Testing the Panasonic Lumix S5ii
December 24, 2023 ☼ photography ☼ panasonic ☼ review
(the following is adapted from a message I sent a friend earlier today)
I went for a shoot at the Arboretum for a few hours, here are my initial thoughts on the Panasonic Lumix S5ii (coming from primarily shooting Fuji over the last 5 or so years):
- Once it put it on a shoulder strap, the weight and size really stopped mattering. It was no issue, I never once thought “this is too large”
- The lens I was using did not have an aperture ring, and it really sucks not having some external f-stop indicator
- Similarly, not having a dedicated exposure compensation dial sucked, as I use that a lot
- There were a few times where it felt like the metering got “stuck” and I had to cycle some settings to get it to start auto-ing again
- Good IBIS is so helpful, I was never concerned about shaky cam, even as it dipped into evening
- Having an AF/MF switch on the lens is really handy, there were lots of times where i was trying to shoot through trees and the AF wasn’t hitting, so quickly moving to MF was great
- The EVF is so big and beautiful
- I wish the screen was a tilt screen instead of a swivel so it stayed centered
- The grip and Peak Design clutch made it really comfortable to hold
- I wish the PASM dial had a lock
- Photos looked great on the display/EVF, i’ll see how they look on my computer soon
Overall it was really fun to shoot with. However, most of the “magic” of it is the larger sensor I reckon. It was extremely freeing to never really worry about low-light, even with the anemic Panasonic 20-60mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens 1. One of the photos I shot (the car shot through the tree frame) was even at ISO 12800, and the noise is honestly fine especially given the subject matter.
Here’s the some of the keepers from the first shoot. Click through to see more.
Over 90% of the photos I took with this lens were at 60mm, and nearly every time I wished I could reach even further. Maybe I should have given the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 a try before returning it?↩︎