Welcome back folks my name's Shane in today's video I'm going to answer the
question of whether or not you should buy the S5 Mark II kit with the 20-60
millimeter F 3.5 to 5.6 lens or if you should just get the body and save up for another lens
now there's a few factors that really goes into this decision and also the price I kind of think
for 300 more you're getting a very capable lens especially if you're a video shooter
like the rest of the S Series lenses we get a 67 millimeter filter thread so if you buy any
primes for the same series like the 18, 24, 35, 50, or 85 you'll only need one ND filter I think
this is awesome on this side of the lens we get our Auto Focus manual focus switch we get a nice
big Zoom ring and it really gives you a lot of grip to work with and a really great feeling
Focus ring Panasonic have made this a video first lens so if you're a video shooter I think there's
a lot of Merit and value in this lens considering how cheap you can add it into a kit with a camera
body while it doesn't have a constant aperture we do get weather sealing as well so if you plan
on shooting with this in challenging environments you pretty much got yourself a one and done lens
Weight Wise this comes in at only 350 grams which is a whole lot nicer in the hand than something
like the Sigma 24-70 which is a fantastic lens but man that weighs a ton I really think this
complements the smaller form factor of the S5 and S5 Mark II when it comes to handling this
lens balances beautifully on both the S5 and S5 Mark II my only complaint though with handling has
to do with the zoom ring I find it just a little bit too tight so if I'm shooting handheld and I'm
doing video if I turn it I sometimes find myself wobbling the camera side to side now this one has
loosened up slightly but it took about a year the one that I'm shooting this with is far too tight
to use handheld and I find myself accidentally just nudging side to side as I zoom in and out
so it does loosen up but it just takes some time if you're someone who likes the really tight Zoom
ring experience you'll get a kick out of this but it will take some time to loosen up depending on
how often you use it if you just plant it on a tripod like I do it's going to take forever if
you're using it as your daily driver then of course it's going to loosen up a little bit
more but it's never too loose this is one of the great things about it the focus ring feels amazing
on this lens if you're coming from micro four thirds it's a huge step up over something like
the Panasonic 12-35 millimeter F 2.8 which is one of my favorite video lenses but the focus ring on
this is on a whole other level it is focused by a wire but you get a lot more purchase on this
ring it feels better under the fingers and it's just a heck of a lot more consistent now if you
like to shoot manually this lens is compatible with the S5 and S5 Mark II's linear Focus option
which allows you to get repeatable and reliable Focus pulls within the linear Focus options it
allows us to decide how many degrees we need to turn the focus ring to go from minimum to
Infinity Focus if you've never been a huge fan of a focus by wire lens I don't blame you but having
this manual focus experience really changes the game this linear focusing option really
makes this kit lens feel like a far more premium lens as we can turn focus repeatably and reliably
we get a minimum focusing distance of only 15 centimeters which is fantastic so if you want
to do any type of product photography or get up close to a flower whatever the case may be you
can do that without any problems at all now if you need to get in even tighter you can switch
over to aps-c crop mode giving us that 1.5 times crop allowing us to get right in and close to
whatever it is you're shooting now while this kit lens doesn't have any Optical image stabilization
it still makes for a really great vlogging lens especially if you're shooting with the S5 Mark
II forget that new active is technology giving us really stable footage and I think F 3.5 is
The Sweet Spot between blurring out a little bit of the background but also showing you a little
bit about how beautiful this is there's ducts and turtles and stuff all over the place and
here's one right now can you see it or is it Tony yeah it's not my joke you could Vlog at F 1.8 but
you know when it looks this nice why would you want it let's talk video autofocus performance
now with the S5's new face hybrid autofocus I'm getting extremely fast Snappy and reliable
autofocus and this is what I'm using the entirety of this video with no custom settings or anything
like that just plonk this lens on the camera body hit record and you get these kind of great
results now turn on human tracking and the auto focus will be super reliable even at a distance
let's switch it over to the original S5 and now we're over to the original S5 for this camera I
like to shoot with one area plus mode it's one of the options in the menu system and then I turn on
human tracking the body detection and these are the kind of results we can get shooting
in v-log at 25 frames per second 4K so let's go back again I still use this lens a lot on this
camera anytime I was out in the park because the auto Focus performance was far better than my GH
cameras at the time up until the gh6 this was by far Panasonic's best auto focusing camera now as
you can probably see in those autofocus tests the original S5 is nowhere near as fast as the new S5
Mark II X and that's because each camera body has different technology it shares the contrast
DFD but the S5 Mark II has phase hybrid autofocus which means it has phase detection points mixed
with that AI tracking and it works far better but if you just plan on standing in a shot like
this and letting the autofocus do the work the original S5 pad with this kit lens will do a great
job another huge benefit to this kit lens is the lack of focus breathing this is where the edges of
the frame will zoom in and out depending on how close you are to the lens now on some lenses if
I did this I would lose up to 14 of my field of view but not with any of the Panasonic S-Series
lenses including this kit lens so if you're a video shooter and you don't want to have to get
a digital crop to get rid of focus breathing the S series or this kit lens in this case makes a
whole lot of sense the 20 to 60 kit lens is also parfocal which means if you lock Focus manually
you can zoom in and out and it won't change the focus Point again this is a really handy
tool if you plan on shooting manually in video mode all right I'm back in the studio shooting
at 35 millimeters F 4.5 now usually in the studio here I'd be using this 35 millimeter F 1.8 which
gives me far more background separation but it's not just about that either I've had to crank the
iso of the camera up to 1250 as opposed to 250 so that's the benefit of a fast lens you can run your
ISO much lower and you also get way more subject separation but background blurs overused and it's
annoying sometimes so nothing wrong with the look of this in my opinion I think it looks nice and
sharp there's enough background blur like this it will do the job and if you're coming from micro
four thirds just getting into full frame you'll probably still appreciate the amount of subject
separation you can get but it does look better at The Wider end or at least you don't have to run
the iso is high usually anytime I travel I take this lens with me because it's really a great
outdoor Run and Gun lens you can Vlog with it you can do follow shots really well it's also a lens I
now use to shoot my show when I visit guitar shops because it allows me at 20 millimeters to still
see a lot of what's going on in the background but still get a really professional look without being
too blurry mid last year I shot a series of videos overseas at F 1.4 I really regret doing that this
is where F 3.5 would have made the world of difference in hindsight but it is what it is
3.5 won't be for everybody but 20 millimeters is extremely functional I thought it might be handy
for folks who are in a studio to compare the kit lens up against the Prime in this exact situation
so let's switch it over to the 35. and now you're looking at the 35 millimeter F 1.8 at 1.8 I'm also
now at ISO 250 as opposed to being at 1250 that you just saw before let's switch it back and back
to the kit lens have a look at the difference now I'm back at ISO 1250 can you see a messy
difference let's switch it back and back to the 35 millimeter F 1.8 now you might be asking why can't
I just move the camera in and set this one up at 20 millimeters it's still too wide and the look
is vastly different in this particular Studio 35 millimeters is the way to go which kind of brings
me to my point if you're just getting started this lens makes so much sense for a number of different
reasons it allows you to find the sweet spot for your studio and then you can go ahead and get a
prime lens if you so choose I think this really shines anywhere from 20 to 35 millimeters and then
it just starts getting a little bit too dark for my liking especially in the studio where I would
just shoot primes but on the wider end even up to 35 millimeters you can make this work in a studio
and get a very competent look while this is a great little video lens it's also pretty good
for photography now I'm not a pro photographer and if I wanted the best results I would buy a prime
that meets my requirements but for just getting started or travel photography this is great being
outdoors and being able to get a super wide angle 20 millimeter or get a porch shot whatever the
case may be this is a very versatile lens and used in the right scenarios I think you'll get great
results all right let's answer the question so if you're thinking about getting an S5 Mark II or S5
Mark 2x should you get this 20 to 60 millimeter kit lens I think it's an overwhelming yes this
is a really functional lens and if you're just getting started with the L Mount or full frame or
an interchangeable lens camera it will teach you which focal lengths are the most useful for you
and then down the track you can always get a prime lens to use it in a dedicated setup much like how
I'm using the 35 millimeter F 1.8 Prime I know now that it works because I started with this kit lens
but anytime I'm shooting Outdoors where I want to showcase just how beautiful a park is but if I'm
shooting a show and I don't want to blur out the background to the nth degree that's where a lens
like this makes a whole lot of sense I actually prefer this over the 18 millimeter F 1.8 prime
lens because it's far more versatile when you're talking about those super wide angle lenses you
don't get as much background blur say on an 18 millimeter as you would on a 35 for example
so between 18 and 20 which is this one right here on the wide end there's not that much
difference in the overall look sure you'll get better low-light performance out of the 18
millimeter F 1.8 but at 3.5 this is still almost as good and having to crank the iso up a couple
of notches isn't the end of the world it's not going to drive up the noise that much so I think
this is a great buy let us know what you think thanks again for watching catch you soon see ya