Panasonic S5 Review: A Fantastic Camera for Video

this is the new panasonic s5 and in many ways it's kind of like a full-frame gh5 with a few limitations but offers some crazy high specs like 5.9 k raw video over hdmi anamorphic recording modes in body stabilization and more before we jump into the details i do want to disclose that this is a sample unit from a panasonic i'm not being paid by them they're not watching this video before it hits the channel and i will not be keeping this unit i will be sending it back to panasonic so let's dive into the details of this new camera and we're going to start things off by talking about the sensor the s5 shares the same 24.2 megapixel sensor as the s1 and s1h from panasonic so you can expect very similar rolling shutter and low light performance when it comes to rolling shutter it isn't the best but i would say it's similar to the a7 3 from sony low light is great on this camera and what's really interesting is the s5 has the same dual native iso found on the s1h with one exception however you can't choose between the iso ranges as the camera will automatically switch between high and low for you when it comes to the body of the s5 it is both smaller and lighter than the gh5 which i think is pretty wild considering what all this full-frame camera has packed into it and it looks absolutely tiny next to the giant s1h even though it's smaller it doesn't sacrifice button count and controls feel great on the camera the s5 has the same l mount found on other panasonic full-frame cameras and can be purchased as a kit with the new 20 to 60 millimeter from panasonic and this is a phenomenal lens for just all-around purpose filming vlogging at 20 millimeters is great even with the weight loss the s5 still has inbody stabilization although it has five stops instead of six stops of stabilization compared to the s1 in my time filming with the camera though it didn't feel like i was missing out by not filming on my s1 you also have all the great stabilization controls from the other cameras like e-stabilization which crops in slightly but gives you an even more steady image boost is which locks the sensor down almost completely when handheld and anamorphic stabilization yes i said anamorphic more on that here in a little bit when using compatible lenses you can also take advantage of dual is-2 which combines body and lens stabilization for some very very steady shots size aside the biggest ergonomic difference between the s1 and the s1 h is going to be the flip out screen it's slightly different than the s1 h but it's phenomenal having this on a very vlogger friendly camera around two thousand dollars you'll find the same great touch features when it comes to focus and menu settings as the s1 and s1 h but the monitor is slightly smaller and lower resolution when we take a look at the s5 evf you'll see it loses a little more than half the resolution of the s1's evf when it comes to inputs and outputs on this camera there's some good news and some bad news let's start with hdmi panasonic have gone with a micro hdmi jack i'm sure this is due to the size of the camera but it still pains me after using full hdmi on many of my cameras for so long while this camera has two card slots only one of the slots supports uh s2 but this really doesn't matter for video as i was able to record at all the modes internally on the uhs-1 slot and the s5 supports recording to both sd cards simultaneously or in a relay mode the s5 also supports a headphone jack and microphone input there is a usbc input which not only allows for data transfer but also supports power delivery using just the included battery i was able to get over two hours of continuous 4k recording but with a power delivery supported usb battery i recorded over four hours and the battery level in the camera still had full bars speaking of batteries the s5 uses a new one which oddly enough has two different sets of contacts this battery can also be used in a gh5 which is really handy but you can't use gh5 batteries in the s5 which is interesting now let's get to the good stuff resolution and frame rates on the s5 now out of the box this camera can record up to 4k uhd at 60 frames per second but in a future firmware update you will be able to also record at 4k dci internally and then there's the big one up to 5.9 k raw over hdmi out of this camera this will work with atomos recorders like the ninja 5 and will be available via a firmware update later this year but that's not all like the s1h the s5 also has an anamorphic mode this is recorded at 4k aps-c and a 4x3 aspect ratio or 3328 by 2496 so no open gate option like the s1h but to have this in an entry level hybrid camera is awesome and i'm a huge anamorphic fan so super thrilled to see that in a two thousand dollar camera depending on your video settings you can also change the crop mode on the camera this includes full frame aps-c and pixel to pixel which uses the center of the sensor to capture your desired resolution all of that said there are some video limitations to the s5 especially when you compare it to the s1h so let's take a closer look at that now starting with internal recording on the s5 so first we have the resolutions 4k hd and anamorphic when it comes to crops unfortunately we have an aps-c force crop in 4k 50 and 60 as well as in the anamorphic mode but you have full frame at 4k up to 30 as well as in the hd modes another great feature is we do have 10 bit options on this camera which is awesome as well as 422 in most of the modes with exception to 50 and 60 internal there are some record limits depending on the settings you're using so at 4k 50 and 60 there will be a 30 minute record limit and then in 4k up to 30 as well as the anamorphic modes you have no limit in 8 bit but if you shoot at 10 bit you will have a 30 minute limit and then there are no record limits when filming in hd last but not least you can see the data rates for each of these resolutions and frame rates and you'll notice we're not getting anything outrageous here we're capped at around 200 so you're not going to get the same high data rates you would on the s1h moving over to external recording on the s5 things get very very interesting there's of course the raw at 5.9 k up to 30 frames per second that of course is upcoming with a firmware update as well as raw super 35 dci 4k and raw anamorphic modes which is phenomenal we then have all the other modes that are available to us internally on the camera when it comes to crop you can see all the different options listed there so some full frame and some crop modes available followed by the resolutions and you'll notice we'll be able to customize which version of 4k we can capture uhd or dci then we have the bit depth 12 bit for the raw modes and 10 bit for everything else and then we also have 422 available to us with everything with exception to a few anamorphic modes at 50 frames per second and of course no record limit since we're using an external recorder finally here's a cheat sheet breaking down the different full-frame cameras from panasonic at this time and giving you an idea of the differences between them when it comes to overheating things are looking really good on the s5 i did a continuous recording back to back 4k clips in a 75 degree room and the camera never overheated i was able to record all day long panasonic has certified that the s5 can record at a minimum of 30 minutes at 104 degrees fahrenheit and much much longer at lower temperatures i spent a long weekend recording with the camera indoors and outdoors on hot summer days and had no issues with overheating which is great like the s1 the s5 only records in long gop at either h264 or hevc for all high and higher data rates you'll have to move up to the s1h to get those modes the s5 also has a new snq mode which can be accessed on the mode dial on the top of the camera with that you can shoot up to 180 frames per second in full hd and you can assign the final resolution and frame rate then set the camera's frame rate separately as you increase the frame rate you'll start to lose features like autofocus at 150 frames per second and at 180 the s5 crops into a psc mode so in short the s5 can record up to 150 frames per second in full frame hd video and up to 180 at apsc in hd having anamorphic in the s5 is awesome and a feature that i've really missed on my panasonic s1 which is by the way what we've been filming this video and all my videos pretty much since i bought that camera being able to d squeeze in camera with five different options while also using stabilization and having custom cropping marks makes anamorphic really easy to capture on this camera so if you're into anamorphic this is one of the best options available right now speaking of things that are pretty sweet the s5 comes standard with v-log installed no extra purchase necessary and i've always loved v-log and v-gamma and prefer it over all the other photo styles on panasonic cameras using panasonic's lut and a few tweaks and posts i've always been able to get great results now let's talk about autofocus now traditionally panasonic has not been the best when you compare other options on the market but the s5 has the newest and best offerings from panasonic in the autofocus department and can track faces eyes and heads with good accuracy but unfortunately like previous panasonic cameras the s5 still uses a dfd system which will never look quite as good as what canon sony and fujifilm are doing with their systems but for casual filming and vlogging the s5 isn't completely unusable for example let's go out and do a quick vlogging test with this camera okay guys so i have the panasonic s5 with the kit lens set to 20 millimeters f 3.5 we have tracking going right now in body stabilization is turned on i also have an external recorder recording the face tracking so we'll be able to see how it performs uh the tracking as well as if the camera actually focuses so i'm just going to be walking around the studio it was raining so this is as good as it gets for the vlogging test so i'm just going to be walking around mix the lighting everywhere and we'll see how the camera performs i'm not quite arm's length i can extend the camera out we'll see how that does i can point to something other than myself see if that caught me if that caught the background just gonna keep walking around our goal here is to see if this is usable for vlogging nothing super fancy just want to make sure my face my eye is in focus i'm also going to turn away from the camera and see if it tracks my head hopefully that worked and we'll keep walking over here see what happens i'm going to get really close see if the camera can handle that this lens actually has an incredible close focus distance which is really impressive so also pull back here and zoom in now we're probably closer to 50 millimeter 40 millimeter somewhere in there and we'll go ahead and zoom out again and hopefully we get something out of this test and hopefully this camera is giving me good enough autofocus for simple simple vlogging just a walking talking kind of setup at the end of the day i gave the s5 a chance with video autofocus and this is the first panasonic camera i would actually consider usable sure you're still going to get pulsing in the background and the camera will struggle to track fast moving objects or changing focus at long distances but once the camera catches focus it holds really well for a panasonic camera would i use this on an important project no but for vlogging casual filming i think it's completely usable which isn't what i can say about all previous panasonic cameras if panasonic switches away from a dfd-based system to better match their tracking algorithm i feel they could quickly be ranking amongst their competitors next let's cover audio and in this department there is a lot to love about the s5 first it shares a ton of similar settings and features as the s1h which is a very good thing and it works with the amazing panasonic xlr adapter which i absolutely love the audio meters and controls feel like they belong on a cinema camera and not a mirrorless hybrid speaking of hybrids this one is a hybrid and so far we've only been talking about video features but the s5 has a lot of brand new to the industry photo features so if you want to learn more about that i'm going to recommend you head over to dp review and watch chris and jordan's video which should also be available now that said let's get back to the video features of this camera panasonic has always done a great job giving their users really really good video assist features and this camera has a ton of them including a red record frame indicator making recordings super obvious on this camera frame markers with 10 different modes aspect ratios and tons of colors if you need to crop and post dual zebras for checking two exposure values at once and they can be assigned at base with a range which is awesome a built-in waveform monitor vertical video playback luminance spot meter which is so handy for checking exposure time code options ntsc and pal settings time lapse video and even more coming in a future update including a vector scope shutter angle support which is awesome and all the new video resolutions and raw options we've already talked about so who is the s54 and how does it compare to other cameras currently on the market for starters if you're shopping for a panasonic camera i think the s5 makes a lot more sense than the panasonic s1 and if you compare all three cameras you'll see that the s5 has a lot more in common with the s1h than it does the s1 there's a lot missing on the s1 that the s5 has sorry there's a lot of s's but a simple way to think about it is a way more video feature rich camera than the s1 and significantly smaller looking at the competition i think the s5 holds up well you have the canon r6 which has much better autofocus and full-frame 4k at 60 frames per second but the overheating is kind of rough on that camera and you can save a couple hundred bucks by going with the s5 so in that comparison i think the s5 is a great option if you need something a little more steady and consistent the a7 iii from sony has incredible autofocus and is a pretty good camera but i just can't get behind the 8-bit and the way the image falls apart when you're shooting video the s5 v-log 10-bit 422 recordings always win for me compared to sony's current options that said we don't know what's in store for the sony a74 so those issues might be solved i don't know fuji's xt4 and future xh2 are loaded with features but have smaller sensor sizes so in my opinion at least for now the s5 is a great entry level camera if you really care about video specs if you're looking for full frame the quality of your image it's a mini s1h and it's just does a lot for two thousand dollars so if you don't have the funds for an s1h or sony a7s3 or own a gh5 and have been looking for a full frame upgrade i think the s5 will take good care of you so that's going to do it for my review of the s5 let me know what you think of this camera in the comments below i want to thank you so much for watching hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and we will see you in the next video

Channel: DSLR Video Shooter

Views: 183,648

Keywords: Panasonic S5, Lumix, full frame, 4k, 5.9k, raw, video, stabilization, low light, gh5, s1h, panasonic lumix s5, s5 vs s1h, canon, sony, crop, record limit, video specs, auto focus, IBIS, slow motion, Caleb Pike, dslr video shooter

Id: We2ATD3Vc0M

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020