This camera packs a fully loaded PUNCH! - Panasonic Lumix S5
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2021-05-05
·
3,395 words · ~16 min read
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- Okay, so, Canon's released a camera recently. Sony's released cameras recently.
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Blackmagic has released cameras recently. RED has released cameras recently.
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Who's left? Panasonic. And Panasonic has their new S5
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which is the little brother to the S1H and the S1.
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So, let's see what they've included from those cameras in this camera
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and where it sits in the product lineup. So I haven't used a Panasonic camera extensively
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since the GH4. And since Panasonic released the GH5,
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while it was a really good camera and I'm sure lots of people were very happy with it,
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because it was micro four thirds, it didn't really appeal in terms of flexibility,
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in my opinion, to us. But the S5 is a full frame offering from Panasonic.
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Now, the S1 and the S1H were also both full frame offerings,
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but they were much more expensive than this camera is.
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And so the S5 sits in a price bracket that is much more accessible to people who are just getting
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into photography or also want a camera that's really good at video and photography at the same time.
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And I feel like Panasonic may have done a reasonable job here.
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So, let's see what they've included.
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We have a manual. Which to be fair, honestly, shout out to people
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whom write camera manuals, because while I don't often use them,
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every time I've had a small problem and actually referred to the manual,
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it is usually well-written. So, good job to all the people out there
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who work really hard to write these, because they are unappreciated.
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So, right off the bat, one of the things that has never had me switch from using a Panasonic camera
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is their new use of the L-Mount, which is a Leica mount.
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Panasonic has always had a really good relationship with Leica, so they've always had this partnership
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that has allowed them to use each other's technology in their cameras.
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And so when Panasonic released the S1H and the S1,
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they decided to go with the L-Mount. And the reason that the L-Mount didn't appeal to me
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at the time was the limited amount of lenses
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especially at the beginning. Now, that has improved slightly,
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but I don't know if it's improved enough
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to warrant most people to switch. But let's just see how the camera actually stacks up.
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And despite the limited amount of lenses, how it might compare to something like
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the a7 III or the EOS R, which is where this camera sits in terms of competition.
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So, included in the box is this 20 to 60 kit lens.
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Now, this lens comes at a cost of about 300 US dollars more than the standard body.
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And if you are just starting out, that is a fairly affordable price to pay for a lens that has a reasonably good range.
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Now, unfortunately, it's an f/3.5 to 5.6,
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so you're not going to get the best low light
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or shallow depth of field performance from this thing. But again, if you're just starting out and you're learning,
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this is going to be a good range. And it does feel like a really high quality kit lens,
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honestly, like the heft isn't bad, but it's also not too heavy
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that it's annoying to carry around, because one of the benefits of this camera is
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that it is so lightweight. Now, I haven't held the GH5 that many times.
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But the cool thing is the S5 comes in both
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smaller and lighter than the GH5,
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which is really impressive considering this thing has a full frame
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24.2 megapixel sensor. Now, is it the same sensor that's in the S1H?
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Panasonic has not actually officially stated that that's the case, but the resolution is the same,
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and the raw 5.9K output that's gonna come later
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in December is also the same.
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So, it might be, I'm not sure.
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But, really cool that in this body,
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they have a full frame sensor. Before we do the physical tour, let's see what else came in the box.
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So we have a single charger.
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A USB type C cable.
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And then a wall wart for that USB type-C cable.
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And a lens, which, I mean,
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I don't know about any of you guys, but from the looks of this kit lens hood,
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it wouldn't be generally that useful.
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And so I usually never put these on. It can, you know, if you put it on
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and you drop your lens, there's a lower chance it'll ruin the lens,
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'cause if it lands like this, it will not land directly on the glass.
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But that is generally the only benefit I see
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that these leaf hoods, I've never had a great experience with them.
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This one might be different, I don't know. But in my experience, these are sort of throwaway.
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Also included in the box is a strap that
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I guess actually this strap seems pretty nice and on the wide end, so you probably would use this.
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I, again, probably wouldn't, but to each their own.
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So, they have this new battery type with this camera, which is the BLK22.
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So it has this standard pin out for the S5,
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but it also has this pin out for the GH5. So, this battery is actually compatible with both cameras.
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Now, unfortunately, GH5 batteries are not compatible with this camera,
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but it's a nice touch for anyone who is using
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a GH5 and might add an S5 to their repertoire,
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or is upgrading, that you could use this battery
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for your GH5, and so then you have an automatic B camera
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if you decide to keep your GH5 when upgrading to this as well.
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Little things like that, honestly, that I haven't seen many other camera companies do, so good on you, Panasonic,
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for thinking of that. In terms of layout, it's pretty standard.
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We have a dial right around the shutter button.
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We have white balance, ISO, exposure compensation.
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There's a very nice red record button right here
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which is a nice touch. It's a very nice feeling button as well.
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It's not an awkward placement like the original S or anything wise, so Panasonic has thought of that.
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And then the dials feel pretty good. There's no lock on the dials,
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which to me isn't really a big deal. I do like them on my X-T4 a lot,
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but I find that locks are more beneficial in stills than they are NVIDIA,
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and I feel like this camera leans a little bit on the video side, while the stills mode is pretty good.
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But honestly, these dials, the turn feels hefty enough
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that I don't feel like you'd ever accidentally knock them.
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And if you did, it's not probably a huge deal regardless.
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And the other cool thing is that they've added a slow and quick function to the dial.
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So, it makes slow motion much quicker to access.
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Now, this camera can do 60 FPS 4K.
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Unfortunately, it's a sampling rate of 420
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instead of 422, but it is 10 bit, so that part is good.
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Unfortunately, when you're in the 60 FPS mode at 4K,
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there is an APSC crop on the slow motion.
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And you also get HD up to 180 FPS, but also with a crop.
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So, it is a four frame camera and you can do fairly high
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slow motion frame rates for a camera of this price point,
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but unfortunately, it's not the entire sensor, there is a crop, which is not perfect,
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but better to have them than not have them.
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in the video description. Okay, let's look at the rest of this camera.
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So, one thing that the S5 has that my XT4 doesn't have,
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physically for all the things that I love about it, is the easy access to the single, continuous,
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and manual focus dials on the lenses. So on my camera, it's at the front here on the left
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in the corner, which is not the easiest place to access it
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if you're not used to like which one is which, what you're on.
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And so having it here very clearly indicated by these dials is really nice.
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Yes, I love this dial, it's a great addition. Now, for the rest of the camera,
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the S5 has the awesome flip out screen
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with full articulation that I've loved on the last couple of cameras that I've done videos on.
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That's awesome. And then the button layout's pretty simple here. The AF-ON button's here, the joystick,
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which is actually shallow, but quite clicky and usable.
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I actually don't mind this at all. And then the actual dial for the menus
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and the quick settings buttons are all here. Standard fare for most cameras.
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For IO, we have a microphone jack
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and a headphone jack on this side. This flap is pretty big.
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And so I'm wondering if you'd ever have any like IO cable run issues depending on
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how you would rig this camera. I feel like certain cages while when you have a flap
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this large can get in the way. And if you are a video user that didn't care as much about weather sealing,
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I would maybe consider cutting these off.
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I'm not actually recommending that you cut off the flaps for your camera,
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'cause this one actually doesn't seem very bad like other cameras that I've used.
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But this could be an annoyance
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in terms of IO clearance at some point. So, yeah, headphone, microphone jack.
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Oh, guys, they've included the dreaded micro HDMI.
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Now, I understand on a camera this size
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that micro HDMI probably made more sense than full-sized HDMI, but when things like
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the Pocket 4K and the a7S III
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have come up with cameras that have full-size HDMI, it's unfortunate to see any camera,
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even though this camera's priced at cheaper than something like the a7S III,
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it hurts me to see any camera have micro HDMI, 'cause no camera should have micro HDMI.
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Especially when this camera is gonna get a firmware update that gives you 5.9K raw,
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which I'm sure many people are going to use, you're gonna end up using the micro HDMI.
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And in my experience, this port breaks,
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guaranteed, with heavy use in less than a couple of years.
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So, that's just something to keep in mind when you're rigging the camera.
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There are HDMI locks that you can get for cages
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and stuff like that which help, but again, in my experience, have never truly solved the problem.
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But your mileage may vary. They also have a type-C port for high speed charging,
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so if you're the type of person who likes to bring around a big battery bank to rig on their camera,
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you can do that and not have to carry as many single batteries from Panasonic.
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And that would be also a cost effective way to keep your camera going all day on a long shoot
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assuming you have it rigged the way that you like. On the right of the camera, we have the dual SD card slots.
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Now, one of the SD card slots is UHS-1,
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and the other is UHS-2. It is unfortunate that they only included one of each slot,
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but I'm sure they have a good reason for that. So, my other thing about the L-Mount that I've actually
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never experienced because I've never used the L-Mount is the port cap is locked
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when it's just on the body like this, which is not typical of most cameras.
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Now, the other nice thing, though, is that the button for the the S5's lens mount
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is right here. So you don't have to turn the camera around
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or let go of this grip to like hold it in a different way
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to get the lens off, 'cause the button is here. 'Cause usually on Sony and Canon cameras,
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the lens release is on the left. But because it's here and convenient,
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you can have the grip still be in the shooting mode,
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take the port cap off, and then grab your lens and put it on.
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Which it's a little thing, but that's a very nice touch
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for the convenience of lens changes, because that way it's much easier to do it really carefully,
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and you just have more confidence.
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That lens mount actually feels really good. Very tight fit, no wobble at all.
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Is the touchscreen a touch screen? Yes.
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One of the things I wanted to test for right off the bat is if you could punch in while you're rolling.
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So I'm gonna roll the camera, it's recording. And, ooh, you cannot.
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Okay, that's a little unfortunate as a video-centric camera,
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even though it is a hybrid camera. So you can see we're rolling on the S5 right now,
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and you can in theory move around the box
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where your punch in for focus would be.
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But you can't actually double tap to punch in.
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Which is unfortunate, because especially if you're doing like a long interview, that's the type of thing
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that could very easily throw you off. Now, it does have peaking right off the bat
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as the default setting that's on. But my issue with peaking on small cameras like this
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is that the display is so small that even the peaking can be very misleading, even on the lowest setting.
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Most peaking features on cameras this size
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are never that accurate. Like they'll give you the ballpark,
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but it's very easy to be like slightly off. And if you're like wide open at 1.4
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or whatever lens you're using, it can be tricky to nail your focus on a screen this small.
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So, if you were an S1 user that wanted
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the highest quality file internally
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and for color grading after the fact, you probably bought the $100 Vlog upgrade.
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Now, thankfully, Panasonic was gracious enough
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with the S5 to include Vlog by default.
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That gives you the full 14 stops of dynamic range
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that these cameras with Vlog are capable of,
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which makes this camera very capable in terms of video features for the size and form factor.
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Another nice feature that they have built into the camera, and most mirrorless cameras these days have that,
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which is nice to say, the sensor has embodied stabilization
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up to five stops, which can then be used in conjunction with the optical image stabilization
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built into certain L-Mount lenses. And that's really great for vloggers
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or people who just want to be able to do quick walk and talks and you can only do it handheld,
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that actually, the extra stabilization for that and in stills would be very useful.
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Even though I'm primarily a video shooter, I do love photography, and it is something that I've been
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also doing a lot more of recently. And this camera actually has a feature
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that I wish more cameras would have in the stills mode.
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And that is in the aspect ratio, you can select 65 by 24 or two to one.
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So, with the 65 by 24 and two to one aspect ratios,
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you just get a wider screen view
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of whatever image you're shooting. And that's huge for stills because, yeah, sure,
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you can crop to this aspect ratio
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or any other widescreen aspect ratio in post. But when you're using it
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as a framing tool within the camera, it changes your perspective of what you're shooting.
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And the S5 is the only mirrorless camera that I know of in this body style and that is full frame
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that has this aspect ratio as a shooting option.
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The only other camera that I know of that has this aspect ratio as a shooting option is Fujifilm's
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medium format line, the GFX 50R specifically.
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Honestly, this is a small, niche feature
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that I personally love. And I'm really glad that Panasonic put this in for stills.
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So, for anyone who uses this camera for stills, they will have a very fun option
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to make something look really like widescreen, panoramic, cinematic.
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So, while this is only an unboxing and first impressions video,
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we are going to include a couple of clips right now just to show you the general video performance
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that you might be able to expect in Vlog specifically,
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just so you get a sense of the widest dynamic range
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that this camera can deliver for you. And here's an autofocus test as well.
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And honestly, I'm impressed by what Panasonic has done with the S5.
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Panasonic really has done a good job of taking the S1
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and the S1H specs and cramming it into a smaller, more affordable body.
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And while the specs of this camera are really good and the firmware update in December that promises
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5.9K raw and a couple more anamorphic modes,
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the specs alone I'm not 100% sure
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will be enough to suade people away
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from something like the EOS R, the X-T4, the a7 III
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just because especially the lens lineups on those cameras
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are much more fully formed. And while you could adapt to any of these cameras,
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performance will suffer, and you do want a good crop of native lenses to be able to use
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on something like this. So, if you're the type of person that
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really cares about autofocus performance and all the benefits that you would have
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from native lenses, your selection isn't quite as wide,
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though Sigma's support of the L-Mount has been quite good. So, if you're a Sigma lens fan,
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you are quite well supported on this camera. So, we'll see longterm how Panasonic's S5 does
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against Canon, Sony, and Fuji. But honestly, this camera is competitive
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to all the other offerings. It is full frame. It has in-body image stabilization.
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It is a 10 bit camera. It has slow motion modes that are reasonable.
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It has some cool stills features. So, if you're a Panasonic user looking to upgrade,
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I think you'd be very happy with the S5. If you're somebody who's a beginner,
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the S5 is definitely a contender among the competition.
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And it honestly is just a really good time to be looking for a mirrorless camera,
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because basically all your options are good. No option that you choose
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would be a bad camera by definition.
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And that's a good place to be. So, thank you, guys, for watching this video.
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If you wanna know more about the S5 or want a full review of any other Panasonic
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or any other camera, please leave me a comment down below and put your request in, because honestly,
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there are so many cameras and they're all good to some degree, it's hard to choose which ones to include or cover.
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But it is a good time to like cameras.
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Very good year for that.