| Photo: Michelle Clarke |
Panasonic’s S1RII company has the latest professional-level full-frame camera, which features 44MP sensors, which rifts rates up to 40fps with constant autofocus and promises to improve its autofocus system, especially when it comes to recognizing humans and eyes.
We are currently In the process of reviewing itSo when a friend asked me to become a photographer for his wedding, it seemed a great way to see how the camera would perform during a high-dot, real world shooting. It also promised to test the specific powers of S1rii; I am not in any way from an expert wedding photographer, so I would have to bend on the autofocus system and shoot wide, knowing that I had a resolution of crop to fix incomplete compositions.
Let’s start which is good. The design of S1rii is, in my opinion, is more comfortable than the original. It is quite light and feels more like a device designed for human hands than a piece of industrial devices. I have no complaints about the control layout; There are enough buttons for all the settings that I need quick access, and they are easy to operate without looking.
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S1rii has all controls that you will expect to find on a professional-level camera, and is comfortable to hold. Photo: Michelle Clarke |
Image found me alignment with quality Our studio test visual results: There is a lot of expansion in the pictures, and, in them, I felt that straight-out-of-camera colors were quite good. I am also happy with the dynamic range of raw files. This Las Vegas was an external ceremony in the afternoon, so most of the time I exposed to preserving highlights with a plan to increase the shadow in the post. While I have not yet made it through every photo, they mostly seem to push with relatively peak and grace.
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Exposure picked up 1.75ev in the post, cropped to taste. Lumix S Pro 24-70 F2.8 | F4 | 1/800 seconds | ISO 80 | Edited by Raw in Capture One |
The autofocus system is the place where my complaints begin. Panasonic I think there is a strange decision with S1rii: if you have the subject to detect the subject, then there will be tracking Only If it detects a subject, then work. So, if for example, I had come to know human eyes, I could not put my attention to the wedding cake, started tracking, and then resumed my shot.
This method of shooting may sound strange if you have not tried it before, but I have found that it is faster and more efficient than setting the focus point with autofocus joystick. And, the important thing is that it is what I am using: Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm all track the points even when the subject recognition mode is turned on. If you want to use a tracking autofocus mainly with S1rii, you are likely to detect and close the subject.
If it was better to identify the S1rii subjects, then this limit would not have been so much, but I found its performance a bit incredible. Most of the time, it worked as an intention, but sometimes happened when it was not just recognizing that I was pointing it on a human. This meant that I was to realize that it was not working, took your thumb to the joystick, and get the focus point where it was needed before it was, before it was. This inspired me to remember the couple’s kisses during the ceremony, which was quite unfortunate – it was quite unfortunate.
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There were many times when S1rii was quickly and confidently closed on my selected subject. Lumix S Pro 24-70 F2.8 | F2.8 | 1/60 seconds | ISO 320 | Jpeg out of camera |
To be clear, I would not consider it to be a deal-breaking form of bad autofocus; I have still received a lot of tax-ed photos, and I have no doubt that a professional photographer can marry S1rii and end up with most keepers. However, despite the promised reforms, Panasonic is clearly behind the competition when it comes to its autofocus system.
Case in point: I used a canon EOS R5 II for part of the wedding, and never had any issue with detection of its subject. During our tests, we have found that the canon system has almost supernatural ability to find and stick faces even in challenging conditions, where their eyes, nose and/or mouth are unclear. The same is true for Sony and Nikon’s autofocus system.
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EOS R5 II made zero on the subject’s eyes even in this relatively difficult situation. RF 70-200 mm F2.8 L is USM Z | F2.8 | 1/160 seconds | ISO 1600 | Jpeg out of camera |
One last complaint before we return to praise: The placement of the record button in front of the camera really makes it easier to mistake the video. Thankfully, you can assign different functions based on this that you are in stil or video mode, so that you can’t do anything, while you are taking photos while maintaining your original function for the video.
For battery life, S1rii corrected. I shot around 1,700 photos-many of them bursting-and when I stopped the camera often to save the battery, I did it for a full 20-minute ceremony. I passed through about one and a half batteries, put into a fresh one between the function and reception. If I wanted to do it again, I would probably choose to use a battery grip, especially if I was not sure how long the ceremony would last.
I am very happy with the pictures of S1rii, and so are the groom and bride. But…
If I have a price for S1rii’s large, bright and high-resolution EVF, then I am also happy to accept middleing battery life. And when I mostly used the visual -sighted during the ceremony, I was happy with a performance mechanism with both tilting and complete articulation when shooting the site and decoration shots, encouraging me to be flexible with my composite.
Overall, I am very happy with the pictures that I got out of S1rii. And, more importantly, therefore are the bride and groom. Nevertheless, I want the autofocus system to make those end results a little easier to achieve, and had already not found pressure to do very stressful work. This was definitely not the most difficult ever; I am well aware that people shot marriages for years using single autofocus points or even – panting – gap – no autofocus.
Many years ago, I shot my sister’s wedding with a Fujifilm X-T30. The experience of using S1rii was in addition to the world, as it is far more favorable for the task. Even with my complaints, I will still take it to every day of the week. But the next time I am asked to shoot a wedding, I will not answer, “Sure, just catch my S1rii,” or even “I will get EOS R5 II.” I would probably say, “Ehhh, maybe be a professional photographer.”
