Our quick take

Panasonic Lumix S1 - 4.5 / 5

Lens mount

  • Uses Leica L mount: Leica SL, TL, CL; Lumix S Pro; forthcoming Sigma lenses Not compatible with Micro Four Thirds (MFT) lenses

Design and features

  • 5.76m-dot OLED viewfinder, 0.78x magnification, 120fps refresh 3.2-inch, 2.1m-dot LCD touchscreen, tri-adjustment bracket Top display panel with illuminator 1-2 switch (for two-form setup) Joystick toggle control 100% weather sealed SD & XQD card slots

Performance

  • Autofocus capable to -6EV, sensor output at 480fps for 0.08s focus acquisition Eye AF, Animal AF, for automatic tracking of subjects

Image Quality

  • Sensor-based image stabilisation: 6-stop ‘Dual Stabilisation’ (for both stills and videos) All-new 24.3-megapixel full-frame sensor and Venus Engine Standard ISO sensitivity up to 51,200 High Resolution Photo (96MP)

Video features

  • Video: 4K50/60p maximum 4:2:0 8-bit to card, 4:2:2 via HDMI Update for 4K 50/60p 4:2:2 10-bit via HDMI coming 2019

Join our club: Lumix Pro

  • Free Lumix Pro support network, sign-up service

To recap

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.