Panasonic has clearly learned its lessons from the criticisms made of its original full-frame mirrorless cameras. The Panasonic S5 blends a full-frame sensor with a small, but ergonomic, body. The result is a camera that should appeal to a wide variety of creators – with a good range of video specs, it’s a fantastic hybrid that comes highly recommended. Keep reading on for the Panasonic Lumix S5 review here.
Contents
Panasonic Lumix S5 Review
Key specifications
- 24.2MP full-frame CMOS sensor with no AA filter
- Up to 4K/60p (APS-C), full-frame oversampled 4K/30p all with 4:2:2 10-bit color
- Panasonic contrast-detect DFD AF with improved face, body and head detection
- 2.36M-dot OLED EVF w/ 0.74x magnification
- 3” 1.84M-dot fully articulating touchscreen
- Dual SD card slots (1x UHS-II, 1x UHS-I)
- 96MP high-resolution mode
- 7 fps burst shooting (5 fps with continuous autofocus)
- 2.4/5Ghz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with one-touch image transfer
- Dust and splash resistant
- 460 shots per charge when used with EVF
Panasonic Lumix S5 Design
There’s a lot to like about the design approach on the S5. The camera has that attractive angular design that we’ve come to expect from full-frame cameras. It’s noticeably flatter and sharp looking than the comparatively rounded shape of the GH5. Size-wise, it’s not far off being the same as its Micro Four Thirds cousin, but in the hand it does feel similarly lightweight and balanced.
It’s a similar height to the GH5 too, but has a much larger grip on the right side, which makes it easy grab hold of when shooting handheld. Thanks to the position of the red video button up top, it’s super simple to grip it with all four fingers and reach over with a thumb to press record, or even to capture a photo using the shutter key.
Overall build feels solid, despite its relatively lightweight-ness. That’s thanks to its chassis being built from a magnesium alloy. Plus it’s sealed against splashes and dust ingress too, so you know it’s unlikely anything can get inside to destroy the electronics or get on to the sensor.
Performance
If you’re looking for a camera to shoot lots of sports or action, the Lumix S5 is unlikely to be the one you plump for. It offers a mid-range max burst shooting speed of 7fps, which although useful for capturing predictable action or the odd moment of your kids or pets running around, is a bit limiting for those who make a habit of shooting action.
Still, the S5 does compensate a little with Panasonic’s 4K/6K Photo options, which let you record at 30fps and extract the shot you need later down the line. Using the 6K option, you can extract 18MP stills, which should be good enough for most scenarios. But it does take a little bit of effort afterwards to sift through the images captured and save the shot you want.
When it comes to autofocus, there’s a noticeable improvement from the S1/S1R, and it proves to be very effective in most situations – there’s certainly very little hunting around or background pulsing. It copes well following subjects that move in a predictable pattern, while the ability to recognize subjects including eyes and heads are useful for photographing portraits and people shots. The good news for anybody who owns an S1 or S1R or S1H is that a firmware update will bring the same autofocus improvements to those models too.
The official battery life rating of the S5 is 440 shots (via the rear monitor), or 470 shots via the EVF. You can also enable a power-saving mode which will deliver 1,500 images.
In real-world use, the S5 should last for a full day of moderate use, especially when engaging in power-saving tactics of your own, such as switching it off between shots. If you’re somebody that wants to shoot lots of 4K clips in a day, it may be worth investing in a second battery. You can also charge the S5 via USB, so an alternative would be a high-capacity power bank for charging on the go, too.
Image and video quality
What you essentially get is full-frame performance from a Micro Four Thirds body, which is especially good news for those who like to shoot frequently in low light. At ISO 6400, there’s barely any noise visible and image smoothing is kept fairly well under control. You can see some slightly smudgy areas if you examine closely at 100%, but otherwise the overall impression is great.
As you’d expect, if you head into the upper echelons of ISO 51200 – and the expansion settings – noise and image smoothing increases dramatically, so it’s best to stay away from those unless absolutely necessary.
On the whole, the S5’s all-purpose metering setting does a good job of keeping images well-balanced, but it can struggle a little with very high-contrast situations. That said, detail can be extracted well from the files in post-production, so if you’re prepared to do a little work it’s not too much of a concern.
The 20-60mm kit lens is a good walk-around lens, and it makes a lot of sense as a travel lens. The 20mm end is nice and wide, which is great for both shooting landscapes, but also for vloggers who want to present to camera while walking along. The lack of a crop at 4K/30p is a benefit that puts it ahead of the Nikon Z5, which applies a fairly heavy crop at 4K.
