welcome back folks my name's Shane in today's video I'm going to share with you 10 reasons why
the Panasonic Lumix S5IIX is an awesome mirrorless camera this will come from a practical hands-on
experience point of view rather than just a specification overview there's plenty of those
videos online and you can find them this will come from using this camera with hands-on experience
as well as owning two Panasonic S5II's I actually purchased the second one of these recently because
it's such a great camera before we get going a huge thank you to Panasonic for the loan of the
S5 Mark II X I don't get to keep it no money's changed hands and all thoughts about this are
my own let's get into it the first reason why the S5 Mark II X is awesome is thanks to its active
Cooling and no overheating unlike the Sony ZVE E1 which was recently released it's having all
kinds of issues with overheating these are tested up to 40 degrees Celsius and after reviewing the
original S5 out in the park on a hot summer's day I was able to test this with no overheating
up at 39 degrees Celsius making the S5 Mark II X one of the most reliable cameras on the market
thanks to that active cooling the active cooling doesn't really add any bulk to the camera which is
fantastic if you take a look under the Lumix logo you can see where the air actually gets taken in
and then it gets expelled through the vents on the side like most Lumix camera features we get full
control over the fan speed we've got one of two automatic modes or we can set it from slow medium
or high where it runs continuously overheating shouldn't even be a conversation in 2023 and after
testing the S5 Mark II extensively in summer the S5IIX will be just as reliable the second reason
why the S5IIX is awesome is its overall image quality this is a no-brainer especially if you're
shooting video pairing this image processor with a full frame sensor allows us to get 14 plus stops
of dynamic range when shooting in v-log this camera also gives us a dual native ISO of 640
and 4000 so if you plan on shooting in low light you're going to get excellent results if you've
never shot with the Panasonic camera before we get lots of great picture profiles which enhances the
overall end result what I'm shooting in right now on my S5II is the natural picture profile and this
gives me great straight out of camera results I'm also shooting on the GH6 in the natural picture
profile because it just gives you a really great end result if you plan on shooting in v-log it's
easy to grade in post or of course you can just load a lot in at the time of filming talk more
about that in just a moment while there is a 1.5 times crop if you plan on shooting in 4k 50 or 60
frames per second it still looks great to my eye nearly all of the thumbnails I make out in the
park were shot using 4K 60 mode I think it looks great what sets this series of cameras apart from
a lot of other options on the market is we can shoot in open gate which makes this perfect if
you plan on shooting any sort of anamorphic or if you're going to be doing social media you can
crop vertically and still get excellent resolution the image quality on this is fantastic and I would
have no problems with recommending it for someone looking for a pro camera the third thing that
makes the Panasonic S5IIX awesome is its real-time LUT loader option this allows you to burn in your
favorite light at the time of recording to save doing all of that in post-production the camera
can support up to 10 different lights and you can select them like you would any other picture
profile where I find this especially helpful is shooting out in the park on a bright sunny day
I usually shoot in v-log so I capture the most amount of dynamic range and I burn in the nicest
LUT and most of my work is already done I'll only have to adjust the contrast and saturation
a little bit in post and that's it it's a much more time effective way of working just know if
you do burn in your LUT at the time of recording there's no way to take it off so just make sure
you don't need to match that footage to any other camera system the fourth reason why this camera is
fantastic is its in-body image stabilization which Panasonic called active is this allows
you to get some of the best follow shots I've ever been able to get out of any camera this is
superior to my micro four thirds when it comes to its in-body image stabilization system it's
insane and taking it to the next level we get our is boost mode which allows you to get an almost
tripod looking shot handheld this was a feature going back to the GH5 and it's been improved in
the S5II and S5IIX the handheld results out of this camera are fantastic all the way down to
about 20 millimeters any wider than that and you can see some warpy stuff in the corners but if
you're shooting with a 50 millimeter lens handheld you're going to get excellent results I was able
to get great follow shots using all different types of lenses and this camera and to my eye
the end result looked even smoother than my gh6 if you're like me and you don't like post stabilizing
all of your Clips after the fact get an S5II or X the handheld results make it worth it just on its
own the fifth reason you're gonna love this camera is its Auto Focus performance and as someone who
owns a Sony A7S3 and Sony FX3 I can tell you the autofocus performance on the S5IIX has some
advantages and it also is a little bit different in how it operates so not only do we get face and
eye tracking we can turn off all the modes all together but we can also have body tracking which
is a lot more intuitive say for example I wanted to hold this up to the camera on my Sony I would
have to cover my face entirely which means it's annoying to get it positioned in the right spot
it's just a bit of a pain with body tracking I can just glance over my face and it will know
that I want to showcase something in the shot this is something that often goes overlooked not only
is the autofocus more responsive on the S5 Mark II X it will find you in frame further back than
on the Sony this was a huge eye-opener now while the autofocus isn't as good at close distance as
the Sony overall for auto Focus performance I love what the S5IIX is doing and for its
first iteration of phase hybrid autofocus I think it's every bit as good or just that slightly bit
different to what Sony's putting out right now so if you want to do this kind of stuff you'll
have no problems with the S5IIX maybe my favorite thing about the S5IIX is its grip this is right
up there along with some Classics like the gh6 the OMD M1 Mark II from Olympus and the Sony FX3
I think this group fills every bit as good in the hand but get a nice chunky purchase on the camera
and our Knuckles aren't smashing against the lens see how much space I've got between here and here
this may vary between lens to lens but with this 50 millimeter F 1.8 I have no problems maintaining
my grip on the camera without my Knuckles smashing against the lens this was a massive problem on my
Sony A7C for guys with big hands like myself get a camera with a big grip shooting handheld with this
with all of the buttons and dials in intuitive positions will make a whole lot of sense long
term so if you're a handheld shooter the grip on this is fantastic the great news is the S5IIX
and the original S5II are identical to each other when it comes to their button dial placement body
design everything is exactly the same they're both identical weights so irrespective of which
camera you choose they both feel great in the hand reason seven you're gonna love the S5IIX is It's
recording mode so in the MP4 menu we get a couple of 8-bit codecs but essentially this is a 10-bit
camera only if we go through mov we get every type of resolution and file format we can record in 420
or 422 10 bit we get lots of different resolution options all the way from 1080p up to 6K open gate
this camera is capable of shooting in 24 25 or 30 frames per second in full HD and 4K additionally
we also get 3.3 K which is great if you plan on shooting anamorphic once you expand that it
actually gives you more pixels than 4K we also get DCI 4K up to 60 frames per second this is
great if you want to apply some slow motion into to a short film unlike other cine cameras on the
market as you can see we can shoot in either 6K with a 17x9 aspect ratio that's 42010 bit or all
the way up to three by two 6K which is the full sensor readout this full sensor readout isn't just
for cropping in post although of course you can do that you can also shoot with an anamorphic lens
in that mode and get a massive amount of pixels not only can we shoot in MP4 or mov this camera
is capable of shooting ProRes internal or to an external SSD furthermore we can also shoot in the
all intra codecs which is a less compressed file format at the expense of much larger files thanks
to the HDMI output on the side of the camera it allows us to record to an external recorder
shooting black magic raw so if you want to adjust everything from your white balance and color all
in post then shooting raw is the way to go but if you don't need all of those high-end features you
can shoot in mov and get fantastic results whether you're a content creator or full-time video the
S5IIX has just about every mode you could ask for just know if you plan on shooting in ProRes or all
intra then I can highly recommend recording to an external SSD this can be done just by plugging in
the appropriate drive to the USBC port on the side of the camera like the original S5 and the S5II
the X is also capable of shooting up to 180 frames per second in full HD now unfortunately there's no
4K at 120 frames per second I would have loved to have seen that even with a crop so maybe that can
come in a future firmware upgrade but this is a really powerful camera and the slow motion results
still shooting with that full sensor reader looked pretty great to my eye reason 8 the S5IIX
is awesome is for its lens selection a camera system is no good if the lens system doesn't have
anything to offer the S series of primes are my favorite video lenses I own Sony G Master lenses I
think these are much better because they're more consistent in terms of their design they don't
suffer any excessive Focus breathing and they're optically really great value considering what
you get I think when some people say hey there's no great lenses for the S5 or S5II what they're
really saying is there's no affordable lenses and I would agree with that these lenses might not be
the cheapest on the market but they're optically Superior to much more expensive lenses and I love
their consistency unlike other brands where one lens might be this big the next one might be huge
these are all basically physically identical if you switch between the 85 and 24 millimeter for
example you're going to have exactly the same experience now if you're not into primes and
you just want to get started with a kit lens this is one of the best kit lenses I've used it's the
20 to 60 millimeter F 3.5 to 5.6 I use this so often when I'm outdoor shooting in the park F
3.5 is really good way of showcasing a little bit about what's going on around you if you're
outdoors in an interesting location this lens is optically corrected for Focus breathing so if
you're a video shooter I think you'll get a kick out of it if you're looking for a pro Zoom you
can absolutely get it for the L Mount this is the 24 to 70s Pro this is at F 2.8 constant zoom lens
we get a clutch over here for manual focus with a distance rating on it as well this allows you to
get professional video results without the light changing if you plan on zooming in and out this
is massive this is just on loan from Panasonic I'm going to do a full review of this so stay
tuned And subscribe if you're into lens reviews but overall I think this kit lens is a great way
to get started and if I'm traveling I'm taking something much smaller than this with me yeah
but the options there if you want to shoot some Pro work reason number nine the S5 Mark II X is
awesome is it still supports the 4K live crop mode this is one of my favorite features going
all the way back to the original gh5 4K live crop allows you to pan or zoom in digitally thanks to
selecting a start and end point within the 4K live crop options this makes it easy to get a
really great looking pen or Zoom without having to move the camera whatsoever but again I use
this extensively on my original S5 Mark II review and I'll tell you seeing some samples of that on
screen it's a really great feature and it's an easy way to get really great b-roll without a
lot of work reason number 10 you're going to love the S5 Mark II X is we get matching uh S2 SD card
slots and these are also hot swappable having this hot swapping capability is awesome for long events
so essentially you can record on SD card slot number one once it fills up it will automatically
go over to number two you can take out one while it's recording to the second one put it in a blank
SD card and keep recording perpetually between each of them as long as you keep hot swapping
them out this means you don't have to turn the camera off I love this this is a really great
feature additionally though we can also record on the S5IIX using that USBC out on the side
of the camera this allows you to hook it up to something like a Samsung SSD and get a really
cheap storage solution for long form recording or if of course you're recording with the ProRes
or all Android recordings where you'll fill up the SD cards very quickly so overall this is a
really powerful camera and I love the Simplicity of the dual SD card slots paired with of course
that USB connectivity to an external SSD all right let's give this video some balance I'm going to
talk about the things that I don't love about the S5 Mark 2x starting with the live streaming
capability now it's a fantastic option to have live streaming built into a camera I actually
had this on my GH5II and it was something that I never used because it was just a little bit
too complicated to get started I feel like the complication of getting this to work with Straight
Up live streaming might go over a lot of people's heads even with some tutorial video guidance so
if you plan on just using this for live streaming just know you can't monitor your audience unless
you're using a separate device this is where I still think a phone will make for a far more
easy way of getting live streaming if you don't care about the quality too much but while it's
a great feature to have I hope it's simplified in the future future let's talk about the phase
hybrid autofocus limitations of the S5II X this also translates back to the S5 Mark II when I did
my original long in-depth deep review of the S5II I tested all modes except one I can't believe it
I didn't test 1080p at 50 or 60 frames per second which is the full sensor readout and that drops it
back to contrast DFD this could be a deal breaker if you just want to shoot at 50 or 60 frames per
second and you want that great auto focus with the full sensor readout neither of these two cameras
have that in 1080P this is a huge bummer I think Panasonic would sell so many more of these S5
Mark II's and S5 Mark II X to people wanting Pro cameras that can stream or multi-cam with face
hybrid autofocus at 50 or 60 frames per second a lot of people who stream will want that frame
rate and the reliability and consistency of their face hybrid autofocus I have my fingers crossed
the Panasonic can fix this for both the S5II X and the S5II there's only three minor annoyances
these aren't deal breakers but it's definitely worth mentioning you can't turn four Channel
audio off in camera or at least I haven't worked out how to do it so this means every time I get a
project like this in editing I have to disable the second stereo track or isolate a single mono track
not the end of the world but it would just help my workflow if I didn't have to worry about that
whatsoever the second minor annoyance is if you're using an external monitor of any description you
can't output the HDMI information both to the built-in LCD flippy screen and an external
monitor at the same time it's one or the other it seems a lot of camera companies are moving
in this direction the original GH5 allows you to have both screens identically set up which really
helps my particular type of workflow I hope they can bring this back and thirdly the S5II and X are
the first two Panasonic cameras haven't come with an included battery charger I'm not exactly sure
why you do get a little power supply and USB cable to charge the battery internally but if you own a
second battery odds are you want to charge that second battery while you're using the one in your
camera I hope they bring this back again on future cameras before we wrap this video up I
just wanted to talk about which one to choose if you're sitting on the fence between the S5 Mark
II and the X because some people will think I'll just buy the X it has all of these extra codecs as
someone who puts out almost daily videos across a lot of different YouTube channels the x is
complete Overkill if you're a working professional and you're already shooting in all intra or you
plan on shooting in prores or Blackmagic raw then the S5IIX is an absolute no-brainer if
that's already your workflow you're going to love it for everyone else shooting weddings or
if you're a content creator the S5II makes so much more sense you don't get any of those bloated file
sizes anytime you're talking about a codec that takes up gigabytes every other second it means
you're going to need a storage solution that can support it which means if you want to keep all of
your work going back even a year you're going to need hard drive after hard drive you're going to
fill up a night terabyte hard drive in no time whereas it's just shooting at h.264 and h.265
will make more sense if you plan on keeping your b-roll at the end of the day both of these cameras
are awesome let us know which one you like best and why and a massive thanks to Lumix for sending
out the S5IIX for this review it does go back to them if this video has been helpful please leave a
thumbs up subscribe for more videos and stay tuned I'm going to be reviewing this and if it's up at
the time you're watching it I'll link it up in the cards over here thanks for watching catch you soon