Panasonic Lumix DC-S1II Body

The Lumix S1 II becomes Panasonic’s most capable all-round hybrid camera to date, and my favourite in the series too, packing a faster sensor into their best body with a feature-set that just keeps growing. Photographers get clean 24 Megapixel images and fast 70fps bursts at the full resolution with reduced skewing and steadily improving autofocus. Videographers get uncropped oversampled 4k up to 60p, 4k 120 with a 1.24x crop, and 6k Open Gate, again with less skewing that the unstacked Lumix cameras. Beyond the headline specs, there’s a lot in the S1 II series you won’t find on many rivals, including external SSD recording, cropless stabilization, a wealth of anamorphic features, and built-in fans. The S1R II may take higher resolution photos, but I’d personally trade that for the reduced skewing on the S1 II. Sure the partially stacked sensor on the S1 II may not eliminate rolling shutter artefacts, but it certainly reduces them. My biggest bugbear is the lack of slower electronic bursts with the pre-burst option, as at the top speed it’s too easy to fill the buffer and potentially miss moments; hopefully an easy fix in firmware. New buyers may also be tempted by the Canon R6 II, Nikon Z-6 III or even stretching to a Z-8. But if you’d exploit its extended features or are already invested in L-mount, the S1 II is a very attractive option. Lest we forget, Sigma makes all its new lenses in L-mount, leaving Canon and Nikon owners to look on enviously.

The S1II is extremely capable for both stills and video. It's the most expensive in its class, but may offer enough features to justify the cost.