My Panasonic Lumix S5 II review! In-depth look at the photo and focusing vs R6 II and A7 IV Lumix S5 II at B&H: bhpho.to/3QbvcuV // WEX UK: tidd.ly/3GDqEKx Buy Gordon a coffee: www.paypal.me/cameralabs Gordon's In Camera book: amzn.to/2n61PfI / Amazon uk: amzn.to/2mBqRVZ Cameralabs merchandise: redbubble.com/people/cameralabs/shop Gordon’s retro gear channel: kzfaq.info Check MPB to buy and sell used gear: bit.ly/3ULU9yL Check eBay to find vintage gear: rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=1&pub=5574908462&toolid=10001&campid=5338329149&customid=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg Lost photos? I recover mine with: www.dpbolvw.net/click-100568658-13808570?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stellarinfo.com%2Fphoto-recovery-software.php Equipment used for producing my videos Sony A6400: prf.hn/l/pRO0wp5 Sony e 24mm f1.8: amzn.to/2TqWNzk Rode NT USB mic: amzn.to/3AdHcUp Rode Wireless Go II mic: amzn.to/3xkCvGo Rode Lavalier Go mic: amzn.to/3ygzzKY Godox UL150 light: amzn.to/2VpVbXE Godox QR-P70 softbox: amzn.to/3yQfGdF MacBook Pro 14in (16GB / 1TB): amzn.to/3PrKbPV 00:00 - Introduction 00:33 - Lumix S5 II Phase Detect autofocus at last! 03:19 - Lumix S5 II body design and controls 06:39 - Lumix S5 II viewfinder and screen 07:49 - Lumix S5 II card slots, ports and battery life 09:31 - Lumix S5 II L-mount and lenses 10:31 - Lumix S5 II sensor and photo options 12:49 - Lumix S5 II photo quality vs High Resolution mode 14:27 - Lumix S5 II resolution vs EOS R6 II and Sony A7 IV 15:57 - Lumix S5 II noise high ISO vs EOS R6 II and Sony A7 IV 17:30 - Lumix S5 II RAW dynamic range 17:59 - Lumix S5 II IBIS stabilization 19:10 - Lumix S5 II autofocus AF 19:59 - Lumix S5 II subject detection 21:54 - Lumix S5 II face, eye and human detection autofocus 23:53 - Lumix S5 II vs EOS R6 II vs Sony A7 IV face and eye tracking 24:55 - Lumix S5 II burst shooting speed 27:21 - Lumix S5 II action photography bikes 28:31 - Lumix S5 II birds in flight wildlife photography 29:30 - Lumix S5 II rolling shutter electronic skewing 30:40 - Lumix S5 II photo modes 31:20 - Lumix S5 II bracketing 31:38 - Lumix S5 II focus bracketing 33:19 - Lumix S5 II verdict and sample images Music: www.davidcuttermusic.com / @dcuttermusic As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Right, now it's time to watch the OG Camera KZfaqr's vid! And I'm coming to Brighton for those Easter Eggs BTW. 👍

This is the GOLD STANDARD of reviews! Thank you for focusing on the photo side as well!

Super happy to see Panasonic is serious about improving their cameras. They have no intention of exiting this market, and their success is good for all of us.

The amount of information and testing you've done and put in this video is incredible.

I got my preorder in - so excited! Everything I could have wanted and more - thanks for the excellent coverage as always Gordon

Great review as always. One thing to note for the Panasonic, while it's true that Sony and Panasonic both have access to Sigma lenses, L-Mount Sigmas are considered native lenses, not third party, so they have better performance on Panasonic bodies than they would on Sony, and have access to the full burst rates of cameras as well as teleconverters.

The most comprehensive video I’ve seen so far👏🏻 Great video, Gordon! Looking forward to the Video-Centric review 🎉

Thank you for another thoughtful and complete (and trustworthy) review! I am particularly happy that you cover the focus bracketing abilities of cameras as no one else does. The fact that this camera will allow focus bracketing with flash is huge for me and I don't think I would have known about it in any other way. Kudos!

Excellent. Answered all my questions. I'm intrigued enough to consider purchasing. Thanks Gordon!

Great objective and comprehensive review as usual. Thank you heaps, Gordon. Great news for Panasonic and their customers 👍

I'm looking forward to having your book - just ordered it today. I'm sure I'll learn something more from you. All the best from Texas.

Fantastic review. The most comprehensive I’ve watched and definitely not too long! The S5ii looks great, I’m really impressed by it. Amazing how a change like PDAF makes such a difference to the overall package. A lot of the pros existed for a while, such as IBIS performance, lens selection (vs Canon), video performance, colour/image quality. PDAF just makes it a much more viable package, well done Panasonic.

The best real world review i have seen on this camera! Thanks for your massive effort on this. Now subscribed!

AF finally looking great on Lumix! I feel like this is gonna be a reeeeaaaallly exciting year in the camera world!

very good and in-depth review. top job mate

Happy New Year and thank you for your usual thorough review of the Panasonic S5ii. This looks like a smashing hybrid body. We all knew Panasonic would eventually use phase detection so I’m glad they got around to it. I am not in the market for a full frame body. I use M43 bodies so maybe phase detection will be added to the G9ii or G10 when that comes out. Hard to believe this body presents at $2000 when the Fuji XT5 is a little cheaper and the XH 2 & S are a little more expensive. This body will give them a run for the money. Again, thank you for your review. I now know what I’m missing by staying with my Fiji XT4 & XS10. Hope this will be the best year yet. Mask On Nurse Marty

Gordon, I want to thank you for creating this video, your content is unique and your opinion is very valuable to me.

Thanks for a great review Gordon. It helped me finalize my decision to buy the Lumiz S5ll. Waiting for the pkg to arrive! Happy Holidays!

Bonus points for me! Great review by the Master of great reviews 👏 Can't wait for these changes to filter down to the G line.

aaah Gordon what a brilliant, thorough review! I've learned so much watching this! It was a pleasure to meet you in Tokyo! - Emily 📸

Perfect. Proud Lumix user for years. Never looked back!

Yet another exhaustive and fine review Gordon! Thank you so much! And snow in Brighton !!?? Regards form snowy Sweden !

I use hi-res regularly for interiors, it's excellent. If there's plenty of light high resolution handles exterior movement reasonably well too, as multi-exposure happens in a much briefer time, with clouds for example. As a non-vlogger upgrades from my S5 aren't essential, but the Mk II looks a nice cameras.

Thanks for doing a photography-oriented review. Great stuff!

Love it! Great watch, didn't feel a minute longer than 10min. Very informative and thorough. I've learnt more about the S5II than I ever would from the manual and I've enjoyed it, unlike any manual. Great sample photos at the end.

Another brilliant review! Thank you.

Thank you, G L. I hope you have more on this s5ii in the near future. I'd like to follow you as I will get this tonight.

Great comparasion and review. I'd be happy to see some portrait comparasion between these 3, also some grading test to see the color science

Gordon, You are the best in accurate review of cameras without the nonsense.

Thank you sir for this very informative review 👍!

I am now adding Panasonic on my list. I love the Sigma lenses but require good video AF. So now, Panasonic seems good enough and that is great! Thanks for another great video Gordon!

Really good review; thanks!

Thank you Gordon. A very thorough review that is bound to be the best review of this camera.

Another fantastic review, thank you! I'm a stills photographer and really appreciate the depth of information you provide. I picked up an S1R at a ridiculously low price last summer, but this could really tempt me as a second body, maybe with Sigma's 28-70 mm f2.8 lens.

Gordon, great review and superb amount of information. This looks like a very nice upgrade. I did wonder whether Panasonic would ever move to phase detect. In previous years I would have been frustrated by this upgrade as a S5 owner, but my S5 is more than I need for photos along with the 20-60 + 70-300. If they did finally decide to make a G9 mkii with phase detection, this would be awesome for motorsport with the 2:1 focal length, and a tempting buy as a 2nd camera.

Great detailed review as usual Gordon! It was great meeting you in Japan

Thank you for the review. The autofocus of Panasonic cameras was the biggest problem to solve. So it’s very good news ! Just pitty than they offered this new technology on a full frame model and not on the gh6. The expectation and hope was more important on M43 sensor. But it’s very personal :)

Excellent Gordon...thank you!

Thank you. This is the best comparison of the pixel shift mode I've found. It really seems to be a large improvement under the right circumstances.

I so have to retire my D810 and get this Lumix beauty. Brilliant review Gordon! Glad I came upon your channel!

Excellent review as usual Gordon. Looking forward to the video capabilities review, might bring me back to Panny since jumping ship two years ago. My invite to Japan must've got lost in the post...

Gordon, I absolutely love your approach to camera and lens reviews. I'd love to see you do a follow up video on the S5ii for it's latest firmware update, since it seems some of these things have changed or improved a significant margin. Regardless, love the content.

Thank you for this video. Your comparison at 15:36 with the charts made my day. I am a visual artist who archives my oil paintings for print as well as shooting static diomaras and maquettes on a tripod. The high resolution mode of the S5ii seems like it was made for people like me, as well as video, live-streaming etc. I'm going to purchase the S5iiX asap.

Excellent review, well done!

Great video. Thank you sir 🙂🙏🏼

Gracias Gordon! Estaba esperando tu review desde Argentina!

Thanks Gordon, I dropped off for a few minutes but that was due to jet lag. Woke up and made it to the end.because it was so interesting. Happy 2023!

As always, one of the very best reviews on the internet.

After having both the S5 and S5 II for a couple of months, I decided to sell my original S5 (after owning it for 5 months) since it spent more time sitting on the shelf. The S5 II's new auto focus is the compelling feature for me.

Great review Gordon, thanks! 👍S5 II looks unbeatable in that price tag.

Gordon, you are the BEST camera reviewer - by far - on KZfaq. Another thorough, amazing job. Also appreciate the comparison with likely rivals from Canon and Sony. Thank you.

thanks Gordon great review of the photography capabilities of the S5II. As someone with minimal interest in video this was very informative thank you. Your review has prompted some serious thinking on whether or not I need a FF to supplement my mainly Lumix MFT set up - I'm too committed and enjoy some of the cheap and cheerful MFT lenses to play around with to completely change systems. The S5 has always interested me as menus and ergonomics similar to my current G9 and G85 - with the S5II may be a few bargain S5s to be had and I don't think I'd miss PDAF - already in Australia I've seen new S5 with 20-60mm lens at only just over half the price of the S5II with the same lens - tempting....

I will say that the Panasonic DFD is very solid for contrast detect AF and if they added phase detect or hybrid AF it should be one of the best out there. I am hoping for a G9 II or somethings with the updated hybrid AF and maybe improvement on the ISO. Nice videos as always. You are my #1 source to decide buying equipment.

Excellent review!

Ive watched like 15 videos prior to this and I thought I can't learn anything new about the S5 ii but you proved me wrong! I can say you've managed to make the most detailed review out of all the videos Ive watched

Good and complete review, thank you

Hurrah for your stills photography focussed (no pun intended) reviews. I sometimes feel I'm the only one who reckons there are more photographers than videographers, no matter what most KZfaq channels think...

Thanks for the review. Hope to see the phase detect in upcoming MFT bodies.

great review, Gordon :)

Wow, it seems the mirrorless world has reached cruise speed. So many impressive new kits from practically all brands!

Thank you for detailed review! I found some discussion on DPReview, where people arguing that RAW compression is in fact, lossy (don't remember if it was with S5 or S5 II). But there's no proper tests or whatnot, to prove or disprove that claim.

very thorough examination! I am a micro 4/3s guy, but I find this interesting because I like to know what the manufacturer of my camera system is doing in the bigger picture. It looks to me that Panasonic is taking things very seriously. This might not transfer well for micro4/3s, but Panasonic is well into the game of making cameras for the future.

wow that was an great review Top notch

Terrific video, Gordon!

Good morning sir... How are you? Im one of your follower way back 2011 learning basic photography. The Sony a230 that you review that was also my first camera and holds the Grand Prize and runner winner in a photo contest way back then. Now I'm a wedding and events photographer, videographer/editor. Thank you for sharing your knowledge master🙏👌 God bless!!!

Mr Laing, if youtube does not pay you enought, and social media is not recognizing your work, i just want to remind you that youre one of the greatest camera reviewers of all this platform, thanks for your hard work, please continue giving great images of the cameras, and your sincere opinion, just dont forget to use some os the "british humor" that we all enjoy. sorry if im not writing correctly, this is not my native lenguage. Panasonic was the first brand i put my eyes on, and still like it a lot. i tell my friends if you want to record video use a lumix camera. My best regards from CR.

Good job as usual!

I'm so happy about this! I personally won't upgrade as I don't do much video work where I need continuous auto focus - but it's really good news for the L mount in general if this picks up.. more lenses on the horizon?

Great, comprehensive review - thanks!

Thank you for another thorough review! Very useful. One suggestion I would have for your videos would be to add a SOOC colour test for skin tone in your camera reviews, if you have the possibility. There's a lot of difference in quality between different models when it comes to that aspect, especially for darker skin tones: some make ligther people look a bit green, some make darker people look very orange. For instance, the Lumix S5 II seems to perform really well on that front, but it'd be nice to see a systematic comparison with other cameras.

Awesome review Gordon!

Thank you Gordon. I watched your review twice as we’re considering this camera as one for our global creative, documentary, reporters who will globally be creating content on global events. We’ve been working on this project for 3 years. Natural Language AI for translation for a content and news service managed professionally. The S5II X looks to likely be the better choice.

Thank you for a superb, thorough review. What firmware version did your Panasonic Lumix S5 II have? What do you think of the ease of use of the menus of the S5 II, R6 II, and A7 IV?

Always seen the great benefits of LUMIX Cameras. The reason I've been using them for 8 years now. I have never been turned off by their DOD AF however PD AF is a GAME CHANGER for Panasonic as it will put them up in the TOP 4 FF Camera Brands by 2024 with new models coming.

Very comprehensive, thank you

As always, a fantastic review, Gordon! I totally agree with the comparisons you tested here in this video, but I think a strong battle would be the S-5iiX VS Fujifilm XH2s. Fuji has the LUMIX covered at every turn with the stacked sensor, no rolling shutter, no crop in higher video frame rates, 4K 60 and 120, CF Express card, Fuji colours, much faster shutter for outdoor wide open shooting, and the lists goes on. However, there is always that question mark of FF vs APSC with respect to depth of field, low light and noise. Through one of your reviews, I think it would be a great question to attempt to answer of giving up the much better camera (the Fuji), for that full frame advantage which is a real thing! Anyway, just a suggestion. Thanks again for your hard work, Gordon. ✌️

Thanks for the early review! It looks like a really good camera and a nice upgrade. It seems like the new AF works well, and let's remember that Panasonic are very good at firmware updates. I'm sure they will tweak the focus performance 👍🏻

As always one of the best review on You Tube. Now that you are the only one focusing on the photography side of this camera we can conclude that the stills feature are very good and even indeed the best but very overlooked. Most users of Panasonic sits in the video market. Will you create a video only on video features of this camera as Auto Focus, IBIS, Full auto expose and auto focusing when vlogging outside?

Thanks for the great video. Please share which adapter you used to try Canon EF lens on the Panasonic S5 II. Thanks

thanks for this great video

colors look fantastic. 🔥

Thanks for video. I bought this purely for noise reduction as have Affinity for geberal usage.

Like pretty much everyone, I'm glad to see that Panasonic is going the way of the phase detect AF. This is a very comprehensive and detailed review. I appreciate that you included the Canon R6 II and the Sony A7 IV for comparison. I'm into wildlife photography, so your discussion of the abilities of the S5 II in that respect is also much appreciated. Thanks for the great work!!

The autofocus looked the best on the Lumix to me in the test at around the 24 minutes mark. While the Canon may be recognizing the subject and putting up the box on the head but its focus isn't sticking to you even when you aren't moving your distance from the camera. It's varying rapidly between between the subject and then some distance between the subject and the background (though never completely focusing on the background). Not only does the focus look bad there but it's causing a lot of lens focus breathing to show up. The Sony looks terrible in this test as well. I'm amazed Panasonic did such a good job on their first entry into a hybrid focus system and it's really making me look forward to the Mark II versions of the S1/S1R.

Thanks for the great review Gordon. Did you say the double exposure feature is gone? I loved using that on the S5. Also, is the Live Composite mode still there?

Yet another great video Gordon just two questions can it photos stack and has it got Wi-Fi phone connection.

Great review Gordon

Now bring the Panasonic s1H mark II with phase detect and you got a nearly flawless camera for video!

Hallelujah! PDAF in a Panasonic. Next question-will there be an MFT camera with PDAF? How ironic that Panasonic introduced pre-burst shooting, but Canon is the FF option with pre-burst shooting now. Thank you for yet another brilliant review. 😀

Most folks have been touting the video strengths but wow pretty awesome for photos too. I have one on the way.

Hi. With what model of flash have you tested that it can be used in focus stacking mode? I've tried a Godox v350o and it doesn't work, even though I use the mechanical shutter. The flash does work in slow burst mode if the mechanical shutter is used. If I use the Godox MF12 with the XPro-O trigger, no mode works (focus stack mode and slow burst mode). In this case, possibly the problem is the trigger. Thank you so much.

As an S5 owner, this really does give me a fair bit of hope in the future of the platform. Most of my issues with AF seem to be addressed to the point it's hard for me not to make the jump to the S5ii. Had uncropped 4k60p been included, it would have been a no brainer. With that said, I think I wait a bit to see if they make an S1ii.

Love mine for PHOTOS. Used to only use it for VIDEO but, just took it out to shoot some stills the other day. Video of the photos on my page, under the playlist CAMERA BASED.

Love the new PDAF on Panasonic. This should hush most of the Naysayers. I already have the S5, so Im going to wait for a High Res FF frm Panasonic with PDAF. That would be the best companion for my S5

Lumix S5II looks great 👍 if only had a wireless remote control like my Canon M50, I would have not hesitate to preorder it. I need remote control not by mobile phone but a small device I can hold in my hand or trigger using my feet whilst I hold equipment I present with both hands.

How do you switch from photo to video, are your last settings saved like Nikon do.

Hey Gordon, great upload as usual! Quick question: do you find the EVF-eyepiece ergonomics improved? My nose has a problem with the AF-selector switch on the right of the original S5. Also: any issues with banding in low light or shadows due to the new sensor? I bought the S5 for long exposures/astro and found the performance way better than anything else I ever tried. Still very happy with the S5, apart from my nose!

Hi Gordon. Thank you for this review. What are your thoughts between Lumix S5ii compared to XH2s both for photography and videography?

Excellent review! Did you notice moire patterns on the s5ii due to the lack of AA filter to the sensor?And if so is it going to be a problem on professional work?