The S1RII options Panasonic’s newest phase-detection autofocus, which has a lot better topic recognition and monitoring algorithms. The S1RII can acknowledge individuals, animals (canine, cat, fowl), automobiles, bike and bikes, trains, and airplanes. In my testing, Panasonic’s topic monitoring system may be very practically pretty much as good as what you may discover in Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Fujifilm. It wasn’t essentially the very best for all the pieces—for instance, Nikon stands out as higher at monitoring birds—nevertheless it’s an all-around strong autofocus system that does not miss a lot.
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
What I didn’t like is just not what it does, however what it might’t do—specifically, cease monitoring a topic when in subject-tracking mode. For instance, if I’m monitoring my canine taking part in on the seashore within the early morning and need to cease for a second and shoot the dawn, on my Sony and Fujifilm I can faucet the screens and change the main target to the horizon, compose, shoot, and return to monitoring the canine. To try this with the S1RII I needed to first toggle off the topic monitoring. It is not an enormous trouble, neither is it a deal breaker, however it’s a little head-scratching.
The remainder of the time, I discovered that the S1RII did a very good job of monitoring all the pieces I requested it to. Oddly although, it has the toughest time with people. Typically in a crowd of individuals, it will lose the topic, one thing that does not often occur in my testing of Nikon, Canon, and Sony cameras. Whereas Panasonic’s autofocus system is certainly sooner and extra correct than earlier variations, it is not flawless. I do not discover this a deal breaker in any respect (I nonetheless shoot many guide focus lenses), nevertheless it is likely to be value testing with a rental should you shoot numerous sports activities or wildlife.
Picture High quality
I’ve at all times favored Panasonic’s coloration rendition for its neutrality. It is not heat, it is not cool, it is nearly completely within the center. The one place I noticed this differ a bit with the S1RII is in pores and skin tones on my children, who regarded a little bit pinkish in some lighting circumstances, however in any other case I didn’t discover any coloration rendering oddities. Dynamic vary is excellent. I used to be capable of elevate shadows in RAW recordsdata 2-3 stops with out actually even needing to take care of noise.
