Panasonic S5

The only way in which it would make sense to me is to adapt EF glass and just go manual focus. But it seems the adapters aren't 100% compatible: with older or 3rd party EF lenses aperture or IS may not work.
 
Thomas Smet said:
I think Panasonic made a big mistake using the L mount. The bodies are too expensive given a brand new mount and cameras that are a clear under dog in the pro photo market. The lenses are grossly over priced for most humans on the planet. A $5,000 and $7,000 pair of zoom lenses buys one heck of a solid set of Canon lenses. Yes the S cameras can adapt other lens systems and that's cool but adapting isn't always 100% perfect. Those that do care about autofocus performance are likely going to have to buy a L mount lens for the best performance.

Eventually Panasonic may create more affordable L mount lenses but we are many years from that and unless the sales really start to pick up I don't see Panasonic able to keep this system going forever. M43 already struggled and it was massive compared to this.
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There are quite a few reasonably priced L-mount prime lenses from Sigma already, and even a couple of zooms (14-24mm and 24-70mm):
https://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/view-all-lenses?sigma_mount=13000&show_all=1

It's also not really clear what kind of alternatives Panasonic had in terms of adopting an autofocus capable lens mount for a line of full-frame mirrorless still cameras. Canon's RF mount and Nikon's Z-mount are both proprietary. I guess Sony does allow 3rd party lens manufacturers access to the E-mount specifications, but it seems doubtful they'd let Panasonic use it for a competitive camera body.

And I suppose they could have invented a new lens mount entirely, but it's not clear that this would be any better than going with L-mount and at least allowing use of the existing (albeit expensive) full frame Leica lenses as an option.

There is a reasonable argument to be made that Panasonic shouldn't have jumped into the full-frame space at all and instead just stuck it out with Micro 4/3. But given the trend toward larger sensor sizes, I guess they felt compelled to offer full frame cameras if they are going to stay relevant as a camera manufacturer at all. Maybe the stronger argument from a business perspective is that they should get out of the still camera market entirely, since it seems to be a rapidly shrinking industry.
 
ahalpert said:
Panasonic is releasing lower-cost f/1.8 primes
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Yes, Panasonic announced several new primes in their lens roadmap along with the S5. It's a bit concerning that they don't even have tentative release dates for most of them yet though, so it's hard to say how soon they will actually be available:

panasonic-l-mount-new-lenses.jpg
 
ahalpert said:
Panasonic is releasing lower-cost f/1.8 primes
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Unless I'm wrong - and please correct - Panasonic has not announced any pricing on those primes. Considering that Panasonic's 50mm 1.4 is retailing now at B&H for a whopping $2300, I'd guess these new "cheap" primes will each be well in excess of $500. Again, hardly a bargain considering the selections from Sony and Canon.

Perhaps more to the point, these should-have-been-released-from-the-start lenses are still not available.

All made worse by the fact that none of those new Panasonic primes will have stabilization. Kind of a giant omission considering the poor IBIS in the L mount bodies seen thus far.

One other note on the intentional crippling/segmentation of the S5, and that's the audio. Absolutely zero reason not to include the capacity to reduce audio input to -18 (versus -12) as is available in other L bodies. As noted by several reviewers of the S5, Panasonic pre-amps are often too hot for some mics. For that tiny minority of people who use Deity and Rode mics, this is a real issue.

Adding more flexibility in sound recording was an dead easy way to make the S5 better then the GH5; to make the camera more attractive to potential new L mount buyers and they chose not to.

Add it all up - ridiculously bad autofocus, tiny HDMI port, worst in class IBIS, lack of cheap fast primes, virtual lack of any lenses with stabilization, no intra-frame recording, lack of better pre-amp control, a big crop on on slo-mo footage, no improvement to color science, yet another type of battery to deal with, cables still blocking the flip out screen, poor EFV - and you have a camera that is vastly over-priced if the goal was to attract new buyers.

Maybe Canon can get away with a micro HDMI port and other cripplings while charging a premium price, but Panasonic can't.
 
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I thought the IBIS on my S1 was great, not that I ever conducted a scientific test.

This is definitely the cheapest camera with these capabilities. If they are trying to compete on price, their f/1.8 lenses will be priced to sell.

I think it's an exciting camera, but without good AF and no-crop 4k60p, it's not for me
 
L Mount series has some of the best IBIS, if not the best. What are you talking about?

Unless you’re big into owning native m43 glass, not sure why today’s cheap lens selection matters much with such a versatile mount, where you can use either aps-c or FF glass. The pro series lenses which have dual IS are also some of the best lenses on market, up there with zeiss Milvus and Leica glass in regards to performance.

The rest of that list sounds like a list of vastly overstated niggles. I think you’re selling the S5 short - it’s incredibly compelling at its price point against the Sony A7S iii, and anyone who’s used one will tell you it has an in use mojo that spec sheets can’t capture.
 
I've seen that IBIS comment posted before and it's really a head-scratcher and maybe a result of improper utilization of the system.

Similar to saying Sony and Canon have poor AF.
 
hyalinejim said:
The only way in which it would make sense to me is to adapt EF glass and just go manual focus. But it seems the adapters aren't 100% compatible: with older or 3rd party EF lenses aperture or IS may not work.
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FWIW I’ve used, via the MC-21, a set of EF zeiss Milvus, sigma 18-35, and various canon zoom lenses all with zero issue. I still shoot manual focus exclusively.
 
ProAv did a bunch of AF tests. Basic summary - 50p (they're in the UK) with the APS-C crop and Rec709 profile, with sensitivity and speed in the -2 range off the presets works reasonably well with fairly minor pulsing. I would assert that, with a relatively well lit background but with no lights in the frame, it's hardly noticeable (they had X-mas type practicals strung across). V-log, 24p is where it gets pretty bad. Contrast Detect works poorly when there's no contrast. Who'd have thunk.

PS. These are still pre-production versions. The verdict is that AF can be decent but still nowhere close to Sony or Canon.
 
The way it worked in the Olympus world is each tier had better, improved performance. (Not sure if any newer 2019/2020 entry level models eventually caught up, but it was what it was.)

I wouldn't expect the Panasonic S5 to be on the S1H's level, but I would expect it to be better than Canon and Sony (which has been the case in the MFT world).
 
They will both have their strengths and weaknesses based on applications and practice...I just meant in general in the overall context and in the past 4-5-6 years as Canon just started with it last month.
 
For me Johnny has lost his credibility since was paid by Adobe for a trip to their office in California and wrote nothing but flattery trivia. I clicked the clip away after a minute. meh is still benevolent.
 
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