PANASONIC LUMIX S1H REVIEW: LET'S TRY THE NETFLIX APPROVED MIRRORLESS
Those who have a few years on their shoulders will certainly remember the diatribe between analogue and digital , film or sensor. Today the battle has definitely moved to other territories, the challenge is between reflex and mirrorless , with the former having inherited the use of the mirror from the classic analogue reflex cameras, the latter having inaugurated a new commercial category, eliminating the pentaprism. and inserting the electronic viewfinders. An opportunity too good for a manufacturer like Panasonic, who after the excellent Lumix G has well thought of taking a leap forward and wink to the professionals . techwadia
Thus was born the Lumix S series, which today boasts the
Lumix S1, the Lumix S1R and the new Lumix S1H, at the center of our review. We
are talking about three mirrorless with Full Frame sensor very different from
each other, each born with a specific purpose. If the S1 is the all-rounder of
the group, with its 23.2 megapixels, and the S1R is the detail specialist at
47.3 megapixels, the S1H was born to live on the film set , both for its
technical characteristics (it is the first mirrorless approved also by Netflix
for its video productions) that for its construction, in your hands it will
seem almost indestructible in fact. All this, however, leads to at least two
compromises: size and weight .
The mirrorless that believes itself to be a reflex
Let's start with the size of the new Panasonic Lumix S1H.
Full Frame mirrorless cameras arrived on the market, especially at the behest
of Sony, which led the way with the first A7, with a clear purpose: to make
photographers forget the size and weight of large professional SLRs. Now free
from the mirror mechanism, the mirrorless are extremely smaller and more
compact than the pentaprism sisters in most cases, so much so that they look
like "toys" or temporary forklifts.
Panasonic has seen fit to gloss over this aspect and propose
huge bodies to professionals: the S1H is 151 mm long, 110.4 mm wide and 114.2
mm high, for a total weight of 1,164 kg.. To make a quick comparison, the
flagship Sony A9 II is 128.9mm long, 77.5mm wide and 96.4mm high for 678 grams
of overall weight .
Even if we are talking about a movie set beast, carrying the
S1H in a backpack or suitcase is always felt, Panasonic will certainly have to
review size and weight with the new generations. But why did the Japanese
manufacturer choose the cumbersome way?
During our test we obviously identified some key points that
this mirrorless probably would not have had the same level in the case of
smaller dimensions: let's think about the quality of the display, the detail of
the electronic viewfinder, the fan that keeps temperatures at bay (oh yes , it
is the first Full Frame DSLM camera to have one ), the numerous buttons in
perfect reflex style and the large battery. Before getting to the heart of the
S1H, or its sensor, we want to talk about the key factors just listed.
Elements of excellence
Let's start with the rear display, a small 3.2 "TFT
Touch LCD panel of excellent quality, showing 2.33 million pixels . One of the
best around, but the real highlight of the S1H is the LVF OLED viewfinder :
Here Panasonic has outdone itself, with an ultra- sharp display showing 5.76
million pixels up to 120 fps (or 60 fps), with a claimed lag of about 0.005
seconds, practically nil. It's
hard to put into word the quality of this viewfinder. , most
likely the best on the market at the time of writing, precise in any situation,
with an "exaggerated" level of detail, capable of becoming your best
ally within minutes.
Furthermore, the generous dimensions of the S1H's body have
allowed Panasonic to house the viewfinder in a "comfortable"
position, such as to allow even those who wear glasses to see the entire
surface without major problems - while on Sony's professional mirrorless
cameras, for example , the viewfinder appears closer, clearly visible only with
the eye glued to the viewer.
The S1H also offers a third control LCD display , visible
even in the dark thanks to special LED lights - with Panasonic demonstrating
that it has perfectly studied the best SLRs on the market.
A "more" that has now disappeared from the
mirrorless of the competition that can however prove useful in various
situations, moreover if you come precisely from a high-end digital SLR with control
display, the user experience will not change one iota with this new Lumix.
The same can be said for dials and buttons : the S1H really
does not lack anything, each key function can be changed on-the-go through a
dedicated button or a dial, it will hardly happen during a job to call up the
internal menu to change some option. Once set, the S1H will always be able to
give you the right support. To start recording a movie we then have two
dedicated buttons, red and clearly visible, one next to the classic shutter
button, another on the front.
The S1H has nothing to envy to the competition even when it
comes to connection interfaces: on board we find a USB-C 3.1 port, a 2.5 mm
remote input, an input for a 3.5 mm microphone / external audio device. , a 3.5mm
headphone output, an HDMI port with up to 4: 2: 2 10-bit data transfer and two
SD card slots. And also Dual Band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2 for wireless
connections. On the other hand, the integrated GPS is absent , unfortunately.
So we come to talk about the excellent battery present in
the package, a 7.4 V from 3,050 mAh, 23 Wh , which promises about 400 images
using the rear screen, 380 images with the viewfinder "at maximum
power" and 1,150 images with LVF in energy saving mode.
On this front, perhaps better could have been done, Sony
with more compact accumulators has now managed to reach (and sometimes even
exceed) 600 shots, with the screens on the S1H, however, it is a fair price to
pay , impeccable. In any case, we are talking about a "set use" machine,
as we have already said, so to be combined with battery grips, additional
batteries and so on, autonomy will probably be one of the last problems.
Among other things, on the occasion of long working days,
the energy will also be used to power the fan inside the machine body , which
is essential to keep the temperature of the machine "operational".
Unlimited registrations
The fan designed by Panasonic is certainly one of the great
Pros of this machine, in fact it allows potentially unlimited recording times
in any condition, without creating excessively annoying background noise.
Speaking of noises, the shot produced by the S1H is almost nil, almost
imperceptible, very close to the levels of the Leica flagships. Even the best
Sony have "Silent shooting" options which must be activated, however,
in the S1H the silence is by default.
The inclusion of a physical fan, however, forced the
manufacturer to a rather strange, pompous body design, which ruins the back of
the S1H (of course tastes are tastes eh, maybe someone will like it ...),
nothing to with the younger sisters S1 and S1R. The air intakes push the rear
display backwards with respect to the rest of the body, and we also didn't like
the solution that Panasonic has devised to orient the rear display , set in a
really unintuitive and mammoth plastic frame.
The only positive aspect of this design choice is the
ability to close the screen "on itself", so as to protects it from
any bumps and scratches. The rest of the mechanism is in our opinion all to be reviewed.
This brings us closer to perhaps the juiciest part of our
test. We have already said that the S1H has a granite body, solid, with
controls everywhere (but still arranged in an orderly way) and display of
excellent workmanship, but what does all this have to support?
Well a very good quality image sensor, a 35mm CMOS (35.6mm x
23.8mm) that produces 24.20 effective Megapixel photographs with sRGB or
AdobeRGB profile . (Below we have not made the wrong camera but it is a photo
taken with the S1H, as well as that of the lens and the Three Towers of
Citylife)
On the photographic front, the S1H will not make you cry for
a miracle, especially if you come from a latest generation reflex or mirrorless
camera with 38 megapixels and beyond. Still photography is not the strong point
of this camera, although the RAWs produced are in any case of good quality.
The S1H is a movie or TV set beast , with no ifs and buts.
It is capable of recording up to C4K / 4K 60p / 50p 4: 2: 0 10 bit an C4K / 4K
30p / 25p / 24p 4: 2: 2 10 bit , in addition to 6K / 24p 4: 2: 0 10 bit in 3: 2
format (but only useful for any subsequent cuts) and 5.9K 30p / 25p / 24p 4: 2:
0 10 bit in 16: 9. If your goal is to record movies up to 60p at 10 bit, the
S1H becomes an almost obligatory choice when compared to the direct
competition.
Thanks to the Dual Native ISO technology the machine is also
able to reduce image noise regardless of the sensitivity level - which the S1H
can safely handle automatically.
The Venus Engine processor can go up to maximum ISO 51200 / extended
ISO 204800 with minimal noise on every occasion. The lockdown period due to the
Coronavirus unfortunately limited us a lot in the test of the machine, but we
can assure you excellent movies even in difficult light conditions, with a wide
dynamic range that leaves great room for maneuver in post-production. The S1H
offers full Cinema VariCam Look compatibility , with the beauty of 14+ stops
and the V-Log and V-Gamut profiles already installed in the camera .
Almost superfluous to add - at this point - how such a
monster supports the Super 35 mm mode for all filmmakers who cannot do without
it. Nor should we forget that one of Panasonic's best strokes of genius for its
new Lumix S is having partnered with Leica to take advantage of the Leica L
Mount , which makes the S1H compatible with some of the best optics around.
For our test we used a 50mm F1.4 and a 24-70mm F2.8 from the
Panasonic S Pro series , and already with these lenses the results are
excellent, with Leica lenses we can climb a few more steps in terms of detail.
and softness of blur.
To be reviewed
We have only one note to make, a detail that just did not go
down. S1H offers continuous DFD (Depth From Focus) focusin the recording phase
which, however, we still found very immature, a system too slow in reaching the
desired goal, sometimes even imprecise. A terrain on which Panasonic still
needs to improve and quickly, as well as the calculation of the exposure in
real time, also not very precise, unable to adapt to the best in some situations
during the recording phase; functions in which Sony professional mirrorless
cameras are much more proven. A Sony A7R III placed in the same conditions as
the S1H was able to focus on the desired objects more precisely and infinitely
faster, perfectly reading the street-lit streets for example (in this case the
S1H in automatic mode preferred to overexpose badly the scene).
The continuous focus (which on paper with the S1H is also
possible by fixing the point on the eyes of an animal , a function that we have
unfortunately not tried due to the quarantine), the dimensions and weight of
this Panasonic Lumix S1H essentially represent the the only flaws that the
Japanese manufacturer will have to file soon.
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