Panasonic Lumix S1R II on Test
FIELD TEST & REVIEW / LUMIX S1R II
Panasonic Lumix S1R II Tested in the Field by a Professional Photographer
I am not much of a gearhead, nor do I actively follow new equipment releases. I am also not tied to any single camera brand; instead, I use multiple systems side by side in my work. Right now, I regularly shoot with gear from almost every major manufacturer. When it comes to lenses, I mostly rely on manual vintage glass from the 1960s and 1970s.
For the summer, I received a loan setup from Focus Nordic and Lumix, consisting of the Panasonic Lumix S1R II body along with the Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro O.I.S. and Lumix S 50mm f/1.8 lenses. I also used an M42 adapter to mount my own vintage lenses. I am writing this review entirely on my own initiative. This is not a paid collaboration, and I have received no compensation for writing this text. The focus of this review is strictly on how the camera serves my practical work and creative expression.
Sample Photos and Videos
All images and video clips featured in this article were shot with the Panasonic Lumix S1R II.
Reliability and Battery Life
In professional use, reliability is the single most important quality of any camera. A photographer must be able to trust that the equipment works in every situation without unexpected issues.
At the start of the test period, there was a setting turned on in the camera that drained the battery remarkably fast and caused the body to warm up. Resetting the device to factory defaults and reviewing the menus solved the issue. Perhaps it was caused by a high display refresh rate or something similar. After the reset, battery life turned out to be excellent, and the camera performed flawlessly even during long shooting days. My video workflow consists of short clips here and there, so I did not run an extended battery test dedicated purely to video. However, I do not recall needing to switch to a third battery even on long production days.
User Interface, Customization, and Manual Focus
The Lumix S1R II feels engineering-driven by nature. Its menu and button layout is complex, and the camera includes plenty of features that I had no use for in my daily work. You do get used to the menu logic over time, and the real strength of the camera lies in its customization options. Once you assign the shortcut buttons to match your own workflow, the camera becomes an efficient tool. For instance, I reassigned the exposure compensation button to trigger image magnification, making it much easier to work with manual focus lenses.
As someone who shoots with manual glass, I am accustomed to the viewfinder magnification approach used by Fujifilm and Nikon. The focus assist window on the Lumix (picture-in-picture style) felt a bit too small when using the M42 adapter and vintage optics. It gets the job done in the field, but for a photographer focused heavily on manual focusing, the implementation is not completely ideal. That said, I did not even bother checking if the window size could be changed in the settings since I was happy enough with how it worked. In the end, it was a very minor point of friction.
Vintage Optics paired with a High-Resolution Sensor
Pairing manual M42 vintage lenses with a modern sensor requires a good viewfinder from the camera body, as well as effective stabilization for video. Although the focus magnification window is small on this model, Panasonic's in-body image stabilization (IBIS) makes handheld shooting with old, un-stabilized lenses significantly more reliable in low light.
Image Quality, Sensor, and Image Stabilization
The image quality produced by the camera is superb. The high megapixel count made working easier and left plenty of headroom for cropping in commercial assignments and portraiture alike. I was especially impressed by the color saturation and how effortless the RAW files were to edit.
That same flexibility carries over to video. I shot video mostly in 6.4K Open Gate mode, which allowed me to freely crop the footage into vertical or horizontal formats during post-production from the exact same take. The in-body image stabilization deserves a special mention. Handheld video footage turned out so smooth that the results resemble shots taken with an external mechanical gimbal.
Open Gate Recording in Multi-Channel Distribution
The 6.4K Open Gate format utilizes the full area of the sensor. In commercial productions, this saves time on set, as the same recording can be cropped into a horizontal version for websites and a vertical version for social media channels without compromising image quality. This proved to be a fantastic feature on client shoots. I did not need to capture separate horizontal and vertical takes, as I could generate both from a single master file.
Autofocus Performance
As someone who regularly relies on manual focus lenses, it was interesting to test the current level of modern autofocus technology. The autofocus on the loaned 50mm f/1.8 and 24-105mm f/4 lenses worked very quickly. Whenever focus missed in certain situations, it was corrected just as fast. It has been remarkable to observe how much autofocus and subject recognition have evolved in recent years. Still, I personally prefer manual focusing with a mechanical focus ring, as it gives me full control over where I want the focus point to land.
Summary
The Panasonic Lumix S1R II is a versatile, high-performing tool. Although its interface takes some time to learn and adjust, it offers extensive customization options along with impressive image quality for both photo and video productions. I would have liked a slightly larger rear screen, but otherwise the body is excellent. I thoroughly recommend this camera to anyone seeking uncompromising image and video quality in a hybrid camera body. Extra praise goes to the color reproduction.