As time has gone by, the Panasonic S5 II has aged like a ripe cheese ready to deliver a meticulously crafted experience that any hybrid shooter will appreciate. We’re a still-based website, and so we’ve updated our Panasonic S5 II review to include the latest change around animal eye recognition and the Pre-burst shooting mode. If you photograph animals, then you’re really going to like what the camera has to offer you now. We got to test an early version of the firmware, and here’s what we’ve found.
You can read all of our findings in our Panasonic S5 II review here. But in the meantime, you can find the changes we made to the review down below. Want one? You can purchase one over at Amazon.
Focusing Update April 2024
In April 2024, Panasonic updated the Lumix S5 II to get a brand new firmware update, significantly improving the autofocus for photographers. You can read more about the firmware here. However, most photographers will care about the below changes the most:
Real-time Auto-focus Recognition (Animal Eye, Car, Motorcycle Recognition)
The improved real-time auto-focus system enhances the highly accurate Phase Hybrid auto focus of the S5II and S5IIX, efficiently recognizing people amongst multiple subjects. It also features an animal eye recognition function, to focus on and follow animal eyes, as well as a car and motorcycle recognition function, which is ideally suited for shooting motorsports.
SH Pre-burst Shooting
The newly introduced SH pre-burst shooting function records bursts before shooting begins. When set to the SH PRE mode, the camera begins burst shooting from the moment the user half presses the shutter button, allowing retroactive burst shooting up to the moment the shutter button is pressed down fully.
Now, there are some incredible things here. First off, the eye and body detection for animals is incredible. When photographing my friend’s dog, the camera was able to keep track of the dog’s eyes and find it really fast in mid-afternoon lighting here in NYC. To get the dog to pay some extra attention to us, we used treats. This made the dog come up to us to get the food. When this happened, we made the S5 II focus and shoot the image. Even with the camera’s focusing mode set to the full-area, it nailed the focusing.
Further, it also maintained the animal priority when I went to go take a photo of the dog and his human. This all sounds like standard fair these days, but being able to have the s5 II track the dog’s eyes too is so much nicer when you combine it with all the other cool things the camera can do. I combined this feature with the Real-Time LUT option and used my Kodak film LUTs. I can’t do that with Nikon or Sony as easily. Leica can do it with their Leica looks, and Canon can do it if you use film recipes. But the Panasonic system is so much lighter to work with while also being weather resistant. This improves the reliability when the dust is flying around in the spring because the autofocus contacts don’t get dust on them, which causes issues.
Trust us, it happens. Every time that you think your older camera is getting stale, you often just need to clean the autofocus contacts instead.
The next feature might be really nice for wildlife shooters. To be frank, though, Zenfolio says that there aren’t all that many of you. However, the new feature of Pre-shot burst is also one of the best out there. Canon and Nikon can’t do this and shoot raw. But OM System, Sony, and Panasonic let you do it easily. With Panasonic though, you’re limited to 30 shots. Honestly, that’s more than enough for you to get the photo you want and need.
This camera absolutely continues to be one of the single best hybrid cameras on the market for so many reasons. And this new firmware makes it even better.