We’ve spent a long time with the Panasonic Lumix S5II since it was announced. This camera is heavily targeted at the multimedia shooter. It’s got great features for photographers, video shooters, content creators, and more. But there are a few things that make the Lumix S5II so incredibly special over other cameras on the market. Besides the fact that it’s got a 24MP full-frame sensor at the heart, it’s what Panasonic is doing with the camera that makes it shine out over so many others.
This piece is presented in partnership with Panasonic LUMIX. 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. Want one? You can pick it up on Amazon.
Live Composite
The Lumix S5II didn’t launch with the Live Composite mode. And this made many photographers very sad. Though we’re still holding out hope that the company brings back features like multiple exposure, the Live Composite mode helps make the Lumix S5II stand out from lots of other full-frame cameras on the market.
Live Composite helps photographers create a better photo in-camera instead of needing to do lots of post-production. It’s also a major life-saver when it comes to needing to buy more hard drives. Just imagine, you’re shooting photos of the night sky just so you can layer them all on top of one another in post-production. That’s a lot of photos and a lot of hard drive space! Does your computer have enough?
But with the live composite feature, it’s all done in-camera. The Lumix S5II gives you a RAW photo at the end for you to edit if you really need to. Though considering the color profiles like L Classic Neo, CineLike V2, and others, you might not even need to. If those aren’t your cup of tea, then the next feature will make you very happy.
Real-Time LUT
You know you might start working with a photo using presets in post-production? Well, the Lumix S5II can do that from the start. You can choose one of Panasonic’s current color profiles, overlay the LUT (which are special presets) over it, and then apply it to your photo. That’s right, you can apply a LUT to a photograph. If you’re into the film look, just download the LUTs and load them onto the camera as needed. Otherwise, grab luts from your favorite video editors and add them as needed.
Combining them with specific Panasonic profiles gives you a lot more control and more of a base to work with. You can do things like edit the saturation, nerf the highlights, etc.
Why do all the work on a computer when you can get it done in-camera? With the Lumix S5II, you can shoot both RAW and JPEG. If you’re happy with the JPEG, then use that. Otherwise, edit the RAW as you need to.
The Lenses for Lumix S5II
One of the best things about the Lumix S5II is the lens selection. As part of the L-Mount alliance, there are tons of lenses available from Panasonic, Leica, Sigma, and more. The L-Mount alliance all shares information freely and easily through the mount as well. That means that third party lenses should ideally work just great.
Specifically, Panasonic has lots of excellent focal lengths that many photographers will love. For starters, there are several f1.8 prime lenses in the form of the 85mm, 50mm, 35mm, 24mm, and 18mm f1.8 lenses. They also boast a beautiful 50mm f1.4 that’s quite a beast of a lens. If you’re a professional photographer, you might want to consider the 24-70mm f2.8 or the 70-200mm f2.8. And of course, there are a few more zoom lenses designed for those of us who aren’t professionals paying taxes for our photography either.
All these lenses boast attractive features like weather resistance, good focusing motors so the lenses are speedy, beautiful image quality, and in the case of the smaller prime lenses, they’re the ones that you want to bring with you everywhere. How do you beat that?