Panasonic S5 preorders at BHphoto, Adorama. FocusCamera.

Bernard Bertrand:

The Lumix S5 is really impressive, you’ll find a lot of similarities with the bigger brother the Lumix S1H, and its size is smaller than the GH5. It is also a real still image camera for a professional photographer.
The full-frame sensor, the dual image stabilization, the video capabilities make it a fantastic camera for sure for video shooters.
Here I did my very first test with the Lumix S5 and I choose to test it with the 1.5 Avaiscope anamorphic lenses. ( that I really love )

Panasonic S5 preorders at BHphoto, Adorama. FocusCamera.

Photographyblog published the full Panasonic S5 review:

Overall, though, the new Panasonic S5 is a compelling mid-teir camera that punches well above both its weight and its price-tag. It deserves to give the likes of the Sony A7 III, Canon EOS R and Nikon Z6 more than a run for their money (and yours), and is a deserved winner of our Highly Recommended award.

Photographyblog reviewed the Panasonic S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and concludes:

The Panasonic Lumix S PRO 24-70mm F2.8 lens for L-Mount is an exceptionally well-made lens that shines brightest as you use it across photography and video disciplines.

Focusing is a dream, whether that is manual focus via the focus clutch, or the AF motor that is geared intelligently through the Lumix S1 camera for photography and video. You’ll get fast AF for photography and a smooth AF transitions for video, crucially all performed silently.

We’d expect the lens to withstand the inevitable battering endured through a life of use by a seasoned professional photographer, plus it simply feels great in use.

Tack sharp images are a reality from centre all the way to corners, with an unbelievably good control over lens distortion, especially chromatic aberrations. You may not even need to make any lens corrections to raw images post capture. Bokeh is also pleasant all the way from the maximum aperture down to f/5.6.

So, the Panasonic Lumix S PRO 24-70mm F2.8 lens passes all the tests with flying colours. But now comes the reality of its retail price. It’s the first Panasonic S zoom lens going head to head with an existing Sigma equivalent and its competitor is less than half the price and five star rated no-less.

Is the Panasonic lens worth the extra cash? Commenting on features and handling alone, there are differences, the majority of which favour the Panasonic lens; its manual focus clutch, build quality, plus it is a proprietary lens for the Panasonic system. The Sigma lens is more versatile for close up work, with a superior minimum close focusing distance. If video handling is a concern, then we’d go for the Panasonic lens.

Overall, we have been majorly impressed by the Panasonic Lumix S PRO 24-70mm F2.8 lens for L-Mount. If the asking price is accessible, then it ticks all the boxes.

Panasonic S5 preorders at BHphoto, Adorama. FocusCamera.

Panasonic released a S5 firmware update that “Improves connection quality with the cloud server“. That’s all it does 🙂

Matti Sulanto tested the camera:

Panasonic S5 preorders at BHphoto, Adorama. FocusCamera.

German S5 test:

Panasonic S5 vs GH5: which Lumix is best for video, vlogging and filmmaking? (DigitalCameraWorld).

Reviews in Asia:
Panasonic S5 hands-on by DC.watch
Panasonic S5 test a Mobile01.
Panasonic S5 hands-on by Mapcamera.
Panasonic S5 test at ZOL China.

Panasonic S5 preorders at BHphoto, Adorama. FocusCamera.

Indy Mogul:

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 is being overshadowed by cameras like the Sony a7Siii and Canon R5 but we think you should at least give it a shot and see what all the fuss is about. The perfect upgrade from a GH5 or a b-cam to a higher-end cinema camera like the EVA-1 or VariCam.

Panasonic is getting a lot of criticism for it’s DFD autofocus system. While it works pretty well in stills mode it’s still sometimes frustrating to use in video. But Dpreview seems to be pretty optimistic about the DFD future:

The updates in the S5 show us a couple of things. Firstly, that Panasonic is well aware of the criticisms being leveled at its cameras and is continuing to fine-tune its software to squeeze everything it can out of the current hardware.

But, more significantly, the improvements we’re seeing when shooting stills and when using AF-C during bursts of stills in particular suggest that some of the downsides we’ve seen in the past aren’t necessarily inherent flaws of the DFD concept. Instead they’re aspects that can improve as sensor readout and processing power improve. You don’t need to be a semiconductor physicist to recognize that improvements in those areas are always coming.

In principle, in the long run, staying committed to an AF method that gets better as hardware gets faster may prove to be a better choice than an approach that trades-off light capture for AF performance. But the S5’s performance, particularly in video, shows DFD is not there yet. The risk for Panasonic is whether these fast-readout sensors and powerful processors arrive before the majority of full frame buyers have already committed themselves to other camera systems.

There is also one fact to mention: Not having phase detection pixels on the sensor gets rid of the sometimes annoying “stripe” artifact.