- Hey, guys, my name is Matt Johnson.
And today, around 5:00 a.m. or so, my time this morning,
Panasonic officially announced the full list of specs
for their new S1 and S1R full-frame mirrorless cameras.
And some of the features are pretty exciting for filmmakers.
There are also many articles
that have been written about this camera
but the majority of them
are focusing on it from a photography standpoint,
so they focus heavily
on the photography features of the camera.
But I, as a filmmaker, wanna know the video specs,
so I have spent about hour and a half
reading through all of these articles
and compiling the majority
of the video specs into this video.
And I am sure that some of these specs are subject to change
as we get closer to the camera's actual release date.
All right, let's get into it.
First up, let's talk about 4K video.
Both the S1R and S1 are capable of recording 4K video
at up to 30 frames per second.
That's great, Matt, but cameras have been recording
in 4K at 30 frames per second for quite a while now,
so, what else are these cameras capable of doing?
Well, both of these cameras are capable of recording
in 4K at up to 60 frames per second,
which, hey, that's very impressive.
But they do do it with some compromises.
The more expensive S1R is capable of recording
in 4K at 60 frames per second.
But it does it with a 1.09x crop while recording.
So, quite a small crop, but a crop nonetheless.
More importantly than this,
it is also recording at 60 fps using pixel binning,
which means that you're probably gonna see
more image degradation.
The cheaper S1 camera, on the other hand,
which Panasonic is presenting as a more video-centric model
actually has an even bigger crop
because if you were recording in 4K at 60,
it crops the image down to an APS-C sensor size,
essentially, a 1.5x crop of your video footage.
The video is not pixel binned though,
so the quality should be better.
Regardless, this is still a bummer
that both of these cameras had to make so many compromises
to reach 4K at 60 frames per second.
I was really hoping that these two cameras
will be the first full-frame cameras
capable of shooting in 4K at 60 without a crop.
Help us, Sony a7S III, you are our only hope.
Next, we need to talk about video recording limits.
The good news is that neither the S1 or S1R
have a video recording limit whenever you're recording
in 4K at up to 30 frames per second.
But if you are recording in 4K at 60 frames per second,
on the S1, you are going to have a 30-minute recording limit
and on the S1R,
you are going to have a 15-minute recording limit.
I assume the reason for this
is because of the large file sizes
and heat that are gonna be generated by this camera
whenever you're recording at 4K 60.
I also saw on the press release
that Panasonic admitted that the camera may overheat
whenever you're recording for extended periods at 4K 60.
So, that's something you should also be aware of.
Last thing about frame rates, both cameras are capable
of recording at up to 180 frames per second
but both cameras also record with a 1.5x APS-C sensor crop
when recording at 180 frames per second.
I do not know if there's also a crop
whenever you're recording in 1080 at 60 frames per second
or 120 frames per second, we'll have to wait
for more information coming out about this camera.
What about 10-bit Matt?
10-bit is another one of those things
that people said could not be done in smaller cameras
until the Panasonic GH5 did it.
The thing you need to keep in mind about the GH5 though
is that the sensor size is micro 4/3,
so it is much smaller than a full-frame camera.
I am pleased to say though that yes, the Panasonic S1
will be capable of recording internally at 10-bit
up to 4K at 30 frames per second.
Unfortunately, you cannot record 10-bit
at 60 frames per second, and the S1R is not gonna be capable
of recording 10-bit at all.
Also, with the S1, you are not gonna be able
to record 10-bit whenever the camera is first launched.
This is gonna come in a later firmware update
that is also going to include V-Log.
Of course, as always,
Panasonic says they're going to be charging for this update
because they always do that.
I don't know why they can't be like Sony
and give you all the features like Sony does with S-Log.
Unfortunately, we have to see them charge more.
Panasonic has not announced the price for this upgrade.
Incidentally, the upgrade will also include 4K
at 60 frames per second in 10-bit output over HDMI.
So, if you have an external recorder,
you will be capable of doing that.
What's the next big thing people care about?
IBIS.
No, not irritable bowel syndrome.
IBIS, in-body image stabilization.
And yes, both the S1 and S1R have it.
Panasonic claims that both of these cameras
are capable of up to six stops of image stabilization.
For comparison, with the GH5, it was capable of five stops.
So, six is more than five.
Meaning, hopefully, it will be better.
Let's talk about something else
that has been controversial with Panasonic in the past,
specifically with the GH5.
Low light and high ISO performance.
Well, both the S1R and S1 are capable of pretty high ISOs.
The S1R can go up to ISO 51,200
and the S1 can go up to ISO 204,800.
Really not bad.
I don't think it's gonna be quite as good as the a7S II
but we'll see.
Panasonic has also added
some interesting power features to these cameras.
Both of them include a USB Type-C port,
so you can now power the camera
using an external battery pack.
That's a great feature to have.
Also, people say that in the menus,
you can now turn on a battery percentage indicator.
No longer, as with other Panasonic cameras
do you have to guess at your battery life
by looking at a camera bar
and saying, well, I've only got two bars left.
I'm not sure exactly how much that means.
Now you actually have a camera battery percentage.
That is a awesome feature to finally include.
An awesome feature that is unfortunately not included
with this camera is a flip around screen.
I'm sorry fellow YouTubers, I'm sorry vloggers,
you are unfortunately not gonna be able to look at yourself
while you are recording with this camera.
What about autofocus, Matt?
Well, Panasonic does claim that autofocus is improved,
but I have yet to see any camera tests
that test video autofocus.
So, hopefully we'll see some of those very soon.
Hopefully it will be better.
I don't think it's gonna be as good
as Canon's legendary Dual Pixel Autofocus
and I don't think it's gonna be as good
as the very good autofocus on the a7 III, but we'll see.
Specs are done.
Let's talk about the price of these two cameras.
The S1 is going to retail for $2,499
and the S1R is gonna retail for $3,699.
Honestly, the prices feel about right for me,
especially for the S1.
Whenever you consider its other full-frame competition,
such as the a7 III at $2,000,
an extra $500 for 10-bit recording
and, granted it's cropped,
but cropped 4K, 60 frames per second recording,
that sounds pretty good to me.
What about shipping date?
Both of these cameras ship on April 4th,
just in time for NAB.
If you wanna pre-order these cameras,
I have links down in the description.
Lastly, I'm sure you're wondering, am I going to buy one?
I currently shoot on the Sony a7S II.
I'm using it to record this video right now
and I love this camera.
But the S1, in particular,
does look like a pretty big upgrade over the a7S II.
It even looks like an upgrade over the a7 III
because you're getting 10-bit, 4K 60,
and improved in-body image stabilization.
But, there's always a but, right?
I do think that we need to be thinking
about what lenses are currently available
for the S1 and S1R.
Whenever they officially announce the specs,
today, they also announced three new lenses,
a 50-millimeter 1.4, a 24 to 105-millimeter f/4,
and a 70 to 200-millimeter f/4.
Other than these three L-Mount lenses,
there are some L-Mount lenses available from Leica
and Sigma has promised
that they're gonna be releasing L-Mount lenses soon as well.
Here's my issue though.
Because this is a new lens mount,
there are not a ton of lenses available
and there are not even adapters for other lenses
made by other camera manufacturers available yet either.
Whenever I switch over to Sony from Canon,
there were already a ton of adapters.
I could take my cam lenses,
immediately put them on to my Sony,
E-Mount cameras, and they would work.
That is not possible with these new Panasonic cameras.
And here's the big issue
that I feel like all Panasonic shooters
up until this point are going to have,
all of them are currently using Micro Four Thirds cameras
with lenses made for the Micro Four Thirds camera mount.
The vast majority of those lenses
are not made to be used on a full-frame camera,
so they're not gonna be compatible.
Everybody needs to buy new lenses.
And until Sigma brings over their Art lenses to L-Mount,
they are not gonna be cheap lenses either.
So in summary, the specs of these two cameras
are very compelling, but they do have their compromises.
That said though, I have not been this excited
about a camera release in quite a while.
As always though, I recommend
that you watch more camera views before you buy one.
And I recommend that you rent one of these cameras
before you buy one just to see if you like it.
With that, thank you so much for watching.
Do you like little camera news videos like this?
I'm trying it out,
maybe I'll do it for more cameras in the future,
please let me know.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.
♪ Mmm mmm ♪
♪ Mmm mmm mmm ♪