Panasonic Lumix S1 Reviews & Ratings

The Panasonic Lumix DC-S1 is an incredibly well-built (but heavy) camera with excellent image and video quality. While it’s more expensive than its peers, the S1 is great for a variety of use cases, and is worth your consideration if you don’t mind its size and weight.

The S1 is a solid, high-quality camera that delivers superb video and stills in many situations, it only lacks in credentials as a sports camera.

As the first bodies in a new system, the Lumix S is a tremendous start, confidently taking on the best of its current rivals with a unique feature-set. I’m impressed by Panasonic’s approach and look forward to putting the rest of the system through its paces.

With tried-and-tested goodness from Panasonic’s G series cameras alongside a stunning new viewfinder, excellent video and a sound full-frame sensor, the S1 does much to impress. A huge body, however, along with some awkward controls and an autofocus system that’s behind those on its peers, mean there’s room for improvement.

Panasonic has a strong full-frame mirrorless debut with the Lumix S1. You get a rugged, weatherproof and heavy body that handles well, and it delivers excellent image and video quality, even in low light.

From the perspective of both image quality and features, the S1 remains the most impressive mirrorless camera I have used to date, and it’s only going to get better.

The Panasonic Lumix DC-S1 delivers great image quality and includes a high-resolution mode not found in other 24MP models, but it can’t keep up when it comes to tracking speed.

A technical powerhouse with excellent image quality – but its size and price may be too demanding for some

Yes, as expected for the level of specification and weather and dust resistant build it offers, the Panasonic S1 costs a fair amount of money – particularly for a mirrorless ‘compact’ – but for that you are getting a lot of camera, both literally and figuratively.

While it wasn’t love at first sight with the S1, after shooting with it for a couple of weeks or so, I like it a lot. Its control layout is nicer than the Canon EOS R’s, it has a deep array of features and most importantly, its images and video are great.

The Panasonic Lumix S1 offers everything you could possibly want from the full-frame mirrorless camera, including in-camera image stabilisation, a high-res multi-shot mode for 96mp images, high-quality 4K UHD video recording, and a solid weather sealed camera body with great ergonomics. Sure, it may not be as small as some full-frame mirrorless cameras, but for some, this will make the camera easier to use and handle. With great image quality and excellent video performance, as well as a growing range of lenses, there’s a lot to like.

It might be late to the game – behind Sony and Nikon – and its Leica mount makes for massive lenses, but the S1’s ability and resulting image quality make for a great new entry in the full-frame market. Whether that’s enough to break up the established players, however, is a whole other question – but if you have zero allegiance then Panasonic offers just as much and often more than its contemporaries.