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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