Panasonic Lumix S1
Panasonic’s cheaper full-frame mirrorless camera swaps megapixels for mighty video features
_ The latest Lumix S full-frame mirrorless camera
The Lumix S1 is the cheaper option in Panasonic’s new Lumix S full-frame mirrorless camera line-up. It has a 24-megapixel sensor compared with the 47-megapixel sensor in the flagship S1R model, but it’s well over £1,000/$1,000 cheaper, has the same build quality, external controls and autofocus system. Like its more expensive sibling, it shoots 4K video at up to 60/50fps.
What’s more, the S1 will shortly benefit from a software upgrade that will add Panasonic’s V-log video mode and higher quality recording both
internally and to external recorders. The Panasonic S1R might have much higher resolution for stills photographers, but the S1 could be a better (and more cost-effective) choice for videographers.
The S1 is launched alongside three new L-Mount lenses, using the standard developed jointly by Leica, Panasonic and Sigma. We tested the S1 with the Panasonic 24-105mm f/4 standard zoom, which offers a good blend of zoom range and speed, but Panasonic is ramping up its lens range pretty quickly. This lens is being joined by a 24-70mm f/2.8 pro lens amongst others.
The Lumix S1 goes up against the Sony A7 III and the Nikon Z 6, both in terms of resolution and price. It loses out to both in continuous shooting speed, but it makes up for that with its 60fps 4K video capabilities, soon to be boosted still further by Panasonic’s promised software upgrade.
Nikon and Canon have received some criticism for offering just a single memory card slot in their full-frame mirrorless cameras: the Lumix S1 has two – one for SD, one for XQD.
Build and handling
The Lumix S1 is designed to withstand serious use, with a magnesium alloy construction, weather sealing and a 400,000-shot shutter life. It feels even bigger and heftier than the Nikon
Z 6 – and is far bigger than the Sony A7 III – but this does allow you to get a proper grip on the body. The size allows more space for controls; so while Sony, Canon and Nikon were first to hit the full-frame mirrorless market, it feels as if Panasonic has taken the time to get everything right.
Full-frame mirrorless lenses are as big as their DSLR counterparts, so it’s good to pick up a camera big enough to balance properly when they’re attached. Having said that, the Lumix S1 and 24-105mm lens combo soon starts to give you hand-ache if you’re using it as a walk-around camera.
The controls are refreshingly obvious and solid. The S1 has a proper external drive mode dial, for example, which is stacked under the mode dial at the left end of the top plate. This feels much better and more direct than having to select the drive mode via a screen.
The same applies to the autofocus mode and settings. On rival cameras this means digging into the digital display, but on this one there’s a dedicated control on the back of the camera for selecting the AF mode, with a button in the centre for selecting the AF point/mode.
The Lumix S1 has all the external controls of a full-size DSLR. It even has a large top-mounted status LCD panel, with a small backlighting button alongside to make it easy to read in dark conditions.
All the controls feel positive and robust, so while the specifications alone might make the S1 seem
very much on a par with existing full-frame mirrorless cameras in this price range, the build quality and handling really seem first-rate.
Performance
Panasonic has stuck to its DFD (depth from defocus) system for the Lumix S1 and S1R rather rather than the phase detection/hybrid AF systems used by rival mirrorless camera makers, considering this to offer the best performance available right now – and the system does seem to offer very fast and snappy responses.
It stumbles a little in indoor shooting in very dark conditions, though, where it sometimes hunts a little before locking focus or gets confused by bright naked light sources. It didn’t much like very bright point sources outside either: it occasionally tripped up during a late-evening sunset session, capturing an image way out of focus but with sharply defined bokeh ‘discs’, which may be what’s confusing the system. In the majority of situations, though, we had no trouble, and in regular lighting Panasonic’s DFD autofocus system was extremely quick and accurate.
Our real-life image samples bore out the results we got from our lab tests. Obviously we wouldn’t expect the 24-megapixel S1 to come anywhere near the resolution of the 47-megapixel S1R, but it closely matches its chief rivals, the Sony A7 III and the Nikon
Z 6. The Canon EOS R offers slightly higher levels of detail, thanks to its 30-megapixel sensor.
The Lumix S1 also does very well in our dynamic range tests in the lab, closely matched by the Nikon Z 6 –
“The build quality and handling really seem first-rate”
the older Sony A7 III is very good, but not quite up to the standard of the other two.
Where the Lumix S1 really excels, though, is in its noise control. Right across the ISO range, its noise levels are lower than the rest. This and the camera’s dual-stabilisation system, with both in-lens and in-body stabilisation working in unison, make it an excellent choice for handheld low-light photography. This enhanced low-light performance is one reason for choosing a lower-resolution camera over the top model if this feature is important to you.
If you shoot raw, keep in mind that your choice of raw converter will influence the noise levels – Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom, for example, produce more noise than others by default, until you make adjustments to the noise settings. It’s hard to fault either the exposure system or the auto white balance. We did have to apply exposure compensation here and there – but only where you’d expect, with unusually dark- or light-toned subjects, and never because the exposure meter produced an unexpected result.