Panasonic LUMIX S1II Review – First Impression and Mini-Documentary

by Johnnie BehiriMay 15^th, 2025

The Panasonic LUMIX S1II is here, and we took it for a short spin to create this short review. After all, this LUMIX is proving to be Panasonic’s best full-frame mirrorless camera for video, or when thinking about it, for hybrid work in general. With endless settings tailored to different filming modes, and a well-balanced trade-off between dynamic range and rolling shutter performance, this filming tool is the one to carry the Panasonic legacy forward, at least until the future appearance of the much anticipated successor of the aging S1H. Interested to hear more? Let’s dive into it.

Panasonic’s first partial stacked sensor camera is making its debut, and I’m impressed. The company managed to balance rolling shutter speeds and dynamic range values rather nicely, and this alone deserves compliments. Choosing between DRBoost (ON/OFF) gives the possibility of either slower/faster sensor readout or greater/lower dynamic range. In other words, there is additional flexibility when it comes to filming different scenarios. But in all honesty, I’m here to talk less about “hardcore” specifications and more about my experience working with the camera. For technical details, check out our S1II lab test here and our related product announcement article here.

Working in the field

As always, there is no better way to test a camera than taking it out and running with it in the field. In this regard, today’s test is no exception. For this mini-documentary, I teamed up with Kama, a lovely young woman who went through a personal experience when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Watch the above video to hear her story, and, more importantly, see how positive (and strong) she is! In case you were wondering, as I find her story emotional, I decided to leave it “as is” and do a written camera review only (as opposed to a video review, which usually accompanies our mini-documentaries/sample footage).

In the above short film, I included different filming situations so that you can determine how the camera performs. For example, for the interview with Kama, the autofocus was left “ON” for the entire duration (about 40 minutes), and here I’m happy to report that there were no hiccups whatsoever. (Later, outdoors, it was still performing well but not perfectly.) The long conversation also gave me a chance to see if the camera would overheat when recording on 5.8K/24p, ProRes RAW in room temperature (it did not, more about it below). I also tried the 4K/120. It has a slight crop, but the results are very promising. I was especially surprised to see how well the autofocus behaved – very impressive! (See the swing shots in the video.) Also tested was how the IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) performed. Many of the shots in the above film were taken hand-held. For static shots, the camera performed formidably. When following a person, it is fine too, but not 100% smooth, which I like, as it still keeps the “documentary style” movement as opposed to a “gimbal-like” look.

Back to the camera. As it’s smaller than the original S1 (same body size as the S1RII), I find it easier to hold and carry around. The EVF and multi-directional LCD screen are very easy to use, making it a breeze for run & gun filming and low-angle shooting. For this review, I chose to work with the newly announced LUMIX S24-60mm f2.8 zoom lens. This is an extremely edge-to-edge sharp lens (even at f2.8), and if I were to be on a real assignment, I would have probably considered using a 1/8 black pro mist filter on it to soften the image a bit and help reduce the “digital look”. But, for the sake of working with it during this review and to give you a feeling of how it performs, I only had a variable ND filter on it.

Deciding on resolution and a frame rate

OK, here is how things roll out. One of the new features in the LUMIX S1II is the ability to internally record in “Cinemascope mode”, aka, full-frame, 4K, 2.40:1 aspect ratio. We have seen such a recording mode before with some selected Blackmagic Design cameras, but for Panasonic (or to the best of my knowledge, any other mirrorless camera), this is a first. So here I am, happily setting up the camera for ProRes HQ, C4K, 4:2:2, 2.40:1 (4096×1728) internal recording, and what I noticed while looking at some family test footage is that the material looks a bit “lifeless”. I mean, it is beautiful and crisp, but much too “digital”. A short call with my dear colleague Gunther, who conducted our lab test, and I was able to confirm that what I see visually is also evident in our lab test. After a short discussion, we agreed that this camera is truly suffering from extensive noise reduction implementation in ProRes internal recording mode. This is why I switched to ProRes RAW (HQ) in this test.

Next to seeing if the footage looked aesthetically different, I also wanted to see how the camera would cope with overheating, as mentioned before. So, in this recording mode, the footage has some (pleasant) noise which some might say adds to the overall “filmic look”. In addition, I was happy to see that the camera was not really bothered when performing long shooting sequences. Kama’s interview took a bit more than 40 minutes, and the camera showed no strain. BUT, here is something that I need to redo and test. I suspect there is a 40-minute time limit when filming in ProRes RAW at 5.8K/24p. At least, this is what I got. True, I used an Angelbird AV PRO card, which is not on the Panasonic-approved CFexpress Type B list, but this memory card also did not show any signs of stress. I’ll update this article with my findings accordingly.

Another point that I would like to touch on is the internal sound quality when recording directly to the camera, as I was not using the external XLR grip, which allows 32-bit audio recording. To my taste and bad ears, in this pre-production unit that we have, the internal audio pre-amp is rather noisy. Luckily, as a backup, the microphone on Kama was connected to the DJI MIC 2, which I set to record on 32-bit. This gave me a much cleaner audio track.

Struggling with Adobe Premiere

The editing process was a bit painful, but not because of the camera or the RAW clips it produced. Funny enough, every time I use Adobe Premiere (latest edition), I swear it is for the last time, and with this editing session, it was no exception. As some of you might know, Premiere (like Final Cut Pro) is adding its own REC709 profile to the imported V-Log (or any other Log type) clips. And for my life, whatever way I tried to disable it and keep the clips intact, I could not do it. The “buttons to tick” are there, but nothing is happening. Also, trying to copy/paste the attributes from a single clip to the rest of the timeline failed, so I found myself changing from REC709 to V-Log manually. (Please feel sorry for me.) I want to believe that I was doing something wrong, so please, if any of you are using Adobe Premiere, the latest edition for editing with Log picture profile clips, check if you can disable this automatic REC709 function, and share your thoughts with me.

Now I’m sure that some of you guys will like the colors in this video, and some will badly criticize it (which is absolutely fine), especially for “green” in the forest scene, where I was attempting to create a bit of a fairytale feeling. In any case, I’m happy to share my workflow. I first used fylm.ai LUT builder (try the CineD version for free here), but for creating a V-Log to REC709 LUT. The advantage for me here was being able to adjust exposure/contrast and white balance, then create the REC709 LUT and bring it to Premiere. Now, I tried something that I did not think would work, but to my surprise, it worked rather well (at least to my taste). In order to create a “look”, I added one of the free-to-use ARRI LogC3 LUTs that can be downloaded from here. (Look for the ARRI Look File 2 (ALF2), then ARRI_Look_Library_LogC3_3DLUT zip file.) This is the file Panasonic is directing to when using their license for using the ARRI LogC3 anyway, so keep this link when the camera firmware is updated.

Final thoughts

The Panasonic LUMIX S1II camera is a very capable filming tool. I wish it were a couple of hundred dollars cheaper, but for those who do not require the “latest and greatest”, there is the LUMIX S1IIE, which uses an older sensor. All in all, the new camera is a full-frame “workhorse” that brings to the table lots of flexibility. What is left to be seen is how Panasonic will tackle the replacement of the S1H. If the S1II is their best available video camera, any future model will have to do even better, and I can only presume that the company will either choose a different body form factor or an irresistible feature like an internal electronic ND filter. In any case, only time will tell.

What do you think about the new LUMIX S1II? Is it a camera you will be considering purchasing? Please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.