The S1RII options Panasonic’s newest phase-detection autofocus, which has significantly better topic recognition and monitoring algorithms. The S1RII can acknowledge folks, animals (canine, cat, hen), automobiles, motorbike and bikes, trains, and airplanes. In my testing, Panasonic’s topic monitoring system could be very almost nearly as good as what you may discover in Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Fujifilm. It wasn’t essentially the most effective for every part—for instance, Nikon stands out as higher at monitoring birds—however it’s an all-around strong autofocus system that does not miss a lot.
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
What I didn’t like isn’t what it does, however what it might probably’t do—particularly, cease monitoring a topic when in subject-tracking mode. For instance, if I’m monitoring my canine enjoying on the seaside within the early morning and wish to cease for a second and shoot the dawn, on my Sony and Fujifilm I can faucet the screens and change the main focus 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 superb job of monitoring every part I requested it to. Oddly although, it has the toughest time with people. Typically in a crowd of individuals, it could lose the topic, one thing that does not normally occur in my testing of Nikon, Canon, and Sony cameras. Whereas Panasonic’s autofocus system is certainly quicker and extra correct than earlier variations, it isn’t flawless. I do not discover this a deal breaker in any respect (I nonetheless shoot many handbook focus lenses), however it could be value testing with a rental in case you shoot numerous sports activities or wildlife.
Picture High quality
I’ve at all times favored Panasonic’s shade rendition for its neutrality. It isn’t heat, it isn’t cool, it is nearly completely within the center. The one place I noticed this fluctuate a bit with the S1RII is in pores and skin tones on my youngsters, who regarded just a little pinkish in some lighting situations, however in any other case I didn’t discover any shade rendering oddities. Dynamic vary is excellent. I used to be in a position to elevate shadows in RAW recordsdata 2-3 stops with out actually even needing to cope with noise.