Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX Camera Review

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX is the same size as the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II. It isn't the smallest or lightest camera, but it's still fairly portable for its class.

Likewise, the camera's build quality is identical to the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, but aesthetically, the S5 IIX is differentiated by an all-black finish, including a blacked-out LUMIX logo on the front and blacked-out dial inlays with matte-finish buttons and dials.

Overall, the camera feels very sturdy, with premium materials, including a magnesium alloy body, weather-sealing, solid input, SD card compartment, and battery compartment covers. The shoulder strap attachment anchors are fixed to the body and won't rattle around while recording video, and the camera includes heat vents around the viewfinder.

• Sensor cap
• Hot shoe cover
• 1x Panasonic DMW-BLK22 battery
• Battery grip connector cover
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• AC adapter
• Shoulder strap
• User manual and documentation

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX has fantastic ergonomics. The button layout and controls are identical to the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, and they're well-placed, with plenty of customizable dials and buttons that make it easy to adjust settings and tailor the shooting experience to your preferences. The back of the camera includes a large thumb rest, and it's easy to reach the AF thumb stick, buttons, and dials without pressing something unintentionally. The hand grip is also large and deep, with a comfortable molded grip and robust textured rubber coating that feels secure in the hand.

The electronic viewfinder (EVF) carries over from the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, with the same 3.68 million-dot resolution. It's sharp and clear, and the eyecup around the viewfinder is large and feels comfortable, if a bit firmer than the one on the S5 II.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX uses a fully articulated display. It has a high resolution for clear image playback and gets very bright, so glare is unlikely to be an issue when shooting outdoors.

The menu system is fantastic. Settings are clearly organized and labeled, making it easy to find what you're looking for. You can also create a custom menu for all of your most-used settings, and there are plenty of customization options, including for the quick menu. There are also some nice quality-of-life touches that make it easier to navigate. For example, when selecting from the many resolution and frame rate options, you can filter the settings by resolution, frame rate, or codec to find the settings you need more easily.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX is compatible with both the older LUMIX Sync app and the newer LUMIX Lab app. LUMIX Lab is intended to be a one-stop shop not only for transferring files to your smartphone, editing, and sharing them directly to social media, but also for editing and uploading custom LUTs and sharing them with other creators on the platform.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX uses the same full-frame sensor as the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, with a dual native ISO design. You can set which ISO range to use, between 'LOW,' which natively covers ISO 100-800, and 'HIGH,' which covers ISO 640-51200, in photo mode. In video mode, the native ISO depends on what mode and shooting format you use, with native ISO settings as follows:

The camera's battery life is good overall, but its CIPA rating for photos is on the lower side. Rated for 370 shots on a full charge, it falls short of other full-frame hybrid cameras like the Sony α7 IV. However, setting the camera to 'Power Save LVF' mode bumps that CIPA rating up to over 1200 shots, depending on the type of SD card you use. Meanwhile, using the camera with an external SSD drops it to about 300 shots. All in all, these ratings should be taken with a grain of salt, as they don't necessarily align with real-world usage.

The camera's tested video battery life, on the other hand, is excellent. It can last for about two hours of 4k video recording, which is great, and you can extend the battery life by using a compatible and sufficiently powered external power supply if you need.

The camera's burst shooting is okay, but its mechanical burst rate falls a bit short of the standard set by current hybrid cameras, like the Nikon Z 6III, which shoots at a much quicker 14 fps. That said, burst shooting has always been a minor weak point of the S5 series, with the original Panasonic LUMIX S5 only managing a max of 6 fps. So this is an improvement generally. The S5 IIX also does much better with its electronic shutter, shooting at speeds up to approximately 30 fps.

Additionally, it has a pre-burst capture mode that lets you buffer shots with a half-press of the shutter button before saving a set number of frames after fully pressing the shutter. You can adjust the pre-burst time between 0.5s, 1.0s, and 1.5s before the shutter press. This feature is useful if you can't anticipate the exact moment a subject will move, such as when a bird will take flight.

The camera's buffer size is decent, though the number of RAW frames it can hold before filling up is on the smaller side. Unfortunately, the camera also takes a very long time to empty its buffer once full, which can slow you down significantly. JPEG, by contrast, isn't an issue, and you can effectively shoot indefinitely when shooting in JPEG format.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX has a decent AF tracking system. Like the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, it uses phase-detection AF, and there are some improvements from that initial implementation. With firmware ver. 2.0, the camera includes automatic subject detection modes for a range of subjects, including human face/eye/body detection, as well as animal, motorcycle, and car detection.

Overall, the camera does a decent job of accurately tracking moving subjects in busy settings, and you can expect a solid keeper rate across a range of different shooting scenarios. That said, it doesn't perform nearly as well as the best AF implementations, like that of the Sony α7C II, for example.

If you aren't relying on tracking and use a single center focus point, the camera does a great job of keeping up with a moving subject, although it isn't as quick and seamless as cameras like the Sony α7 IV, for example. If you can keep your subject under the focus point, you can still expect the vast majority of your shots to be usable. We tested AF with the LUMIX S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, but your mileage may vary depending on the lens you use.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX uses the same five-axis IBIS system as the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, and it does an excellent job of steadying handheld photos. You can capture sharp images at very slow shutter speeds. We tested image stabilization using the LUMIX S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, which doesn't have optical image stabilization. Note also that stabilization performance can vary drastically depending on your lens, focal length, and even the steadiness of your hands.

The camera's RAW dynamic range is fantastic, so it captures a very wide range of detail in high-contrast scenes. Even in dimmer lighting conditions, it retains detail well.

Note: Trying to process this camera's RW2 files led to unusable files when converted to TIFF format through LibRaw/Imatest. To get around this, we converted the RAW files to DNG before processing them in Imatest to get our data. For that reason, the RAW image quality results may not be totally accurate.

The camera is incredible at resolving fine detail. You can crop in quite a bit without losing too much visible sharpness.

Note: Trying to process this camera's RW2 files led to unusable files when converted to TIFF format through LibRaw/Imatest. To get around this, we converted the RAW files to DNG before processing them in Imatest to get our data. For that reason, the RAW image quality results may not be totally accurate.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX does a very good job managing noise levels in low light, so you'll get relatively clean images even when there's less available light.

Note: Trying to process this camera's RW2 files led to unusable files when converted to TIFF format through LibRaw/Imatest. To get around this, we converted the RAW files to DNG before processing them in Imatest to get our data. For that reason, the RAW image quality results may not be totally accurate.

Make no mistake, this is a feature-packed camera for video shooters. There's a lot of overlap with the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, including 'open gate' 6k/30 fps recording in MOV and a range of other resolution and recording format options, like 16:9 5.9k, C4k, and 3.3k, not to mention 4:3 aspect ratio anamorphic modes. It supports Log recording in V-Log and captures 10-bit 4:2:2 footage internally. Where it starts to diverge from the S5 II is in its external video capabilities.

Unlike the S5 II, the S5 IIX can output video directly to an external SSD through USB-C. Using an SSD nabs you higher-quality 12-bit footage in Apple ProRes 422 or 422 HQ. The camera can also output RAW video via HDMI in either ProRes RAW or Blackmagic RAW, depending on the recorder, which the S5 II can only do with the purchase of an upgrade key. While purchasing that upgrade key for the S5 II gives it a lot of the same functionality as the S5 IIX, the main thing that sets the S5 IIX apart is support for less compressed All-Intra codecs and direct streaming capabilities over Wi-Fi. However, unlike dedicated cinema cameras like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2, the S5 IIX can't record RAW video internally without an SSD.

Additionally, firmware ver. 2.2 adds 'Crop Zoom' and 'Hybrid Zoom' features. Crop Zoom crops out a portion of the full image and enhances it without degrading image quality, which can be handy if you're using a prime lens and need to use a tighter crop. Hybrid Zoom takes advantage of the Crop Zoom feature by seamlessly integrating optical zoom with the Crop Zoom feature to allow you to zoom past the lens's focal length into electronic zoom using the zoom ring. However, there are limits to how much you can crop, depending on the recording format and resolution you use.

Note that the camera warns that its cooling fan can be picked up by the camera's built-in microphone, especially in its highest 'Fast' setting. While this won't be an issue in most cases, particularly if you use an external microphone, it's something to be aware of when relying on the internal mic and recording over long sessions or in extreme conditions when you might need to set the fan to 'Fast.'

Unlike the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, this model supports All-I codecs, allowing you to capture higher-quality, low-compression video in MOV format.

The camera can capture 4k video at up to 60 fps, although 60 fps is limited to an APS-C crop.

There's a dedicated S&Q (Slow & Quick) mode, which lets you capture 4k or DCI 4k video at up to 60 fps and output the video at either 30 fps (2x slow) or 24 fps (2.5x slow).

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX's internal recording features are fantastic. It can capture remarkably high bit rates, with the option to record 10-bit 4:2:2 V-Log footage internally. There's no recording time limit in 4k, but when recording in 6k MOV, the camera stops recording after 30 minutes in 30 fps or after 40 minutes in 24 fps. Thankfully, the camera's thermal management is great, aided by the built-in heat vents, effectively preventing overheating in 4k.

The autofocus is incredibly effective in video mode. The same subject detection modes available in photo mode are also available in video mode, so you can track a wide range of subjects. When tracking moving human subjects, the camera rarely misses focus and transitions are smooth and quick, even when the subject moves around or in and out of frame. The more basic object/general subject tracking is near seamless as well.

The Panasonic S5 IIX captures fantastic 4k video quality. The image looks very sharp, with excellent dynamic range and minimal noise, even in low light. You can compare the quality to some of the other recording options below:

• 6k open gate: Test Scene Extract
• 5.9k 30p (16:9): Test Scene Extract
• 4k 60p (APS-C crop): Test Scene Extract
• 3.8k 30p (MP4 Lite): Test Scene Extract
• 4k Crop Zoom (20mm crop zoomed 1.5x to 30mm): Test Scene Extract

True to advertising, the Crop Zoom function hardly impacts the image quality of the video, making it very useful in cases where you want to zoom in but your optical zoom is limited.

There's heavy rolling shutter effect in 4k, which is unfortunate. It's more noticeable than on the Panasonic LUMIX GH7, for example, but it makes sense given the larger sensor. Rolling shutter is even more pronounced in 6k open gate, as seen in this sample video, with a 9.67º distortion angle, and in 5.9k, as seen in this sample video, with a 8.67º angle. Using the Crop Zoom feature, by contrast, improves it somewhat, with a 5.00º distortion angle when shooting at a 30mm focal length and using a 1.55x crop, for example. You can see that sample video as well.

In 1080p, the Panasonic S5 IIX records at up to 120 fps without a crop, which is great for capturing high-speed footage. In S&Q (Slow & Quick) mode, you can also capture slow-motion 1080p footage at up to 180 fps, with the option to slow it down to 60 fps (3x slow), 30 fps (6x slow), or 24 fps (7.5x slow).

The camera can capture very high bit rates in 1080p. While you'll need to record to an SSD to get ProRes codecs in 4k, the camera can record ProRes FHD internally, which is great. We recorded bit rates of around 454Mbps when shooting in ProRes 422 HQ in FHD at 60 fps and a minimum of 121Mbps in ProRes 422 at 24 fps. Note that the bit rate noted above was recorded when shooting in FHD MOV All-I, while the minimum was recorded in LongGOP. Also, 10-bit 4:2:2 color is only available in MOV format; any MP4 recording options are limited to 8-bit 4:2:0.

The autofocus is incredibly effective in video mode. The same subject detection modes available in photo mode are also available in video mode, so you can track a wide range of subjects. When tracking moving human subjects, the camera rarely misses focus and transitions are smooth and quick, even when the subject moves around or in and out of frame. The more basic object/general subject tracking is near seamless as well.

The FHD video quality is excellent. The image is sharp and detailed, with great low-light performance. You can compare it to a couple of other FHD recording options below:

• FHD 120p: Test Scene Extract
• FHD Crop Zoom (20mm x1.5 = 30mm): Test Scene Extract

There's noticeably less rolling shutter effect in 1080p, but it's still not great. You'll see some skewing with quick camera pans or movement. It's a bit improved with the Crop Zoom function, as you can see in this sample video, where the distortion angle is about 4.00º when using a 2.3x crop on 20mm to get an effective focal length of 46mm.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX has excellent dynamic range in video mode. The total dynamic range it captures above the background floor isn't the highest, falling short of models like the Fujifilm X-H2S, but it has a very wide usable dynamic range when taking stricter noise thresholds into account. You'll have the widest usable dynamic range at V-Log's base ISO of 640, but there's also a noticeable bump at ISO 4000, which is the second native ISO, giving you extra flexibility in low-light conditions.

Tested settings:

• Resolution: 4k
• Frame Rate: 30 fps
• Log Format: V-Log

The camera's dynamic range allocation stays largely consistent across most of its ISO range, though it struggles a bit more with retaining highlight detail.

Tested settings:

• Resolution: 4k
• Frame Rate: 30 fps
• Log Format: V-Log

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX features dual SD card slots, both rated for UHS-II cards. The slots are in a side compartment, with a locking, hinged door, so it's very easy to switch out cards even when using a tripod.

The Panasonic LUMIX S5 IIX has a full suite of inputs and outputs, including a full-sized HDMI port, which is great, as well as USB-C for charging, power delivery, file transfer, and SSD support. It also has both a mic and headphone jack, plus, there's a remote input.

It also has a built-in streaming encoder, which allows for wireless streaming functionality over Wi-Fi or by tethering the camera to your phone via USB.