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The S5 II Nears the End of Product Life

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 11/17/2025
11/18/2025
2 Mins read
A black Lumix camera with a long lens rests on a wooden stool in warm sunlight.
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We updated our Panasonic S5 II review recently. Our update talks about the new firmware changes from firmware 3.4 as well as an issue with the shutter button becoming faulty after some time. If you want to just see the update, please see below. At this point, I don’t think we should be expecting more firmware for the camera. It’s pretty much at the end of its life.

Ease of Use Update October 2025

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 II received a firmware update a little while ago. Here are the details of firmwre 3.4:

LUMIX S5II Firmware Version 3.4 / S5IIX Version 2.4 Updates

  • Support for LUMIX Flow ver.1.3 or above
  • Startup time improvements
  • Bluetooth connection supported for DJI RS 4 Pro / RS 4 / RS 4 Mini
  • Enhanced customization of the Focus Ring – The focus ring can be used as a control ring, enabling for assigning key functions and the focus rotation direction can be selected either clockwise or counterclockwise. (*4)

Indeed, the startup time have majorly improved. This is one of the best updates of the firmware. There’s also the addition of the focus ring remapping feature. But truly, I don’t know a single photographer that will use it.

What you should also note is that there is a quality control issue with the shutter button sometimes not working when half pressing it. I too have experienced this problem. Photographers have been apparently sending the camera back to Panasonic for servicing and that’s fixing the issue. I truly hope that this doesn’t happen with the S1R II in the long run because it’s such a similar camera.

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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.
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