The Lumix S1RII is brand new and now in my camera bag. On Sunday, I used it at the FC St. Pauli game. I was delighted with this camera—but also very annoyed. That's why I'm writing this blog post, so you don't make the same mistake with this camera.
Many years ago, I was occasionally invited by Panasonic to test new cameras. Those days are long gone. Long gone are the days when Panasonic wasn't up to date with its cameras. The Lumix S1RII is – and this should be noted at the outset – a very versatile and absolutely serious camera. It is the camera that I would recommend to anyone from Leica with the SL3 expected – but didn’t get.
Comparison of the Lumix S1RII with the Leica SL3
If you can live without a few megapixels—the S1RII has "only" 44MP, while the SL3 has 60MP—the Lumix S1RII is a significantly more versatile and sophisticated camera. It's more versatile in configuration, but also in its range of applications. As you know, I often use my cameras at sporting events. The SL3, with active continuous autofocus, can shoot 5 frames per second. The S1RII, on the other hand, can shoot up to 10 frames per second with a mechanical shutter—I'll get to the "up to" part in a moment. And all this at half the price!
The great thing about the Lumix S1RII is that I can continue to use all my Leica lenses without compromise. Panasonic, like Sigma, is part of the L-Mount Alliance, so bodies and lenses can be easily interchanged. On the sidelines, I therefore shoot with Panasonic cameras (currently an S1IIx in addition to the S5RII) and a fun mix of Leica and Sigma lenses.
Is the Lumix S1RII suitable for photos?
In the public perception, Lumix cameras are strong in video recording. In my opinion, this is due to Panasonic's GH series, which for a long time was the ultimate in this category and price segment. That's why more people are focusing on these cameras. But perhaps it's also just due to the strength of YouTube and Panasonic's focus on these influencers.
From a photographic perspective, I haven't seen many relevant reviews. Lumix cameras seem to be living a niche existence here, which is completely unjustified. Since I've been using the S5IIx (which, by the way, is almost identical to the Leica SL3-S, but costs less than two-fifths the price) for some time now and I can read specifications, I decided to buy the S1RII anyway.
Comparison of the Lumix S1RII with the S5II(x)
In my opinion, the S1RII is even more well-made than the S5IIx. Additionally, the slightly modified operating concept makes it easier to switch between photo and video recording, for example, and offers more options for saving custom presets. The display also has even more variable tilt adjustment. Ground-level portrait shots are no longer a problem – unlike the Leica SL or Q series.
Without having conducted scientific tests, I would estimate that the ISO noise is about one stop worse at higher values. However, this is hardly noticeable due to the higher pixel count.
By the way, the Panasonic's colors are in no way inferior to the much-praised Leica color palette. I really looked at it intensively and critically—after all, I need a reason for my Leica bodies. But I'd say that the differences are imperceptible. I also couldn't detect any differences in the variability and editing options of the RAW images. Sorry, Leica!
What the Lumix S1RII does particularly well
An absolute highlight of the Lumix S1RII, as well as the S5II series and the S9, is the fantastic JPG customization options. Here, Lumix has brought the LUT technology from the video world into the photo world. I don't know of any other camera that has done this better. (Sorry, Fuji users.)
Here's an example of an out-of-camera JPG—shot under overcast skies by the side of the road after a brief rain shower. The LUT used is intended to simulate Fuji Reala film, but exposing the highlights for the appropriate colors is much easier with digital than with analog. I only downsized the image afterwards for this blog post. I had already shot the photo at 16x9 because I wanted to use it in an Instagram story.
It was precisely this strength of the S1RII that frustrated me during my first hardcore use on the sidelines. To prevent that from happening to you—and to prevent it from happening to me again—I conducted a few tests.
The (current) problem of the S1RII
This situation was triggered on Sunday when Alexander Blessin, rather unexpectedly, celebrated with the fans in Ewald style. Maybe you saw the video on Instagram. I was standing close by because I wanted to capture the goal scorer Carlo Boukhalfa in a portrait. I succeeded.
By the way, the original photo was taken in portrait format, but at 44MP you really have enough opportunity to choose the more interesting section afterwards.
Back to Blessin's celebrations. As I said, I was standing very close and naturally wanted to photograph Blessin's jubilation. However, my camera was busy writing the data from Boukhalfa's portrait to the card. The S1RII simply didn't trigger. What a bummer!
Fast image sequences with the Lumix S1RII
So I got to the bottom of the matter. I had – unnecessarily – activated the nice JPG processing. And that caused the camera to slow down considerably. Now, my requirements for a body may be very specific, but I'm happy to share my findings. The S1RII clearly has a problem processing the data. This might not be a problem for landscape photography, architecture, or portraits – but it certainly is for fast sequences of images.
The Lumix S1RII is advertised with up to 10 frames per second using the mechanical shutter (40 frames per second with the electronic shutter) and full continuous autofocus capability. However, this is only achieved if certain conditions are met.
For my test, I pressed the shutter button on the S1RII for 30 seconds. I recorded the number of seconds after which the camera slowed down and the total number of images taken in 30 seconds. I also measured how long it took the camera to write all the data to the memory card after 30 seconds of continuous shooting. You should know that the camera can use both a CF Express and an SD card. The nominal write speed of the CF Express card (1750MB/s) is significantly faster than that of an SD card by a factor of almost 6—although I also used the good, fast 300MB/s cards here.
Result and workaround
I was surprised to find that when using internal JPG processing with a fancy LUT and ISO 6400, there is virtually no difference between the writing speed on a CF Express or SD card. With both cards, the Lumix S1RII takes around 70 shots in 30 seconds. With the CF Express, the body slows down after 6 seconds and a good 60 images, and with the SD card this happens after 10 seconds and almost 60 images. In both cases, therefore, only roughly 20 shots are taken in the last 24 or 10 seconds. As if that wasn't bad enough, it then takes almost two minutes before the writing processes are complete - regardless of the card. To me, this suggests that the processing engine in the camera is not sufficiently scaled. And/or the writing devices in the camera are not utilising the potential of the cards.
Of course, I also have a workaround for you. If you really need to do it quickly, use the standard image style and integrate the JPGs in standard and small size (4128×2752 with a 3:2 aspect ratio). The latter is sufficient for a sufficient assessment of sharpness on your home screen and speeds up data processing in the camera.
With this setting, the Lumix S1RII is more than twice as fast, capturing over 30 images in 170 seconds. It only slows down after 9 seconds, or 90 images. The 10 frames per second is reached for 9 seconds. After that, the S1RII captures another 80 images in another 21 seconds—almost 4 fps. Writing all the images from these 30 seconds then takes just 16 seconds, instead of almost two minutes. However, even with these settings, the difference between using a CF Express card and an SD card is too small—there's still a catch somewhere.
Conclusion
However, this shutter speed should be sufficient for home use. I've now set fast settings to C1 and very fast settings to C2. C3 then achieves slower exposure times with a focus on beautiful JPGs straight from the camera. This way, I can always switch back and forth quickly. I still hope that Lumix can make further improvements to the internal data processing with the next firmware version, especially since the speed advantage of the CF Express card over the SD card is currently hardly being utilized.
The Lumix S1RII, by the way, has one of the best image stabilizers currently on the market. This is a real added value when using long focal lengths. Otherwise, the new camera from Panasonic is a top-notch camera that's a lot of fun to use.
