How Good Is the Panasonic S1 Full Frame Camera?

The Panasonic S1 has been making waves as the company's first full frame camera, replete with a fascinating feature set in a rugged body. Nonetheless, it's part of a very inundated full frame camera market, and it has a lot of stiff competition. How well does it fare against the competitors? This great video review seeks to answer that question. 

Coming to you from Kaiman Wong, this helpful video reviews the new Panasonic S1 full frame camera. There are a lot of great aspects about the camera, as it's a highly well-rounded device in a very rugged package. It seeks to offer excellent photo and video capabilities in the same package, and with 4K 30p recording with full-pixel readout and 4:2:0 10-bit color (eventually expanding to 4:2:2) with unlimited recording times combined with in-body image stabilization of 5.5 stops, an ultra-high-resolution electronic viewfinder, and a high-quality sensor, it offers quite a balanced package at a relatively affordable price. Adding in the L mount alliance with Leica and Sigma, we can expect quite a bit of glass available for the mount in the next few years, making the S1 an intriguing option for hybrid shooters. Check out the video above for more. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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5 Comments

This camera is YUGE! I played with a display model yesterday and while I do miss the nice grip/controls from D850/D5 this thing is unwieldy. It is waaaay tooo big. The af also is very indecisive and it is one of the reasons I am glad I do not use DFD anymore. I really don't know what panasonic was thinking when they designed this. I felt my finger/palm needed to be an inch longer/wider.

Both the S1 and s1r are failures. Oversized body, oversized lenses, overpriced everything. Combined with the uncompetitive af and uncompetitive sensor (in the case of the s1r, the s1 has the same Sony as everything else), and the only thing left is the somewhat better video.

I shot a dimly lit church wedding with the S1 over the weekend and also a portrait session. The week before I covered a low light event. There is nothing inferior about this camera. The AF performed in low light, backlit situations and the IQ is outstanding. The 24-105 F4 lens is very sharp and I would not consider it a kit lens. I’ve decided to add it to my toolbox and will be adding more lenses as time goes by.

Many online reviewers (especially on You Tube) don’t take the time to set up the cameras properly as it’s all about rushing something out for maximum views. Also, many readers / viewers of the content never bother to try out the camera, let alone take the time to set it up correctly.

This is a portrait / landscape/ event type of camera, not a sports / action camera although it can track when properly set up. Panasonic even has a guide book and their own You Tube video on this as well.

Basically, there is not a bad camera on the market today from any brand. It all comes down to the proper tool for you and the niceties that each model brings. To get on a forum and start trashing any of these brands offerings as failures is just absurd.