Hands on with the Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 II

Panasonic Lumix DC-5S II

The Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 II is an update to the Panasonic Lumix DC-S5, their mid-range full-frame stills and video mirrorless camera. The latest version adds a new 24MP CMOS sensor with phase detection autofocus, a new mode of IS for video, an improved burst mode, and a new processing engine created under the L² partnership with Leica. It joins a growing number of bodies that use the L mount shared with Leica and Sigma.

This version of the camera has a stills photography focus with some advanced video functions. A Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 IIX is slated to arrive later in 2023, which will have all the features of this model plus a few additional professional video settings.

Key specifications

• 24MP BSI CMOS sensor with on-sensor phase detection
• Up to 30fps e-shutter shooting with C-AF and Raw capture
• 96MP multi-shot high-resolution mode
• 6K 3:2 open-gate video capture up to 30p (4:2:0 10-bit)
• 6K or DCI/UHD 4K from full sensor width up to 30p
• DCI/UHD 4K up to 60p (S35), unlimited record times
• Dual conversion gain sensor with explicit ‘Dual Native ISO’ gain selection
• Cooling fan
• Twin UHS-II card slots
• Optional paid upgrade for Raw video output

Additional features in S5 IIX

• Raw video output
• Video recording to SSD over USB
• All-I compression modes
• Internal ProRes capture
• Wired/wireless IP streaming

Form factor and grip

Looking at the S5 and S5 II side-by-side, they are nearly identical in shape and layout, having many of the same buttons and options in the same places across the top plate and rear. The rear touch screen is the same 960 x 640 px, 1.84M-dot resolution unit, and articulates in the same fashion: flip out and rotate up to 90 degrees in one direction, up to 180 degrees in the other.

The S5 II retains the same materials on the grip, a textured raised surface where your fingers and thumb sit, with a smoother section above the card slots where your palm rests. Picking up the two cameras, I found that the S5 II has a slightly wider grip, which helped the camera feel more secure and balanced than the S5 in my hands (I wear men’s large gloves).

With the S5, the camera felt loose against my palm and heavier on the left side, but the S5 II rests firmly against my palm; it no longer feels like it’s at risk of falling out of my hand. The S5 II is actually heavier than the S5 (740g vs. 714g) but the better grips helps it feel more secure and balanced. That said, grip and feel are subjective. I asked my partner to try out both cameras (she wears women’s small gloves), and she felt the complete opposite of me, saying the S5 II felt too big to grip properly.

What’s new on the outside

Changes on the back include an 8-way joystick in place of the S5’s 4-way one and a new higher-resolution 3.68M-dot OLED (1280 x 960 px) EVF, the latter with an eye sensor that has been moved from the bottom to the top of the viewfinder, which Panasonic claims will lead to fewer accidental sensor responses.

Moving to the top, the left-hand dial, for drive mode, sports one new option: a dedicated setting to activate the 96MP High Resolution Mode. This mode, which requires a tripod, takes eight images, shifting the sensor between each frame, and produces a 12,000 x 8,000px still image. The camera saves both a 96MP Raw and a 96MP JPEG, and has a mode that tries to compensate for subject motion, a helpful feature that’s still fairly rare.

The S5 II also has redesigned strap eyelets, which may seem like a silly thing to notice, but they are a marked improvement over the S5 and at this price point, details matter. The new eyelets have wider loops and are matte black, giving them a premium look and feel; they also sit much more flush to the camera body. Having wide eyelets closer to the body means one less point of movement for users like me who use the camera strap to help steady the camera while walking and filming video at the same time.

What’s new under the hood

Probably the most notable update to the S5 II is its new 24.4 CMOS sensor that features on-sensor phase detection, a first for Panasonic. The new AF method is a major talking point that Panasonic is trumpeting for the S5 II, and is so important to the new camera that it warrants a deeper dive on the next slide.

The S5 II also introduces a slew of new video recording formats and options. ‘Open gate’ 6K resolution has been provided up to 30p; this uses the entire sensor to produce a 3:2 aspect ratio video file that permits users to re-crop it to any aspect ratio they need. It’s useful for videographers who can film once and then export versions at 9:16 (vertical video for smartphones), 1:1 (square for social media), 16:9 (for TV and YouTube), 2.2:1 (for cinema display that mimics 70mm) or any other ratio an editor would like to use.

Also new on the video side is what Panasonic calls ‘sheer overlay,’ which allows a single image or frame from a video clip to be overlaid on the display during standby mode, a sort of faded ghost image that helps you line up your next frame before hitting record. This feature has been available on the stills side of its cameras since the S1, but is now being made available for video as well; it’s a handy tool for videographers trying to match position for reshoots, check continuity, pull off seamless match cuts or double-check blocking and positions between takes.

A new mode of image stabilization, what Panasonic is calling ‘Active IS,’ promises improved stability in video capture while the camera is moving. It felt pretty good during a few handheld trial runs – well, walks – down the street. As long as user movements are controlled to minimize shake (no wild swings or hopping up and down while walking) the footage out of camera looked admirably stable.

The S5 II also includes a new engine, the first product created under the L² Technology partnership between Leica and Panasonic announced last year. Panasonic hasn’t made it exactly clear what this new processor allows for, beyond alluding to it as generally ‘new and improved.’

Phase Detect Autofocus

Panasonic has touted the introduction of phase detection to the S5 II – its first camera to use the technology – as a game changer.

For years, Panasonics cameras have been regarded as some of the best for video production, but ironically they’ve struggled with autofocus for video. It was not unusual to find video footage from the S line marred by frames in which the focus came unstuck as the AF system hunted back and forth. This was due to the use of Depth-from-Defocus, a system that builds a depth map of the scene but ultimately leans heavily on the trial-and-error approach of contrast-detection AF.

With the S5 II it has become much less dependent on DFD/CDAF, with the addition of phase detection. The switch brings Panasonic in line with virtually every other hybrid camera manufacturer, who have used phase detection in hybrids for nearly a decade. This, combined with its subject tracking, promises to address the one major weak point in Panasonic’s video-centric cameras.

Phase detection works a little like a split prism. The camera looks at each frame from two slightly different perspectives, and then, similarly to human vision, it looks for the point these two angles align into focus to determine distance and depth in the frame, enabling it to calculate how far it needs to drive focus in order to bring or keep the two perspectives in alignment, and thus in focus. For video this means less wobbling to maintain focus and a smoother focus pull.

Having spent about a week with the S5 II, I’ve come away impressed by the phase detect execution. When trying to focus in stills mode or video preview mode it’s very quick, often tack sharp on people’s faces in the blink of an eye. It does hit focus a little slower on objects like plants, and it fumbled a bit when I tried to focus on a tree through a window and the S5 II wasn’t sure if I wanted the tree or the reflection. I did also run into one instance of back-focusing during a portrait session with lights, but it only happened once in nearly 200 frames, for what that’s worth.

Heat management

The S5 II has a longer viewfinder hump, jutting out over the lens, that makes room for some new vents under the front edge and along the side.

They’re well hidden and easy to miss, but those vents are part of a new fan design that Panasonic says allows the camera to pull in cool air at the front and remove heat from vents at the side, keeping the camera cool enough to meet Panasonic’s claims of unlimited recording time when shooting up to 4K. Beyond 4K there are 6K and 5.9K modes, which both have 30 min. limits, but there is a way to tell the camera to ignore this and keep recording. To override the limits, users can switch Thermal Management Mode to ‘high;’ this also tells the camera to have higher tolerances for heat management across all modes.

With the higher heat threshold selected, we were able to record for nearly 1 hour and 44 minutes in 6K in a 20°C (68°F) room before the battery died. Theoretically, video recording could have gone longer with a larger battery.

It should be noted that Panasonic recommends operating the camera between 0°C (32°F) and 40°C (104°F); this is the range in which the company tested the camera and where it feels confident in its claim of unlimited recording time up to 4K. Outside of the 0°C (32°F) to 40°C (104°F) range, the camera may stop recording.

Panasonic also says the vents for the fan do not compromise the camera’s weather-sealing, as that part of the camera is outside the weather seal and isolated from the rest of the internals.

Video Options

The S5 II sees many video gains over its predecessor. As mentioned earlier, it introduces open gate recording, unlimited recording time in formats up to 4K and up to 30 min. in 6K and 5.9K modes.

Video also sees new gains in AF tracking thanks in part to phase detection, which can better calculate distance and depth and track people and objects with less lens movement to hold focus. The camera also offers 4-channel audio (with adapter); this is new to the S5 line, though it was previously seen on the GH6.

The S5 II retains the S5’s tools for shooting with anamorphic lenses, as well as a shutter angle option, waveforms and combined IBIS and lens IS in compatible lenses.

For users in need of Raw video output, you can add it as an optional $200 (€200) upgrade on top of the $1999 (€2199) for the S5 II. Alternatively, if you intend to use the S5 II as your video workhorse and need that plus additional video features and post-production-friendly output options, you may want to wait until May to consider the S5 IIX, which will hit shelves at $2,199 (€2,499).

Almost everything the S5 IIX adds over the S5 II is catered for video: the ability to record to an SSD over the USB-C port, a Raw data stream that can be encoded as ProRes RAW, ProRes 422 and 422 HQ capture, All-Intra recording, and both wired and wireless IP streaming. If you’re a photographer mostly interested in stills and rarely shoot video, saving $200 with the S5 II might be the right call. On the other hand, if you’re regularly editing and grading video in post or need the aforementioned codecs, you may consider waiting until May for the S5 IIX.

Industry standard LUTs

The S5 II adds support for industry standard LUTs (.cube file format), which should make it easier for users to find, upload and experiment with new LUTs to your heart’s content. The camera still accepts Panasonic’s own file format, but opening up to a widely used standard is a welcome removal of potential pain points in the future. The camera supports up to ten user-uploaded LUTs.

If you’re unfamiliar with LUTs (lookup tables), they’re sets of data tables with color definitions usually used by filmmakers to grade or ‘process’ an image to a set palette of colors and brightness. For example, if you’re grading footage to look like ‘The Matrix,’ you might use a LUT that tells your computer that whenever it sees the mathematical value for black in a frame, to add a percentage of green to it.

Traditionally filmmakers will shoot video in a Log format and apply a LUT as a preview on camera, but still write ungraded Log files to the memory card. Then later at a computer they’ll apply the same LUT or a different one and export a copy of the new graded file without altering the original Log file. But Panasonic has done something different: by allowing users to actually apply their own LUTs to the file itself, rather than just the preview, it has effectively moved the grading step from post-production to real-time in-camera shooting.

This does mean you’ll have a graded, baked-in file on the memory card, which puts more onus on the user to nail white balance and exposure in camera, as there will be no ungraded Log file to work with and less latitude to rework footage later in post. In practice, this feature may be useful for folks who don’t want to mess with post production or who need the speed of having attractive footage ready to download and use right away, such as families wanting to watch their video from that afternoon on the TV that evening.

Also noteworthy here is that the S5 II has taken LUTs, long the domain of video creators, and made them available for use in stills as well. This is a really exciting addition, as thanks to the industry standard it brings a wealth of new options to still shooters, opening up a creative playground. It essentially permits you to add user-created film simulations/art filters to your camera – or load specialty looks you’ve grabbed as a .cube file off a paid or free website – and shoot with them.

A quick note for folks new to LUTs: you aren’t meant to work graded photos or video files in post-production. (You can, but then why not shoot Raw for stills or Log for video?) In-camera LUTs are meant to stamp your work with a ‘look’ and speed up your workflow from capture to sharing or publishing.

Ports

The S5 II has many quality-of-life improvements over its predecessor, with industry-standard ports that aim to keep this body relevant for years.

Both memory card slots now accept UHS-II cards (the original only had one such), removing speed bottlenecks that curtailed what you could back up on the second card.

On the left side of the body, a 3.5mm headphone jack and 3.5mm microphone jack are accompanied by one standard full-size HDMI port and a USB-C port.

The USB-C port is capable of powering the camera and charging the camera, both while in operation or off.

The full HDMI port replaces the micro HDMI port found on the S5; it should help make it easier to plug into external monitors, TVs and recorders, the latter of which may be of interest to users who opt for the $200 (€200) software upgrade that adds Raw video output.

The S5 II can also support up to four-channel 96kHz/24-bit audio: two inputs (L/R channels) through the 3.5mm mic socket and two additional XLR inputs with the use of an adapter that connects via the hotshoe. The adapter also happens to be the same adapter that’s been around for years, so if you have one already, the S5 II is ready to mingle. 96KHz/24-bit is notable as it is rarely seen in hybrid cameras. With 24-bit audio, there’s a wider range of audio that can be collected without clipping, which can be a lifesaver for solo operators who can’t monitor and adjust audio during capture.

The S5 II retains the same DMW-BLK22 battery, which has a rather disappointing life rating of 370 shots per charge per CIPA standard testing methods. As always, these numbers tend to significantly underestimate how many shots you can typically expect (unless your shooting style is very energy-intensive). A 370 shot-per-charge rating will typically give you plenty of charge for a day’s shooting, but you’ll want to keep a USB-C power source handy for intensive shoots. A power-saving mode gives a rating of 1,250 shots per charge for viewfinder shooting.

The camera does not come with a battery charger, but as it uses the same battery as the S5 you can use the charger from the S5 if you have one lying around.

Improved burst mode

Burst mode is improved over the S5 but is still very much a weak point for the S5 II compared to competitors from Canon, Sony and Nikon.

The improvements to burst mode on the S5 II are very incremental in mechanical shutter mode, but see bigger gains in electronic shutter mode. On the plus side, the buffer is very quick and I noticed no slowdown or pauses to bursts in either mechanical or e-shutter modes.

Rolling shutter may be the camera’s Achilles’ heel, however: it is significant on the S5 II. In e-shutter burst mode we noticed a sensor rolloff of ~25ms. The 30fps burst rate also drops to 12-bit sensor readout, so will exhibit noisier shadows if you try to pull them up too far, but it’s the rolling shutter that’s our bigger concern.

Compared to its closest competitors, it’s a mixed bag. The e-shutter specs place it ahead of the Sony a7 IV and Nikon Z6 II, with the Canon EOS R6 Mark II just a little bit better, but if your subject moves too fast you’ll run into rolling shutter and need to switch to mechanical shutter, at which point the S5 II is dead last.

Where it sits

The S5 II (and forthcoming S5 IIX) join Panasonic’s S lineup of full-frame cameras as the newest and most advanced. The S line already has a do-it-all camera (S1), a high-resolution camera for stills (S1R) and a high-end video-focused camera (S1H), but the new S5 twins do so much of what the older cameras did, and at a lower price point, that it raises some questions on whether the other models are still relevant, and even what they need to justify new versions.

Outside of the larger bodies’ larger batteries and support for CFexpress cards, it’s hard to know what a new version of an older S-line camera would offer to pull ahead again unless they can offer more advanced sensors than the S5 II twins. I posed the question to DPReview’s Jordan Drake, whose go-to camera for video is often the S1H, where he thinks Panasonic could take that model next.

‘Looking to the future, I think the only way the S1 II and S1H II make sense is if a faster sensor is developed,’ he said. ‘That would allow significantly faster frame rates and better autofocus than the S5 II. An S1R II would likely be a compelling option with just the addition of phase detect autofocus, as it would suddenly become a much more capable portrait camera, while the current audience for the S1R seems to be landscape shooters who like to drag around big heavy things.’

Price and availability

The S5 II will be available from the last week of January for a recommended price of $1999 (€2199), which is the same launch price that the S5 was released at. All existing accessories for the S5 are compatible with the S5 II. An optional paid upgrade for the S5 II will add Raw video output, and will cost $200 (€200).

Coming in May, a variation of the S5 II called the S5 IIX, with additional video features suitable for post-production workflows, will hit shelves at $2,199 (€2,499). The S5 IIX will come with the Raw video output option as well as video recording to SSD over USB, All-I compression modes, ProRes capture, and wired and wireless IP streaming.