| Photo: Brendan Nystedt |
Panasonic has announced a suite of updates for its latest cameras, designed to make sure the S5 II, S5 IIX, GH7, and G9 II are all on level playing field with each other and the S9 in terms of what features they support.
All four cameras will now be able to display multiple frame guide markers at once, which can help if you’re trying to frame a shot that will eventually be edited into multiple aspect ratios. The markers are heavily customizable – you can choose different colors for each aspect ratio and position and resize the lines on your screen.
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| The ability to have multiple frame guides debuted on the S9’s v1.1 firmware but is now available across Panasonic’s modern lineup. |
The updates also add support for Panasonic’s “MP4 Lite” codec, which records 3.8K open-gate footage at a lower bitrate, making it easier and faster to transfer to a phone via Wi-Fi. For the S5 II and S5 IIX, the video will be in the same 3:2 aspect ratio as the S9, but for the Four Thirds cameras it’ll be in a taller 4:3 aspect ratio.
Speaking of transferring footage to your phone, Panasonic is also bringing full support for its new Lumix Lab app to all the cameras. That means you’ll be able to use it, instead of Lumix Sync, to remotely control shooting, transfer images to your phone, and more.
The S5 II, S5 IIX, and G9 II are also getting the enhanced subject detection that the GH7 launched with, meaning that they’ll also be able to recognize planes and trains and zero-in on a specific part of a recognized subject, such as a car’s driver or a motorcycle rider’s helmet. They’re also getting the Crop Zoom feature from the GH7 and S9, which will automatically punch in by a selectable amount. In stills mode, this means that the JPEGs will be taken from a center crop of your untouched Raw. In video you’ll only be getting the cropped version since there’s no Raw. How cropped it is will depend on your shooting resolution.
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| ‘Part priority’ is now available on all of Panasonic’s phase-detect-equipped ILCs. |
The full-frame S5 II and S5 IIX are also getting the Hybrid Zoom system from the S9, which combines your lens’ optical zoom with Crop Zoom, giving you more reach the further you twist the zoom ring.
There are a few smaller changes as well; each of the cameras will get improvements to operational stability, as well as the ability to save pictures in an “Extra Small” size.
Features being removed
While the updates are obviously full of new features, they also take away some things. European S5 II and S5 IIXs will no longer support wireless image transfers to PCs or RTMP streaming – you’ll have to use RTMPS when livestreaming from your camera. While those features will still work in other markets, such as the US, the S5 IIX and the GH7 are losing the ability to act as a RTP/RTSP network camera over a wired internet connection globally. While Panasonic didn’t give an specific explanation of why these features were being removed, the company did say they came as part of a security enhancement to the cameras.
Another change that will affect all S5 II, S5 IIX, GH7, and G9 II users: when directly connecting the camera and your smartphone, you’ll now have to enter the password each time if you’re using the Lumix Sync app; Lumix Lab isn’t affected, since it handles authentication over Bluetooth. These changes also won’t affect the cameras’ Frame.io integration.
The new firmware files – v3.2 for the S5 II, v2.2 for the S5 IIX, v1.3 for the GH7, and v2.3 for the G9 II – are available for download on Panasonic’s website.
