- Ladies and gentlemen, this is not just a Panasonic S1,
this is also a secret
prototype
S1.
Not the retail version and even the firmware,
got the beta Firmware, it's .05 firmware.
Panasonic had me to sign a document that
I'm not going to talk about this camera before today.
Not to show this to anybody.
So I come to rooftop in Hong Kong
because according to Hong Kong movie all the
undercover cops come to a rooftop to meet their officer.
So this should be safe.
Lets just hope that there won't be a fight
break out then I will be good.
- [Lok] Panasonic announced the S1 and S1R in
last Photokina in 2018, their first ever
full frame mirrorless camera.
Thanks to Panasonic New Zealand I have got
one for a few weeks to play with.
A prototype, I've also got a chance to
fly to Taiwan to shoot behind the scenes
of a commercial shoot by Darryl Carey.
He was shooting with a prototype
S1R and I was shooting with my S1.
Darryl is a professional photographer
he owns a gallery and he's the host of
my two Auckland workshop in New Zealand.
And before I start I have to thank you Adorama
for sponsoring this channel, keeping me alive.
- Okay this is the camera itself,
it's not a small camera.
For the weight I think it feels like an APS-C DSLR camera.
Well maybe you will say, "wow mirrorless camera
why would a mirrorless camera that big and heavy"?
Now firstly for full frame camera this is still
lighter and smaller than DSLR full frame camera.
And secondly light and small isn't
the only advantage of mirrorless camera anymore.
It's a concept for like a few years ago that
mirrorless should be light and small.
It's what it do, it's not the size it's what do it counts.
Now for a start it's a magnesium alloy body
rugged, dust and splash proof,
this is kind of like DSLR stuff.
And when you hold onto it gives you confidence
because the grip is big.
Well, if you haven't heard of it this is a
L mount, this is from Leica. Panasonic, Leica, and Sigma
have an alliance that they will announce more
lenses for L mount cameras.
This is a in body stabilised full frame censor.
This S1 got, S1 got 24 megapixels and then
there's an S1R which is 47 megapixels.
Its almost like these days all brands
when they announce mirrorless camera
they will release a smaller megapixel one
good for video and then a high megapixel
one good for... high megapixel.
And yes, in body stabilisation,
sensor shift stabilisation, 5.5 stops
And when you pair with an O.I.S. lens
they combine with six stops
- [Lok] So lets look at what's on the body.
On this side there's this is a switch for one and two
which is, you can customise to anything you want, almost.
Now the lens is a 24-105 mm”4 lens
which is similar size to the Canon,
we've got a lock there, and a Lok here and
then AF, MF and O.I.S. on/off, pretty standard.
On this side on this really comfortable grip
down here you got two function buttons
to customise to a lot of things.
Here you've got a dial and then on top
huge LCD display, which is
what people want.
And also I always like the Panasonic way to put
like white balance, ISO, compensation button up here
and this is the same like the GH5, GH4,
love this a lot, really easy to access.
And then on this side mode dial,
down there is a red ring this is a
new signature design
of Panasonic.
At the back of the camera now the screen
is a touch screen and it's when they announce
in Photokina they said that this
is a 3-axis tilt screen.
Now it turns out that it flip
up, down,
and just like Fuji,
on this side.
Not to the other side too bad.
There's a lock switch here, which you can
customise it to lock what do you want.
Default, it lock everything, the touch screen
lock, all the dials, good for video shooting
and I love this button arrangement.
They all accessible with just your thumb
this is really easy to use.
Record button here, this is to change
focus mode and then this is also a
switch for, single shot, continuous or MF.
I like this more than changing the AF, or MF on the lens.
Now a AF and MF switch on lenses, on different lenses,
they have, they are on different position, but here
I would prefer to switch it here.
This is so much more easier.
What I don't really like this
this directional button, all other button are
really clicky but this is really,
this is just too less of the button travel, I think.
And the back is quite easily got accidentally locked
because it's quite not stiff enough and
then is quite, in the corner basically.
But down here everybody's favourite!
Dual card slot, with a lock.
It support SD card and then XQD cards so
if you are like cheapskate, like me,
I don't want to shell out money for those
expensive XQD card yet, so we can use SD card.
And then later they will support CF Express.
But quite funny, not funny, quite useful
is that when you, for example you take a lot
of shot, and then you open the door
it will give you an alarm sound so that
you don't remove the card while it's
writing to the card.
Almost like those refrigerator that
you forgot to close the door.
Almost like Panasonic refrigerators.
Okay, on this side there's a remote
control, mic, and headphone jack.
The mic jack also supports line-in
you can set up in the menu.
Down here, HDMI port, full size, and
then a USB-C port, you can charge the battery
with USB-C, and also power the camera with USB-C.
Also when you turn it on
it will show you it is,
it got power but it's not charging.
But if you plug it in a more powerful charger
a PD compatible charger, it will show you
it has power and charging, while you're shooting with it.
One really cool thing is that in the dark
when you turn on the backlight on the top LCD screen
at the back some of the button lights up as well!
You usually only got this on
the top of the line flagship DSLR!
- Now as I mention before this still a pre-production
model of the prototype, but
I have to go down to the street to test it.
Even though this is a quick first Lok
but before that Panasonic asked me
to cover all the logos on it.
- Whoa this place is dark.
- [Lok] The shutter sounds really quiet and soft.
- So dark I have to put minus one EV
to actually show how dark it is.
- [Lok] That alley was so dark I barley saw the lady
yet the S1 focused just as fast.
While you could say just like any other modern
mirrorless camera out there, they all
focus as quick as DSLR these days.
- Now this camera, again got the world fastest AF
what ever that means, world's fastest
full frame mirrorless I guess.
But what interesting it got AI, it got deep
thinking, deep learning, that kind of
deep learning thing, AI recognises people,
recognises people, recognises animals, animals
that means cats, dogs, and birds.
Not all kind of animals, like
cockroach or something like that.
Usually when I heard about those AI whatever I think
hmm that sounds a bit suspicious, AI it's all
sounds gimmicky to me, but I will show you later
it actually works really well.
- [Lok] Now this is quite interesting
you can set it that it the effect of your
shutter speed like if for example,
now I, oh not this, I set it to a slower shutter speed
it simulates the slow shutter speed
effect you will get for this shot.
- Tell you what, it is heavy it really feels like,
feels like I'm holding a DSLR, especially after
using it for an hour, just an hour it's like oh my God.
So as I mentioned it's quite silly to
still think mirrorless is all about light weight
I mean it, mirrorless got it own advantages
Okay continuous burst is not, it's not a speed demon
continuous burst AF-S 9 FPS, AF-C 6 FPS,
it's not too bad to be honest it's just their
first full frame mirrorless camera
give them some time, maybe they
will release an S9, or something like that.
- [Lok] Yes, I mention I've been to Taiwan
with professional photographer Darryl Carey.
- No, no keep your clothes on!
No, no no, yeah, yeah.
(laughing)
- [Lok} Uh What happened.
Anyway he got the S1R the 47 megapixel camera.
- Really Lok?
Really?
The black one, yeah, just grab it from
the guy over there, the black one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're not recording are you?
- Alright the AI recogniszation is fricking amazing!
I mean, it recognised a photographer
side profile with a camera.
- [Lok] But it looks like the AI thing actually works!
Even I'm having half of the firmware,
I'm using 0.5 firmware.
It no longer just relies on face recognition
it just recognise a person even this
camera don't have any phase detection AF points.
You can see it will switch from recognise a person
and then to face recognition, and then when
the face is lost it recognise a person,
even behind obstacles.
- And then when it can recognise two human
you can tap which human to focus on,
rather than just tap a focus points.
- [Lok] You can even press the joy stick to
choose between two target,
just like playing a fighter jet game.
- But the things really impress me is the
I.S., the I.S. works really well
it works almost like the GH5!
Now don't forget this is a full frame camera
the I.S. is as good as a GH5, the GH5 is
a micro four thirds camera, so much tinier
sensor,
and it's full frame it still preform just as good as GH5!
Now this is at 24mm, not very good for vlogging,
or holding it one hand like that.
I better take of the USB power as well,
I'm holding it just walking it like that
the I.S., the I.S. is great on this full frame camera.
Whoops.
- [Lok] And Darryl have been shooting with
the new 50mm /1.4 lens.
- [Darryl] That is direct out of the camera.
That is amazing, I've no work to them
that's in the camera JPEG you're seeing.
And that's at 1.4, like I said at 1.4
most lenses are not very sharp
this lens is outstandingly sharp and
there's no artefacts, is there Lok?
- [Lok] No, no.
- We've no seen anything,
no colour fringing around lights or anything
- [Lok] No ghosting.
- [Lok] Best thing of this 50mm,
well not best thing, best thing maybe
because it's sharp, but look at that this is
love this a lot, aperture ring.
And this pull back focusing ring here.
- Now when they announce it in Photokina last year
they already announced that it can do
4K/60p, well kind of but when it do 4K/60p
it will crop into APS-C.
When you shoot 4K/25, or 30p it will
use the full width of the sensor, no pixel binning,
use the over sampling, that kind of thing.
So kind of similar to other top range mirror-less camera.
But this one don't have recording limit.
When you're shooting 25, or 30p it's
kind of like the GH5.
You can shoot until your card full,
until both of the card full, and your battery die.
Okay you may think, oh 60p it's crop into APS-C.
But, but there is something that you don't expect.
Later there will be a firmware that I think it will be
a purchasable firmware update that make it possible to do
4k/25, 30p
10 bit 4:2:2
internal recording.
This has never been done on any full frame camera.
And with that you can also do 4K 60p
4:2:2 HDMI output.
Also it can do HLG for your
supported HDR
TV
and it give you also the V-LOG.
So that's all for this First Lok of this
Panasonic S1, and S1R,
when I get the
final retail version of this camera
I will test every aspect of this camera
image quality, video, whatever, all of that.
Now in the description box I have list out all
the gear I use to make this video
and often a Adorama link because Adorama is
the sponsor of this channel, thank you again
for them to sponsor this channel, sponsor, supporting
me to go on,
to go on.