Lumix S1 II and S1R II Updates Significantly Improve Video Record Times

Panasonic has announced a firmware update for both the S1 II/S1 IIE and S1R II that improves video record times significantly while also making adjustments across the board. Panasonic says these changes directly respond to user feedback.

“User feedback has played a key role in shaping this update, such as optimized thermal management, addition of MP4(Lite) recording option, and UI improvements,” Panasonic says. “With support and input from the Lumix community, Panasonic has further refined the shooting and workflow experience. The company remains dedicated to this approach, providing ongoing firmware updates and product enhancements with a commitment to supporting creators and delivering the best possible tools for their craft.”

The headline feature improvement is thermal control adjustments that allow for all three cameras to see longer record times. Panasonic says that it specifically adjusted the thermal control algorithm to make recording times less affected by environmental factors.

S1 II

On the S1 II, C4K at 120p (4:2:0 10-bit) used to have approximately 20-minute record times to an SD card and about 15 minutes on an SD and CFexpress on “Standard” heat management. That has been improved to about 30 minutes and about 25 minutes, respectively, with thermal management set to “Standard” and approximately 60 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively, with thermal management set to “High.”

C4K at 60p (4:2:2 10-bit) used to have a cutoff of about 60 minutes on SD and about 30 minutes on SD and CFExpress on “Standard,” but that has been improved to no limit across the board. Filmmakers who want to shoot continuously at C4K at 60p will be able to record until a memory card fills or a battery dies — whichever comes first. These same improvements are mirrored on the Full HD 60p (4:2:2 10-bit), which now has no recording limits either.

S1 IIE

The S1 IIE used to have a limit of 20 minutes when shooting 6K at 60p (4:2:0 10-bit) to an SD card and CFexpress card, but that has been improved to 30 minutes on the “Standard” thermal management setting and boosted to no limit on High when shooting to an SD card and about 60 minutes when shooting to an SD card and CFexpress. There is also no longer any record limit in any thermal management mode when shooting C4K at 60p (4:2:2 10-bit) in APS-C crop mode.

S1R II

The biggest changes to thermal management are seen on the S1R II. In 8K 30p (4:2:0 10-bit), the camera used ot have a limit of about 20 minutes when recording to an SD card and about 15 minutes when recording to an SD card and CFexpress card with thermal management set to “Standard.” That has been improved to about 25 minutes and about 20 minutes, respectively, while switching to the “High” setting boosts that to about 50 minutes and about 30 minutes, respectively.

In C4K at 60p (4:2:2 10-bit), the previous record limits of 20 minutes to an SD card and 15 minutes to an SD card and CFexpress card have been boosted to 25 minutes and 20 minutes on “Standard” and 30 minutes for both when set to “High.” In C4K at 30p, shooting to an SD card and CFexpress card used to have a limit of 30 minutes, but that has been boosted to 50 minutes in “Standard” and no limit in “High.”

Finally, in Full HD 60p (4:2:2 10-bit), previous limits on an SD card and SD card plus a CFexpress card in “Standard” were 20 minutes and 15 minutes, but that has been improved to 25 minutes and 20 minutes, respectively. On “High,” that has been boosted to 30 minutes for both.

Other Improvements

The improvements extend beyond just heat management. For the S1R II and S1 II, Panasonic also added a lower-speed option to the SH burst shooting (including pre-burst shooting), giving photographers access to 30 frames per second on the S1 II and 20 frames per second on the S1R II.

The company also made major changes to the autofocus interface. For quite some time, Panasonic used a box and crosshairs to indicate which eye was in focus, but now that can be set to a single rectangular box over the eye instead. Panasonic says that some users really do not like the previous interface, and it decided to give those users the ability to choose a more conventional option. Additionally, auto-recognition frames for only the main subject can now be set for display while using autofocus. That means that instead of seeing one yellow box and a bunch of white boxes on screen, users can just choose to see the yellow box, which indicates the person in focus. 

Panasonic says that it also enhanced the general stability of autofocus through algorithm adjustments.

A new “MP4(Lite)” low bitrate format can now be selected, which is 3.8K open gate (3840×2560) at 29.97p/25.00p and 50Mbps. Panasonic also improved the compatibility of the cameras with the 100-500mm and both the 1.4 and 2x teleconverters. Also, filmmakers using an external monitor function can now apply a LUT to live view, display multiple frame markers, and show focus frames. 

The firmware update also makes the following improvements and enhancements:

• An icon indicating that the preview effect is disabled will be displayed on the shooting screen when [Constant Preview] is set to [OFF]. 
• ISO Auto can be set in the [ISO Displayed Setting] menu in the Custom Menu. 
• A bug where the live view quality differed between standby mode and video recording mode when applying false color has been fixed. 
• Added a 1.6x display option for the Anamorphic Desqueeze Display. 
• The base ISO sensitivity can now be visible on the ISO sensitivity setting screen when Dual Native ISO is set to AUTO. 
• The default setting for functions registered to the sub video record button has been changed to “No Setting” in both Photo Mode and Playback Mode. 
• The processing time for focus stacking has been improved through algorithm enhancements. 
• A menu that allows you to display the live view with the same quality during both standby and video recording modes has been added (S1 II only)

Panasonic also updated the Lumix smartphone app and Lumix Flow so that LUT live view is available in the app and can be toggled on and off, granted support for multiple frame markers (the same frame markers shown on the camera are output to the app as live view), and improved the autofocus frame display for various recognition in Automatic Detection.

The firmware update is available to download for free starting today.