horizon, etc), can be accessed by pressing the 'three dots' settings button. At the bottom of this settings menu is the word 'System' which gives you access to a ten-option-long list of fundamental camera settings, including firmware information, copyright information, menu language and date/time.
That's the extent of the BF's interface: ten top-level parameters, ten settings and ten menu options. But what this doesn't fully convey is the degree to which it's a camera in which Shutter speed, Aperture value, Exposure compensation and ISO can all be set using just the settings display, leaving the monitor solely for focus and composition.
HandlingThe BF is a very solid-feeling camera, as you might expect from something hewn from a solid block of metal. The body itself is relatively light but the weight adds up as soon as you mount a lens of any appreciable size on it.
Despite it's minimalist appearance, it's quite easy to hold. The textured front-plate and raised thumb rest at the back mean you can get a pretty solid grip on the camera, and you can cradle the weight of the lens in your left hand if you're working with anything larger than one of the compact primes offered by Sigma or Panasonic.
However, we found that it was common for our ring finger to wrap around to the base of the camera as we held it, which quickly makes apparent how sharply angled the edge of the BF is. It's not hard to imagine users adding a little tape to the lower edge of the camera or being tempted to chamfer the edge with a fine file, once they come to live with the camera.
I've primarily used it with the Sigma 35mm F2 prime and the Panasonic 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 lenses, both of which are small and light enough that it's been comfortable to use.
Electronic shutterThe BF has no mechanical shutter and a sensor that takes 24.8ms to read out. Having seen this sensor in other cameras, this suggests its stills are being captured with 12-bit precision, which will slightly blunt the dynamic range at base ISO.
This readout speed (corresponding to 1/40 sec) also means the camera couldn't sync with a flash at shutter speeds faster than this rate. It also introduces the possibility of rolling shutter distortion of fast-moving subjects and means you're likely to encounter banding when shooting under artificial lights.
It's better news on the video side of things, where a rolling shutter rate of 20.9ms for its 24, 25 and 30p modes (6K, 4K or 1080) isn't too terrible. Things speed up to deliver the 1080/60 mode (10.4ms) and 1080/120 modes (7.8ms), suggesting line-skipping is being used.
BatteryThe BF uses a new 11.88Wh BP-81 battery. This will power the camera to a CIPA rating of 260 shots per charge. As always, the CIPA figure will tend to under-represent how many shots you're likely to get, and we found it's the camera's propensity to show its charge percentage on its settings display that caused us to worry a little disproportionately.
Still, a rating of 260 is pretty low and means you may want to consider carrying a power bank if you plan to do more than occasional shots each day. Putting it on to charge overnight, just as you might do with your phone will probably be sufficient for everyday casual use, though.
A gentle press of the power button puts the camera into standby mode, but the battery will continue to drain at an appreciable rate. The BF starts up from cold quickly enough that this is usually a better approach.
Initial impressionsBy Richard Butler
Even the body cap is an over-engineered delight.The Sigma BF is one of the most unusual cameras we've ever encountered. On paper it looks like an under-specced rival to the Panasonic DC-S9 or even the Sony a7C II. Or, perhaps even a slightly re-purposed Sigma fp. But, even though it shares components and a small rectangular body, the BF is quite unlike any of these cameras.
Sigma's CEO, Kazuto Yamaki talked about completely re-thinking the camera's interface to pare it back to the fundamental things a camera needs to offer, in an attempt to make it simple to use, with the aim of making a camera for everyday use. And the more I use the BF, the more I think I understand this intent.
The idea of a dedicated settings display, leaving the main screen as a means of composing your image and positioning the focus point is a refreshingly simple one, undermined only by the challenge of viewing a fixed LCD in bright light. The decision to display only one setting, rather than a full array of settings and icons makes it very quick to interpret and I did find it made me consider what changes I wanted to make, shot-to-shot, in a way I don't on a more conventional twin-dial camera.
Playback mode has three levels of information that can be displayed, this is the most detailed, but you can also opt just to see the top two rows of information, or just the first.
Touching, rather than pressing, the playback button lets you review the last image you shot, without entering the full playback mode, for as long as your finger remains on the button.
This really hit home when I realized I prefer to set aperture from the camera, rather than using an aperture ring; I think the camera works best with everything controlled from the settings display, rather than trying to increase the number of control points.
Another surprise was how good the BF's autofocus appears to be. Its subject tracking is very simple to use and impressively tenacious, while its eye detection works well and can be left turned on without minimal risk of the camera prioritizing nearby faces ahead of a different subject you've selected.
There are distinct downsides, though. The lack of mechanical shutter not only means there's a risk of rolling shutter and that the camera can't be used with flash, it also means it's quite prone to banding caused by the inherent flicker of artificial lights. This can be fairly subtle at longer shutter speeds but becomes increasingly apparent in short exposures, limiting its use as an indoor camera, despite a sensor that works well in low light.
Sigma 35mm F2.0 | F4.0 | 1/500 sec | ISO 400
Photo: Richard Butler
Sigma's sometimes quite dramatic color modes may not be to everyone's tastes, and I'm not wholly convinced by the 'Light Source Priority' auto white balance mode, that tries to maintain some of the character of the detected light source. But even when the results are unexpected, they're often interesting.
The BF's battery life is also quite short. An external charger is available, if you want to keep a second battery topped-up, but mainly it's a case of remembering to put the camera on to charge regularly, just as you might for your smartphone.
Other than a slight concern about the sharp lower front edge, I'm really looking forward to spending more time with the BF. It's not a camera that lets you respond quickly to the unexpected; instead it's one that makes you slow down and look for the photos you might otherwise not notice.
Shooting experienceWe took the time to spend a couple of weeks shooting with the BF the way it was designed to be used: as a daily companion whose presence would hopefully encourage us to look for photographic opportunities we might not otherwise recognize.
It constantly asked "what are you trying to photograph, and how do you want to capture it?"It turns out to be surprisingly capable, if seen and used this way, with its unusual but highly focused interface making us think about what we were trying to achieve, with each shot. Find out more in our shooting experience article:
What's the Sigma BF really like to live with?
Image qualityWe'll be conducting our full studio tests soon. We'll be testing a series of cameras alongside one another and will add the images to this review and revisit the score as necessary.
In our general use we've found the camera's standard color mode to be pretty good and its slightly more idiosyncratic 'Rich' color mode gives distinctive, and often attractive, results. We've encountered this sensor often enough that we're confident in the Raw results.
Base ISO and HDRThe JPEGs do contain a surprise though: the BF has a base ISO of 320 and an Auto ISO system that likes to use ISO 400 as its lowest setting. This is done to prompt lower exposure levels, capturing more highlight information. This extra highlight information is then used to give highlights with a more gentle roll-off and to allow the camera's undocumented HDR capabilities.
The JPEGs look normal on most displays but they also include a gain map that can be used by devices with high dynamic range displays to make the very bright highlights glow brighter. You don't have to do anything, an HDR version of your image is created within the standard JPEGs.
The downside of this is that, unless you override it by setting the camera to a lower ISO, all your shots with be a bit noisier than they could be, because you're capturing less light for your midtones and shadows, in order to capture more highlights.
There are a few odd quirks beyond this: at present DNGs shot below ISO 320 can sometimes be rendered at the wrong lightness if you try to re-process in-camera, and minor adjustments of the 'Look Effect' of each mode can have an unexpectedly large and unpredictable impact. But generally, we found the Sigma produces interesting-looking images and gives you a good amount of scope to adjust them in-camera.
AutofocusThe BF's autofocus system is very simple: you can either select all-area or specify a single point. You can decide whether subject detection is engaged and whether it is looking for people, animals or both.
The BF's AF is simple but effective, and its eye detection is very reliable.
Sigma 35mm F2 DG | F2.8 | 1/100 sec | ISO 100
Photo: Richard Butler
There's also a choice about whether manual focus for fine-tuning is available any time you turn the focus ring or just when the shutter is half-pressed. With focus precision in mind, there's a focus peaking option, with a choice of color and intensity and, in AF-S mode, the option for the camera to show you a zoomed-in view of the selected AF point when focus is achieved.
Generally we'd leave the camera in AF-C mode and all-area focus with subject detection engaged. This way the camera would focus on people's eyes if there's a human in the frame but leaving the option to tap on the screen if there's a specific point we wanted to focus on instead. For the kinds of photos the BF is designed for, this worked 99% of the time (with one instance of having to use manual focus override for a very backlit shot).
The camera's eye detection proved very fast and precise, letting us focus on composition and capturing a good expression, in social situations. It's not a complex system that would be well suited for sports or wildlife shooting, but for casual and social photography, it does exactly what you want, without you really having to think about it.
Video The Sigma BF has a surprisingly strong video feature set, can accept external mics via USB and is easy to balance on a gimbal.The Sigma BF has a surprisingly extensive video feature set for such a seemingly minimalist camera. But perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise, given the same sensor underpinned Panasonic's S1H video flagship.
You have the option to shoot 6K (or UHD 4K derived from that same capture) at up to 30fps. Alternatively it can capture 1080 video at up to 120p. Unlike the fp, though, the BF can happily save 10-bit footage as H.265 files, and gains the ability to shoot Log footage using Leica's Log profile (meaning conversion LUTs are available).
The Sigma includes video features that are still relatively unusual on hybrid cameras, including a false color display that applies a colored tint to different brightness regions, to let you quickly assess exposure even when working in hard-to-interpret color modes. It can also let you adjust exposure time in terms of shutter angle, making it easy to maintain correct exposure when switching frame rates.
"Its compact form, low body weight and built-in storage means it's a surprisingly good choice for gimbal work"It can accept external mics or headphones via its USB socket. We weren't able to test whether its 'Headset' mode, that expects both a mic and headphone connection works with a USB splitter/adapter. The BF is also compatible with the UVC/UAC standards, so can be used as a webcam.
Its lack of stabilization weighs heavily against it for handheld use, but its compact form, low body weight and built-in storage means it's a surprisingly good choice for gimbal work. The single dial interface is likely to be a little fiddly to adjust, once mounted, but if you set the shutter speed (or shutter angle, that's an option) to your chosen value, use a lens with an aperture ring and either leave ISO locked or on Auto, you shouldn't need to change too many settings.
Conclusion Pros Cons- Excellent image quality
- Elegantly focused UI
- Simple, powerful autofocus
- Interesting range of color modes
- Strong video feature set
- Distinctive design and solid build
- Built-in storage provides speed and space
- Connects quickly to most USB devices (phone, PC or SSD) for image transfer
- Good in-camera DNG conversion system
- HDR images embedded in standard JPEGs
- Lack of mechanical shutter limits its flexibility
- Absence of viewfinder a drawback in bright light
- Short battery life
- Needs USB cable to offload images
- Body has some sharp edges
- Lack of mechanical stabilization limits video
- Auto ISO's use of ISO 400 exposures (to capture HDR highlights) increases noise
On paper the Sigma BF sounds worryingly like a rebodied Sigma fp: the company's modular hybrid camera that was received as much more of a video rig than they'd intended. Encountered in-person and it risks looking like a design exercise, with all the attendant concerns that it might be style over substance. Actually using the camera dismisses both concerns.
The BF's user interface is perhaps its strongest feature, giving a refreshingly uncluttered shooting experience. There aren't indecipherable icons or pages of menus, just a settings display for your shooting parameters and a rear LCD for composition. It's about as back-to-basics as you can get but, critically, without its minimalism making things awkward.
The Sigma BF doesn't have a large, protruding grip, but the textured metal front means it's easy enough to grip, fairly comfortably (unless your fingers extend around the sharp lower edge of the camera).It's not an all-rounder by any means. Its lack of viewfinder limits its usability in bright light, its lack of mechanical shutter rules out the use of flash and means you have to pay attention to artificial lighting. Its interface and operation prioritizes considered shooting ahead of the ability to respond quickly. If you're looking for a camera that can do a bit of everything, there are plenty of better alternatives.
However, as a device for capturing moments, and encouraging you to capture moments, it's really rather good. Its interface is genuinely radical and well thought out and I was constantly surprised by how simple but effective its autofocus is.
The Sigma is a lovely device for capturing the world around you.
Sigma 35mm F2.0 DG | F7.1 | 1/160 sec | ISO 125
Photo: Richard Butler
Overall I've enjoyed my time with the BF tremendously, and I suspect plenty of other people will, too. I found the experience both fascinating and refreshing: paring photography back to its very essence. It was this focus and simplicity – which shouldn't be mistaken for minimalism for its own sake – that makes the BF so unfamiliar and so compelling. The allegation that it's style over substance is misguided, I believe, as it's the substance, rather than the style that I found most enjoyable. It certainly has some style to it – I don't remember the last time so many friends and strangers asked me what I was shooting with – but it's not something that evoked much of a response, personally.
That's probably too niche a prospect for us to be able to give the BF one of our awards. Those are framed in terms of whether a camera should be on your shortlist. And if there's any other camera on your shortlist, then the BF shouldn't be there, because it's a dreadful substitute for anything else. But that's not its intent and that's not its appeal.
I don't feel we can give it an award, but it's going to take a lot for it not to be my Gear of the Year.
ScoringScoring is relative only to the other cameras in the same category. Click here to learn about what these numbers mean.
Sigma BFCategory: Mid Range Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLRBuild qualityErgonomics & handlingFeaturesMetering & focus accuracyImage quality (raw)Image quality (jpeg)Low light / high ISO performanceViewfinder / screen ratingOpticsPerformanceMovie / video modeConnectivityValuePoorExcellentConclusionThe Sigma BF is an idiosyncratic photo taking device, to the point we'd barely call it a camera: its not a sensible substitute for much else that's on the market. But every aspect of its design is both innovative and clever. It's focused solely on exposure and composition. Joyously so.Good forCapturing the details of your life.Not so good forShooting in bright surroundings, sports photography, flash photography...85%Overall scoreRegularScoreCompareWidget({"mainElementId":"scoringWidget","mainProduct":"sigma_bf","scoringSchema":{"id":"SLRs","variables":[{"id":"BuildQuality"},{"id":"ErgonomicsAndHandling"},{"id":"Features"},{"id":"MeteringAndFocusAccuracy"},{"id":"QualityRaw"},{"id":"QualityJpeg"},{"id":"LowLightHighISO"},{"id":"ViewfinderScreenRating"},{"id":"Optics"},{"id":"Performance"},{"id":"Movie"},{"id":"Connectivity"},{"id":"Value"}],"categories":[{"id":"EntryLevel","label":"Entry Level Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Entry Level"},{"id":"MidRange","label":"Mid Range Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Mid Level"},{"id":"EntryLevelFullFrame","label":"Entry Level Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Full Frame"},{"id":"MidRangeFullFrame","label":"Mid Range Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Mid Range Full Frame"},{"id":"SemiProfessional","label":"Semi-professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Semi-professional"},{"id":"SemiProfessionalFullFrame","label":"Semi-professional Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Semi-professional Full Frame"},{"id":"Professional","label":" Professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Professional"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEntry","label":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEnthusiast","label":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"VideoCamera","label":"Video Camera","shortLabel":"Video Camera"}]},"helpText":"Choose one or more cameras from the drop-down menu, then roll your mouse over the names to see how their scores compare to the camera on review."}) Compared to its peersAs I've tried to argue throughout most of this review, the Sigma BF doesn't really have any direct peers, because it's not really trying to be the same thing as other cameras. If judged on their terms, it's limited and limiting. You can look at the list of what it lacks, by comparison, and write it off. And if you're considering other cameras, then you'd probably be right to do so.
It's barely appropriate to even think of it as a camera. At the most fundamental level a car and a bicycle are both devices to get you from A to B, and yet thinking of a bike as a car that's missing an engine and two of its wheels would be to completely miss the point. The BF and most other cameras are both devices for capturing images, but the way they do it and the experience that you get from them means direct comparison doesn't necessarily make sense.
The BF costs more than Panasonic's S9 because it features much more solid (and expensive) construction and is made in Japan by a company that can't compete with the economies-of-scale larger camera companies can achieve. There's little sign of any significant Leica-esque 'luxury goods' markup, though.If you want to be needlessly reductive, you could compare it to Panasonic's vlogging-focused Lumix DC-S9. They're both small, single dial cameras with no viewfinders, based around the same sensor and same lens mount. The Panasonic has a flip-out screen, in-body image stabilization and a list price $500 lower. For taking photos I'd choose the Sigma every time.
The S9 has a single control dial but uses the same interface as Panasonic's three-dial S-series cameras. This isn't necessarily a drawback for the vlogging for which it's designed, but having used both for photography, the BF feels pleasantly focused, while the S9 feels maddeningly lacking. If you've never used either, it might look like the S9 lets you get just as much camera, plus IBIS and a lens for the same money. That's a cynical assumption, duly evoking Wilde's line about knowing "the price of everything and the value of nothing".
Buy now:
Buy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo Sigma BF sample galleryPlease do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab. One photo a day with the Sigma BF Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab. A photo day in London Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.Canon EOS R50 V vs EOS R50: which is better?
Canon recently announced the EOS R50 V, a camera aimed at creators looking to shoot high-quality video without spending a ton of money. However, it made similar claims about the original EOS R50, which – unsurprisingly, given the name – the EOS R50 V shares a lot of DNA with. They have the same 24MP APS-C sensor and many of the same features.
So what are the differences between the two, and which one should you buy? We'll aim to break it down in this comparison.
Buy now:
Buy w/ 14-30mm at Amazon.comBuy w/ 14-30mm at B&H PhotoBuy w/ 14-30mm at Canon DesignEven at a glance, it's easy to tell that these cameras are aimed at different audiences. The EOS R50 looks like a small stills camera, with a relatively deep front grip and a prominent hump at the top for the electronic viewfinder and pop-up flash. On the top is a relatively standard stereo microphone.
The EOS R50 V does away with the viewfinder and flash, giving it a much boxier and slightly larger design. Its grip is less prominent, though this has the effect of making it more comfortable to hold when it's facing toward you. There's also a record button on the front, along with a tally light to make it obvious when you're recording, both of which can be quite useful when you're trying to film yourself. It has an upgraded internal microphone, which Canon says has three capsules to help make audio clearer and to reduce noise. We've found it provides decent audio for vlogging, as long as there's no wind.
The EOS R50 V has an extra tripod mount for vertical shooting.Both cameras have tripod sockets on the bottom, but the EOS R50 V has an additional one on its right side, making it easy to mount it vertically.
Handling / ControlsThe EOS R50 has a shutter button towards the front of its grip, right around where your index finger would fall, and its main control dial behind it.
Looking at the back, it has a stills-focused control layout, with a multi-directional controller and buttons for choosing your autofocus area, setting exposure compensation and locking your exposure. The mode select dial lets you choose from the various exposure modes like manual, shutter priority, aperture priority and auto, and has a setting for video. There's also a separate record button on the top plate.
The EOS R50 V, meanwhile, has a decidedly more video-focused layout. The top plate control dial is towards the back of the camera, and the shutter button has been replaced by a record button, which is surrounded by a zoom toggle switch. The mode dial, meanwhile, flips the script from the EOS R50's: stills are relegated to a single position, while the rest of the modes are for video.
The buttons continue the video focus; while some are the same as the EOS R50's, it swaps some photo functions for quick access to white balance, color options and livestreaming modes. The multi-directional controller is swapped out for a spinning dial, though you can still press up, down, left or right to access specific functions. While we typically prefer two top-plate control dials, this rear-mounted one is better than nothing, especially when taking stills. There's also a button on the top that sets the camera to ignore input from the control dials, so you don't accidentally change your settings while vlogging.
Stills capabilitiesThe two cameras have very similar stills-taking capabilities. Both can shoot Raws and use electronic-first curtain shutter and a mechanical shutter to end the exposure, which eliminates concerns about rolling shutter in stills and gives you more flexibility if you're shooting with flash.
EOS R50 V | RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ | 21mm | F5.6 | 1/1250 | ISO 100However, the lack of an EVF on the EOS R50 V can make it difficult to judge your exposure and composition in bright sunlight. You also don't have that pop-up flash to help add some light if you need a bit of fill on your subject or are shooting in a darker environment. The default button layout for the EOS R50 is definitely more suited to shooting stills – you don't have to rely on the touchscreen as much – though spending some time to customize your button layout can alleviate that on the EOS R50 V; you can have separate settings for photo and video modes.
Video capabilitiesThe EOS R50 has a fair number of video capabilities. Its 4K footage is derived from 6K capture, giving it a bit of extra detail, and it has a microphone jack that'll let you record better audio. It can also shoot 10-bit HDR video, though only in the more obscure PQ response curve.
The EOS R50 V builds on top of that, with some pretty substantial additions: instead of topping out at 30fps for 4K, it can shoot at up to 60fps*, though with a substantial 1.56x crop. It also adds the ability to record C-Log 3, which gives you more flexibility to adjust color, lightness and contrast in post, and a headphone jack, so you can monitor the audio you're recording. If that wasn't enough, it includes false color assistance, which helps you nail your exposure by providing an overlay that makes it clear where your image clips and where your skin tones should be.
While both cameras have a microphone port, the EOS R50 V has subtle tweaks that make it easier to use with one. Unlike with the EOS R50, the screen won't run into the cable when you're trying to flip it out and articulate it. The actual display panel has also been moved over, so the microphone jack will mostly block your bezel rather than your preview.
* The 4K modes above 30p aren't based on 6K capture
User InterfaceThe EOS R50 and R50 V have similar user interfaces, though the latter has some definite upgrades regarding video. It has an updated menu system for selecting your resolution and framerate. Rather than listing all the possible combinations of framerate, resolution, and codec, it allows you to set all three independently. This takes some getting used to, but gives you more control over what codec you want to record in, which can be especially helpful if you want to edit your footage on a less powerful device.
The EOS R50's Q menu for video mode has the same layout as it does for photo mode. The EOS R50 V's Q menu for video is a scrolling list that's a bit easier to use when you're in front of the camera.The EOS R50 V also has an updated Q menu for video mode, giving you slightly easier access to all your settings, as well as the vlogging-specific features it has. We've found that it's a fair bit nicer for switching your most important settings during a shoot, especially if you're shooting vertically: the on-screen display gains the ability to rotate with the camera. The addition of three custom video modes also makes it particularly easy to quickly switch between resolutions, framerates and other settings without having to dive into the menus.
Ports and ConnectivityThe EOS R50 has a USB-C port, microHDMI port, and a 3.5mm socket for attaching an external microphone.
The EOS R50 V has all that and more: it gains a single-pole remote terminal that lets you control the camera from afar and has a faster USB-C port. The EOS R50's USB port runs at USB 2 speeds, while the EOS R50 V's can transfer data at 10Gbps; over 20 times faster. That helps when you're offloading footage, but also has the benefit of making it a more capable webcam: while both can be used to stream video to your computer using the UVC protocol, the EOS R50 tops out at 1080p 30fps, while the EOS R50 V can deliver 4K 30fps*.
The EOS R50 V may also wirelessly transfer photos to your phone faster since it supports 5 GHz Wi-Fi as well as 2.5 GHz. The EOS R50, meanwhile, can only use 2.5 GHz.
* The camera can't draw power from the computer when shooting at 4K, only 1080p, so you will be limited by battery life.
Price and Kit optionsBody-only, the EOS R50 V costs $649, $30 less than the EOS R50. If you're looking at the kit options, though, the vlogging-focused model is more expensive; you can get it with the new RF-S 14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ lens for $849. The EOS R50, meanwhile, comes with the collapsable RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM for $799.
While the 18-45mm's wider range makes it a better pick if you're shooting a wide variety of subjects, if you mainly intend to vlog, you'll appreciate the wider field-of-view on the 14-30mm. That's especially true if you plan on features that add crops, such as 60 fps or electronic stabilization; the lens is still wide enough to produce a reasonable frame while vlogging. The powerzoom is also nice to have, especially since it's quiet enough that the camera's internal microphones don't pick it up, and you never have to worry about having to extend it when you're trying to capture a moment quickly.
ConclusionIf you're looking for a camera to mostly shoot stills or mostly shoot video, it's pretty easy to pick between the EOS R50 and EOS R50 V. It's a little trickier if you want to do both; while the latter has a compelling list of video features that aren't available on the former, they do come at the cost of a viewfinder, which can also be useful for videographers (providing they're filming something other than themselves).
EOS R50:
Buy now:
$629 at Amazon.comBuy at B&H PhotoBuy at MPBHowever, if you think you'll end up shooting a lot of video, the EOS R50 V has more features and capabilities that will likely come in handy.
EOS R50 V:
Buy now:
Buy w/ 14-30mm at Amazon.comBuy w/ 14-30mm at B&H PhotoBuy w/ 14-30mm at Canon6 Best high-end cameras for 2025
Updated May 1, 2025
By the time you're spending over $2,500, you're looking at getting one of the best cameras around. You should expect it to deliver exceedingly detailed images and capture high-end video, all without having to compromise much on speed for when the action picks up.
For most applications, a camera around $2000 will be more than enough, but if you and your photography need the very highest image quality or some specialist capability, the cameras in this guide are among the best we've yet seen. There are a handful of dedicated sports/photojournalism cameras or luxury models above the $4000 upper limit we've set ourselves, but these are usually such singular offerings that we're assuming you don't need our help in choosing if you're seriously considering them.
At this level, there aren't really any bad picks, so if you have any investment at all in the lens system of one company, this should probably be the deciding factor for you. But we'll highlight the particular strengths we found in each camera, just in case you are planning to switch systems.
Our recommendations:- Best high-end camera: Canon EOS R5 II
- Another great option: Nikon Z8
- The compact option: Sony a7CR
- High-spec high res: Sony a7R V
- IQ above all else: Fujifilm GFX 50S II
- Best for video: Sony FX3
45MP Stacked CMOS sensor | Eye-controlled AF subject selection | Up to 30fps continuous shooting
The EOS R5 II is one of the most all-around capable cameras we've tested.
Photo: Richard Butler
Buy now:
$3999 at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo What we like:- Excellent image quality
- Fast, dependable autofocus
- Good video support tools
- Slight reduction in dynamic range in extreme scenarios
- Tempermental eye control
- Temperature limits in heaviest video modes
See the EOS R5 II Studio Scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Should I still buy the EOS R5?Short answer: yes. It lacks some of the newer camera's features like eye-controlled subject selection, action priority modes and AI noise reduction, but if those don't matter to you – or aren't worth the $400 MSRP premium of the EOS R5 II – the EOS R5 is still plenty capable in 2024.
Buy now:
Buy w/ 24-105mm f/4 at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo Another great option: Nikon Z846MP Stacked CMOS sensor | 20fps Raw, 30fps full-size JPEG shooting | 8K/60 and 4K/120 video
The Nikon Z8 delivers just about everything: speed, AF, video and, most importantly of all, image quality.
Photo: Richard Butler
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo What we like:- Superb autofocus
- Fast shooting
- Excellent video
- Large, heavy body
- Relatively low-res (though fast) viewfinder
- Not all subject detection modes equally good
The Nikon Z8 is a fast-shooting stills and video-capable mirrorless camera with a 46MP Stacked CMOS sensor. It's an extremely strong competitor compared to the EOS R5 II, but Canon's action sports settings and eye control push it over the edge.
If those things don’t matter much to you, you can pretty much base your decision on whether you prefer Nikon or Canon’s lens lineup. They’re broadly similar, and both brands tightly control which options third-party manufacturers can offer.
The Z8 has a large, comfortable grip with well-placed controls. There's a good level of customizable controls and ergonomics that match the pro-focused Z9. The viewfinder resolution is low but the brightness and lack of lag make it one of best-suited to action. Video quality is excellent with a choice of Raw and 10-bit gamma/compressed formats with up to 8K/60 or 4K/60 derived from it. There's also a less-detailed 4K/120p option. Tools such as waveforms and dependable AF make it easy to shoot with. The Nikon Z8 is a hugely capable all-rounder, combining resolution, autofocus performance and video capabilities not seen before at this price. It's not a small or light camera but it makes you feel ready for anything, photographically while you're carrying it. Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. A cheaper option?At $3300, the Panasonic Lumix S1RII retails for substantially less than the Z8 and EOS R5 II while offering similar resolution, speed and video features. But while we found it to be a quite capable camera, its autofocus UI and performance are a fair bit behind what Canon and Nikon offer, to the point where we'd recommend paying the extra if you think you'll be frequently shooting moving subjects. If you mostly shoot still subjects and/or videos, though, it may well be worth considering for the savings.
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo The compact option: Sony a7CR61MP BSI CMOS sensor | 4K/60p video with 10-bit color | Dedicated ‘AI’ processor for AF system
You can't do much to shrink the lenses, but the a7CR is both the smallest and least expensive camera here.
Photo: Richard Butler
Buy now:
$2998 at B&H Photo $2998 at Adorama $2998 at Amazon What we like:- Big camera features in a small body
- Outstanding AF performance
- Auto Framing video mode
- Small, low-res viewfinder
- No joystick control
- No fully mechanical shutter
The Sony a7CR is a compact, full-frame camera with a 61MP BSI CMOS sensor. Despite its small size, it packs in most of the features found in Sony’s larger bodies while still delivering stunning detail, without sacrificing much performance.
The a7CR is impressively small for a full-frame camera. The addition of a front control dial improves handling significantly. Notably, there’s no joystick for positioning the AF point, and the viewfinder is small and very low resolution for a camera costing this much. "If you're looking for maximum resolution in a travel-sized body, the a7RC is tough to beat." The a7CR's 61MP sensor can capture a lot of detail, putting it ahead of most full-frame rivals; though it is a little noisier in low light. JPEG colors are pleasing, and excellent sharpening makes the most out of the 61MP sensor. Raw files provide plenty of latitude to pull up shadows at base ISO. The a7CR delivers impressive results for its size. It essentially provides the same level of image quality, and most of the same features, as Sony's a7R V, but in a smaller package. In exchange for the small size, you make a few compromises, like no AF joystick, but if you're looking for maximum resolution in a travel-sized body, the a7CR is tough to beat.Read our Sony a7CR initial review
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. High-spec high res: Sony a7R V61MP BSI CMOS sensor | 8K/30p video | Subject recognition AF
Photo: Richard ButlerBuy now:
$3898 at B&H Photo $3898 at Adorama $3898 at Amazon What we like:- Very detailed Raw files with excellent dynamic range
- Tilt/articulating display suits both photo and video
- Very reliable autofocus, especially for human subjects
- Pixel shift high res and focus stacking require desktop s/w
- Severe rolling shutter for e-shutter and many video modes
The Sony a7R V is the company's fifth-generation high-res full-frame mirrorless camera, built around a stabilized 61MP sensor.
The Sony a7R V is focused more on high resolution than the combination of resolution and speed that the Nikon Z8 and EOS R5 II offer. It can shoot 8K video but only with a major crop and significant rolling shutter.
The a7R V is an excellent tool for capturing high-resolution images. The a7R V is an excellent tool for capturing high-resolution images with a mechanical shutter. The impressive autofocus performance means it is suitable for capturing a wide variety of subjects, including sports and wildlife. However, the sensor's slow readout limits its capabilities if your work requires video capture or the use of a silent electronic shutter.As a high-resolution studio or landscape camera, the a7R V is very, very good, but the existence of the a7CR, which offers much of the same capability in a smaller, less expensive body, is its biggest threat. It offers a much nicer viewfinder, faster USB connector for tethering, and better Wi-Fi than the a7CR, but except in the case of shooting wide apertures and fast shutter speeds together, there's no difference in image quality.
See the Sony a7RV studio scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Should I still buy a Sony a7R IV?The Sony a7R IV offers essentially the same image quality as the newer Mark V, and costs less, so it's still worth taking seriously. It's a less capable video camera, not so much because of the lack of 8K capture – which isn't the Mark V's best feature, by any means - but due to the lack of 10-bit recording, which gives the V's footage more editing flexibility.
For stills shooters, the older camera doesn't have the more sophisticated subject recognition AF of the Mark V, nor options such as focus bracketing, motion correction to make the high-res mode more useful, or the latest 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi and 10Gbps USB port of the V.
IQ above all else: Fujifilm GFX 50S II51MP CMOS sensor | In-body stabilization system (up to 6.5EV) | Full HD video at up to 30p
Photo: Richard ButlerBuy now:
$3199 at B&H Photo $3199 at Adorama $3199 at Amazon What we like:- The most affordable medium-format ILC yet
- Photographer-friendly ergonomics, with lots of customization
- Effective in-body stabilization
- Contrast-detect AF is slower than its peers
- Image quality not signficantly better than the best full-frame
- Eye-detection AF isn't as dependable as rival systems
- Unimpressive video specifications (HD only)
The Fujifilm GFX 50S II is a (relatively) compact 50MP medium format mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with built-in image stabilization.
Fujifilm's most affordable medium format camera is a highly attractive option for enthusiasts and professionals alike. The 50S II is the least expensive digital medium format camera ever launched. Image stabilization and precise focus extend its usability far beyond the studio. Speed, autofocus and video aren't its greatest strengths, but it should have major appeal for enthusiast photographers wanting some of the best image quality available.The GFX 50S II is perhaps the most specialized here: it's not especially fast or versatile but in terms of image quality, it has a slight edge over the best of its full-frame rivals (some of which comes from its lenses - the GF primes often being particularly good). The more expensive 100MP versions offer a more significant IQ advantage, but for landscape and studio work, the 50S II is still very good.
Read our Fujifilm GFX 50S II review
See the Fujifilm GFX 50S II studio scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Best for video: Sony FX312MP full-frame BSI CMOS sensor | Full-width 4K/60p, 120p w/ slight crop | 10-bit 4:2:2 capture
Buy now:
$3898 at B&H Photo $3898 at Adorama $3899 at Amazon What we like:- Excellent video quality
- XLR top-handle included
- Fan for extended recording
- No DCI video options
- No viewfinder for stills shooters
- No shutter angle option
The Sony FX3 is part of Sony's Cinema line of cameras, but we've included it here because it shares so much in common with the a7S III, but is a better choice, we feel.
The Sony FX3 is an image-stabilized, fan-cooled full-frame video camera designed to shoot UHD 4K footage at up to 120p.It loses out on a viewfinder, compared to the a7S III, but gains dependability and extended recording times thanks to the addition of a cooling fan. It appears to cost a little more on paper but the FX3 comes with a top handle with built-in XLR adapters, which is an expensive add-on to the a7S III. Sony has also added some video-centric features, such as EI exposure to the FX3 that haven't then appeared on its more stills-focused cameras.
You may also consider the EOS R5C, which is essentially a video-focused version of the original EOS R5. Compared to the FX3, it gains a fan but omits an image stabilization mechanism, though we prefer the more compact form-factor of the Sony, anyway, especially if you plan to shoot on a gimbal.
Why you should trust usThis buying guide is based on cameras used and tested by DPReview's editorial team. We don't select a camera until we've used it enough to be confident in recommending it, usually after our extensive review process. The selections are purely a reflection of which cameras we believe to be best: there are no financial incentives for us to select one model or brand over another.
Best cameras for landscape photography in 2025
Updated May 1, 2025
Landscape photography is a demanding medium, requiring cameras with high resolution and dynamic range. When considering what cameras should make it on this list, we look at factors like weather-sealing, battery life and operability on a tripod.
We've selected cameras that are most likely to deliver the best possible image quality if you're going to spend hours hiking to the perfect location and waiting for the perfect light. For some picks, we've also considered the best image quality you can get at a certain size and weight of camera body.
Our picks:- Best camera for landscapes: Fujifilm GFX 100S II
- Best for landscapes and more: Panasonic S1RII
- Best camera that's also good for landscapes: Canon EOS R5 II
- The bargain option: Nikon Z7 II
- Best compact option: Fujifilm X-T5
102MP BSI medium format sensor | In-body image stabilization | 5.76M dot viewfinder
Photo: Mitchell ClarkBuy now:
$4999 at Adorama$4999 at B&H Photo What we like:- Excellent detail capture
- Very high tonal quality
- Ready-to-go JPEG or malleable Raws
- Autofocus not especially fast
- Video prone to rolling shutter
The GFX 100S II uses the same sensor as the GFX 100 II, but puts it in a body with fewer features – though you do still get essentials like a tilting screen and a stabilized sensor. The result is the only camera with anywhere near this resolution that fits within the price limit of our buying guides, though do keep in mind that you'll also have to budget for medium-format lenses too, which don't come cheap.
While the GFX 100S II has improved autofocus and burst rates compared to its predecessor, its main strength will be landscapes or studio work where it won't have to track dynamic subjects. That makes it slightly less versatile than most of its full-frame competitors, but if you're doing purely landscape photography its image quality will be unparalleled unless you're willing to spend many thousands of dollars more.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Best camera for a less expensive resolution boost: Panasonic S1RII44MP full-frame BSI sensor | 40fps burst shooting with pre-capture | 8K video up to 30p
The S1RII's articulating and tilting screen makes sure you can see your composition no matter what position you have the camera in.
Photo: Mitchell Clark
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo What we like:- Excellent image quality
- Solid ergonomics
- Extensive video features, codecs and resolutions
- Short battery life
- Autofocus tracking and subject detection lag behind competition
- Small buffer
The S1RII doesn't have the highest-resolution sensor, but for landscapes, it can make up for that with its quite capable 177MP high-resolution multi-shot mode, which can compensate for some movement and is processed in camera. It's also quite capable for everyday photography, with high burst rates and tons of video features, though it doesn't have the greatest autofocus system for routinely shooting motion and action.
Image quality is very good, with attractive out-of-camera JPEGs that can be heavily customized with Panasonic's open LUT system. Unlike other full-frame options, it can process its multi-shot high-res mode in-camera. The S1RII is very capable, but its autofocus performance lags behind competitors for action and wildlife. It has a comfortable grip and highly customizable controls, and the menus are laid out well for the rare occasions you'll need to use them. The S1RII is very capable camera, especially for video, but the autofocus system and performance make a compelling argument to spend the bit more for one of its competitors if your shooting includes action and movement.Click here to read our review of the Panasonic S1RII
Click here to see the Panasonic S1RII studio scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Want higher single-shot resolution?While Panasonic's high-resolution multi-shot mode is arguably the best in the business, it won't give you much benefit if you're trying to shoot subjects or scenes with motion. With its 60MP full-frame sensor, the Sony a7R V can capture more detail in single-shot mode than the S1RII. Its autofocus system is also more reliable for non-landscape uses, but while it can shoot 8K, it doesn't have the rolling shutter performance or extra video tools the Panasonic offers.
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo Best camera that's also good for landscapes: Canon EOS R5 II45MP Stacked CMOS sensor | Eye-controlled AF subject selection | Up to 30fps continuous shooting
Photo: Richard ButlerBuy now:
$3999 at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo What we like:- Excellent image quality
- Fast, dependable autofocus
- Good video support tools
- Slight reduction in dynamic range in extreme scenarios
- Tempermental eye control
- Temperature limits in heaviest video modes
If you need a camera that can handle whatever you throw at it, including the occasional landscape photo, the EOS R5 II is the one. Its sensor isn't the highest resolution, but it makes up for it with speed, letting you shoot up to 30fps. It also has the most capable autofocus system on this list, with its dedicated 'Action Priority' modes made specifically for shooting high-speed sports.
The 45MP Raws are highly detailed, and the JPEG sharpening and noise reduction are sensible. It can't quite match higher-resolution cameras like the A7R V, but performs well in its own right. The EOS R5 II does a vast range of things, most of them extremely well: it's impressive for action, landscapes, video, you name it. The grip is very well-shaped and proportioned, and the controls are all well-placed and comfortable to use for extended periods. Eye Control for autofocus is excellent when it works, which isn't always The EOS R5 II has excellent tracking and subject-tracking autofocus performance. The subject detection is effective without getting in your way. It can shoot Raws at up to an extremely rapid 30fps. The EOS R5 II excels at almost everything it tries to do, and that's a long list. It's hard to imagine what photo or video need it won't support you in.Click here to read our review of the Canon EOS R5 II
Click here to see the Canon EOS R5 II studio scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Also consider: the Nikon Z8The Nikon Z8 is similalry capable to the EOS R5 II, and its 45.7MP sensor is just as able to take beautiful landscapes, while still handling anything else you throw at it. The two cameras are so evenly matched that the best way to choose between them is by comparing which lenses are available for them, figuring out which system has the ones you want at a price you want to pay, then buying the body to match.
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo The bargain option: Nikon Z7 II45.7MP full-frame sensor | In-body image stabilization | 4K/60p video
Photo: Dan BracagliaBuy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo What we like:- Sensor offers some of the best image quality in its class
- Lovely ergonomics
- 4K/60p (with a minor crop)
- Autofocus interface a bit clunky
- EVF not as high-res as competitors
- Customization a bit limited
The Z7 II is decidedly last-generation at this point, a fact you'll feel most in its autofocus system. It can still produce crisp images, though, and its age is a benefit when it comes to its price: you can routinely find it for around $2,000, a price bracket that generally contains cameras with half the resolution.
The Z7 II's image quality frequently impresses. It'll match its peers in everything except resolution and, in situations where you can use the greater exposure needed for ISO 64, it has an edge in terms of tonal quality. JPEGs are good but we got the best result from the Raw files. To say the Z7 II is a comfortable camera to hold would be an understatement The Z7 II provides plenty of well-placed controls and a large handgrip, despite its relatively compact body. The additional option to add a battery grip with duplicate controls is valuable. We'd like more control over what can be applied to custom buttons and we miss the AF mode control from the front of Nikon's DSLRs, though.\The Z7 II is a capable camera that can produce superb image quality. Its autofocus performance and interface aren't quite up there with modern mid-to-high-end cameras, but overall it's a good, capable camera. The improvements over the original version help expand the range of circumstances in which it performs well.
Click here to read our review of the Nikon Z7 II
Click here to see the Nikon Z7 II studio scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. The compact option: Fujifilm X-T5 Photo: Richard ButlerBuy now:
$1699 at Amazon.com What we like:- Dedicated dial interface shows your settings
- Detailed 40MP images
- Photo-centric design and feature set
- Autofocus prone to false-positives
- Significant rolling shutter in e-shutter mode
- Smaller buffer, lower-spec video than X-H2
If the landscapes you're hoping to capture are far off the beaten path, the X-T5 may be worth a look. While it's marginally smaller and lighter than its full-frame and medium-format counterparts, the real weight savings will come from the lenses you can equip it with. Fujifilm's lineup of APS-C lenses is unmatched and can make for a kit light enough that you won't have to reconsider hiking an extra mile or three to get the shot.
The X-T5 produces highly detailed Raw and JPEG files, with the latter benefiting from Fujifilm's array of attractive 'Film Simulation' color modes. A 40MP APS-C sensor means relatively high pixel-level noise but results that are competitive when viewed at a common output size. The X-T5 foregoes some of the X-H2's video features to offer a more photo-centric experience with classic styling The X-T5 features dedicated control dials for ISO, shutter speed and exposure compensation, along with a film-era SLR-style low-profile front grip. Its rear screen tilts up and down but also hinges outward for portrait-orientation shooting. Having the X-H2 and X-H2S available to meet the needs of videographers allows the X-T5 to fulfill photographers' desires for stills-centric handling and features. For photographers who enjoy Fujifilm's traditional dial-based controls, there's no more capable body than the X-T5.Click here to read our review of the Fujifilm X-T5
Click here to see the Fujifilm X-T5 studio scene
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Please open this article's permalink in a browser to view this content. Also consider: the Canon EOS R7Canon's EOS R7 is a bit heavier than the X-T5, and its APS-C lens selection isn't nearly as robust, but its 32.5MP sensor will be more than capable of capturing detailed landscapes. Its faster burst rates and better autofocus tracking also give the edge over the X-T5 for when you're shooting in the city instead of the wild.
Buy now:
Buy w/ RF-S18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo Why should you trust us?Our Buying Guides are based on extensive use and testing of the cameras included. We only recommend cameras once we know how they compare to their peers in a variety of shooting situations. All selections are made solely by our editorial and video teams and are the models we'd buy or recommend to friends and family. We gain no financial advantage from recommending one camera over another, either as individuals or as a business.
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII review
Product photos: Mitchell Clark
91%Overall scoreJump to conclusionThe Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII is the company's latest high-resolution full-frame mirrorless camera, now beefed-up with 8K video capabilities and improved autofocus.
Key features- Full-frame 44MP dual gain CMOS sensor
- Up to 40fps continuous shooting with pre-burst capture (e-shutter only)
- 8.1K/8K video at up to 30p
- 5.76M dot viewfinder
- Flip-out and tilt rear screen
- ProRes 422 and ProRes RAW capture
- Capture to CFExpress Type B, UHS II SD or external SSD
- Multi-shot high res mode up to 177MP
- 32-bit float audio via optional XLR 2 adapter
The S1RII is available now with a recommended retail price of $3300.
Index:- What's new
- What's new for video
- How it compares
- Body and handling
- Image Quality
- Autofocus
- Conclusion
- Sample gallery
- Specifications
- Press release
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo- Feb 25: Initial review published
- Mar 31: Image quality and Autofocus results published
- Apr 23: Autofocus section updated and conclusion added
Rather than the 47MP used in the original S1R, or the 61MP chip used in Leica's SL3, Panasonic has opted for a slightly lower resolution but faster sensor for the S1RII.
It features dual conversion gain on which, as usual on Panasonic cameras, you can manually select which of its two readout modes it uses, at intermediate ISO settings. Panasonic doesn't always disclose when it's using BSI technology, but in this instance it has confirmed it.
Its design means it's appreciable slower than the more expensive Stacked CMOS sensors, with an electronic shutter mode that takes 37.5ms (~1/27 sec) to read out in 14-bit mode and 20.2ms (~1/50 sec) in the 12-bit mode used for bursts and other quick-fire shooting modes.
AutofocusThe S1RII represents the second generation of Panasonic cameras to feature phase detection autofocus, with the inherent depth awareness that this brings. The company says it's significantly improved both its subject recognition and its tracking algorithms in the new camera, to bring its performance closer into line with the best of its peers.
The S1RII has algorithms trained to recognize the following subjects:
- Human
- Animal (Dog, Cat, Bird)
- Car
- Motorcycle / Bike
- Train
- Airplane
We're told it should be quicker at finding a subject and better at continuing to track it, even if, for instance, the subject turns away from the camera or is partially obscured. As before, you can choose whether the camera homes-in on specific details, such as the helmet of a motorbike rider, the nose of a plane or the eyes of an animal. Selecting the more precise focus position can lower the system's responsiveness to smaller, faster-moving subjects.
Cinelike A2 color modeThe S1RII gains a new 'Cinelike A2' color mode, in both stills and video modes. It offers a very gentle response, somewhere between the flat, DR-prioritizing Cinelike D2 and the punchy, ready-to-go Cinelike V2 profile.
Panasonic says the A2 mode's color response stems from work they've been doing in recent months. And it's perhaps worth considering which partners Panasonic has been working with, recently, to guess at the significance of the letter 'A' in the name. Unlike the camera's Leica Monochrome mode, any connection isn't made explicit.
Real time LUTThe S1RII gains the Real Time LUT function we've seen on recent Panasonic cameras, letting you create and upload color and tone-modifying profiles in format with a workflow that's already widely supported across the industry. The S1RII allows you to load up to 39 LUTs onto the camera, with the option to combine two LUTs with varying intensity, if you wish.
Additional LUTs can be created or downloaded via Panasonic's Lumix Lab app.
False colorThe S1RII becomes one of the first stills/video cameras to include a false color display option. This is a feature common in the video world, giving a mono preview with certain brightness levels highlighted in different colors, to help you recognize which bits of the image are clipped or near clipping and which areas are exposed as mid tones or at a level appropriate for light skin tones. This display can be used in boths stills and video modes.
Capture One tetheringThe S1RII becomes the first Panasonic camera that can be shot, tethered, from Capture One, the popular studio software. We're told any decisions about whether to expand support to other models will depend on customer demand.
What's new for videoThe 44MP sensor means the S1RII has slightly more horizontal pixels than necessary to deliver UHD 8K (7680 x 4320) footage and a fraction short of what's needed to capture the DCI 8K's 8192 x 4320 resolution. Instead it offers what Panasonic called 8.1K (8128 x 4288), which conforms to the same 1.89:1 aspect ratio as DCI footage.
The degree to which the sensor resolution is suited to 8K capture is unlikely to be coincidental, and the S1RII offers the kind of extensive video feature set that you might expect from the company that brought us the GH series, rather than the pared-back list of options the original S1R brought.
It also includes everything you'd expect from Panasonic: the option to set exposure in terms of shutter angle, waveforms, vectorscopes, filtering or custom lists of video modes, four-channel audio and 32-bit Float audio via the optional XLR2 accessory, support for anamorphic lenses and a tally lamp to let you know you're rolling. The attention to detail goes beyond the addition of a big red button on the front.
Video options: Outputdimensions Frame
Rates Crop MOV ProRes 1.89:1 modes 8.1K 8128 x 4288 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:0 – 5.8K 5760 x 4030 30, 25, 24 1.0 422/HQ 30, 25, 24 1.31 – RAW/HQ 60, 50, 48 1.04 4:2:0 – DCI 4K 4096 x 2160 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:2 422/HQ 60, 50 1.04 60, 50, 30, 25, 24 1.52 120, 100 1.10 4:2:2 – 16:9 Modes 8.0K 7680 x 4320 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:0 – 5.9K 5888 x 3312 30, 25, 24 1.0 – 60, 50, 48 1.11 – UHD 4K 3840 x 2160 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:2 422/HQ 60, 50 1.11 60, 50, 30, 25, 24 1.52 120, 100 1.17 4:2:2 – 3:2 Modes 6.2K open gate* 6432 x 4228 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:0 – 4:3 Modes 4.7K 4736 x 3552 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24 1.65 4:2:0 422/HQ** - Boxes marked green off All-I compression options.
- Red boxes have a ProRes option.
* 8.1K and 7.1K open gate capture promised in future firmware
** ProRes 422/HQ only available up to 30p
The S1RII can also shoot Full HD (1920 x 1080) footage at any of the frame-rates and crops offered in UHD 4K mode, with the additional ability to capture 120 and 100p footage from the APS-C region.
Dynamic Range ExpansionThe S1RII gains a DR Expansion mode, letting you capture an additional stop of highlight information in high-contrast situations. This can be activated in any of the movie modes at frame rates up to 30p, and can only be applied when shooting V-Log footage (where the response curve can easily accommodate different levels of DR capture).
Base ISO 2nd gain step Standard color mode ISO 80 ISO 400 Cinelike D2, V2, A2 ISO 160 ISO 800 HLG ISO 320 ISO 1600 V-Log ISO 200 ISO 1000 V-Log + DR Expansion ISO 400 ISO 2000This is not the same system as the dual readout DR Boost function in the company's 25MP Micro Four Thirds camera. Instead it moves to a higher bit-depth readout, meaning there's a rolling shutter cost to engaging it. It also boosts the minimum available ISO, to prompt the use of a lower exposure, to capture that additional stop of highlights.
Open gate shootingAt launch the S1RII will be able to capture 6.4K footage from the entire 3:2 region of its sensor, downscaled from full-resolution capture.
Open gate shooting lets you choose and adjust your crop during post production. It also makes it possible to frame wide and then take both landscape and portrait video crops if you're trying to deliver to multiple different output platforms.
5.XK at up to 60p, 4K at up to 120pLike the S5II models, the S1RII gives you the choice of 1.89:1 DCI 4K capture or 16:9 UHD 4K, or 5.9K or 5.8K versions taken from the same capture regions. All four are available as 10-bit footage, with 4K encoded with 4:2:2 chroma precision and the 5.XK modes in 4:2:0.
Footage up to 30p is taken from the full width of the sensor using the full capture resolution, with a slight crop in to give 60p. 4K (in both flavors) is available at up to 120p with the addition of a further slight crop. Line skipping is used to deliver these 100p and 120p modes.
DCI and UHD 4K can also be captured at up to 60p from an APS-C region of the sensor.
UHD DCI Crop Rolling shutter Crop Rolling shutter 8K, 5.xK*, 4K30/25/24 1.00 24.9ms 1.00 22.4ms 5.xK*, 4K
50/60 1.11 15.4ms 1.04 15.3ms 4K
100/120 1.17 7.3ms 1.10 7.3ms 4K/30 DRExp* 1.00 31.7ms 1.00 29.8ms *8.1K and 5.9K modes give the same results as DCI 4K, 8.0K and 5.8K matches UHD
Tellingly the rolling shutter rate in DR Expansion mode is consistent with the rate of 14-bit stills, which suggests it's based on 14-bit capture, explaining Panasonic's claims of greater dynamic range.
In turn, the 60p output's rolling shutter is consistent with the 12-bit stills readout rate. This stongly implies that the standard 24, 25 and 30p modes, which are slower than this but quicker than 14-bit mode are taken from 13-bit capture.
In addition to the conventional MOV compressed footage, the S1RII also lets you capture various resolutions in either ProRes 422 or ProRes RAW formats, both of which can either be recorded to the camera's internal CFExpress type B card or to an external SSD. ProRes RAW (with a choice of HQ or standard compression levels) is taken from a 1.31x crop of the sensor, whereas the ProRes 422 (again HQ or Std) is derived from the full-width 8.1K capture.
Forthcoming attractionsAs usual for Panasonic cameras, the company has already given some details of features that are still being worked-on for the camera, and which it has promised will come in later firmware updates.
At launch the S1RII can capture open gate video footage at 6.4K resolution, but we're told 7.1K and 8.1K (native resolution) will be enabled in a later firmware update.
Similarly, the S1RII can currently output footage at up to 8K over HDMI but will gain the option to output a Raw data stream in 8.1K or 7.2K resolutions, at a later date.
How it comparesThe new, more compact S1RII arrives in a market where you can choose between the high resolution Sony a7RV or pay more for the likes of Nikon's Z8 and Canon's EOS R5 II that are both high resolution and fast. The Panasonic occupies something of a middle ground: offering some of the speed of the faster cameras (a higher peak frame rate but with more rolling shutter), but at a lower cost than Canon and Nikon's Stacked CMOS cameras.
We've opted to include the Canon EOS R5 II in this table, but the Nikon Z8 ends up looking very similar in terms of areas of strength, if you were to substitute that in. We've also chosen the DSLR-shaped a7R V from Sony, rather than the smaller, less expensive a7C R, because the larger model more closely resembles the Panasonic in terms of form factor, viewfinder quality, shutter options and screen articulation. But if size and price are your biggest concerns, the a7C R is in the running.
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII Canon EOS R5 II Sony a7R V Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R MSRP $3300 $4300 $3900 $3700 Pixel count 44MP 45MP 61MP 47MP Sensor type BSI CMOS Stacked CMOS BSI CMOS FSI CMOS Stabilization(IBIS / Synced) 8.0 EV /
7.0 EV – /
8.5 EV 8.0EV /
– 6.0 EV /
7.0 EV Max burst rate (Mech / E-shutter) 10 fps / 40 fps 12 fps / 30fps 10 fps / 9 fps / Viewfinder res / mag 5.76M dot OLED / 0.78x 5.76M dot OLED / 0.76x 9.44M dot
OLED 0.9x 5.76x dot OLED / 0.78x Rear screen 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot two-way tilt Max video resolution
8.1K [1.89:1] / 30p
UHD 8K / 30p
Full-width 5.9K 60p
UHD 8K / 60p
UHD 8K / 24p
5K [3:2] / 30p
UHD 4K / 60p
MOV H.265
ProRes 422
ProRes RAW
MP4 H.264
MP4 H.265
Canon Raw (/Light)
MOV H.265 MOV H.265
MP4 H.264 Storage formats 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B
External SSD 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B 2x UHS-II SD / CFe A 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B / XQD Flash sync speed 1/250 sec 1/250 sec
1/160 sec 1/250 sec 1/320 sec HDR output options (Stills / Video) - / HLG video HDR PQ HEIF / HDR PQ video HLG HEIF
/ HLG video HLG Photo / HLG video USB USB-C
3.2 Gen 2
(10 Gbps) USB-C
3.2 Gen 2
(10 Gbps) USB-C
3.2 Gen 2
(10 Gbps) USB-C
3.1 Gen 1
(5 Gbps) Battery life
LCD / EVF 350 / 300 540 / 250 530 / 440 380 / 360 Dimensions 134 x 102 x 92mm 139 x 101 x 94mm 131 x 97 x 82mm 149 x 110 x 97mm Weight 795g 746g 723g 1,020g
Despite being comfortably less expensive than its immediate peers, the S1RII's specs are competitive across the board. And while its video exhibits a fair bit more rolling shutter than the Stacked-sensor Nikon and Canon models, it significantly out-performs the Sony.
The a7R V's rolling shutter rate of 38ms means it can't deliver 8K/30, whereas the Panasonic can shoot 8K 30 and do so as fast as 24ms. This is respectable but not as impressive as the ∼13 and 14ms that the EOS R5 II and Z8 provide, respectively, from their much more expensive sensors.
Much of whether it's actually competitive, for both stills and video, will come down to whether the autofocus improvements are as significant as Panasonic promises.
Body and handlingThe S1RII uses a body based on the smaller S5II series, rather than the more substantial design of the first-gen S1 series cameras. This leaves it both smaller and lighter than its predecessor.
It has the internal fan from the S5II, with two small exhaust ports on either side of its viewfinder hump. This doesn't give quite 'GH series' recording reliability, but still allows the S1RII to record for extended periods.
However, while the body itself is similar in size to the S5II, it has a deeper hand grip, making it more comfortable to use with larger lenses. It maintains a row of three buttons along its top plate, immediately behind the shutter button, but omits the top plate display that the Mark 1 had.
Other losses in the move to the smaller body see the S1RII offer only a single function button between the mount and the hand grip, and the replacement of the two-position switch at the lower corner of the front panel by a large red [REC] button (whose function can be customized).
The S1RII also goes without a flash sync socket, but gains a dedicated Stills/Movie/Slow&Quick switch. Moving the exposure modes to the right of the camera allows the drive mode to be promoted to the top of the left-side dial, making room for shooting mode to occupy the switch underneath. Both mode dials have toggle lock buttons.
The removal of movie mode from the exposure mode dial in turn provides room for five custom positions on the exposure dial, each of which can be customized separately for stills and video custom settings. Position 5 on the dial can be used to access custom banks 5-10, if you wish, giving you a total of up to ten photo and ten video custom setting sets. Thankfully the camera's settings can be saved to a memory card and duplicated across cameras.
Rear screenOn the back of the camera, Panasonic has adopted a similar screen layout to the one Panasonic used on its explicitly video-focused S1H: a fully articulated rear screen mounted on a cradle that tilts up and down. This means that stills shooters can use the tilt mechanism if they want to keep the screen on-axis (and can flip the screen to face inwards for protection, when stowing the camera), but video shooters can extend the screen out and tilt it away from the mic, headphone and HDMI sockets while shooting.
BatteryThe S1RII uses the same 15.8Wh DMW-BLK22 battery as the S5II, a significant reduction compared with the original S1R. Despite this, it achieves a CIPA battery rating of 350 shots per charge if you use the rear screen and 300 via the viewfinder. The usual caveats apply to this number: most people get many, many more shots out of a camera than the CIPA rating (between two and three times the rated figure isn't unusual). To put it in context, 350 is a respectable figure and shouldn't leave you caught out during a busy day's shooting, but it doesn't have the confidence-inspiring duration that Sony's a7R V offers.
A new DMW-BG2 battery grip is also available to fit the S1RII. It adds a second battery in the grip, and is designed to allow hot-swapping of batteries: the external battery is used until the battery door is opened, at which point the camera switches to using the internal battery until a new battery is inserted in the grip. The grip also allows the camera to use both batteries simultaneously, for high power-consumption combinations such as capturing high bit-rate video to an external SSD.
Image QualityOur test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors and detail types you'll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.
Image ComparisonThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.The results are pretty positive. In terms of detail capture, the S1RII performs as we'd expect, capturing less detail than the 61MP Sony a7R V but with no meaningful difference vs the likes of the Canon EOS R5 II, Nikon Z8 or its own predecessor.
There's a fair bit of moiré visible in various places suggesting there's no anti-aliasing filter. But it's not significantly more pronounced than in most of its rivals, suggesting we were just unlucky that we got to see some artefacts in one of our real-world shooting. If anything, looking around various high-frequency targets in the scene, Panasonic's JPEG engine seems to be doing a pretty good job of suppressing the effects of moiré.
In terms of color rendition the Panasonic looks a lot like its immediate peers, with no significant differences in most colors, compared with its peers. The light skin tone patch is perhaps a fraction more pink than Canon's rendering, but there aren't any nasty surprises: something backed up by our experiences of shooting with the camera.
Noise levels seem competitive at low to moderately-high ISO settings but it looks like noise reduction is being applied to the Raws at the higher ISO settings, with distinct blurring of the noise patterns. JPEG noise reduction strikes a pretty good balance between noise suppression and detail retention, but gets a bit overwhelmed at the highest settings.
Dynamic rangeThe S1RII's sensor is a modern design with dual conversion gain; it has Panasonic's 'Dual Native ISO' function that lets you decide exactly where the switch in modes happens, but at default settings, it's at ISO 400 that the switch happens. Sure enough, if you brighten an ISO 320 image, you'll see it has slightly more noise than images shot at ISOs above that point, with the same exposure.
The further you venture into the ISOs from that low gain mode, the more noisy you'll find the very deep shadows (this is exactly the read noise that using the higher gain step minimizes). So the widest possible dynamic range is encountered at ISO 80, but if you're tempted to underexpose in low light, to protect highlights, you shouldn't venture below ISO 400.
The S1RII has a lower base ISO than its predecessor, so you can't make a direct comparison (the new camera receives 1/3EV more light), but even with that slight discrepancy, it's results seem comparable. It's a competitive result, even compared with the best of its peers.
High res multi-shotShot using hand-held multi-shot mode.
Lumix S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 | 26mm | F8 | 1/250 sec | ISO 80
Photo: Richard Butler
While we generally haven't found high-resolution multi-shot modes to be particularly useful, they can help you capture a bit more detail in the right circumstances. The S1RII has one of the best implementations of the feature, too, with both tripod and handheld modes and the option to compensate if your subject moves a bit at the cost of resolution in that area. Perhaps most importantly, the processing happens in-camera; you don't have to manually combine the shots later on in desktop software.
It's pretty apparent that the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII is built around the IMX366 sensor from Sony Semiconductor. So we see a sensor with dual conversion gain giving lots of dynamic range at base ISO and well-controlled noise once you move to the second gain mode. Its BSI design means its high image quality should be maintained right to the corners of the image, as it means the pixels can reliably receive light from more acute angles than on older FSI sensors.
Autofocus Autofocus operationThe Panasonic S1RII features a revised version of the phase-detection AF system introduced with the S5II cameras. It can detect and track more subjects than the S5II supported at launch, and Panasonic promises it's both quicker to find focus and more tenacious in terms of tracking.
The S1RII's button layout puts all your autofocus controls close at hand.The interface will be familiar to anyone who's used a Panasonic in the past ten-or-so years: pressing the AF Area button on the back of the camera brings up a row of seven icons representing the different AF areas the camera offers. Pressing upwards on the four-way controller or joystick then lets you choose whether the camera should look for a recognized subject near your chosen AF area. Pressing the 'DISP' button lets you select which subjects the camera looks for.
The S1RII's autofocus menu gives you a lot of options from a single screen.There's a twist, though: the S1RII can either be set to use its focus tracking system or it can be set to track a recognized subject but, unlike most modern cameras, these are separate functions. The upshot is that if you want to focus on a non-recognized subject for one shot, or the camera fails to find the subject it's supposed to recognize, you'll need to disengage the subject tracking: the S1RII will not fall back to its generic tracking system.
This is disappointing as the S5II has now gained the ability to detect all the same subjects as the S1RII, but its subject recognition is built on top of the generic tracking system, so the camera will fall back to tracking AF, making it more flexible.
AF interfaceThe interface generally does a good job of managing multiple subjects without overwhelming you with information. In most AF area modes, it'll only draw a box over the recognized subject nearest your selected area. If you move the point over another subject in the scene, it'll instantly snap the box to that subject instead. It's responsive enough that it doesn't feel like you're missing out by not having all the recognized subjects highlighted.
When the S1RII finds faces, it can do a good job of sticking with them. In this scenario, it was able to track someone who started out walking straight-on towards the camera but who ended up at an angle to it without losing track of them or jumping to the person next to them.
Lumix S Pro 24-70 F2.8 | 35mm | F4 | 1/200 | ISO 80
Photo: Mitchell Clark
If you prefer, you can use the 'full area' tracking mode. In this mode, the camera highlights all the recognized subjects, letting you select which one you want to focus on using the joystick or touchscreen. The boxes do jiggle quite a bit, though, and can sometimes flicker on and off, which isn't the most confidence-inspiring user experience and means a tap of the joystick doesn't always select the subject you wanted.
Autofocus performanceOur experiences with the S1RII were distinctly mixed: when the AF system works, it can be very good, but overall, we found it to be appreciably less reliable than we've come to expect from the likes of Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras.
We found the camera's AF Custom Setting Set 3 mode was better at tracking the subject than the defaults, which frequently lost track of it if it changed speed as it approached the camera. The custom setting, which is designed to handle unpredictably moving subjects, increased success in following the subject around, but the camera usually still struggled to keep it in focus as it changed speeds.
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Standard tracking, AF Custom Setting Set 3The subject recognition mode is more successful at tracking the subject and keeping it in focus; using AF Custom Setting Set 3 upped this dependability further. While the camera couldn't respond quickly enough to the subject's approach-rate changing to get every shot in focus, unlike the generic tracking it recovered quickly enough to give a good hit rate.
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Subject recognition mode, AF Custom Setting Set 3Testing the camera in a variety of settings suggests the S1RII's AF performance varies much more with adjustment of the AF Custom Settings than we've become used to with other brands. Generally, we consider Set 3 to be a good starting point.
Perhaps the most concerning behavior, though, was one we've seen in other recent Panasonic cameras, where very occasionally, tracking AF will fail to find something to focus on at all and will simply present a red flashing box and make no further attempt to focus. This is offputting enough to undermine our faith in the reliability of the camera, probably out of proportion to how often it occurs. Just knowing that the camera will sometimes fail to focus and make you wait a few moments is an unpleasant thought to have lingering in the back of your mind and not something we're used to encountering on a modern camera.
ConclusionBy Mitchell Clark
What we like What we don't- Excellent image quality
- Solid and highly customizable controls
- Comfortable ergonomics
- Large, responsive viewfinder
- Versatile display with tilting and articulation
- Competitive burst rates and pre-burst options
- In-camera multi-shot provides resolution boost for static subjects
- Solid L-mount lens ecosystem
- Relatively extensive suite of video features, codecs, and resolutions
- Fan allows dependable video recording for extended periods
- Relatively short battery life
- Autofocus tracking still isn't as reliable as its rivals
- Subject detection doesn't fall back to standard tracking autofocus
- Higher rolling shutter rates than Stacked-sensor cameras
- Relatively small buffer given fast burst rates
- In rare instances the AF will fail to focus altogether
The S1RII is very much a hybrid camera and we'll be looking into its video handling and performance at a future date. But for now we're going to assess the stills side of the camera.
Image quality is, as you should expect from a modern camera, very good. The out-of-camera JPEGs are attractive, and the Raws seem to be both detailed and flexible when you process them. The S1RII gains Panasonic's LUT options, giving you essentially endless customization options if you want to develop your own 'look.' And, while we tend to find multi-shot high res modes quite limited in their value, the S1RII has probably the most usable implementation.
A 177MP image, produced using the hand-held multi-shot mode.
Lumix S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 | 21mm | F8 | 1/500 sec | ISO 80
Photo: Richard Butler
We were also impressed by the S1RII's body and handling. It has a more comfortable grip and retains a good level of direct control and customization without these control points getting too cramped, despite a move away from the large 'professional' style body of its predecessor. It's only really button backlighting that goes missing in the transition, but the updated tilting/articulating screen more than makes up for that, in our opinion.
Our biggest concern with the camera is its autofocus system. While AF tracking is an improvement from previous Panasonic cameras, its performance is still well behind that of its competitors. That's combined with Panasonic's unusual decision to separate general tracking from subject recognition, which makes the camera slower and less dependable to use. The battery life also isn't great, considering its pro-level aspirations, though that can be mitigated with Panasonic's battery grip, which supports hot-swapping.
If the S1RII was everything Panasonic promised it would be, this would be a very different conclusion, especially given just how much cheaper it is than its high-res peers. But while it's a very capable camera, especially for video, the autofocus system and performance make a compelling argument to spend the bit more for one of its competitors if your shooting includes action and movement. While it may be possible to fix some of those issues with firmware updates, at the moment we don't feel the S1RII stands out enough to get one of our awards.
ScoringScoring is relative only to the other cameras in the same category. Click here to learn about what these numbers mean.
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RIICategory: Semi-professional Full Frame CameraBuild qualityErgonomics & handlingFeaturesMetering & focus accuracyImage quality (raw)Image quality (jpeg)Low light / high ISO performanceViewfinder / screen ratingOpticsPerformanceMovie / video modeConnectivityValuePoorExcellentConclusionThe S1RII is a hybrid camera that offers solid detail capture, pleasing JPEGs and plenty of video capabilities, but its autofocus system isn't the best for capturing action and movement.Good forHigh quality movie and stills shooting without stacked sensor priceNot so good forShooting action when absolute dependability is required91%Overall scoreRegularScoreCompareWidget({"mainElementId":"scoringWidget","mainProduct":"panasonic_dcs1rii","scoringSchema":{"id":"SLRs","variables":[{"id":"BuildQuality"},{"id":"ErgonomicsAndHandling"},{"id":"Features"},{"id":"MeteringAndFocusAccuracy"},{"id":"QualityRaw"},{"id":"QualityJpeg"},{"id":"LowLightHighISO"},{"id":"ViewfinderScreenRating"},{"id":"Optics"},{"id":"Performance"},{"id":"Movie"},{"id":"Connectivity"},{"id":"Value"}],"categories":[{"id":"EntryLevel","label":"Entry Level Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Entry Level"},{"id":"MidRange","label":"Mid Range Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Mid Level"},{"id":"EntryLevelFullFrame","label":"Entry Level Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Full Frame"},{"id":"MidRangeFullFrame","label":"Mid Range Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Mid Range Full Frame"},{"id":"SemiProfessional","label":"Semi-professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Semi-professional"},{"id":"SemiProfessionalFullFrame","label":"Semi-professional Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Semi-professional Full Frame"},{"id":"Professional","label":" Professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Professional"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEntry","label":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEnthusiast","label":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"VideoCamera","label":"Video Camera","shortLabel":"Video Camera"}]},"helpText":"Choose one or more cameras from the drop-down menu, then roll your mouse over the names to see how their scores compare to the camera on review."}) Compared to its peersThe Canon EOS R5 II and the Nikon Z8 are the S1RII's main competitors. They offer similar image quality and hybrid capabilities, though they don't have the excellent tilting/articulating rear display and can't deliver multi-shot high-res images out-of-camera. Both, however, have better battery life, deeper buffers and lower rolling shutter rates for shooting video or stills using the electronic shutter. We also find their autofocus tracking performance to be more capable and user-friendly, as they both fall back to their still quite reliable generic tracking systems when there's no subject to detect. You'll certainly pay for the extra speed and reliability, but it's probably worth it.
Sony's a7R V also has a very capable autofocus system, though it trades speed for even higher resolution. If you're looking to do video or shoot faster-moving subjects, the S1RII is a much better pick, as the a7R V reads out quite slowly. However, it produces even more detailed photos, which may be useful depending on what you're shooting.
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo Sample galleryPlease do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII review
Product photos: Mitchell Clark
91%Overall scoreJump to conclusionThe Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII is the company's latest high-resolution full-frame mirrorless camera, now beefed-up with 8K video capabilities and improved autofocus.
Key features- Full-frame 44MP dual gain CMOS sensor
- Up to 40fps continuous shooting with pre-burst capture (e-shutter only)
- 8.1K/8K video at up to 30p
- 5.76M dot viewfinder
- Flip-out and tilt rear screen
- ProRes 422 and ProRes RAW capture
- Capture to CFExpress Type B, UHS II SD or external SSD
- Multi-shot high res mode up to 177MP
- 32-bit float audio via optional XLR 2 adapter
The S1RII is available now with a recommended retail price of $3300.
Index:- What's new
- What's new for video
- How it compares
- Body and handling
- Image Quality
- Autofocus
- Conclusion
- Sample gallery
- Specifications
- Press release
Buy now:
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo- Feb 25: Initial review published
- Mar 31: Image quality and Autofocus results published
- Apr 23: Autofocus section updated and conclusion added
Rather than the 47MP used in the original S1R, or the 61MP chip used in Leica's SL3, Panasonic has opted for a slightly lower resolution but faster sensor for the S1RII.
It features dual conversion gain on which, as usual on Panasonic cameras, you can manually select which of its two readout modes it uses, at intermediate ISO settings. Panasonic doesn't always disclose when it's using BSI technology, but in this instance it has confirmed it.
Its design means it's appreciable slower than the more expensive Stacked CMOS sensors, with an electronic shutter mode that takes 37.5ms (~1/27 sec) to read out in 14-bit mode and 20.2ms (~1/50 sec) in the 12-bit mode used for bursts and other quick-fire shooting modes.
AutofocusThe S1RII represents the second generation of Panasonic cameras to feature phase detection autofocus, with the inherent depth awareness that this brings. The company says it's significantly improved both its subject recognition and its tracking algorithms in the new camera, to bring its performance closer into line with the best of its peers.
The S1RII has algorithms trained to recognize the following subjects:
- Human
- Animal (Dog, Cat, Bird)
- Car
- Motorcycle / Bike
- Train
- Airplane
We're told it should be quicker at finding a subject and better at continuing to track it, even if, for instance, the subject turns away from the camera or is partially obscured. As before, you can choose whether the camera homes-in on specific details, such as the helmet of a motorbike rider, the nose of a plane or the eyes of an animal. Selecting the more precise focus position can lower the system's responsiveness to smaller, faster-moving subjects.
Cinelike A2 color modeThe S1RII gains a new 'Cinelike A2' color mode, in both stills and video modes. It offers a very gentle response, somewhere between the flat, DR-prioritizing Cinelike D2 and the punchy, ready-to-go Cinelike V2 profile.
Panasonic says the A2 mode's color response stems from work they've been doing in recent months. And it's perhaps worth considering which partners Panasonic has been working with, recently, to guess at the significance of the letter 'A' in the name. Unlike the camera's Leica Monochrome mode, any connection isn't made explicit.
Real time LUTThe S1RII gains the Real Time LUT function we've seen on recent Panasonic cameras, letting you create and upload color and tone-modifying profiles in format with a workflow that's already widely supported across the industry. The S1RII allows you to load up to 39 LUTs onto the camera, with the option to combine two LUTs with varying intensity, if you wish.
Additional LUTs can be created or downloaded via Panasonic's Lumix Lab app.
False colorThe S1RII becomes one of the first stills/video cameras to include a false color display option. This is a feature common in the video world, giving a mono preview with certain brightness levels highlighted in different colors, to help you recognize which bits of the image are clipped or near clipping and which areas are exposed as mid tones or at a level appropriate for light skin tones. This display can be used in boths stills and video modes.
Capture One tetheringThe S1RII becomes the first Panasonic camera that can be shot, tethered, from Capture One, the popular studio software. We're told any decisions about whether to expand support to other models will depend on customer demand.
What's new for videoThe 44MP sensor means the S1RII has slightly more horizontal pixels than necessary to deliver UHD 8K (7680 x 4320) footage and a fraction short of what's needed to capture the DCI 8K's 8192 x 4320 resolution. Instead it offers what Panasonic called 8.1K (8128 x 4288), which conforms to the same 1.89:1 aspect ratio as DCI footage.
The degree to which the sensor resolution is suited to 8K capture is unlikely to be coincidental, and the S1RII offers the kind of extensive video feature set that you might expect from the company that brought us the GH series, rather than the pared-back list of options the original S1R brought.
It also includes everything you'd expect from Panasonic: the option to set exposure in terms of shutter angle, waveforms, vectorscopes, filtering or custom lists of video modes, four-channel audio and 32-bit Float audio via the optional XLR2 accessory, support for anamorphic lenses and a tally lamp to let you know you're rolling. The attention to detail goes beyond the addition of a big red button on the front.
Video options: Outputdimensions Frame
Rates Crop MOV ProRes 1.89:1 modes 8.1K 8128 x 4288 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:0 – 5.8K 5760 x 4030 30, 25, 24 1.0 422/HQ 30, 25, 24 1.31 – RAW/HQ 60, 50, 48 1.04 4:2:0 – DCI 4K 4096 x 2160 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:2 422/HQ 60, 50 1.04 60, 50, 30, 25, 24 1.52 120, 100 1.10 4:2:2 – 16:9 Modes 8.0K 7680 x 4320 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:0 – 5.9K 5888 x 3312 30, 25, 24 1.0 – 60, 50, 48 1.11 – UHD 4K 3840 x 2160 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:2 422/HQ 60, 50 1.11 60, 50, 30, 25, 24 1.52 120, 100 1.17 4:2:2 – 3:2 Modes 6.2K open gate* 6432 x 4228 30, 25, 24 1.0 4:2:0 – 4:3 Modes 4.7K 4736 x 3552 60, 50, 48, 30, 25, 24 1.65 4:2:0 422/HQ** - Boxes marked green off All-I compression options.
- Red boxes have a ProRes option.
* 8.1K and 7.1K open gate capture promised in future firmware
** ProRes 422/HQ only available up to 30p
The S1RII can also shoot Full HD (1920 x 1080) footage at any of the frame-rates and crops offered in UHD 4K mode, with the additional ability to capture 120 and 100p footage from the APS-C region.
Dynamic Range ExpansionThe S1RII gains a DR Expansion mode, letting you capture an additional stop of highlight information in high-contrast situations. This can be activated in any of the movie modes at frame rates up to 30p, and can only be applied when shooting V-Log footage (where the response curve can easily accommodate different levels of DR capture).
Base ISO 2nd gain step Standard color mode ISO 80 ISO 400 Cinelike D2, V2, A2 ISO 160 ISO 800 HLG ISO 320 ISO 1600 V-Log ISO 200 ISO 1000 V-Log + DR Expansion ISO 400 ISO 2000This is not the same system as the dual readout DR Boost function in the company's 25MP Micro Four Thirds camera. Instead it moves to a higher bit-depth readout, meaning there's a rolling shutter cost to engaging it. It also boosts the minimum available ISO, to prompt the use of a lower exposure, to capture that additional stop of highlights.
Open gate shootingAt launch the S1RII will be able to capture 6.4K footage from the entire 3:2 region of its sensor, downscaled from full-resolution capture.
Open gate shooting lets you choose and adjust your crop during post production. It also makes it possible to frame wide and then take both landscape and portrait video crops if you're trying to deliver to multiple different output platforms.
5.XK at up to 60p, 4K at up to 120pLike the S5II models, the S1RII gives you the choice of 1.89:1 DCI 4K capture or 16:9 UHD 4K, or 5.9K or 5.8K versions taken from the same capture regions. All four are available as 10-bit footage, with 4K encoded with 4:2:2 chroma precision and the 5.XK modes in 4:2:0.
Footage up to 30p is taken from the full width of the sensor using the full capture resolution, with a slight crop in to give 60p. 4K (in both flavors) is available at up to 120p with the addition of a further slight crop. Line skipping is used to deliver these 100p and 120p modes.
DCI and UHD 4K can also be captured at up to 60p from an APS-C region of the sensor.
UHD DCI Crop Rolling shutter Crop Rolling shutter 8K, 5.xK*, 4K30/25/24 1.00 24.9ms 1.00 22.4ms 5.xK*, 4K
50/60 1.11 15.4ms 1.04 15.3ms 4K
100/120 1.17 7.3ms 1.10 7.3ms 4K/30 DRExp* 1.00 31.7ms 1.00 29.8ms *8.1K and 5.9K modes give the same results as DCI 4K, 8.0K and 5.8K matches UHD
Tellingly the rolling shutter rate in DR Expansion mode is consistent with the rate of 14-bit stills, which suggests it's based on 14-bit capture, explaining Panasonic's claims of greater dynamic range.
In turn, the 60p output's rolling shutter is consistent with the 12-bit stills readout rate. This stongly implies that the standard 24, 25 and 30p modes, which are slower than this but quicker than 14-bit mode are taken from 13-bit capture.
In addition to the conventional MOV compressed footage, the S1RII also lets you capture various resolutions in either ProRes 422 or ProRes RAW formats, both of which can either be recorded to the camera's internal CFExpress type B card or to an external SSD. ProRes RAW (with a choice of HQ or standard compression levels) is taken from a 1.31x crop of the sensor, whereas the ProRes 422 (again HQ or Std) is derived from the full-width 8.1K capture.
Forthcoming attractionsAs usual for Panasonic cameras, the company has already given some details of features that are still being worked-on for the camera, and which it has promised will come in later firmware updates.
At launch the S1RII can capture open gate video footage at 6.4K resolution, but we're told 7.1K and 8.1K (native resolution) will be enabled in a later firmware update.
Similarly, the S1RII can currently output footage at up to 8K over HDMI but will gain the option to output a Raw data stream in 8.1K or 7.2K resolutions, at a later date.
How it comparesThe new, more compact S1RII arrives in a market where you can choose between the high resolution Sony a7RV or pay more for the likes of Nikon's Z8 and Canon's EOS R5 II that are both high resolution and fast. The Panasonic occupies something of a middle ground: offering some of the speed of the faster cameras (a higher peak frame rate but with more rolling shutter), but at a lower cost than Canon and Nikon's Stacked CMOS cameras.
We've opted to include the Canon EOS R5 II in this table, but the Nikon Z8 ends up looking very similar in terms of areas of strength, if you were to substitute that in. We've also chosen the DSLR-shaped a7R V from Sony, rather than the smaller, less expensive a7C R, because the larger model more closely resembles the Panasonic in terms of form factor, viewfinder quality, shutter options and screen articulation. But if size and price are your biggest concerns, the a7C R is in the running.
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII Canon EOS R5 II Sony a7R V Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R MSRP $3300 $4300 $3900 $3700 Pixel count 44MP 45MP 61MP 47MP Sensor type BSI CMOS Stacked CMOS BSI CMOS FSI CMOS Stabilization(IBIS / Synced) 8.0 EV /
7.0 EV – /
8.5 EV 8.0EV /
– 6.0 EV /
7.0 EV Max burst rate (Mech / E-shutter) 10 fps / 40 fps 12 fps / 30fps 10 fps / 9 fps / Viewfinder res / mag 5.76M dot OLED / 0.78x 5.76M dot OLED / 0.76x 9.44M dot
OLED 0.9x 5.76x dot OLED / 0.78x Rear screen 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot Tilt + Fully Artic. 3.2" 2.1M dot two-way tilt Max video resolution
8.1K [1.89:1] / 30p
UHD 8K / 30p
Full-width 5.9K 60p
UHD 8K / 60p
UHD 8K / 24p
5K [3:2] / 30p
UHD 4K / 60p
MOV H.265
ProRes 422
ProRes RAW
MP4 H.264
MP4 H.265
Canon Raw (/Light)
MOV H.265 MOV H.265
MP4 H.264 Storage formats 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B
External SSD 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B 2x UHS-II SD / CFe A 1x UHS-II SD
1x CFe B / XQD Flash sync speed 1/250 sec 1/250 sec
1/160 sec 1/250 sec 1/320 sec HDR output options (Stills / Video) - / HLG video HDR PQ HEIF / HDR PQ video HLG HEIF
/ HLG video HLG Photo / HLG video USB USB-C
3.2 Gen 2
(10 Gbps) USB-C
3.2 Gen 2
(10 Gbps) USB-C
3.2 Gen 2
(10 Gbps) USB-C
3.1 Gen 1
(5 Gbps) Battery life
LCD / EVF 350 / 300 540 / 250 530 / 440 380 / 360 Dimensions 134 x 102 x 92mm 139 x 101 x 94mm 131 x 97 x 82mm 149 x 110 x 97mm Weight 795g 746g 723g 1,020g
Despite being comfortably less expensive than its immediate peers, the S1RII's specs are competitive across the board. And while its video exhibits a fair bit more rolling shutter than the Stacked-sensor Nikon and Canon models, it significantly out-performs the Sony.
The a7R V's rolling shutter rate of 38ms means it can't deliver 8K/30, whereas the Panasonic can shoot 8K 30 and do so as fast as 24ms. This is respectable but not as impressive as the ∼13 and 14ms that the EOS R5 II and Z8 provide, respectively, from their much more expensive sensors.
Much of whether it's actually competitive, for both stills and video, will come down to whether the autofocus improvements are as significant as Panasonic promises.
Body and handlingThe S1RII uses a body based on the smaller S5II series, rather than the more substantial design of the first-gen S1 series cameras. This leaves it both smaller and lighter than its predecessor.
It has the internal fan from the S5II, with two small exhaust ports on either side of its viewfinder hump. This doesn't give quite 'GH series' recording reliability, but still allows the S1RII to record for extended periods.
However, while the body itself is similar in size to the S5II, it has a deeper hand grip, making it more comfortable to use with larger lenses. It maintains a row of three buttons along its top plate, immediately behind the shutter button, but omits the top plate display that the Mark 1 had.
Other losses in the move to the smaller body see the S1RII offer only a single function button between the mount and the hand grip, and the replacement of the two-position switch at the lower corner of the front panel by a large red [REC] button (whose function can be customized).
The S1RII also goes without a flash sync socket, but gains a dedicated Stills/Movie/Slow&Quick switch. Moving the exposure modes to the right of the camera allows the drive mode to be promoted to the top of the left-side dial, making room for shooting mode to occupy the switch underneath. Both mode dials have toggle lock buttons.
The removal of movie mode from the exposure mode dial in turn provides room for five custom positions on the exposure dial, each of which can be customized separately for stills and video custom settings. Position 5 on the dial can be used to access custom banks 5-10, if you wish, giving you a total of up to ten photo and ten video custom setting sets. Thankfully the camera's settings can be saved to a memory card and duplicated across cameras.
Rear screenOn the back of the camera, Panasonic has adopted a similar screen layout to the one Panasonic used on its explicitly video-focused S1H: a fully articulated rear screen mounted on a cradle that tilts up and down. This means that stills shooters can use the tilt mechanism if they want to keep the screen on-axis (and can flip the screen to face inwards for protection, when stowing the camera), but video shooters can extend the screen out and tilt it away from the mic, headphone and HDMI sockets while shooting.
BatteryThe S1RII uses the same 15.8Wh DMW-BLK22 battery as the S5II, a significant reduction compared with the original S1R. Despite this, it achieves a CIPA battery rating of 350 shots per charge if you use the rear screen and 300 via the viewfinder. The usual caveats apply to this number: most people get many, many more shots out of a camera than the CIPA rating (between two and three times the rated figure isn't unusual). To put it in context, 350 is a respectable figure and shouldn't leave you caught out during a busy day's shooting, but it doesn't have the confidence-inspiring duration that Sony's a7R V offers.
A new DMW-BG2 battery grip is also available to fit the S1RII. It adds a second battery in the grip, and is designed to allow hot-swapping of batteries: the external battery is used until the battery door is opened, at which point the camera switches to using the internal battery until a new battery is inserted in the grip. The grip also allows the camera to use both batteries simultaneously, for high power-consumption combinations such as capturing high bit-rate video to an external SSD.
Image QualityOur test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors and detail types you'll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.
Image ComparisonThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.The results are pretty positive. In terms of detail capture, the S1RII performs as we'd expect, capturing less detail than the 61MP Sony a7R V but with no meaningful difference vs the likes of the Canon EOS R5 II, Nikon Z8 or its own predecessor.
There's a fair bit of moiré visible in various places suggesting there's no anti-aliasing filter. But it's not significantly more pronounced than in most of its rivals, suggesting we were just unlucky that we got to see some artefacts in one of our real-world shooting. If anything, looking around various high-frequency targets in the scene, Panasonic's JPEG engine seems to be doing a pretty good job of suppressing the effects of moiré.
In terms of color rendition the Panasonic looks a lot like its immediate peers, with no significant differences in most colors, compared with its peers. The light skin tone patch is perhaps a fraction more pink than Canon's rendering, but there aren't any nasty surprises: something backed up by our experiences of shooting with the camera.
Noise levels seem competitive at low to moderately-high ISO settings but it looks like noise reduction is being applied to the Raws at the higher ISO settings, with distinct blurring of the noise patterns. JPEG noise reduction strikes a pretty good balance between noise suppression and detail retention, but gets a bit overwhelmed at the highest settings.
Dynamic rangeThe S1RII's sensor is a modern design with dual conversion gain; it has Panasonic's 'Dual Native ISO' function that lets you decide exactly where the switch in modes happens, but at default settings, it's at ISO 400 that the switch happens. Sure enough, if you brighten an ISO 320 image, you'll see it has slightly more noise than images shot at ISOs above that point, with the same exposure.
The further you venture into the ISOs from that low gain mode, the more noisy you'll find the very deep shadows (this is exactly the read noise that using the higher gain step minimizes). So the widest possible dynamic range is encountered at ISO 80, but if you're tempted to underexpose in low light, to protect highlights, you shouldn't venture below ISO 400.
The S1RII has a lower base ISO than its predecessor, so you can't make a direct comparison (the new camera receives 1/3EV more light), but even with that slight discrepancy, it's results seem comparable. It's a competitive result, even compared with the best of its peers.
High res multi-shotShot using hand-held multi-shot mode.
Lumix S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 | 26mm | F8 | 1/250 sec | ISO 80
Photo: Richard Butler
While we generally haven't found high-resolution multi-shot modes to be particularly useful, they can help you capture a bit more detail in the right circumstances. The S1RII has one of the best implementations of the feature, too, with both tripod and handheld modes and the option to compensate if your subject moves a bit at the cost of resolution in that area. Perhaps most importantly, the processing happens in-camera; you don't have to manually combine the shots later on in desktop software.
It's pretty apparent that the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RII is built around the IMX366 sensor from Sony Semiconductor. So we see a sensor with dual conversion gain giving lots of dynamic range at base ISO and well-controlled noise once you move to the second gain mode. Its BSI design means its high image quality should be maintained right to the corners of the image, as it means the pixels can reliably receive light from more acute angles than on older FSI sensors.
Autofocus Autofocus operationThe Panasonic S1RII features a revised version of the phase-detection AF system introduced with the S5II cameras. It can detect and track more subjects than the S5II supported at launch, and Panasonic promises it's both quicker to find focus and more tenacious in terms of tracking.
The S1RII's button layout puts all your autofocus controls close at hand.The interface will be familiar to anyone who's used a Panasonic in the past ten-or-so years: pressing the AF Area button on the back of the camera brings up a row of seven icons representing the different AF areas the camera offers. Pressing upwards on the four-way controller or joystick then lets you choose whether the camera should look for a recognized subject near your chosen AF area. Pressing the 'DISP' button lets you select which subjects the camera looks for.
The S1RII's autofocus menu gives you a lot of options from a single screen.There's a twist, though: the S1RII can either be set to use its focus tracking system or it can be set to track a recognized subject but, unlike most modern cameras, these are separate functions. The upshot is that if you want to focus on a non-recognized subject for one shot, or the camera fails to find the subject it's supposed to recognize, you'll need to disengage the subject tracking: the S1RII will not fall back to its generic tracking system.
This is disappointing as the S5II has now gained the ability to detect all the same subjects as the S1RII, but its subject recognition is built on top of the generic tracking system, so the camera will fall back to tracking AF, making it more flexible.
AF interfaceThe interface generally does a good job of managing multiple subjects without overwhelming you with information. In most AF area modes, it'll only draw a box over the recognized subject nearest your selected area. If you move the point over another subject in the scene, it'll instantly snap the box to that subject instead. It's responsive enough that it doesn't feel like you're missing out by not having all the recognized subjects highlighted.
When the S1RII finds faces, it can do a good job of sticking with them. In this scenario, it was able to track someone who started out walking straight-on towards the camera but who ended up at an angle to it without losing track of them or jumping to the person next to them.
Lumix S Pro 24-70 F2.8 | 35mm | F4 | 1/200 | ISO 80
Photo: Mitchell Clark
If you prefer, you can use the 'full area' tracking mode. In this mode, the camera highlights all the recognized subjects, letting you select which one you want to focus on using the joystick or touchscreen. The boxes do jiggle quite a bit, though, and can sometimes flicker on and off, which isn't the most confidence-inspiring user experience and means a tap of the joystick doesn't always select the subject you wanted.
Autofocus performanceOur experiences with the S1RII were distinctly mixed: when the AF system works, it can be very good, but overall, we found it to be appreciably less reliable than we've come to expect from the likes of Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras.
We found the camera's AF Custom Setting Set 3 mode was better at tracking the subject than the defaults, which frequently lost track of it if it changed speed as it approached the camera. The custom setting, which is designed to handle unpredictably moving subjects, increased success in following the subject around, but the camera usually still struggled to keep it in focus as it changed speeds.
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Standard tracking, AF Custom Setting Set 3The subject recognition mode is more successful at tracking the subject and keeping it in focus; using AF Custom Setting Set 3 upped this dependability further. While the camera couldn't respond quickly enough to the subject's approach-rate changing to get every shot in focus, unlike the generic tracking it recovered quickly enough to give a good hit rate.
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Subject recognition mode, AF Custom Setting Set 3Testing the camera in a variety of settings suggests the S1RII's AF performance varies much more with adjustment of the AF Custom Settings than we've become used to with other brands. Generally, we consider Set 3 to be a good starting point.
Perhaps the most concerning behavior, though, was one we've seen in other recent Panasonic cameras, where very occasionally, tracking AF will fail to find something to focus on at all and will simply present a red flashing box and make no further attempt to focus. This is offputting enough to undermine our faith in the reliability of the camera, probably out of proportion to how often it occurs. Just knowing that the camera will sometimes fail to focus and make you wait a few moments is an unpleasant thought to have lingering in the back of your mind and not something we're used to encountering on a modern camera.
ConclusionBy Mitchell Clark
What we like What we don't- Excellent image quality
- Solid and highly customizable controls
- Comfortable ergonomics
- Large, responsive viewfinder
- Versatile display with tilting and articulation
- Competitive burst rates and pre-burst options
- In-camera multi-shot provides resolution boost for static subjects
- Solid L-mount lens ecosystem
- Relatively extensive suite of video features, codecs, and resolutions
- Fan allows dependable video recording for extended periods
- Relatively short battery life
- Autofocus tracking still isn't as reliable as its rivals
- Subject detection doesn't fall back to standard tracking autofocus
- Higher rolling shutter rates than Stacked-sensor cameras
- Relatively small buffer given fast burst rates
- In rare instances the AF will fail to focus altogether
The S1RII is very much a hybrid camera and we'll be looking into its video handling and performance at a future date. But for now we're going to assess the stills side of the camera.
Image quality is, as you should expect from a modern camera, very good. The out-of-camera JPEGs are attractive, and the Raws seem to be both detailed and flexible when you process them. The S1RII gains Panasonic's LUT options, giving you essentially endless customization options if you want to develop your own 'look.' And, while we tend to find multi-shot high res modes quite limited in their value, the S1RII has probably the most usable implementation.
A 177MP image, produced using the hand-held multi-shot mode.
Lumix S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 | 21mm | F8 | 1/500 sec | ISO 80
Photo: Richard Butler
We were also impressed by the S1RII's body and handling. It has a more comfortable grip and retains a good level of direct control and customization without these control points getting too cramped, despite a move away from the large 'professional' style body of its predecessor. It's only really button backlighting that goes missing in the transition, but the updated tilting/articulating screen more than makes up for that, in our opinion.
Our biggest concern with the camera is its autofocus system. While AF tracking is an improvement from previous Panasonic cameras, its performance is still well behind that of its competitors. That's combined with Panasonic's unusual decision to separate general tracking from subject recognition, which makes the camera slower and less dependable to use. The battery life also isn't great, considering its pro-level aspirations, though that can be mitigated with Panasonic's battery grip, which supports hot-swapping.
If the S1RII was everything Panasonic promised it would be, this would be a very different conclusion, especially given just how much cheaper it is than its high-res peers. But while it's a very capable camera, especially for video, the autofocus system and performance make a compelling argument to spend the bit more for one of its competitors if your shooting includes action and movement. While it may be possible to fix some of those issues with firmware updates, at the moment we don't feel the S1RII stands out enough to get one of our awards.
ScoringScoring is relative only to the other cameras in the same category. Click here to learn about what these numbers mean.
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1RIICategory: Semi-professional Full Frame CameraBuild qualityErgonomics & handlingFeaturesMetering & focus accuracyImage quality (raw)Image quality (jpeg)Low light / high ISO performanceViewfinder / screen ratingOpticsPerformanceMovie / video modeConnectivityValuePoorExcellentConclusionThe S1RII is a hybrid camera that offers solid detail capture, pleasing JPEGs and plenty of video capabilities, but its autofocus system isn't the best for capturing action and movement.Good forHigh quality movie and stills shooting without stacked sensor priceNot so good forShooting action when absolute dependability is required91%Overall scoreRegularScoreCompareWidget({"mainElementId":"scoringWidget","mainProduct":"panasonic_dcs1rii","scoringSchema":{"id":"SLRs","variables":[{"id":"BuildQuality"},{"id":"ErgonomicsAndHandling"},{"id":"Features"},{"id":"MeteringAndFocusAccuracy"},{"id":"QualityRaw"},{"id":"QualityJpeg"},{"id":"LowLightHighISO"},{"id":"ViewfinderScreenRating"},{"id":"Optics"},{"id":"Performance"},{"id":"Movie"},{"id":"Connectivity"},{"id":"Value"}],"categories":[{"id":"EntryLevel","label":"Entry Level Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Entry Level"},{"id":"MidRange","label":"Mid Range Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Mid Level"},{"id":"EntryLevelFullFrame","label":"Entry Level Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Full Frame"},{"id":"MidRangeFullFrame","label":"Mid Range Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Mid Range Full Frame"},{"id":"SemiProfessional","label":"Semi-professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Semi-professional"},{"id":"SemiProfessionalFullFrame","label":"Semi-professional Full Frame Camera","shortLabel":"Semi-professional Full Frame"},{"id":"Professional","label":" Professional Interchangeable Lens Camera / DSLR","shortLabel":"Professional"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEntry","label":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Entry Level Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"LargeSensorCompactEnthusiast","label":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact Camera","shortLabel":"Enthusiast Large Sensor Compact"},{"id":"VideoCamera","label":"Video Camera","shortLabel":"Video Camera"}]},"helpText":"Choose one or more cameras from the drop-down menu, then roll your mouse over the names to see how their scores compare to the camera on review."}) Compared to its peersThe Canon EOS R5 II and the Nikon Z8 are the S1RII's main competitors. They offer similar image quality and hybrid capabilities, though they don't have the excellent tilting/articulating rear display or the ability to process high-res multi-shot in-camera. Both, however, have better battery life, deeper buffers and lower rolling shutter rates for shooting video or stills using the electronic shutter. We also find their autofocus tracking performance to be more capable and user-friendly, as they both fall back to their still quite reliable generic tracking systems when there's no subject to detect. You'll certainly pay for the extra speed and reliability, but it's probably worth it.
Sony's a7R V also has a very capable autofocus system, though it trades speed for even higher resolution. If you're looking to do video or shoot faster-moving subjects, the S1RII is a much better pick, as the a7R V reads out quite slowly. However, it produces even more detailed photos, which may be useful depending on what you're shooting.
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