Panasonic S1: full-frame mirrorless camera makes London debut

I wonder if having a Leica L-mount can be taken as an indication that this camera will work better with Leica M- and R-mount lenses than other non-Leica mirrorless cameras have so far.

- Murray
 
The Leica SL works best with M and R lenses. Since Leica and Panasonic have collaborated on Panaleica lenses and compact digital bodies for years, the FF Panasonic may well be built to be friendly to M/R lenses, but the emphasis is going to be L-mount AF lenses.

Leica CL and TL/T also handle M lenses well, since their crop factor poses no corner problems (as all WA M-lenses did on the original Sony A7). However, My A7 Kolari handles M lenses fine, and you can have a used A7 Kolarified for about $400, whereas the cheapest SL body I’ve seen is still $3400, and no one yet knows whether this Panasonic will play nice with adapted M lenses.

Sigma for its part plans to build a FF Foveon L-mount body. (Imagine being able to adapt M-and R-lenses to Foveon resolution! Maybe their developing software will improve as a side effect.) They plan to shift their production emphasis to L-mount, phasing out the native SA mount while providing L-adapters for SA lenses.

In any event, it’s nice to see the spirit of collaboration among these companies; maybe we’ll benefit from a sort of Velvet Revolution in camera/lens compatibility. I’m pretty committed to Leica and Sigma these days, so will be following L-mount development with real interest.

More detailed discussion can be found on Leica Users Forum—search for “L-mount”—and presumably on Panasonic-/Sigma-centric fora too, as well as the usual rumor-mongering photo-clickbait sites.
 
Looks good.

I wonder if Leica will release to Panasonic their lens profile libraries for S, M, and R lenses that enable them to image cleanly on all the digital Ms, CL, T/TL/TL2, and SL bodies? These profiles are in the Leica cameras' firmware load, and are available when triggered by the Leica M Adapter L, R Adapter M, R Adapter L, and S Adapter L mount adapters either via the direct ROM reader (R Adapter L and S Adapter L) or via the six-bit code reader (M Adapter L and R Adapter M).

Beyond that, it looks like Panasonic has done a good job with the body and expanded the versatility and use of the SL (and maybe TL) series Leica lenses. Presumably both Panasonic and Sigma will offer some more lenses at a lower price point as well. It's a great expansion of value for Leica SL system owners.

(BTW: I have seen imaging differences beyond just EXIF data using my six-bit M and R lenses on the CL. The lens profiles enable some very subtle image rendering changes and corrections to keep the lenses' imaging intent as consistent as possible on every Leica body they are used on. Having the sensor stack designed in such a way as to enable a good optical match is very important, but there is more to it than just that for best performance.)

G
 
xayraa33 said:
It looks very nice.

Its supposed dual card slot is a step in the right direction.

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/panasonic-s1-full-frame-mirrorless-camera-makes-london-debut
Click to expand...

The Leica SL has had dual SD card slots since it was released in 2015.

While there may be differences in slot performance between the SL and these new bodies, it's not an overwhelmingly new thing—just the benefit of a few years development time to the technology and hardware available at the time of design...

G
 
Video specifications of GH5 are much better.
As a photo camera it has a lot of competition at lower price.
I like the size.
Don't like the huge LCD panel, which as others noted, could have been replaced by a smaller panel and a wheel
I don't mind AF technology, also because it will save us banding
If really it has an edge with adapted Leica M and R lenses this would be a great plus
All in all It looks to me a mixed bag
Will it catch on?
My two cents
 
Leica glass works better with my M than my Nikon Z7, after all the excitement that this might not be the case died down... Even if Panasonic got Leica profiles what matters is the sensor cover thickness. And there is no guarantee here as the camera is designed for optimum use with native lenses, not Leica M lenses.

This camera is really expensive, but the S1 is still $600 CHEAPER than the latest Olympus m43 camera!
 
It looks very exciting, although I have doubts about using it much for personal work. I spent a few years lugging around a 5D Mark II with 24-105L, and as good as the images were, it was heavy and clunky. After I went Leica, and even smaller, I haven't wanted to look at bigger cameras again. These days I've gone extra small, with the Sony RX0 as my daily camera!

But I shot paid work with the 5D Mark II, and I feel like I could do it with the S1, what with it being a good mix of stills and video quality. The GH5 is a better video camera, but the S1 would be more than adequate for most of my projects, and the stills capability would be way ahead of current m43 models.
 
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