Last Updated on 12/01/2025 by Chris Gampat
Something I truly didn’t expect to get an announcement today is the new Panasonic S1IIE. This camera is designed to be placed in between the Panasonic S1II and the Panasonic S5II. The latter is a camera that arguably won over so many users from Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fujifilm, and perhaps even film. It takes the S5II’s sensor and stuffs it into the S1II. But what’s even cooler, is that they’re dropping the price with it being only $2,499. So what we do think? Well, the Panasonic S1IIE has the “E” in the name for essentials. But it should probably stand for “excellent” instead.
Table of Contents
The Big Picture: Panasonic S1IIE Review Conclusions
This is the first time in a very long time that I didn’t realize that I never updated this review to speak to the conclusions. Quite honestly, I realize that I was having so much fun with the LUMIX S1IIE and I’ve been using it so very often. If you’re a photographer who wants low megapixels and less detail to embrace more of a filmic look, then the S1II E ir probably going to be one of the best cameras on the market for you. It’s jam packed with tons of incredible features like multiple exposure, live composite, various autofocus modes and so much more.
I don’t have many complaints. The only ones that I have are that I wish that the camera’s raw files had content authenticity built into it and that’s truly it. Well, that and that I think that the human sports autofocus detection is kind of crappy — though I’ve never gotten a very clear answer as to how it works and what sort of sports I can use it for. I’d find it crazy that it would be really for just breakdancing. I mean, why can’t I use it for rock climbing more?
Otherwise, the Panasonic LUMIX S1IIE is one of the most perfect cameras made for photography in nearly every way. If you like lower megapixel film-looks, you should get yourself this camera.
- Multiple exposure mode makes a glorious return
- All the higher end features of the S1R II and the S1 II at a lower price
- Weather resistance is very good
- Fast autofocus performance in most lighting situations
- Can autofocus on people of color in low light pretty well
- Real time LUT integration is pretty simple
- Great highlight detail recovery for a lower megapixel camera
- One of the best screens around
- Lots of color options for changing the autofocus reticule to make it easier to see
- Human sports AF is odd
- I wish they had incorporated content authenticity into this camera.
We’re giving the LUMIX S1II E 5 out of 5 stars. It’s seriously an incredible camera, and I can’t recommend it enough. Want one? Check it out on Amazon.
Gear Used
Here’s what we’re using:
- Panasonic S1IIE: on loan from Panasonic
- Panasonic S 24-60mm f2.8: on loan from Panasonic
- Panasonic 35mm f1.8 S: our own unit
- Panasonic 50mm f1.8 S: our own unit
- Panasonic 85mm f1.8 S: our own unit
- Leica 28mm f2 APO Summicron SL: our own unit
- Panasonic 28-200mm f4-7.1: on loan from Panasonic
- Profoto B10: Our own unit
Innovations
Truly, there aren’t many innovations that the Panasonic LUMIX S1IIE has — and it’s not really designed for that reason. It’s more because of the fact that they’re trying to find a way to give consumers a more affordable camera with the latest features. That idea, in and of itself, could be an innovation. But a lot of things that the S1IIE has can be found in the S5II, the S1RII, and the S1II.
Honestly, the biggest difference between this and the S1II is the partially stacked full-frame sensor that you’d pay around $1,000 more for. But beyond that, the camera has a new Urban Sports autofocus mode and the ability to shoot HIEF in HLG with RAW alongside it.
Who Should Buy the Panasonic LUMIX S1IIE?
Truly, I’d buy this to complement the S5 II or to have alongside the S1RII. Either way, it could be a workhorse of a camera. Ultimately, I think that photographers who want the film-look without higher megapixels should go for this one.
Hardware
The Panasonic S1IIE is pretty much the S1II and the S1RII on the outside. LUMIX is following pretty much the same philosophy as both Sony and Nikon when it comes to things like this. The only big changes are those that you’d find inside the cameras. With that said, this camera shares the same weather resistance, shutter coming down over the sensor, carbon shutter, and button layout as the S1R II.
Like its similarly capable cameras, one of the coolest things about this device is that the LCD screen can be used in pretty much every direction and angle.
In the rain and the sand, this camera held up with no issues. More amazingly, it survived when shooting for around 5 hours on a single battery charge when shooting in the hot sun of Coney Island. I didn’t even survive that long before I had to go home.
Ease of Use
Two of the biggest new features that the camera has are the urban sports autofocus mode and the HEIF HLG mode. We have to give these more thorough tests still. But otherwise, Panasonic’s menu system is some of the best for being able to get to anywhere you want in the menu system within a few taps of the buttons. This makes it great for our inclusivity testing for photographers who have sensory issues and motor issues. At this point, we really think that it does a better job than anyone else, with perhaps Canon being neck-in-neck.
Just like the S1RII, the Panasonic S1IIE has multiple exposure, Live View composite, and Real-Time LUT. Honestly, it gives you everything you need to create images in-camera and not have to worry about post-production. We’re starting our tests before the camera’s launch, so Capture One hasn’t supported it yet, but Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW have. There’s nothing major to report yet. That, of course, means that it’s boring and also what’s to be expected.
Long term testing has really made me think that the LUMIX S1II E is a camera that gets out of the way of taking and making good photographs. But it’s taking that to the extreme where I’m honestly very fine with many of the JPEGs I can get from this camera simply because it’s so versatile with LUTs. That, and it’s lightweight, has access to beautiful Leica lenses, isn’t heavy, and isn’t baking in a lot of extra crazy stuff into it the way other brands do.
New firmware has given it the ability to change the focusing reticule to a wide range of colors, focus stacking, better compatibility with OM flashes (and therefore Profoto lights), security updates, etc.
Focusing
A buddy of mine who is a long-time Fujifilm shooter grimaces every time he plays with the LUMIX S1II E that was sent to me for review. And he explains that it’s because he’s jealous of how fast the autofocus is compared to his XH2. Long term testing has shown me that the LUMIX S1II E is good at autofocus on people of color in low light, the human sports mode is odd but it works, and that all the autofocus modes otherwise work perfectly fine. It can even keep up with moving subjects really easily.
This truly is a Panasonic camera that I don’t have very many complaints about.
Update December 2025
These updates are minor but nice additions for photographers. At the moment, there aren’t many lenses that really support wildlife photographers. But if you happen to get your hands on one, then the new pre-shooting burst setting might be really nice.
As for autofocus on people, LUMIX hasn’t had this problem for a while. However, you should know that this works best with the AF-C mode on and with the wide area selected. I state this because for a while, I’ve been trying to shoot more and more like a ludite to keep my brain even more engaged with the photography process and to stop exporting brain tasks to the camera. Basically, I’ve been shooting like the camera is a DSLR. In fact, some of my recent work hasn’t involved photographing humans, it has instead involved photographing products and food.
With that said, these changes are nice. But I encourage photographers to remember to not outsource all tasks to a camera lest it replace you.
In the case of the S1II E, I’ve found it to not be as powerful at working with LUTs as the S9 is with the latest firmware. What I mean by that is that sometimes setting and locking the white balance or a few other settings just isn’t possible. But it is with the S9 and the S1R II. This could be because the S1II E is more or less the S5 II. And that, to me, is quite odd – because I thought the s9 was also the S5 II more or less.
LUMIX S1RII Firmware Ver. 1.3 / S1II Ver. 1.2 / S1IIE Ver. 1.2 updates
- Improved thermal control algorithm: This enables photographers to shoot videos for a longer duration without any adverse effects on their shoots due to environmental factors.
- Lower-speed option: This addition is ideal for SH burst shooting, including pre-burst shoots
- AF improvement: The new updates will allow the cameras to automatically recognise frames for the main subject while autofocusing. There is also an AF frame display, which enables human eye recognition, and it can be set to rectangular while focusing. Last is the enhanced AF tracking, which has been improved through an algorithm.
- Video features: The cameras will now have a new low-bitrate video format, ‘MP4 (lite).’ It can be set to 3.8K (3840×2560) 29.97p/25.00p 50Mbps
- Improved compatibility: The cameras will now be more compatible with the interchangeable lens S-R100500 and teleconverter (DMW-STC14/STC20).
- Support for LUMIX Smartphone App, LUMIX Flow Ver.1.4: The cameras now also have an external motor function, which allows for applying LUTs to live view, displaying multiple frame markers, and showing focus frames.
Other Improvements:
- An icon indicating that the preview effect is disabled will be displayed on the shooting screen when [Constant Preview] is set to [OFF].
- ISO Auto can be set in the [ISO Displayed Setting] menu in the Custom Menu.
- A bug that caused the live view quality to differ between standby mode and video recording mode when applying false color has been fixed.
- Added a 1.6x display option for the Anamorphic Desqueeze Display.
- The base ISO sensitivity can now be visible on the ISO sensitivity setting screen when Dual Native ISO is set to AUTO.
- The default setting for functions registered to the sub video recorder button has been changed to “No Setting” in both Photo Mode and Playback Mode.
- The processing time for focus stacking has been improved through algorithm enhancements.
- A menu has been added that allows you to display the live view with the same quality during both standby and video recording modes.
Image Quality
Capture One now has support for the LUMIX S1II E and the RAW file versatility is really something very great. As long as you’re shooting sensibly, you’re not going to have issues. And even when you overexpose by a lot, you can still save the RAW files. That’s pretty incredible. More importantly, the high ISO output is clean or it can be masked with film LUTs.
Perhaps even more so than with Fujifilm cameras, I end up shooting and loving the JPEG files from the LUMIX S1II E.
Extra Image Samples
The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience since day one. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, many folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So, we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can decide for yourself.
Edited
Unedited
Declaration of Journalistic Intent
The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:
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- Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the unit. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
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Panasonic S1 II E Tech Specs
- Same 24MP full-frame sensor in the S5 II
- Same processor in the S1 II that’s also in the S1 II R, which is the Leica 2
- 10fps with blackout-free burst shooting in mechanical shutter
- 5760k OLED viewfinder
- 30fps in electronic shutter
- Shutter comes down before turning off the camera as long as that’s enabled
- 1.5 second pre-burst shooting
- Shutter comes down before turning off the camera as long as that’s enabled
- Same battery grip as the S1R II
- Godox flash validation
- Inclusion of the Cinelike a2 color profile
- Urban Sports autofocus: designed for things like skateboarding, breakdancing, etc.
- Various storage configurations
- CF Express type B and SD card storage
- HEIF recording capabilities while shooting RAW
- Real Time LUT, multiple exposure mode, and Live Composite all return
- $2,499 price point with sales starting in June
- Also called the S1IIE. The “E” is for the essentials