By shaving a little here and there, Panasonic saved it about $ 500 off its cheapest full-screen mirrorless model to date, the Lumix S1to create the Lumix S5. The $ 2,000 S5 is designed to appeal to creatives looking for a balance between video and photo functionality Sony A7 IIIas well as the cheaper Nikon Z5 ($ 1,400) and Canon EOS R. ($ 1,800).
It is expected to ship in mid-September for $ 2,000 body-only or in a $ 2,300 kit with the new Lumix S 20-60mm f3.5-5.6 lens - a slow lens, its Price goes better with the cheaper camera than the Lumix S Pro lenses. Panasonic plans to release a similarly targeted 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 and four key primes in the future.
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With the same sensor and autofocus system as the S1 with similarly strong image stabilization, the S5 with smaller viewfinders and rear displays with lower resolution, lower weather resistance and a slower series recording speed of 7 frames per second compared to 9 frames per second. The case is more compact, partly due to the 2,200 mAh battery compared to the 3,100 mAh version of the S1, but without affecting the two SD card slots. But it's smaller than the Z5 and about the same size and weight as the EOS R.
Panasonic
One place Panasonic hasn't cut is in the video capabilities. In addition to support for 4K / 30p, Anamorphic 4K and 1,920 x 1,080 HD, V-Log (with preview), HLG and VariCam Cine-like LUTs, 4K / 30p 10-bit 4: 2: 0 internal and 4K are supplied / 60p 4: 2: 2 via HDMI - 4K / 30p 8-bit can record internally without time limit - and two native ISO sensitivities 640 and 4000. In addition, a future firmware update will include C4K recording and raw 5.9K video deliver over HDMI to an Atomos Ninja V and add tools like a vector telescope and master socket setting.
Based on Olympus, Panasonic offers its own Live View Composite mode (interval recording until the exposure looks the way you want it). Like the S1, it can use tiny movements of the image sensor stabilization system to produce a high-resolution 96-megapixel image.
In other ways it is very similar to the competition, with a 24.2 megapixel sensor, articulating LCD, and so on. Given the feature set and sensor quality, $ 2,000 seems like the right price for it, although I'd wait for all of the pesky performance details to come in before confirming that opinion. But if it's not much worse than the A7 III, it will likely be a better choice for the same money.