Panasonic S1/S1R And More At Photokina 2018

During Photokina 2018 Panasonic announced it is currently working on two upcoming full frame mirrorless cameras as part of a new alliance with Leica and Sigma. The S1 and S1R have been on display at the show and we had a chance to go to a private area in the Panasonic booth and take a closer look at the S1R and 3 of the new lenses it will be released with as well as two other new products and talk to Dan Unger from Panasonic U.S..

Just like it did two years ago on Photokina 2016 with the GH5, this year in Photokina, Panasonic made a big press announcement but with relatively few bits of information. The S1 and S1R are still very much in development and will only be released sometime in early 2019 (around NAB?).

The prototype of the Panasonic S1R at Photokina

So what do we know about these new cameras – well not that much:

Both are FF cameras (the S1 with 24MP and the S1R with 47MP).
Both are based on the L mount which is the same FF mount used by Leica SL cameras.
Both will shoot 4K 60p video.
Both use 2 memory cards – SD and XQD.
Both will have a top screen and a monitor which flips but also can rotate to the side (but is not fully articulated – sadly).
The cameras are larger than the GH5 (but holding the S1R in the hand it feels pretty nice).
There will be 3 initial lenses (at launch) from Panasonic – 24-105mm, 70-200mm (apertures unknown at this point) and a 50mm f/1.4 (Panasonic also promises to have 10 native lenses by 2020 plus quite a few lenses by Leica and possibly some by Sigma).
Both cameras will have in body image stabilization (as well as some lenses that will also come stabilized).

That is more or less the extent of knowledge that we have about these cameras and lenses at this point (the lenses at the show were 3D printed mockups. The camera was a bit more close to a finished product with an actual sensor inside (which you can see in the video), but it is clearly still early for this camera.

The upcoming Panasonic 10-25mm f/1.7 micro 4/3 lens

Besides the S1/S1R, Dan also showed us the new LX100 mark II which was already announced but this was our first chance to hold it in our hands and play with it (you can check out our article on the camera here).

The upcoming Panasonic 70-200mm L-mount lens

Last but definitely not least we have the new 10-25mm (basically a 20-50mm equivalent lens in 35mm) with a fast f/1.7 aperture that was also introduced at the show for micro 4/3 cameras. Panasonic was very clear in stating that having the new S1/S1R cameras doesn’t mean that it will stop working on MICRO 4/3 cameras and lenses and it made the announcement about the development of this (rather large) lens at the show to simply make this point. Not a lot is known about it at this stage aside from the fact that it is made as a corporation between Panasonic and Leica and it should be released sometime next year.

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Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.