With the newly announced firmware updates, Panasonic LUMIX S1II, S1IIE, and S1RII cameras get improved heat management that prolongs maximum recording times. Additionally, the cameras get new MP4 (Lite) low-bitrate 3.8K open gate recording mode, better AF, support for LUMIX Flow 1.4 with enhanced external monitor features, and ISO display and false color improvements.
The Japanese camera manufacturer Panasonic announced free firmware updates for its latest LUMIX full-frame cameras. These updates are designed to improve overheating in certain recording modes as well as add new features to the cameras. This includes three LUMIX cameras:
- Panasonic LUMIX S1RII gets firmware update to version 1.3
- Panasonic LUMIX S1II gets firmware update to version 1.2
- Panasonic LUMIX S1IIE gets firmware update to version 1.2
Let’s take a look at the new features and improvements included in these long-awaited firmware updates.
Overheating improvements
When Panasonic released the new generation of mirrorless cameras earlier this year, they decided to keep the rather small body design known from the LUMIX S5II series, but packed the cameras with powerful new recording modes, new sensors, up to 8K video, internal raw recording, and more. You can take a look at our LUMIX S1II Lab Test in case you missed it.
Although the new LUMIX cameras still all feature an active cooling system, there is now significantly more heat being generated by the internal components. That is why some recording modes were prone to overheating, especially with the photo-centric LUMIX S1RII camera.
Thankfully, with the newly announced firmware updates, the heat management should now be significantly improved. Especially, the temperature should now be less affected by environmental factors. Let’s take a look at some examples from Panasonic’s testing on how the approximate maximum recording time improved (all modes tested with 10-bit H.265 LongGOP full-frame video from a cold start, and I will only focus on numbers with “Thermal Management Setting HIGH”):
- LUMIX S1II: C4K 120p – improved from 20 to 60 min. (SD only), and from 15 to 30 min. (SD+CFe)
- LUMIX S1II: C4K 60p – improved from 30 min. to unlimited (SD+CFe).
- LUMIX S1IIE: 6K 60p – improved from 60 min. to unlimited (SD only), and from 30 to 60 min. (SD+CFe)
- LUMIX S1RII: 8K 30p – improved from 20 to 50 min. (SD only), and from 15 to 30 min. (SD+CFe)
- LUMIX S1RII: C4K 60p – improved from 20 to 50 min. (SD only), and from 15 to 30 min. (SD+CFe)
- LUMIX S1RII: C4K 30p – improved from 40 min. to unlimited (SD+CFe)
Panasonic was testing the maximum recording time with an ambient temperature of 23℃ (73.4℉), no external device connections, no wireless connections, and using Nextorage memory cards. The company admits that using the camera before the recording (no cold start) or having a higher ambient temperature, direct sunlight, etc., may result in shorter recording times.
Apart from the presence of a CFexpress memory card, Panasonic furthermore claims that the following conditions (features) contribute to overheating:
- Crop Zoom (Video)
- Hybrid Zoom (Video)
- E-Stabilization (Video) set to High
- Dynamic Range Boost (S1II)
- Dynamic Range Expansion (Log) (S1RII)
- False Color (S1II/S1IIE Ver.1.2) (S1RII Ver.1.3)
- Live View (Video) set to Image Priority (S1II Ver. 1.2)
LUMIX firmware updates – further improvements
With the new firmware, the following new features were added to all three cameras (except when stated otherwise):
- SH burst shooting low-speed option added (including pre-burst shooting): 30fps on the S1II and 20fps on the S1RII (not added to the S1IIE).
- Autofocus improvements – you can now set the camera to display auto-recognition frames only for the main subject, the AF frame display can now be set to “rectangular” for human eye recognition, and the AF tracking stability was improved through algorithm improvements.
- There is now a new low-bitrate MP4 (Lite) video recording mode: 3.8K 3:2 open gate (3840×2560) 29.97p or 25p with 50Mbps. This allows for faster transfer times when using the LUMIX app.
- Improved compatibility with the new Panasonic LUMIX 100-500mm lens and the teleconverters.
- Support for LUMIX Flow version 1.4 or above, which introduces new features for the external monitor function: it now allows applying LUTs to live view, enables displaying multiple frame markers, and allows showing focus frames.
- Improved ISO display customization: ISO AUTO can now be selected directly, without scrolling to the end of the ISO range, when it is enabled in the [ISO Displayed Setting] menu or assigned to any Fn button.
- Improved dual native ISO operation: When ISO is changed using the ISO button, a color bar will be displayed to indicate whether the ISO sensitivity value is in the low (blue) or high (red) range. When ISO is directly changed using the control dial or the focus ring, both of which have been customized, the text color of the ISO indicator now changes to blue when reaching the lower base ISO and to red when reaching the higher base ISO.
- False color display improvement: Fixed a bug where the live view quality differed between standby mode and video recording mode when applying false color (because of a power-saving mode).
Price & availability
All three firmware updates will be available for download free of charge from the Panasonic support website from tomorrow, November 26 (8:00 am EST). The new version 1.4 of the LUMIX Flow app will also be available on November 26 in the respective app stores.
Do you use any of the latest LUMIX cameras for your productions? What do you think about the new firmware updates? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section underneath the article.
