Death by Defocus

Panasonic is laughing at their customers. But who’s gonna laugh in the end? I was stunned to see DPreview publishing the obvious paid-by-Panasonic article as seen on the screencap below. Are they trying to convince us that their DFD autofocus system is good enough? Oh yeah they are! But why? Cause it doesn’t take long for anyone that played with a Panasonic S1 series to realize that it’s so far behind Sony or Canon or even Nikon.

Is their death imminent? Is the autofocus that bad?

Five years to the first question. I give them five years. And hell yeah, to the last question. The continuous autofocus tracking ability of the Panasonic is the worst on the market.

It is unacceptable in 2020 for a company to charge up to $2500 CAD for a full-frame body that does so much worst in continuous autofocus than a Nikon D3 from 2007, or 1Dx from 2012, or Canon 5D IV (a bargain, on the used market!). Hell, a Canon 70D from 2016 would do a better job at tracking people in a video!

Hear me out: I love Panasonic. They used to have one of the fastest autofocus on the market, back in 2004-2007! They have beautiful neutral colour and wonderful built quality. They have a good autofocus for still photography…. but not for video!

I felt the need to write this quick article, because the Panasonic marketing department are paying big money right now for articles (such as the paid article on DPreview website) and Youtube influencers to praise their new S5. It’s all baloney.

They decided to double down on their DFD technology and therefore sealed their fate. They will die if they don’t change it. You see, the competition is tough these days! The Canon R5/R6, Nikon Z5/Z6/Z7 and Sony Alpha series are absolutely destroying the Panasonic S5/S1 when it comes to continuous autofocus.

Don’t believe me? Watch this video below from Kai (recorded a week ago!). If that’s not the worst performance from any camera since 2015 (well, outside of Panasonic, the S1 series are much worst).

The first 15 seconds of the first video below will show you everything you need to know about Panasonic.

Below is a perfect example of the “wobbling” problem.

Below you can see just how bad the Panasonic S1 is. I cannot believe it that anyone would buy such a camera

Below is another video.

In comparison, go on youtube and type Canon 5D Mark IV dual pixel autofocus review, or Sony A7 iii autofocus review, or watch the video below.

I remember playing with a friend’s GX85 and could not believe how bad and distracting the DFD technology was: it was an absolute deal breaker. I had my Olympus Pen-F at the time, and the Olympus felt like a Lambo compared to the GX85.

If you are in the market for a full-frame video camera… I’d stay away from Panasonic until they get the autofocus right. Too many better options are there!

Cheers,

JP