Photographer and filmmaker Matthew Vandeputte is perhaps one of the most respected time-lapse and hyperlapse creators out there. Given how often he’s asked what the best camera is for producing his style of content, he’s put together a short video explaining his choice and listing all of the features that make it so perfect.
The Panasonic Lumix S1 was a late addition to the full-frame mirrorless market when it arrived just over a year ago, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a popular choice. Weather-sealing, in-body stabilization, an impressively high-resolution EVF, dual card slots, a top panel display, and oversampled UHD 4K video are all proud features, but the baked-in time-lapse and stop motion elements are often overlooked. In this short video, Vandeputte explains what puts this camera ahead of the competition.
The S1 isn’t a perfect camera and Vandeputte is honest with his criticisms, and autofocus does seem to leave a lot to be desired.
If you’re a time-lapse or stop motion photographer/videographer, what do you use? And which features would you like to see your manufacturer steal from Panasonic? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
I wish more camera manufacturers would focus on this. It’s not really technically hard to achieve these features, but it makes time lapse shooting so much easier. I’m using Nikon because it has more or less the same set of features for time lapses, but the stop motion/hyper lapse functionality is not there. Love the way it’s implemented on the S1, hope Nikon can do the same in a software update. Oh, and fix the top display, which they made worse in time lapse mode from DSLRs to mirrorless...
«…Steal from Panasonic»? Pentax had had these features for years! My K-3, for instance. Also, Olympus.
Only problem is, is that when Pentax alone had it, it was nothing more than a useless gimmick, which no photographer needed, designed to sell cameras to the Pentax sheeple. Now that others have it, it is a great features which every camera has to have.
[ASIDE] It was not that long ago that Cankon users would tell us how limited and useless IBIS is, and that it only belongs in the lens. Now it is, “when are they going to put it in their mirrorless systems?” [/ASIDE]
I still remember when Nikon came out with their first 4k interval movie mode. Yes, it took 4k images in intervals, but one still had to assemble the movie oneself. I was surprised. Pentax had always rendered the video. It is called, “4k-interval movie mode”, not, “8Mpx, still-image, interval shooting mode.”
I also remember watching my first YouTube video on how to “properly” do time-lapse photography, and they said to not use auto-exposure during sunrise/sunset, to prevent "brightness jumping". Having done a few time-lapse sunsets already, I was confused about that term. I did not have that issue. Pentax has been doing step-less exposure settings for years. I took it for granted.
So, no. Not a lot of features which I would want to steal from Panasonic. I have a Pentax.
P.s., as for video features, I am a photographer. I rarely, if ever, do video, and, when I do, I use my Canon video camera, not my DSC.