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Cameras

Panasonic S1II E Review Update: Does it Matter for Photographers?

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 12/11/2025
12/17/2025
3 Mins read
A Lumix S1R camera rests on an open magazine with photos of buildings and people.
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We’ve updated our Panasonic S1II E review for photographers — which means that we didn’t test all the new video stuff. Photographers should know that this is a pretty minor update overall. The S1II E is the S5 II’s sensor with new externals and a new processor. It’s a pretty good camera in many ways, but it surely is just the “Essentials” more than anything else. Our updated text is below, but you can check out the full review at this link.

Update December 2025

These updates are minor but nice additions for photographers. At the moment, there aren’t many lenses that really support wildlife photographers. But if you happen to get your hands on one, then the new pre-shooting burst setting might be really nice.

As for autofocus on people, LUMIX hasn’t had this problem for a while. However, you should know that this works best with the AF-C mode on and with the wide area selected. I state this because for a while, I’ve been trying to shoot more and more like a luddite to keep my brain even more engaged with the photography process and to stop exporting brain tasks to the camera. Basically, I’ve been shooting like the camera is a DSLR. In fact, some of my recent work hasn’t involved photographing humans, it has instead involved photographing products and food.

With that said, these changes are nice. But I encourage photographers to remember to not outsource all tasks to a camera lest it replace you.

In the case of the S1II E, I’ve found it to not be as powerful at working with LUTs as the S9 is with the latest firmware. What I mean by that is that sometimes setting and locking the white balance or a few other settings just isn’t possible. But it is with the S9 and the S1R II. This could be because the S1II E is more or less the S5 II. And that, to me, is quite odd – because I thought the s9 was also the S5 II more or less.

LUMIX S1RII Firmware Ver. 1.3 / S1II Ver. 1.2 / S1IIE Ver. 1.2 updates

  1. Improved thermal control algorithm: This enables photographers to shoot videos for a longer duration without any adverse effects on their shoots due to environmental factors.
  2. Lower-speed option: This addition is ideal for SH burst shooting, including pre-burst shoots
  3. AF improvement: The new updates will allow the cameras to automatically recognise frames for the main subject while autofocusing. There is also an AF frame display, which enables human eye recognition, and it can be set to rectangular while focusing. Last is the enhanced AF tracking, which has been improved through an algorithm.
  4. Video features: The cameras will now have a new low-bitrate video format, ‘MP4 (lite).’ It can be set to 3.8K (3840×2560) 29.97p/25.00p 50Mbps
  5. Improved compatibility: The cameras will now be more compatible with the interchangeable lens S-R100500 and teleconverter (DMW-STC14/STC20).
  6. Support for LUMIX Smartphone App, LUMIX Flow Ver.1.4: The cameras now also have an external motor function, which allows for applying LUTs to live view, displaying multiple frame markers, and showing focus frames.

Other Improvements:

  • An icon indicating that the preview effect is disabled will be displayed on the shooting screen when [Constant Preview] is set to [OFF].
  • ISO Auto can be set in the [ISO Displayed Setting] menu in the Custom Menu.
  • A bug that caused the live view quality to differ between standby mode and video recording mode when applying false color has been fixed.
  • Added a 1.6x display option for the Anamorphic Desqueeze Display.
  • The base ISO sensitivity can now be visible on the ISO sensitivity setting screen when Dual Native ISO is set to AUTO.
  • The default setting for functions registered to the sub video recorder button has been changed to “No Setting” in both Photo Mode and Playback Mode.
  • The processing time for focus stacking has been improved through algorithm enhancements.
  • A menu has been added that allows you to display the live view with the same quality during both standby and video recording modes.
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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