Australian Camera – September-October 2019

ON TRIAL PANASONIC LUMIX DC-S1R

These show, in sequence,
additional capture data, a set of
RGB and brightness histograms,
the ‘Photo Style’ parameters, the
white balance mode with any
fine-tuning settings; and the lens
details, including the in-camera
corrections.
The playback functions
include thumbnail pages of 12
or 30 images, zooming at up
to 16x, a calendar thumbnail
display and a slide show with a
choice of transition effects and
background music. The in-camera
editing functions include resizing,
cropping, image titling, RAW-to-
JPEG conversion and the ‘4K/6K
Photo’ file processing functions
mentioned earlier.

is unerringly reliable – as it can’t

be distracted by anything else

in the frame – and is obviously

particularly useful with portraiture,

especially when you’re using a fast

prime with a very shallow depth-

of-field at its widest aperture. The

eye-detection stays resolutely

locked-on even when the subject

moves or turns away for a moment.

The low-light sensitivity is also

worthy of commendation, as the

responsiveness is still very rapid.

Also like the higher-end

Lumix G cameras, the S1R’s JPEG

processing is excellent, but with

the added appeal of resolution by

the bucket-load. Subsequently,

fine detailing such as textures or

tight patterns is crisply defined and

the tonal gradations are creamily

smooth and seamless. In pure

resolution terms, the S1R is on a

par with Nikon’s Z 7 and then it’s

a better performer at sensitivity

settings above ISO 3200. Overall,

only Fujifilm’s medium format

GFX cameras do better in the

50 megapixels sensor class, but

the Panasonic camera tracks

them very closely even, a little

surprisingly, at the higher ISOs

where you’d expect the smaller

pixels (and subsequently lower

signal-to-noise ratio) might make

a bit of a difference. In fact, the

Lumix S1R’s high-ISO performance

is very good indeed with both the

saturation and definition holding up

well through to ISO 12,800.

SControl Panel’ info display is comprehensive

and enables touch screen accessibility to the

displayed functions and settings.

S ‘Quick Menu’ is extensively customisable

and enables direct access to functions via the

touch screen.

S Replay screen: Lens info

SReplay screens can be cycled through five

half-pages of additional information, above

additional capture info

S Replay screen: Picture Style’ settings

S Standard live view display includes basic

camera settings and the active AF point/zone.

SReplay screen: Set of histograms

S Replay screen: White balance settings

S Nifty ‘I.S. Status Scope’ display shows how

hard the image stabilisation is working. The

green indicator spot is centred here as the

camera is mounted on a tripod.

SPEED AND

PERFORMANCE

Loaded with a Panasonic 64 GB

SDXC UHS-II V90 speed memory

card, the S1R captured 56 JPEG/

large/fine frames in 6.153 seconds,

giving a shooting speed 9.1 fps...

so it matches the spec here, and

actually does a little better than the

quoted burst length. Our test files

averaged 21.5 MB in size, and even

with all that data to handle, the

buffer emptied in a trice.

Panasonic’s latest DFD

autofocusing has already proved

itself on the current Lumix

G cameras and it does very

well here too, in terms of both

responsiveness and speed. The

AI-based intelligent subject tracking