What does this mean? EOSHD takes a look.

Pro photographers have been notified by Panasonic that their support service is being terminated.

Those paying a membership fee to cover repairs will soon have to seek alternatives. There’s also been a memorandum put out online by the company, which you can see for the UK market at https://www.lumixpro.panasonic.com/uk/

This is quite an unusual move – can you imagine Nikon ending NPS or Canon Professional Services withdrawing support to all the sports photographers and journalists that use Canon or Nikon gear?

It looks like Panasonic has seen the domination of Canon, Nikon and Sony in the pro market and decided to withdraw and to no longer try and compete.

Could Panasonic exit the camera market in 2026?

If this is the beginning of the end for Lumix cameras, the reason might be little to do with photography or filmmaking.

In 2026 many are predicting a global recession caused by the collapse of the tech industry and over-investment in AI. Like the credit crunch in 2008 and the dot-com bubble in 2000, the banks have been pouring cash into some very questionable investments, and there’s absolutely vast sums involved and enormous geo-political risk. China for example could end the whole Western dominance of the AI market in one move – by invading Taiwan, where TSMC manufactures NVidia’s AI hardware.

In both of the last major economic shocks, excluding COVID, corporations cut back heavily on their workforce, and ordinary tax payers had to bail out the financial institutions to avoid a collapse.

Japanese companies are known to be very risk averse – for example in the banking collapse of 2008, Honda pulled out of all major marketing activities even Formula One.

If Panasonic were to cut 30% of their global workforce, the axe would most likely fall on the sectors of the company that are smallest or least profitable, and ones that have the least potential for future growth.

Now that cameras have retreated into a professional niche again, there’s probably not room for so many Japanese manufacturers all competing against each other in a market dominated by Canon and Sony.

I predict that Panasonic’s LUMIX division, OM System and Pentax will be the victims of the 2026 financial crash.

I hope this won’t be the case but I do think the chances are very high.

A retreat from pro cameras

Panasonic Pro Services offer repair and service for all the major S-series cameras, like the Panasonic S1H, S5 Mark II and 2025’s new S1R Mark II / S1 Mark II.

Who will repair, recondition or service Panasonic’s top of the line models going forward?

In my opinion, Panasonic is soft-quitting the market for professional photographers and videographers. The S1H Mark II is missing completely, and it’s been 6 years. The S1R Mark II and S1 Mark II as we’ve already seen, are priced like flagship cameras but use a similar body to the consumer-grade S5 series and use older sensor designs which are considered lower-end technology, instead of the latest cutting edge stacked sensors used by competitors Sony, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm.

Hopefully Panasonic will be clarifying their service and repair plans for Lumix users in the coming days.

The post Panasonic closing down LUMIX Pro services on 30th November appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Fuji in many ways have taken over from Panasonic as the most highly rated niche creative force in the camera industry. Since they started taking video seriously with the X-T2, the green camp has got a lot of things right. The popularity of the X100 series. The purist photography experience of the X-Pro3, a camera I strangely really enjoy for video too. The GFX cameras have done extraordinarily well considering it’s carved out a whole new format, at very high prices. In fact, my all time favourite mirrorless camera of the last 15 years is the OG Fuji GFX 100.

But now it’s time for Fuji to get real about a full frame line-up.

There’s a big price gap between the X100 VI and GFX100RF for example, a camera which makes the Leica Q3 and Sony RX1 Mark III pricing look sane. Yet the market is begging, calling out for, insert cliched phrase here, for a full frame X100 VI with a sane price tag. Let’s face it, if you have silly money for a compact Leica is the only proper choice.

Full frame would solve other problems for Fuji too.

The X-Pro3 was a nice bold step into rangefinder land, but it’s in an odd place. It is neither a Leica M rangefinder, nor is it priced like one. It is not a Sony a7c Mark II competitor, but it IS priced like one. Nor is it really doing much to expand the popularity of XF-mount, and APS-C – because the X-H2 is a higher spec’ed, more modern do-it-all camera for the same price.

The way to differentiate the X-Pro series is to make it full frame and launch it alongside a new range of primes and a zoom. The initial lenses don’t even need to be that adventurous. Small primes, Leica M sized, and one small zoom – preferably a 28-70mm F2.8.

This would be joined by a 28mm F2, an 35mm F2 and a 50mm F1.4 which rather than aiming for technical perfection, go for character and small size instead.

Now you might say such a full frame adventure might kill the APS-C cameras, but you’d be wrong. You might say it would necessitate a price reduction on the high-end XF-mount cameras, and that the X-H2 would need to get even cheaper.

This has already been priced in. What dictates the price and sales numbers of the Fuji APS-C cameras are the mid-range full frame cameras from Sony, Nikon and Canon.

So the price of those nice XF mount cameras would stay the same.

What Fuji could definitely get away with is a higher price and higher margin on a full frame Fuji.

And a full frame Fuji is a what we need. Just ask me, who uses his GFX 100 not as a medium format camera but as a full frame mirrorless system.

I don’t have a single medium format lens for it, no native GFX mount lenses from Fuji. They’re big, clunky, expensive and slow.

What I like to do is adapt fast primes designed for full frame onto my GFX 100, and find what works the best. The rules are, no hard vignette, small, and with a very good quality mechanical focus ring.

These look glorious on the larger “Super full frame” sensor, unique in fact. So very different to sticking vintage glass on a full frame Sony.

So the GFX line will always have that same appeal – it’s an upgrade from full frame, but it’s never going to be mid-range, is it?

With so many mid-range full frame cameras eating Fuji’s carefully prepared APS-C breakfast, like the Nikon Z6 III, Sony a7 series and Canon EOS R8, it’s time Fuji told us that for just $500 more you could get something much more creative, with Fuji Film Simulations and X-Pro style Leica-ish ergonomics.

This would be the full frame camera that stands apart from a sea of black DSLR style mirrorless cameras, the sort of which are frankly all now a bit boring.

Fuji could even let Sigma swap the mount on their L-mount range to beef out the available optics at launch. It’s a no-brainer.

APS-C users will continue to buy APS-C cameras. GFX users will continue to flock to the high-end medium format bodies, but full frame users would have more reasons than ever to choose a Fujifilm.

The post Why it’s time for Fujifilm to go full frame appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Nikon are a strange company, and you could say that Japan is a strange country. Having made cameras for 100 years, you’d think Nikon would know a thing or two about marketing cameras. Nikon bought RED for the cinema brand prestige. The original pioneer in digital cinema, is now apparently too unimportant to deserve a proper RED badge on the front of the Nikon Zr, the first Cinema Z camera which is less Hollywood, more vlogger.

Strange as it may seem, I am currently a RED user.

Yes there’s been dark things in the past, abusive lawsuits, unkind words and even unkinder YouTube videos but EOSHD has a RED EPIC sitting on the shelf. I want to sell it… 2000 euros for those interested. But that’s besides the point…

RED was one of cinema’s most valuable brands. Nikon’s deal to buy the pioneers of digital Hollywood cinematography was a decision Panasonic should have taken. A masterstroke, which gives them the best RAW codec license-free and the best brand. What’s more RED sold at the right time – just as the cinema industry headed into a death spiral.

But Nikon’s first hybrid stills/video camera with RED tech, the soon to be announced Nikon Zr is a cheapening of the once great cinema brand.

With this first Nikon x RED camera (x as in kisses?), the Japanese corporation had the chance to make a big cinematic statement. Canon have already done so… long, long ago, when in late 2011 Martin Scorsese appeared on stage introducing the Cinema EOS C300. This was a proper cinema camera, aimed at indies and docus and even TV crews.

Nikon’s debut with Cinema Z is a strange one, they have entered not cinema but content creation.

The Sony ZV1E-look-alike is a significantly less Hollywood, more consumer-point&shoot camera than the latest Canon hybrid… which actually bothers to uses the word “Cinema” properly in its name, the Cinema EOS C50. The Zr seems to strip back on what made the Sony FX3 and soon the Canon C50 so popular with video people…

High spec, high build quality, serious looks, and Cinema branding (and cinema usage in terms of the FX3 in feature-film production).

This makes me think Nikon does not have a good plan for RED, and indeed does not know how to market the brand.

Will we be getting a higher-end ZR8 soon?

Unless they quickly follow-up with something more exciting, with the RED badge actually on it more prominently, with headline specs that are at least Z8-level, with 8K REDCODE RAW at 60fps and 4K 120fps without a crop, the RED brand risks becoming like Hasselblad in 2025… a patent holder for an Asian corporation, and a badge for some colour profiles.

It’s not that the Nikon Zr is a terrible camera, it’s a similar concept to what I wanted RED to make way back in 2012 in the DSLR video days.

It’s just that the reborn, revitalised Japanese version of RED deserved to hit the headlines with a big splash and a big dollop of CINEMA.

“Content creator” camera does not have quite the same value.

The post Has Nikon devalued RED’s CINEMA brand immediately with low-end content creator camera? appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

What do you get when you take the viewfinder hump of a mirrorless camera?

A cinema camera, apparently.

The Sony FX3 really seems to have set a trend, but there looks to be important differences between the C50 and Zr.

The Zr (below) looks to be a more YouTuber style of camera, and appears to sport a very large 16:9 aspect ratio screen. It’s rumoured to have 6K RAW video along with IBIS. A bit more like a Sony ZV1E than an FX3, perhaps. We’ve yet to see what RED technology it implements, whether it’ll shoot N-RAW or REDCODE.

Whereas the Cinema EOS C50 looks to be aimed at the higher-end of the market, around the $4K mark, it is rumoured to lack IBIS and the RF mount isn’t as flexible or adaptable as Nikon Z, but it is one of the first Canon mirrorless cameras to shoot open gate, with an anamorphic mode.

Rumoured C50 specs:

• 32MP FF sensor
• 7k internal Raw at 50fps
• 4k 120p
• Two base ISO of 800 and 6400
• Open Gate
• no IBIS
• no built-in ND’s
• 1 CF express Type B and 1 SD slot
• Price around 4.000 Euros

Rumoured Zr specs:

• 24MP partially stacked sensor (Z6 III)
• 6K RAW
• IBIS
• One SD card slot + one micro SD slot (Weird choice)
• Price expected to be around $2500

The C50 is set to be officially announced later today, with the Zr to follow tomorrow (10th September).

The post Nikon Zr and Canon Cinema EOS C50 pictured in the wild appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Canon will release a “Sony FX30” killer on September 9th. In a darkened teaser, Canon show the outline of the camera but brightening the image reveals some important details. The big red record button, and the Cinema EOS badge, a mirrorless camera style grip and twin control dials, as well as what looks like the very subtle outline of an EVF eye cup on the rear of the camera.

The model name of the camera hasn’t yet been announced, but given the EOS R50V as a recently announced entry level APS-C model we can expect this one to be called the Canon EOS R5V.

Rather than just a mere Sony FX30 competitor, the R5V could end-up being a high-end rival to the Sony FX3. Some rumours suggest the use of the full frame EOS R5 II sensor with 8K 60p and 4K 120p.

Canon is yet to enter the open gate anamorphic party but the rumours suggest the R5V could mark the debut of that feature too.

The Nikon Challenger

There’s also a suggestion on the EOSHD Forum that Nikon is preparing the announcement of a similar kind of camera with RED cinema camera technology – dubbed the Nikon Zr.

Stand-out features could be a new type of electronic ND technology on the Canon and Nikon bodies, as well as the long touted introduction of REDcode RAW on the Nikon Z-mount hybrid.

Nikon now holds a considerable patent advantage over Canon and Sony in cinema cameras.

Back in the RED DSMC days, the company held the patent for the Motion Mount which was an electronically variable ND filter which doubled as a global shutter. The modular swappable mount of the RED cameras allowed this Canon EF or PL mount to slot in an introduce the functionality. That’s an interesting patent Nikon now has in the arsenal for the rumoured Nikon Zr hybrid camera ecosystem.

Perhaps we can expect to see a Zr9, Zr8 and cheaper entry level Z50r cameras.

Meanwhile we get to find out what Canon has been up to on September 9th, don’t miss it.

The post Here is the new Canon Cinema EOS full frame mirrorless camera appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

This is like the higher-spec Lumix S9 with EVF and mechanical shutter I wanted Panasonic to make. For $2700 the Sony FX2 is an interesting beast but it does have a few major caveats. 1 – quite a slow sensor with a lot of rolling shutter in 24p. 2 – Sony still doesn’t have an internal RAW recording codec to call their own, or even ProRes RAW in the FX2 – it has external RAW output only via HDMI and only in APS-C crop. 3. Unfortunately there’s still also no internal ND of any kind, which is strange considering the electronic ND equipped Sony FS5 is now over 10 years old. Sort it out Sony!

Although it doesn’t break any new ground, the FX2 at least brings some welcome new features for video users for not much more money than the Sony a7 IV.

The new dynamic steady-shot looks fantastic for handheld walking shots of moving subjects, although it does incur a very big crop. Autofocus is the best on the market and far ahead of Panasonic. The FX2 is also the first full frame hybrid video-focused Sony camera to feature a fully articulated EVF, which sets it apart from the more expensive FX3 in a nice way, it being far better for stills for a start. Much higher resolution 33mp vs 12mp too.

The solid 33MP sensor (from the a7 IV) has a very nice image and unlike the Panasonic S9 the FX2 has a mechanical shutter, in part because the sensor is rather slow and can’t get by without it. It has quite a bit of rolling shutter in the full pixel readout modes, and there’s no 4K/120p like the a7S III or FX3, and 4K/60p 10bit 422 is limited to Super 35mm crop mode only like the a7 IV.

The Venice UI for filmmakers and a quick video access panel, along with active cooling and 16bit RAW HDMI output round out an impressive feature-set for the price, with the camera being aimed at a very broad section of the market – enthusiasts and pros alike, including the people formerly known as artists and filmmakers that our modern corporate dystopia likes to call “content creators” and “influencers” instead, whose job it is to create content for consumption and influencing consumers to spend more money.

What use are we if we’re not either creating or consuming?

So just to TLDR…

a7 IV spec in an FX3 form factor, with nice articulated EVF, great stabilisation, mechanical shutter, but quite a slow sensor readout and no internal RAW codec or ND.

It’ll certainly be a nice camera to pick up used for under $2k in a few months.

Comment on the EOSHD Forum

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A Fujifilm JPEG-only half-frame toy for 850 smackers, the latest Sony flagship for 7000 something + tax, and the new mid-range “standard model” S1 II from Panasonic yours for a bargain $4000 with ‘basic’ kit zoom. It all begs the question, have the Japanese lost the plot?

In the UK right now, I look at the “real” price of cameras – that is used items in very good condition. These are the prices that the customer decides are worth paying. The Panasonic S9 which launched for £1699 just a few months ago (body only) is now fetching a measly £750 at most retailers in mint condition, with the box and all accessories. It has been a total and abject failiure, the point where Panasonic has had to discount up to £800 off the box price (new) with the new 18-40mm kit lens. The fact remains this – Panasonic was asking for more than double what people were willing to pay, and for a “influencer camera” £700 more than the latest iPhone 16 Pro with a cutting edge camera.

I look at the global market situation, and the prices were crazy long before crazy US tariffs. Most foreign currency like the British pound or the Euro when converted to Japanese Yen now has a very favourable exchange rate for the Japanese corporations. When they repatriate their foreign income, they’re making more per £, € or $ than they did before, and unlike at the peak of Japanese industry most of their costs and manufacturing are outsourced to China or Vietnam, with cheaper labour and less need than before to pay so many more expensive Japanese wages. Camera sales have been generally going down and surely the way one encourages better sales is to lower prices. The Japanese have done the opposite, they have price gouged their most loyal customers on everything, from lenses to lens hoods, from cameras to lens adapters, it is an absolute joke of a business.

Overall meanwhile the price of consumer electronics continues to fall, you get more and more capability for your money, even from Apple. In every way, the Japanese camera companies are bucking the trend and giving us higher and higher prices, and shipping fewer and fewer units. Even at $7000 the Sony a1 II has been almost impossible to get hold of because they are shipping so few of them.

The depreciation when you drive your new camera off the forecourt is in some cases extremely scary.

There’s also now a trend for the popular mid-range models to cost the same as a flagship camera from a few years ago – in the region of $3500 to $4000. Panasonic who are forever chasing market share and trying to establish their new full frame line-up, officially took leave of their senses only this month with the launch of the S1 Mark II at over $3000, and closer to $4000 if you want a basic zoom lens.

Then again, looking at just the average price of full frame cameras over the last 12 months results in a new “normal retail price” of $4350. Looking at unit shipment levels of cameras and we are almost at 1999 levels, before even the launch of the first affordable DSLR and first decently performing compact camera.

And now presumably thinking they are being clever, Fujifilm have come along with a small sensor compact camera that doesn’t shoot RAW, with a slow to autofocus, slow aperture 10mm F2.8 lens (not even F1.8), that takes worse photos than a smartphone with less capability and no zoom, but appeals to the crowd of hipsters who want a compact film camera without the effort and don’t realise the Sony RX1 exists for $750 on eBay.

For this admittedly cute and different fashion trinket, Fuji has for some reason decided to aim for the $850 mark which is in X-T30 II territory, or similar to a used X100F. APS-C money for a 1 inch vertical crop sensor and terrible AF?

It’s getting to the point where I might never buy a new camera again.

The post Camera prices – Have the Japanese taken leave of their senses? appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Nikon is expected to bring RED technology, including the famous REDCODE RAW recording format to a camera resembling the Sony FX3. According to Nikon Rumors, it will be dubbed the Nikon Zr (R for RED). Panasonic is also expected to launch an FX3 competitor, whilst Sony themselves are to launch a cheaper FX2 with the same sensor as the a7 IV. All in all, it could be an interesting Summer for filmmakers.

In terms of specs, here’s what’s expected:

• 6K REDCODE RAW at 60fps
• N-RAW remains, and also ProRes
• Partially stacked 24 megapixel sensor, same as the Z6 III
• Built-in RED LUTs and Real-Time LUT recording feature
• No EVF or mechanical shutter
• Still a photography hybrid camera, RAW shooting at 20fps
• Price expected to be in the region of $4.5k
• 14bit sensor readout in 6K, 14.5 stop dynamic range

It’s also expected to be one of the first mirrorless cameras with a screen size beyond just 3.5 inches. This is something I have been asking for, for a very long time. It isn’t yet known whether the camera features a certain other RED technology – Motion Mount.

Motion Mount was an electronic ND system for the original DSMC cameras, which added a global shutter by making the filter act like a traditional mechanical rotary shutter, from a film camera. RED owned the patent for this and it is one of the reasons we are yet to see widespread adoption of electronic ND filters in mirrorless cameras, with Sony coming close on one occasion at the launch of the FS5 and then doing nothing else with the technology.

Of all the companies it will be most interesting to watch Nikon enter the filmmaking market for real, after the success of the Z9 and Z8. All the ingredients are there to make something quite groundbreaking, with the best RAW codec and finally a way to expose an image at 180 degree shutter, something so basic you’d think it would be built into a sensor by now, rather than needing a comedically primitive array of screw-thread ND filters.

Another interesting development could be Fujifilm’s answer to the more video-oriented hybrid cameras. Already stepping into the high-end market of cinema with the ETERNA camera, the basis is there with the X-H2S to do a very nice FX3-style camera.

The problem for Fuji however is that the modern Netflix and cinema standard is now full frame, Super-35, not so much. They don’t have a mirrorless lens system for full frame, unless you count the GFX lenses and add a crop.

So it could be the perfect time for Fujifilm to bring out a full frame camera.

What do you think? Have your say on the EOSHD Forum topic for this post here…

Comment on the forum

The post What to expect from Nikon’s first RED mirrorless camera, the Nikon Zr appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Are Panasonic open to some honest feedback?

I can only hope so.

My current camera collection is addict-level huge, but I use my Nikon Z8, Fujifilm GFX 100 and an X-Pro3 the most. I also have a lot of fun with my Sigma Fp-L, but only with Leica M mount lenses and not the native glass. I had a Sony a1, but sold it (and regretted it), that one will be coming back the moment the used price drops to £3k.

Speaking of £3000, that’s a lot of money for consumer electronics in 2025 isn’t it? When I was emailed the wrong S1 II pricing information by the PR agency Panasonic is using to contact me (they no longer do directly – the price for being a fact-based journalist in 2025), I queried it and it seems they had sent the wrong pricing to everyone and mixed up the S1 II and S1 IIE.

This is truly amateur hour stuff but it points to a deeper issue with Panasonic’s strategy and why they might leave the camera market before too much longer.

EOSHD has been going 15 years from the start of the mirrorless filmmaking revolution with the Panasonic GH1 in 2010 and of course the DSLRs, starting with the 5D Mark II. Some of you will know the history of it, and recognise that Panasonic have been one of the most creative in terms of products.

The Panasonic GH1 was pioneering, the first hybrid mirrorless camera aimed at filmmakers, followed-up with a nice image quality improvement on a very fast product cycle, with the GH2 and GH3. In 2014 came the GH4 bringing 4K to the masses first before even Sony or Canon had thought of a reply. In the meantime Panasonic were keeping themselves busy with Leica as well, gearing up for the 2015 release of the full frame Leica SL, which they co-engineered. Despite all this Osaka still found time to give us the first 4K high-end compact with the LX100 and charged consumer prices for the GH4 and GH5, unlike Canon with the $15k 1DC. The 2018 launch of the original S series full frame Panasonic cameras capped an impressive 8 years in the mirrorless market.

Now I don’t blame the old guard for retiring after such an amazing run, if thats what some of the most senior Japanese geniuses have done. Same goes for the marketing people too. But you have to make sure those replacing you know their stuff.

For some reason, since the full frame cameras launched in 2018, the product planning has been a total mess in my opinion. The move to full frame was done without a reliable autofocus system which was a terrible error and the initial cameras were too big and heavy compared to the Sony Alpha and Panasonic GH series.

The full frame cameras came at the cost of curtailing sales of their existing Micro Four Thirds cameras, and the GH6 bombed.

I’m sorry Panasonic but the S1 II and S5 II are just so derivative.

Where is the full frame equivalent to Panasonic’s lovely rangefinder-style GX9?

I’ll give you a clue, it ain’t the S9 as that has no EVF or mechanical shutter, and it’s too chonky. It’s aimed at social media influencers and beginners.

Where is the mould-breaking S1H II we have all been dreaming of, finally a solution to fucking exposure for fucks sake at 180 degree shutter, I am starting to think an eND filter is just completely beyond all the Japanese companies.

Where is the answer to China? Their rise to the very top of the imaging technology tree with AI and smartphones has gone completely without a reply from Japan.

Where’s Panasonic with the S1 II and S1R II back in 2020 when Canon brought out the EOS R5 and R6, where were they in 2021 when the 8K, stacked sensor Sony a1 came along shortly followed by the Nikon Z9? They have let the competition stack up unanswered for 7 years since the original S1 launch.

But now in 2025 it’s suddenly party time, or is it attack of the clones?

The S5 II seems to have been cloned and now all of a sudden have FIVE almost identical cameras, all but one are standard 24 megapixel cameras, in the same body design! This many similar models are confusing for customers and just creates a load of cannibalisation. The S5D, S5 II, S5 IIX, S1 IIE and S1 II only seem to compete against each other. Only one of these needed to exist and that was the S1 II. It needed to exist sooner, at least 3 years sooner instead of the silly original S5, not ages later after the Canon EOS R6 II and Sony a7 IV had joined the party.

Throw in the S1R II and Panasonic S9 and this brings the total number to 7 “2nd generation” L-mount cameras in the space of 2 years.

Crazy.

The differences would take a heck of a lot of explaining to the average customer.

I also think that although the Lumix S9 is a fun little camera, it was the worst marketing and high-profile launch I’ve ever seen for as long as I’ve been around with EOSHD (in 15 years that is). It was confused, disorganised, they invited the wrong people and nobody had really asked for an S9 anyway.

Was this camera some sort of knee-jerk reaction to the rise of content creators and vloggers? OK, fine, but had Panasonic put a bit more thought into this new range, they’d have realised that a higher-end camera with EVF and mechanical shutter would have finally given all those rangefinder form factor aficionados a reason to buy a Panasonic.

In the Micro Four Thirds days, they had a shower of enthusiast level rangefinder-style cameras with EVFs and mechanical shutters and now in the full frame era they have a big fat zero. None of this makes any sense.

Why was this popular form factor leapt upon by Panasonic and then abandoned, seemingly for no reason?

You can only assume that Panasonic thought that an Instagram camera could gain them significant sales. I don’t think the strategy has worked. A full frame GX8, or GX9 style camera, think of the incredible interest that would have generated in the era of the Fujifilm X100 VI, X-Pro3 or Sony a7c II, and not just from across the spectrum of different camera-brand users, but from Panasonic’s own customers – a ton of GX85, or GX9 users are STILL waiting for a full frame upgrade with the same compact body and rangefinder ergonomics, and the S9 was evidently not it.

The other major problem I have with the new cameras is the pricing. With the kit lens we are talking £3600 in the UK for the S1 II and the S1 IIE with kit lens is £3000 once you swap the figures around in the PR agency’s email so that they stand upright. The body-only prices are also too high, at £2899 and £2399 respectively. Just as worryingly this has been the case with the Micro Four Thirds G9 II as well, and the GH7. Too high.

Panasonic have built their reputation on value for money. What’s happened?

You can’t blame tariffs, as these are the UK prices. The real US prices are likely to be even higher once the cameras ship, depending on what the political rollercoaster is doing there.

In the case of the G9 II, how many people are clamouring to spend £2k on a 2x crop sensor camera? You can get a very good mid-range full frame camera for less.

How many are going to want to commit £3000 (£3600 with kit lens), for a mid-range L-mount camera? It’s not a Leica SL3. It’s basically an S5 with a faster sensor. L-mount is not Sony E. The much more popular lens mounts are E, Nikon Z and Canon EOS R. Added to that, the fact that the closest competitors to the S1 II are all a lot cheaper (Nikon Z6 III) and came out much earlier spells trouble… The Nikon Z6 III and Canon EOS R6, even the good old Sony a7 IV have been out for ages and already discounted at much more attractive prices than £3000.

But 2.4:1 cinemascope is nice, I guess?

No really, I do like real-time LUTs. Love the 2.4:1 look. In stills mode I love the Panasonic “XPAN” style wide aspect ratios, great for framing up a RAW or JPEG, and Fujifilm still don’t offer this (such a simple thing!) on any XF cameras, only on the medium format GFX models.

I like Panasonic’s commitment to anamorphic modes.

I like the introduction of 32bit audio. I love V-LOG, the image quality is very good. Panasonic’s codecs are excellent, such a wide array of modes.

Clearly somebody in engineering is doing the right thing, only for the product planners and marketing to make a total mess of it.

Anyway, about the pricing… if you are Canon, Sony or Nikon you’d probably get away with it, but Panasonic?

£3K for an S1 II?

They don’t have anything with a flagship sensor in it, they have no stacked sensor, no proprietary internal RAW codec like N-RAW or BRAW, and then someone made the silly decision to have the middling S5 II form the basis of all future camera bodies.

Then there’s the small matter of autofocus. Out of all the major mirrorless brands, the latest Panasonic cameras are still only 5th behind Sony in 1st, Nikon in 2nd, Canon in a close 3rd overall and you could say OM System in 4th as well as the OM-1 II is very good in this regard. Only Fuji and Sigma have dodgier overall autofocus systems and Pentax is still bouncing light off mirrors like it’s the 18th century.

Is the S1 II a badly designed, poorly spec’ed camera in 2025? No, it’s merely an overpriced mid-range camera that we waited 7 years for, and during that time the other brands have been going gangbusters with stacked sensors, 8K 60p internal RAW and cutting edge autofocus.

Panasonic will have to do more, if they want to avoid spiralling into sales oblivion.

The post The Panasonic S1 II pricing is wrong – so is the entire product strategy appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Now we get to set up our quantum computer to work out which codec is active in which crop mode.

Have you ever felt that you’re in the wrong body. The S1 II must feel it, being in the body of a low-to-mid range camera when it is actually the first proper sensor and spec upgrade Panasonic has made since the original S1 in 2018. We have waited 7 years for it.

The S1 II has a new 2025 sensor, with two dynamic range modes and open gate 6K/60p.

The S1 IIe has an older, slower sensor – likely the same as the S5 II, but will also do 6K/60p if you enable letterbox format in 2.4:1. The open gate 6K is capped to 30p.

The more expensive £3500 S1 II has a 4K/120p mode, pixel binned like the existing rival cameras from Canon, Sony and Nikon. It’s good to see this feature on the S1 II.

Again however the S1 IIe model lacks this, and 4K/60p also requires a 2.4:1 crop, with 16:9 and DCI 4K 16:9 format being capped at 30p.

Unfortunately both the cheaper and more expensive cameras feature exactly the same body, the same 5.76 million dot EVF with 120hz refresh rate, same autofocus system, Dual Native ISO (V-LOG) of 640/5000 on the S1 II, the mechanical shutter rate is the same at 10fps, the stabilisation is the same, it would have been nice to see a bit more differentiation in design and features between the S1 II vs the S1 IIe or indeed the “basic model” S5 II.

Apart from the new sensor, they are all a bit too similar for my liking.

It remains to be seen whether the new sensor, which is only a 24 megapixel design, partially stacked, makes it’s way into the S1H II and whether the S1H II will take the form of an S5 II as well, or changes to a body closer to the Sony FX3 shorn of an EVF. Neither option appeals to me, but if I had to choose I’d probably take the FX3-type design.

Now something that’s also mentioned in the leak is a 70fps electronic shutter, which should please the sports and wildlife photography crowd. That’s a good improvement over the S1 Mark IIe which is capped at 30fps with the old sensor.

S1 II headline video modes:

• Standard frame rates: 5.9K/60p 17:9, 5.1K/60p Open Gate, 4.8K/60p 4:3 Anamorphic Mode
• High frame rates: 4K/120 binned, 1080p/240.
• Crop modes: 3.3K 120p 4:3 (1:1 crop) and 4K/120p 16:9 and 17:9 (upscaled from 3.3K?) in APS-C mode
• The standard frame rates 60/50/30/25/24p are also available in crop mode.

S1 IIe headline video modes:

• Standard frame rates: 6K/30p Open Gate, 6K/60p 2.4:1 Letterbox Mode, 4K/60p 2.4:1
• High frame rates: 1080p/180fps, there’s no frame rate higher than 60p in the 3K,4K or 6K modes but there is a S&Q 4K 60p mode in 2.4:1 letterbox
• Crop modes: 3.3K 60p 4:3 (1:1 crop) and 4K/60p 16:9 and 17:9 (upscaled from 3.3K?) in APS-C mode
• The standard frame rates 60/50/30/25/24p are also available in crop mode.

The S1 II with the new sensor is interesting but the price is set too high, at £3500.

The most similar model I can think of is the Nikon Z6 III, but the S1 II has a broader range of video modes and frame rates. The 4K/120p for example is preferable on the S1 II as it doesn’t crop.

But beyond the same features we’ve been used to from Panasonic since the S5 II, there’s little to write about.

There’s no fully stacked sensor, or 8K, there’s no Panasonic RAW codec, only ProRes RAW, no built in eND or other innovations I’d like to see before I die.

There’s no longer a top panel LCD, which is a pity because the one on the S1H is the best there is, up there with the GFX 100 II. I know a top panel LCD isn’t top of the features list, but it’s a useful high-end touch that would have helped make the S1 II look at home along side other £3500 cameras like the Nikon Z8.

As I remarked in previous posts I think Panasonic have lost their spark of creativity and that uniqueness that helped them to stand out from other cameras that had locked most users into one of three leading mounts. For L-mount to win these users over we needed more, and we haven’t had it. The 7 year gap is deeply problematic, and I believe the company is heading for a troubled period where they will not have the level of R&D funds available to dig themselves out of a single figure market share in mirrorless cameras, having started the 2010s on double digits.

A lot more imagination and risk taking is required than Panasonic are giving us at the moment.

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According to Wikipedia, the sony a7 came out in October 2013. I remember it well. What if Sony then decided to follow The Great Panasonic Strategy, and really follow through on delivering one full frame mega-hit after the other?

In 2014 Sony then released the first a7s, a hybrid-focused filmmaking full frame camera. Let’s call it the Sony S1H for short.

Luckily that was not all and photographers had something fun to play with as well… The Sony S1R with that thing photographers love above everything else… megapixels.

So having established the basic model, the video model and the megapixels model – Sony were off to a flying start. Only one problem, all their customers were using incompatible lenses, and none of the cameras could autofocus properly.

So consulting once more The Great Panasonic Strategy for success, Sony decided to sit it out for 7 years and do nothing. No more flagship cameras for you!

(OK that isn’t strictly true… We did get the fantastic Sony a5, a cut price entry level camera which also couldn’t autofocus).

So fast forward 7 years on from 2013, and the world is having a terrible time.

There’s a deadly plague, and fascism is on the rise even in Sweden.

At this point Sony decides to come back… Finally that Sony s1R is going to get a long-awaited update after 7 years in the wilderness. But not yet.

First Sony must invite everyone who is expecting a Sony a7s successor to Tokyo, to see a camera aimed at Chinese Instagrammers.

The Sony S9 is born! Finally the camera can autofocus, which is very important as the main purpose of it is to be pointed at your own head or to be stuck on a tripod pointed at a desk. The camera operator no longer sits behind the camera but in front of it!

For that reason, suddenly the screens all start to pivot and swivel in all manner of ways, none of them very elegant or very good.

By this time, Sony looks over their shoulder expecting to see Canon, only to release that the only company in the rearview is Pentax.

Finally Panasonic (I mean Sony) can hike their prices.

Instead of £2000, the Sony a7 II… sorry s1 II… can be £3500, but fear not we’ll release the old camera again for £2800 with a kit lens that bumps it up to £3800. Makes sense to me.

What letter designation should this worse product have? It shouldn’t be S, as that stands for…

Speed! It has an 8 year old sensor design so that doesn’t fit.

Maybe X? Nope, as that’s reserved for cameras where you want the customer to pay Apple for a codec.

How about H? Well they’ve used that before, and although it is a Hybrid camera, it’s not High End.

So that only leaves us with one option… It has to be E!

What does the Grand Panasonic Strategy manual say about E? Does it stand for extra? Expensive? End-game? Or eeeeek, I haven’t a clue!

Apparently the E doesn’t stand for anything, much like Panasonic’s brand.

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Dear assembled tech progressives, it’s been a pleasure to attend the rally here in Berlin. Truly a privilege to address so many of you – especially you Tim! – from all corners of the 1935 business community. Deeply humbled I stand here in awe of the courage and bravery you have all shown towards your share prices, let alone the brave battle against inequality, racism and fascism and the manner in how you fight it – By wining and dining the Nazi party leaders at lunch, and giving them a 30% cut of all your imports – negotiated down from 50% already!

None of this would be possible of course, without the Pineapple Time Machine Pro (Bleak History Edition).

Yes… I see you Tim! OK not such a good first year of sales was it? We saw a lot of returns as a result of a firmware bug which only allowed our customers to travel to 1931 (many are still with us today in fact) but we would not be here ourselves today without it.

I won’t sugarcoat it, 2025 had been a terrible year for business. Our inteligentCamera had suffered numerous hallucinations. In some of the photos, fellow silicon valley bosses were depicted doing fascist salutes, and in other pictures the American President himself (of all people!) was pictured in front of a board of economically illiterate tariffs. If his supporters were economically literate they’d be very upset, especially as they’re the ones going to be paying.

Alas none of this is a problem here in the glorious 1930s, thanks to Tim’s Time Machine Pro. As people of such impeccable moral principals, we’ve always wondered what would indeed happen should a brave likeminded bunch of democratic freedom fighters went back in time to the Nazi era? How many lives would we save? How many phones would we sell? And now we’re finding out in real-time that we fit right in like Jack Nicholson in a black and white photo!

We’re on course to change history and get really rich doing so. We don’t have all these dinners with Hitler just here to increase stakeholder value although that is a big reason. No, we also want to extend the demographic of our marketing to Germany. We do this also to make Hitler feel a bit better about himself and calm him down a bit. It isn’t easy ruling over every aspect of everybody’s lives and leading the country down a destructive path of racism and territorial expansion. Especially when your incontinence pants keep leaking.

I’d like to introduce to you on stage now a special guest, one of our best marketing strategists and the pioneer in split time period sales and promotions. Why sell in one fascist era when you can do it in two?

Welcome to the stage Johnny!

Hello everybody, what a pleasure it is to be here in person reaching out directly to the 1930s to ask if they want their timeline back.

The genius of all of you assembled here today is in our collective activism, leading to the discovery that all our progressive marketing from 2025 seems to work the same in 1935 too. What a coincidence! The tight control of journalism with NDAs and embargo deadlines! The propaganda channels of YouTube with Gerald Done and Fro Knows Nothing. Some of our best social media influencers have even managed to get plumb jobs at the Reichstag!

Now we all know there are dissenting voices in the room. Yes, our dear old grandparents!

Some of them are even here today in this room, in much younger form [laughter]– but some sadly cannot join us here in Berlin as they’ve been taken away somewhere even worse. Look, it won’t be that bad, trust me! [Laughter]

You know who doesn’t dissent? Our very own sons and daughters! They don’t have any memory of history and no memory of history classes either as they spent the time more productively logged into Facesucker. And as for us… we’re just finding out as we go along! [Raucous Laughter]

I just had a call only yesterday with my lovely daughter, 18 years old today and brought up to believe that freedom is the most important value we have, which is why she voted for our dear leader.

Freedom from the baggage of history, freedom from the anchor of time, from lessons learnt past, unburdened by what has been.

Now we are selling in two historic periods simultaneously, we can’t stand by and just be bystanders as the 1930s evolve into what we now know in history as one of the most legendary earnings call ever especially for Pete’s Nazi army supplier, great company by the way Pete!

I hear your cheers, everyone – let’s raise our glasses again to Pete, to Tim and Jeff. Oh and Mark I almost forgot, whose family unfortunately can’t join us today but we’re working on it, I’ll ask nicely and shuffle some future calls onto the Führer’s trading app.

I want to draw this evening to a close now with a rapturous piece of music by Wagner.

The post What will our tech leaders do in 1930s Germany? Let’s find out appeared first on EOSHD.com - Filmmaking Gear and Camera Reviews.

Client journalism, you see it at the White House. Bunch of tossers, bunch of boot lickers, the same people who appeased the ruling party in 1930s Germany. Panasonic comes along, dying brand and says hey EOSHD – can you sign an NDA, it’s 25k fine if you leak it to L-mount rumours dot com. Oh really? That happens with every release doesn’t it? But apparently that’s £25k if I should open my fucking mouth about it though. For me I should shut up and value this “relationship”, drink the S1 II koolaid and get on with it…go and get wined and dined as if I have the principals of Bill Maher at the Trump dinner with his village idiots.

No.

I don’t care if they never invite me to another launch again, I am having no part of it.

The brand’s dead, the mount’s dead, and it’s entirely Panasonic’s doing. There are better options across the board. I was last invited to a Panasonic launch in January 2022, I can’t even remember what it was. S5 II maybe.

Since my sister died they have not even sent me a proper email. Let alone replaced the S1H II I had on loan, which promptly bricked itself.

The only journalist that goes to a Panasonic launch is a dead journalist.

If you want to see the death of journalism, sign that NDA.

Go and observe the social media twits and ask them what they’ll do for a career once the YouTube algorithm forgets who they are or even whether they existed to begin with.

Inevitably, the very day I was due at the fancy Knightsbridge restaurant the leaks begin, showing up the whole exclusivity for what it is… a vain charade of the untalented celebrating the mediocre.

LEAKED images of the new S1II, S1IIE and 24-60mm lens!

And it isn’t just the leak that pisses me off it’s the product.

Not cutting edge, not creative, not appealing to anyone with a Sony or a Canon or Nikon, not interesting in terms of the design because it’s a 2022 camera body with a new sensor and that’s about it.

It’s absolutely pathetic.

Panasonic’s legendary team in Japan has been replaced by teenagers and incels.

They’ve abandoned completely any sense of culture or art.

That’s only my opinion but the market will decide, and indeed you can say it has already.

On less than 5% market share, the marketing idiots in Knightsbridge want loyal long-time customers like me to celebrate their failure.

I will never do that.

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