burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

For those who have consistently wanted Panasonic to add PHASE DETECT AUTO FOCUS to their cameras, they just started.

Initial reviews are extremely positive, with people who "panned" Panasonic for so-so AF in the past changing their tune.

It's a $2000 body that uses all of the lenses in the L-Mount Alliance, shared with Leica and Sigma.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

S5II reviews from people I trust:

https://youtu.be/FYebjEgf3J0
https://youtu.be/eDAKWDK3H8E
https://youtu.be/LSvKwCrmIYM
https://youtu.be/A06GnDOx0vE

All of them: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Lumix+s5+ii+reviews

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

A list of the L-Mount lenses available (as of today):

https://alikgriffin.com/list-of-l-mount-lenses/

Lagoonguy Loc: New Smyrna Beach, FL

Thank you, hopefully phase detect will now find its way to M43, both the GH6 & the G9.

AntonioReyna Loc: Los Angeles, California

I bought an S5 with a 20-60 zoom combo last summer on a lark while I was waiting for my R7. Used it very little but I was impressed with it. Solid metal body, good color. Sold it with very few activations and went back to all Canon mirrorless.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

YES. I was about to buy a GH6 when I heard rumors of the S5II and decided to wait. I just hope it won't be another three years before they at hybrid PDAF to the m43 line.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you are a stills photographer or an action/birds-in-flight/nature photographer, that makes sense. If you are a hybrid (stills+video) photographer, the S5II is now the ticket at the $2000 price point.

My interest in Lumix is from the Micro 4/3 hybrid side. My hope is that the new PDAF will make its way into m43 bodies ASAP. I don't want to buy an all new set of lenses.

Frankly, the S5 II is the camera that we hybrid photographers have wanted for a decade! Back then, the closest thing to it was a Lumix GH3.

I can remember writing an essay in a LinkedIn forum in 2012 or 2013, explaining what I wanted. Others added their own thoughts. We all thought Canon or Nikon would listen, but apparently only Panasonic and Sony and (to a lesser extent) Fujifilm did.

I don't know how many times we had to whack Panasonic on the side of their proverbial head with a, "We want PDAF! We want PDAF!" chant, but it finally seems to have lit a fire under their chairs. Now if they put PDAF in a GH6 II or GH7, the amateur filmmakers and video bloggers can relax.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

I am very happy to hear this news . Thank you Mr. Burk.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

I loved my G9 in so many ways but the AF speed caused me to switch to Olympus. It also turned out that I also prefer Olympus’s implementation of in camera focus stacking and Pro Capture. And love some other features unique to Olympus, (Live ND and Live Composite especially). I’m still glad to see Panasonic heading in the right direction and hope this makes it into their M4/3 lineup.

User ID

Seems like good news. I just hope the PDAF sensels dont mar the low light shadows when cranking the ISO ... mainly a concern for when PDAF finally makes it into m4/3, and especially if theres an increase in pixel count.

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Acoarst Panasonic could just keep the DFD AF in the G9 but trim it in charcoal gray with a Red Dot while doubling the price. No one ever complains about any "character flaws" in their Leicas. DFD AF is simply incredibly accurate, always a major marketing concern for Leicas.

So what if some Inferior Species just happens to focus a bit faster. No hey problemo if Leica pushes PDAF in one segment and DFD AF in another. Leica always knows whats best ;-)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I hope so, too. I could be wrong, but I don't see photo/video oriented Micro 4/3 cameras getting much higher pixel counts very soon. There are higher MP m43 sensors out there, but they are primarily designed for security cameras and other industrial applications.

There are a LOT of S5 II test videos and stills on YouTube. Panasonic had a December event in Tokyo where they showed off the S5 II to around 100 YouTube influencers. They gave them pre-production copies of the camera to play with. Three days later, most of those folks went home with production samples of the camera to play with for several weeks.

Their reviews seem to have been uploaded on the opening day of the CES show in Las Vegas. A few reviews were edited several times after initial upload to add information and correct errors. But it is remarkable how similar their observations are. Consensus is 14.2 stops of dynamic range, with around 12.3 stops usable before noise reduction is needed.

From the looks of the test footage, Panasonic has solved most of the AF issues folks had with CDAF and continuous autofocus. They're either tied for second place or in a solid third place, now. But with so many other compelling features in the S5 II, that is good enough for most video bloggers and low budget filmmakers. Panasonic is all-in on video features, which is why so many folks consider this to be a watershed moment.

Panny's audio features alone set their video apart, along with the ability to set Shutter Angle, a filmmaker's way of controlling the "blurring transition" between frames. Add waveforms, vector scopes, zebra highlight warnings, downloadable LUTs, V-Log flat profile, anamorphic lens compatibility, open-gate video recording, and other features missing from the competition, and there's a lot to like.

There are better (and more expensive) full frame stills cameras that "also do video", but there are few to none that serve the hybrid crowd like this one.

The good news is, all camera companies' new models continue to get better. With all the gloom and doom, most are still releasing new bodies, new lenses, and updated versions of old lenses.

Beenthere

It has, but only in the Olympus EM1 Mk3, and EM5 MkIII. If you go this route all of your Lumix lenses will fit and work on the Olympus cameras.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Olympus makes cameras that make fantastic JPEGs, and great raw files. The AF is great, and the IBIS is second to none. The lenses are excellent. However, the audio and video features are what many of us hybrid users can't live with. They don't rise to the pro level.

Panasonic has such good video output and video recording features that serious documentarians and low budget filmmakers use them. Many of us from the film days are used to pulling manual focus, so AF is not a "must have" for us, although it IS a "nice to have," and will be useful. Only the video bloggers (vloggers) and those who review cameras on YouTube find a lack of good AF to be a complete show stopper. For them, it is, but filmmakers and AV specialists are control freaks. So we've used the GHx and SxH and S5 series for their strengths.

The lack of good AF IS a hindrance to stills photography, though, and I look forward to Panasonic getting PDAF in future m43 bodies for that reason.

User ID

"Find its way" ??!?!

Its been there all along. IIRC thaz the significant difference between OMD and Lumix. AFAIK all my noncurrent (MkII) discontinued OMDs use PDAF.

If Im wrong and my OMDs use CDAF its possible that I get deceived by the truly instant AF I observe from my lenses, nearly all fast primes on my OMDs but mostly zooms on my Lumixs.

Waiting for a tech geek to testify on the facts of this ...... (Burke seems to have read ALL the tech data pages, twice !)

Lagoonguy Loc: New Smyrna Beach, FL

Perhaps I should have stated that I hope the new Panasonic PDAF finds its way to a new GH6 II and/or G9. I am well aware that Olympus has this available in the their newest cameras such as the OM-1 but I own primarily Panasonic Leica lenses that have served me very well and I just as soon stay with that brand for 100% compatibility. I also like the ergonomics and top LCD of the G9. That little extra stabilization has become more important to me as I age. My wife has an Olympus 12-100 which she’s uses with her G9 and loves it so we have great appreciation for Olympus/OM Systems products. She is not a purist. Frankly, the G9 serves my needs quite well but I have looked at getting an OM-1 for my wife to improve her stabilization possibilities but she doesn’t need it at this point however she does do a great deal more video than I do so enter the phase detect dimension. BIF are reserved for my D500 & 500 PF but I could be persuaded to buy an OM-1 and Oly 300mm for that purpose if Panasonic does not place phase detect in their M43 products relatively soon and/or Nikon give me a non Z9 lighter weight wildlife centric camera to consider. Thanks for the chat.