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How to Make Photos From Your Panasonic S5 II Look Like Film

Chris Gampat
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05/31/2023
4 Mins read
Created with RNI Films app. Preset 'Agfa Optima 200'

Film is beautiful: and these days it’s becoming far more expensive. At least, that’s because we’re not shooting it like every single frame should be one of our best and most precious moments. Many photographers desire the film look; and if you’re hunting for those old-timey nostalgic tones from magazines, then you’re in the right place. With the Panasonic S5 II, you can get film vibes in a digital format.

This piece is presented in partnership with Panasonic. We’ve independently and ethically reviewed all the products in this post already without sponsorship. And we worked with them to recommend a few key gems to you.

Before We Go On

This isn’t a guide on how to replace our film cameras or how to replace film totally. Film is a beautiful thing that inspires even the look of Panasonic’s various in-camera renders. It’s also an incredibly great teaching tool that ensures that we shoot only the single best images we can. If you shoot with film and then go shoot with your Panasonic S5 II, you’ll see that you’ve improved if you shot with intent in the first place. Alternatively, you can load up some of the looks of your favorite films on the Panasonic S5 II and then shoot film alongside. The camera will give you a digital preview of what the film will look like. We’re sure that will make you very happy.

Let’s move on!

Why the Panasonic S5 II

Part of what makes the Panasonic S5 II so outstanding is the inclusion of Real Time LUTs. If you’re a photographer, think about these almost like presets for the video world. We’re confident that it’s a major reason why the camera has won so many awards.

So what is this secret sauce? Here’s what you should know:

  • There are various LUTs available all over the web. Some are paid while others are free. You can find them everywhere from reputable shops to Etsy stores.
  • Think of this as being able to get the presets that you have in Lightroom or Capture One and putting them directly onto your Panasonic S5 II.
  • Photographers can import them and then have the camera deliver a render of what they’ll look like.
  • You can store a bunch of Real Time LUTs.

With the Panasonic S5 II, you can apply the Real Time LUTs to your JPEGs. That means you should shoot RAW and JPEG. Most of the time, if you know what you’re doing, you won’t need to edit your photos at all in post-production. But just in case you need to, you can always edit the RAWs in your favorite editing software.

Personally speaking, after a gig, I don’t really want to spend more time editing. Instead, I just want to get back to living my life. Just think: a 12-hour photo gig with some downtime and handoffs could be the reality instead of a 12-hour photo gig with at least two extra hours of post-production.

What’s even more fantastic is that you can adapt all of your vintage lenses onto the Panasonic S5 II or you can use Panasonic’s own lineup of lenses.

How to Get The Film Look

Here’s how you go about getting the film look. Start off by searching for exactly the film emulsion you’re searching for in the form of LUTs. This honestly could be the process that takes the longest. I really like the look of the film photos that I find in many modern magazines and musician promo photos. So I went about looking for a bunch and narrowing down my favorites. Generally speaking, the paid options are better. Once you’ve narrowed them down, we get into a bit of a harrowing part.

Sometimes the LUTs might not work with the Panasonic S5 II, so that’s when you save them for when you’re editing videos. Otherwise, we found some fantastic ones on Etsy that we highly recommend. Panasonic told us that they’re working on supporting more LUTs in the future.

Once you’ve got them downloaded, rename them, save them to your SD card, and put the card back in the camera. Through the blue menu, load the LUTs onto the camera. Save the LUTs to custom photo settings alongside stuff like CineLike V2 and Vivid. This way you can have a film look loaded up and then apply something like Vivid or L Classic Neo work in conjunction. Personally speaking, I then always keep my white balance locked to either 5500K or 3200K to really give them the film look. Otherwise, I also lock my ISO to whatever the film was rated at. However, this is an extreme measure. Film realistically could be made into almost any color and look through processing in the darkroom.

Now, all you need to do is ensure that you’re shooting in both RAW and JPEG. Go ahead, shoot, and enjoy!

The Panasonic S5 II has a 24MP full-frame sensor. That’s not the highest resolution but it will give your high ISO images a cleaner look. Sometimes we like the look of gritty film, so go ahead and either raise the ISO or add the grain in post-production.

If you really think about it, the Panasonic S5 II becomes the ultimate tool for a photographer to both learn on and create photos that everyone will love. Using Real time LUT, it teaches photographers to get their images right in-camera without using lots of post-production. But if you really need to do post-production, it gives you forgiveness with the RAW files. Better yet, because it’s a full-frame sensor, you’ll get something close to what the real film experience is.

If you’re interested in one, pick them up through your favorite retailer via Amazon.

camera film look like film panasonic Panasonic S5 II Photography real time lut
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.