Panasonic Lumix DC-S5II review

Editor’s note: This review is based on Panasonic’s April 2024 firmware update for the S5II (v3.0) and S5IIX (v2.0), which was provided to DPReview ahead of its public release.

90%

Overall score

Jump to conclusion

The Panasonic Lumix DC-S5II is the company’s latest version of its mid-range full-frame stills and video mirrorless camera. It adds phase detection autofocus to its 24MP CMOS sensor and uses the L mount shared with Leica and Sigma.

A separate camera variant, the Lumix DC-S5IIX, is also available and includes a more extensive video feature set.

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 and proxy option
• Dual conversion gain sensor with explicit ‘Dual Native ISO’ gain selection
• Pre-burst shooting mode (up to 1.5 seconds before the shutter is pressed)
• Cooling fan
• Twin UHS-II card slots
• Camera-to-Cloud integration with Frame.io
• Optional paid upgrade for Raw video output

Additional features on the S5IIX

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

The S5II has a recommended price of $1999 (€2199). The S5IIX commands a $200 (or €300) premium over the less video-centric version, with a suggested retail price of $2199 (€2499).

An optional paid upgrade for the S5II that adds Raw video output is available for $200/€200.

Index:

• What’s new?
• How it compares
• Body and controls
• Image quality
• Video
• Sample video
• Autofocus
• Conclusion
• Sample gallery
• Specifications
• Press release

What’s new?

Phase detection AF

The biggest news is the inclusion of on-sensor phase detection, a technology Panasonic has not previously used. Phase detection works by generating two views of the scene from slightly different perspectives (typically by forming separate images that ‘look’ through the left and right sides of the lens) and comparing them. Just as with human vision, which uses two eyes set apart from one another, this enables the camera to establish an understanding of distance and depth in the scene.

Comparing the two images lets the camera calculate how far it needs to drive focus to bring the two perspectives into alignment, at which point the aligned subject is in focus. This is especially valuable in video mode, as it allows the camera to refocus to a different distance without overshooting. It also, critically, means the camera can check that it’s still in focus without having to move the lens. This means phase detection can be decisive in situations where it must hold focus, as it can confidently stay there.

Previous Panasonic models relied on the company’s Depth-from-Defocus (DFD) system, which used the out-of-focus characteristics of a lens to interpret depth and drive the AF system. DFD’s main shortcoming was reliably predicting movement and driving the AF system to match. In principle, phase detect autofocus should provide more reliable performance, particularly in low light levels and backlit conditions and when dealing with multiple subjects (staying locked on your chosen subject better because it knows which one in the scene it is).

Subject recognition AF

The S5II’s subject recognition and tracking modes were significantly upgraded as part of the camera’s April 2024 firmware update. Combined with its newfound depth awareness, the S5II effectively gains the capabilities found on the more recent G9 II, including improved tracking performance and additional types of subjects that can be identified and tracked.

The camera is trained to recognize humans, animals, cars and motorcycles. Human detection can identify eyes, face and body (prioritized in that order) or just eyes and face; similarly, animal detection can identify eyes and body, or just bodies.

In each mode, the camera will start searching from your selected AF point and the area immediately around it, meaning It will focus on the specified subject type if it’s found under your AF point. This system makes it possible to use the AF point to select an individual subject in a group. Note that when using wide-area AF, Face/Eye mode will choose to focus on someone facing the camera, not simply the nearest human it can detect.

Updated in-body image stabilization

Panasonic has also improved its image stabilization system, promising performance twice as effective as that of the S5. For its revised system it’s adopted the branding ‘Active IS,’ though it hasn’t been very specific about how these improvements have been achieved.

What the company has said is that its algorithms have been reworked and that the camera assesses camera motion more precisely. The Boost IS mode, which tries to cancel all movement for a tripod-like video look, is particularly impressive.

The April ’24 firmware update added a new ‘High’ setting to the camera’s electronic image stabilization system, intended to correct extreme levels of camera movement. It applies a 1.4x crop factor to video.

The stabilization system also underpins the eight-shot 96MP Handheld High Resolution mode. It includes an optional motion correction function that prevents artifacts from moving subjects in the scene.

New processor

At the heart of the S5II is a new processing engine, the first product of Panasonic’s L² co-development project with Leica. The two companies shared know-how and resources to develop the new processor, which we’d expect to see in future Leica models, too.

While Panasonic says the sensor in the S5II is also new, from what we’ve seen, its performance appears to be similar to its non-phase-detect predecessor, which suggests that its newfound ability to shoot at up to 30fps in e-shutter mode is more about having a processor able to cope with this speed.

Built-in fan

The S5II includes a fan mechanism to allow video shooting for extended periods. The fan is at the top of the camera, with vents under the leading edge and along the sides of the viewfinder hump, drawing the heat up and out of the camera. As usual, the fan sits outside the body’s sealed area, so the vents aren’t a weak point for its dust and splash-resistant design.

The fan means the S5II can record for unlimited periods in most of its video modes, as tested by Panasonic at temperatures of 40°C (104°F). Panasonic points out that most of its rivals only quote figures for 22–25°C (72–77°F), which is significantly less demanding and less representative of average temperatures across much of the US.

Pre-burst shooting

The April 2024 firmware update adds a new shooting mode that captures a series of images in the buffer before the shutter button is pressed. Labeled ‘SH PRE’, the feature pre-captures 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 seconds of images at 30 frames per second using the electronic shutter. It’s considered to be a burst shooting mode, with settings located in the Burst Shot Setting menu.

Video

The S5II builds on the video capabilities of the S5 despite using a sensor with similar ~21ms readout times for its 16:9 footage.

The most obvious addition to the camera’s capabilities is the ability to shoot full sensor height 3:2 ‘open gate’ video. This is available at up to 30p and provides the scope to crop into various aspect ratios or to pan around the frame in post. Alternatively, there are 6K options, either in UHD-style 16:9 aspect ratio or the DCI-like 1.89:1 format.

Beyond this are the full-width 4K modes (both DCI and UHD), which are taken from 6K capture. These are offered at up to 30p and up to 10-bit 4:2:2 encoding.

Panasonic’s rivals have increasingly added 10-bit capture capability in this class, but the S5II goes beyond these with a range of support tools and features that aren’t as commonplace amongst the competition so far.

Panasonic is still somewhat unique in this part of the market in providing the S5II with a waveform display and vectorscopes (though some recent Nikon models have also started to include waveforms). These are standard video-industry ways of understanding the tone and color distribution in the image, and they can be hugely valuable when setting exposure and white balance. Likewise, the S5II can express its exposure time in terms of shutter angle, which makes it easier to maintain a sensible exposure when switching between capture frame rates.

You may not notice them at first, but the finned vents of the fan on either side of the viewfinder show that the S5II is serious about video.

Syncro scan (the fine-tuning of exposure time to better sync with flickering light sources) is becoming more common, as are the option of four-channel audio capture and more video-focused settings display screens. The S5II’s distinctly Arri-like screen, borrowed from Panasonic’s Varicam line, is particularly clean and clear. Likewise, the ability to capture 4-channel audio (with an optional XLR adapter) is becoming more common, but the S5II includes options such as line-level input and dual input gain settings on its mic inputs that its rivals lack.

The S5II gains a couple of additional functions, including ‘Full-range HLG’ shooting. This ignores the upper and lower brightness limits imposed by the HLG standard, meaning you retain a little more flexibility in the edit. This is handy both if you have HLG as your final intended output or if you’re using it as a Log-like intermediate step.

Anamorphic support

Tying in with the S5II’s ability to capture open-gate and 4:3 APS-C footage is a good selection of tools to support shooting with anamorphic lenses. As on previous Panasonic models, the S5II can stretch the footage horizontally to give a real-time ‘desqueezed’ preview for a wide variety of squeeze factors. The camera can then plot safe-zone markers for various output aspect ratios over the top of this view, so you know you’re capturing the action in a part of the frame that will be used in your final footage.

Telling the camera the squeeze ratio of your lens also allows the S5II to adjust its image stabilization system to accommodate the differing effective focal lengths of your vertical and horizontal capture, improving the stabilization performance.

LUT-applied shooting

The S5II gains the ability to import LUTs in the industry-standard .cube format (in addition to Panasonic’s own .VLT type). It can store up to 10 LUTs and adds the ability to apply the LUT to the footage as you shoot. Doing so means you lose post-processing flexibility, putting greater emphasis on getting exposure and white balance right in-camera, but it lets you achieve the look you want straight out of the camera.

S5IIX features

The cameras’ twin UHS-II SD card slots aren’t sufficiently quick for recording the 4K ProRes modes offered by the S5IIX, so it can record directly to an external solid-state drive (SSD) over its USB port.

All the differences between the S5II and S5IIX relate to the latter’s video capabilities. The X’s body has a stealthy all-mono design with blacked-out ‘Lumix’ branding and no red accents on the control dials, but the two look the same in almost every other regard.

Under the hood, the S5IIX brings enhanced video modes that are better suited to post-production work.

• Raw video output
• Internal ProRes capture (422 and 422 HQ)
• All-I codecs
• USB-SSD output
• Direct wired and wireless streaming (per GH5 II)

S5II owners can buy an upgrade to add Raw video output for their camera, but it won’t come with the other enhancements of the S5IIX. In the US, at least, the paid upgrade costs the same as the difference in cost between the two models, so if you think there’s a chance you’ll want these additional features, you’re probably best off stretching your budget upfront to buy the S5IIX.

How it compares

Like the S5 before it, the S5II is clearly aimed at the same $2000-2500 mid-range full-frame audience. It’s perhaps the most competitive segment of the market, packed with capable cameras that are adept at both stills and video shooting. This makes it difficult to stand out and means that real-world AF performance and usability become the difference between an impressive spec list and a great camera.

All four cameras are well specced, with only a few features helping set the models apart. Canon and Panasonic both offer rapid burst shooting rates, with the EOS R6 II achieving the faster rate with less rolling shutter and a pre-burst mode. The Canon and the Nikon lead the pack in terms of image stabilization rating, but this doesn’t mean they offer the smoothest stabilization in video.

Image quality is broadly comparable, with the Sony offering slightly better detail capture at low ISO but slipping slightly behind in low light conditions. The Sony offers the most impressive battery life but also the weakest rolling shutter performance in video, making it more difficult than ever to choose between the four cameras.

The S5IIX offers a broader range of video capabilities than any of the other current models, at a lower introductory price than the Canon, and equal to the Sony.

Body and handling

The styling of the S5II is very much in keeping with that of the original model: it’s a mid-sized, fairly squared-off design with a very distinct SLR-like shape (compared, say, to Nikon’s Z-series cameras). Despite being the smaller model in the company’s L-mount lineup, it has extensive external control points, including details such as a dedicated AF mode switch, that are unusual at this level.

Despite the familiar appearance, a lot has been redesigned or reworked. The most significant change is the addition of the fan to the camera’s viewfinder hump. This is central to the camera’s promises of video endurance, but is designed not to undermine the body’s weather sealing.

Beyond this, the S5II gains a higher-resolution 3.68M-dot OLED viewfinder, an eight-way AF joystick (rather than the four-directional one on the original S5), and a full-sized HDMI port.

The S5II also sees its second card slot upgraded to the UHS-II standard, allowing the use of faster SD cards in both slots. Notably, even with the fastest V90-rated cards, UHS-II isn’t fast enough to record all the S5IIX’s video modes, with the most demanding of its All-I capture modes and all its 4K and 5.8K ProRes modes requiring the use of an external SSD. Panasonic says it has worked with third-party accessory makers to provide useful ways to attach popular SSDs to the camera.

There is enough commonality between the S5 and the Mark II that the new camera can still use the existing DMW-BGS5 battery grip, providing space for a second battery.

Battery

There’s no separate charger with the S5II, but the Type 3.2 Gen 2 USB port can be used to charge, power or power and charge the camera.

The S5II continues to use the DMW-BLK22 battery from the previous version, which means it’s also fully compatible with the same AC adaptor, DC coupler and dedicated battery chargers as the Mark I.

The S5II does not come with a charger. Instead, it uses the USB-PD standard to allow in-camera charging, operation or operation and charging when connected to high-current power sources.

The camera’s battery life rating is somewhat disappointing, with 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 normally give you plenty of charge for a day’s shooting, but you’ll want to keep extra batteries or a USB power source at hand for intensive shoots. A power-saving mode gives a rating of 1,250 shots per charge for viewfinder shooting.

Image quality

Our 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.

The Panasonic S5II uses a 24MP BSI CMOS sensor, similar to many enthusiast-level full-frame cameras, so it’s no surprise that its Raw resolution is on par with other cameras in this 24MP cohort, nor that the a7 IV pulls ahead by a small margin thanks to its slightly higher resolution. At moderately high ISOs, noise levels are roughly comparable to its 24MP peers, and at very high ISOs it edges out the R6 II by a hair. Notably, all the 24MP cameras outperform the a7 IV with respect to noise performance.

JPEG colors appear good, with punchy pinks and less saturated yellows (though there’s perhaps a hint of green in there). Overall, the colors are pleasing, which is consistent with the images in our S5II and S5IIX sample galleries. The camera’s sharpening is a bit more aggressive than the Canon, resulting in some halos around the text, but similar to the Zf; the extra sharpening results in more apparent detail in some areas, like the foliage.

Noise reduction is well balanced at middle ISOs, smoothing away much of the visible noise but leaving enough to retain (and give the impression of) more detail than the Nikon or the Canon, as seen on the spools of thread or the paint brushes. The tradeoff is fractionally more noise in areas of solid color, though you have to look close to see it. The same holds at high ISOs, but in exchange, the camera doesn’t smooth away as much information in areas of fine detail, such as the fine threading on the Beatles patch. This remains the case even at very high ISOs.

The S5II and S5IIX produce pleasing colors and don’t go overboard with noise reduction. Panasonic S 28-200mm F4-7.1 | F4.0 | 1/200 sec | ISO 12,800 Photo: Dale Baskin

Dynamic range

The S5II uses a very familiar sensor and its dynamic range is predictably excellent. You can pull a lot of detail out of the shadows at base ISO without noise becoming too intrusive, but its dual conversion gain design means that it’s worth bumping things up to at least ISO 640 in low light. There are diminishing returns beyond that, so ISO 640 is a good place to stop if you’re trying to retain highlights such as neon lights in low-light scenes.

Exposure latitude | ISO Invariance

Autofocus

The S5II is the first Panasonic mirrorless camera to benefit from phase-detect autofocus, so expectations are high. Fortunately, those expectations have mostly been met, but equally important to the shooting experience are the camera’s improved subject recognition and tracking capabilities.

AF modes and controls are basically unchanged from previous Panasonic models; the camera includes single area, zone, wide area and tracking modes, along with pinpoint AF for precise focusing. The focus point can be set using the 8-way joystick, tap-to-focus, or using touchpad AF with the viewfinder to your eye.

Panasonic S 28-200mm F4-7.1 | F7.1 | 1/320 sec | ISO 800 Photo: Dale Baskin

Phase detection essentially solves the shortcomings associated with Panasonic’s previous Depth from Defocus (DFD) system, real and perceived. Autofocus movements on the S5II are decisive: in most cases the system effectively predicts movement toward or away from the camera in both photo and video modes, and the user experience is more refined. Overall, it instills a higher level of confidence, bringing the S5II’s AF performance much closer to being on par with competing Sony, Canon and Nikon models.

While the AF system performs well, it’s not infallible. During our tests, the camera sometimes failed to acquire focus or experienced a lag in acquiring focus on some subjects, throwing up a red box in the center of the viewfinder. This happened most frequently when a reasonably significant shift was required to bring the image into focus or in low-light situations that didn’t challenge other cameras to the same degree.

Subject recognition

With subject recognition enabled, the camera will automatically highlight a recognizable subject as soon as your designated focus area comes within close proximity of it. This makes it easy to lock onto your subject quickly.

However, this presents one challenge: if you want to focus on something exceptionally close to a recognizable subject, you may need to turn off subject recognition to prevent the camera from jumping to the nearby subject, which can be done very quickly via the touchscreen. However, Panasonic’s algorithm generally strikes a very good balance of sensitivity that will work correctly in most situations.

The S5II’s updated subject detection menu (Firmware 3.0)

When using wide-area AF, the camera will highlight all the subjects it can identify within the frame, and a tap of the joystick will toggle between subjects. While this sounds good on paper, it’s often less practical in practice: the time required to tap back and forth to your preferred subject is often longer than it would take to place your AF point over your desired subject in the first place to begin tracking.

The April ’24 firmware update promised improved subject recognition and our experience is consistent with that claim. Subject recognition was solid before the update, but the system is now faster at identifying and locking onto subjects and more tenacious at sticking with them. It’s still not quite at the level of class-leading subject tracking systems from Canon and Sony, but it’s very close.

Currently, subject recognition must be set to one category (humans, pets, cars, or motorcycles). There’s no catch-all setting that will attempt to identify both humans and animals, for example.

The S5II’s subject recognition and primary AF modes extend to video shooting and provide a similar level of performance.

Video

The S5II’s sensor has been around in various incarnations for a while, so its video performance is fairly predictable. However, it’s Panasonic’s implementation of video modes and useful video tools that make the camera particularly interesting to video shooters.

The camera captures 6K video (including ‘open gate’ 6K that utilizes the entire 3:2 area of the sensor) and 4K video downsampled from 6K, using the full width of its sensor, and does so in10-bit color at frame rates up to 30p. It can also capture 4K/60p using an APS-C crop of its sensor. These are strong but no longer stand-out specs.

But equally as important, the S5II offers a robust feature set to support video capture, including Panasonic’s V-Log gamma profile, the ability to load custom LUTs into the camera, waveform and vectorscope tools for judging exposure and color, proxy recording, and a Camera-to-Cloud option.

The S5II can capture very detailed 4K video, downsampled from 6K, using the full width of its sensor. As we would expect, it produces results that are broadly similar to its 24MP peers. However, like other cameras based on the same sensor, the S5II must switch to an APS-C crop to capture 4K/60p footage. There’s a small penalty in overall quality for doing so, but it’s close enough that most viewers probably won’t notice the difference in practice. However, this means the effective field of view of your lenses will change when shooting 60p – particularly challenging at the wide end – and that you’ll encounter issues with noise more quickly in low light. This also puts the S5II at a disadvantage relative to the Canon R6 II, which can shoot 4K/60p using the full width of its sensor.

If you need more detail, you have the option to shoot 6K video (up to 30p), providing additional flexibility for post-processing even if you plan to deliver in 4K. Of course, the S5II also has the ultimate party trick of capturing ‘open gate’ footage that utilizes the entire 3:2 sensor for video capture, letting you crop and pan around the footage in post.

The S5II’s rolling shutter measures approximately 22ms: a solid number, but not stellar by today’s standards. As a result, there’s a risk that fast movement across the frame or reasonably quick pans with the camera will result in some horizontal skewing of vertical lines in the frame.

Panasonic S 85mm F1.8 | F1.8 | 1/640 sec | ISO 400 Photo: Chris Niccolls

Image stabilization

Panasonic’s new Active IS algorithm is impressive, stabilizing most hand-held shooting. Although we don’t have a quantitative way to check Panasonic’s claim that the system is twice as effective as the S5, performance has definitely improved. If needed, the S5II also includes electronic image stabilization (EIS), which results in a 1.1x crop. It’s noticeably more effective at eliminating unwanted motion, such as when walking, and does so without a noticeable impact on image quality.

The new ‘High’ setting in EIS mode, part of the April 2024 firmware update, can compensate for even more dramatic movement, such as running with the camera. It’s remarkably effective – almost gimbal-like – when moving in a straight line, though quick turns or pans can result in some vertical jitter. The tradeoff? The high setting results in a 1.4x crop factor, which is necessary to provide enough latitude to compensate for such extreme motion.

Other video features

The April ’24 firmware update brought two additional features to the S5II: proxy recording and Camera-to-Cloud capability.

Proxy recording

Proxy recording generates a lower resolution, lower bit rate version of each video clip for quick sharing or to make editing easier on your computer and can be useful for fast-turnaround deliverables. On the S5II, they are available when shooting resolutions up to DCI 4K: open gate, 6K, 5.9K and 3.3K anamorphic modes aren’t supported.

The S5II can record proxy files at three quality levels, high, medium and low, at bit rates ranging from 4 Mbps to 16 Mbps.

Proxy files can be created when recording .MOV files (including ProRes on the S5IIX). The proxies are recorded to card slot 2, with the primary footage captured to slot 1 or to an external SSD on the S5IIX. You can choose three file sizes, which output 1080 or 720 clips. All clips are 16:9 and letterboxed if your primary footage is in the wider DCI 4K aspect ratio. Applying an in-camera LUT to proxy files is possible, even if not applying one to the original video.

Camera-to-cloud

Camera-to-cloud is a means of integrating with Adobe’s Frame.io service, making it easy to upload video clips and photos as they are captured and enabling collaboration. For example, a wedding photographer shooting a ceremony and uploading video clips to Frame.io in real-time could employ a remote editor to quickly cut together a video of the ceremony, allowing it to be shown to guests at a reception just a few minutes later.

Connecting to Frame.io is remarkably simple, and it took us less than five minutes to connect the camera to a local Wi-Fi network and link it to a Frame.io project. Clips can be uploaded automatically as they are captured or selectively uploaded at a later time.

Note that the camera will not upload original video files to Frame.io, so you’ll need to enable proxy recording to use this feature. Raw and JPEG images can also be uploaded to Frame.io.

One addition we’d like to see is the ability to assign Frame.io settings to a custom button. As of this writing, one must navigate the camera’s menus to access it.

Sample video

This video, captured along Seattle’s Lake Washington Ship Canal, includes clips recorded at a variety of resolutions up to 6K, at both 24p and 60p frame rates. It was shot mostly handheld with autofocus. Due to the wide dynamic range, most daytime shots were captured using Panasonic’s V-Log gamma profile (with the V-Log LUT applied in post-processing), and most evening shots were captured with the Like709 profile. One pair of clips shows an example of walking with the camera with EIS turned on and off.

Conclusion

By Dale Baskin

The S5II finally delivered the one feature many Panasonic users had requested for years: phase detection autofocus. While the headline feature is worthy of attention, it would be a mistake to overlook the many other upgrades that make it a compelling camera, including improved image stabilization, subject recognition, and an integrated fan for better thermal management.

While phase detect AF makes the S5II a more attractive camera than its predecessor, particularly for video shooters, it’s not a panacea. It does provide a more refined and reliable autofocus experience that delivers on many of its promises, but the implementation still feels less polished than on more mature systems. However, it’s good, and when paired with the subject recognition updates included in the April 2024 firmware update, it becomes a very solid performer.

Panasonic has long been known for making cameras that are great for video, and the S5II (and S5IIX) continue that tradition, offering video-centric features ranging from a waveform monitor to the ability to set shutter angle in video – things that typically don’t even appear on the spec sheet of other cameras in its class. The only thing holding it back from being an even better video camera is its sensor, a design that’s been around for a while and can, under the right conditions, reveal rolling shutter artifacts, and requires an APS-C crop to capture 4K/60. However, don’t mistake the S5II for a video-first camera. It’s a very competent stills camera that’s also great for video.

Panasonic S 28-200mm F4-7.1 | F7.0 | 1/125 sec | ISO 1600 Photo: Dale Baskin

The camera’s lines are not as graceful and elegant as some of its competitors, nor does it embrace the retro styling that’s been making a comeback. In contrast, the S5II is a pragmatic everyman’s camera, designed to get the job done. That’s not a knock against it or even a suggestion that the camera isn’t aesthetically pleasing, but rather a recognition that the S5II is an excellent example of form following function, for the right reasons.

The S5II is one of those cameras that isn’t necessarily the best in class at a lot of things. Instead, it makes its case by being the best at some things and very good at many things. The result is one heck of an all-around camera that will satisfy the needs of enthusiasts who shoot photos, videos, or both, and the cherry on top is that it’s also a delightful camera to use. And for that, the S5II receives our Silver Award.

Scoring

Scoring is relative only to the other cameras in the same category. Click here to learn about what these numbers mean.

Compared to its peers

The Canon R6 II remains our top performer in this class. It features outstanding ergonomics, a more dependable AF system, and a more usable electronic shutter thanks to the camera’s faster sensor. That sensor also allows the R6 II to capture high-quality 4K/60p using the entire frame width. However, the camera doesn’t include the myriad video tools found on the Panasonic. It’s also one of the most expensive cameras in its class and is effectively limited to using Canon’s own range of mirrorless lenses, so it’s a good idea to make sure Canon has the lenses you want at a price you’re comfortable with.

The Sony a7 IV is another camera worth considering. Its 33MP sensor delivers a bit more detail, but where the Sony really shines is its autofocus system, which is exceptionally dependable and features outstanding subject tracking. However, it’s a more photo-oriented camera, with higher rolling shutter making it less attractive to someone looking to shoot both stills and videos. Where it competes well is lens selection. With multiple manufacturers making lenses for E-mount, including Sigma, users are spoilt for choice and frequently have options at various price points for a given focal length.

The Sony a7C II is worth a look if size is a factor. It’s essentially a Sony a7 IV squeezed into a more compact body and a simplified shutter, meaning it has almost the same pros and cons as that model, though with better image stabilization.

Finally, there’s the Nikon Zf, a camera whose design is inspired by Nikon’s classic film SLRs. In some respects, it’s a great alternative to the S5II; it uses the same basic sensor and delivers similar image quality. However, its design makes the comparison more complex. The decision to buy a camera like the Zf will likely be driven, in part, by a desire for a specific type of shooting experience, and one that’s very different than the S5II. Also, similar to the Canon, you’ll mostly be limited to Nikon’s own mirrorless lenses (though recent history suggests that Nikon is beginning to open the mount to allow some third-party options). If you prefer a more modern design, you could also consider the Nikon Z6 II, though that model is a bit long in the tooth compared to the other options here.

Sample galleries

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Panasonic Lumix DC-S5IIX in Japan