I found the Panasonic Lumix S1R to be a very serious camera, built for any professional assignment, but having too many buttons and features to make it a real extension of my viewpoint.
My initial interest in the Panasonic Lumix S1R was to get a preview of the Leica SL2; to get a taste of how a Leica lens will perform when put in front of a 47MP full-frame sensor.
The Leica Q2, which came out at the same time, was the first Leica with a 47MP sensor behind a true Leica lens (but with a fixed 28mm f/1.7 lens). The details, quality, resolution and the 3D pop of it all has opened my eyes to the fact that maybe the last word hasn't been said, and the last detail hasn't been revealed as far as what a true Leica lens can capture. With an interchangeable bayonet that allows any lens to be added to it, either directly via L-mount or via an adapter, the Panasonic Lumix S1R is the perfect toy to explore.
June 9, 2019, the world premiere of Part 1 of Thorsten Overgaard’s Panasonic Lumix S1R hands-on review: "Why it is, and how it is", on the Magic of Light TV channel, YouTube.
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47 MP Lumix S1R Test Files (650MB)
187 MP Lumix S1R High Resolution Mode (930MB)
User Manual Lumix S1R (PDF)
Panasonic Lumix S1R Review, Part 2:
June 16, 2019: The second and last part of the review of the Panasonic Lumix S1R, "The Gunslinger".
Conclusion: The right camera for the wrong guy
Spoiler alert. Undoubtedly the Panasonic Lumix S1R can produce stellar images in high resolution, at fast pace, in low light as well as in blazing sunshine. It’s built for heavy professional use under various conditions. It’s a magnificent camera.
It just wasn't what I was looking for as a street photographer and world traveler. For that use, the Leica M10-P (and occasionally the Leica Q2) is my discrete and portable weapon of choice. Further, in terms of design strategy and philosophy, the Leica SL Mark II (when it arrives later in 2019), will be my chosen camera in this category.
Despite all the good stuff that the Panasonic Lumix S1R packs, I feel it is a worthwhile question to ask, “is this the camera for me and for what I do?”. In my case the camera was right, the person was wrong.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-S1R camera with Lumix 70-200mm f/4.0 zoom and 2x extender.
Who is the Panasonic Lumix S1R for?
The studio photographer, wedding photographer, landscape photographer or such who decides to rid himself of other camera systems and get one or two of these Lumix S1 cameras will be able to get familiar with the camera on a professional level, and really make it work. It is a workhorse. Sturdily-built, great sensor and dynamic range. It’s got it all, and you can fit the highest quality lenses onto it, as well as any old lens with a unique classic look. But heavens, it's complicated to get into!
It's is not - in my opinion - great as an occasional camera to use alongside other cameras. It's simply too complicated to remember how to use it right, if you don't make it your tool and use it almost every day.
Expect to get one, use it and be happy with how it works, then wonder why it does this or doesn't do that anymore. Take the time to find out, and then you know. As a serious user you will build a great relationship with a tool that can do everything, but if you are just a weekend shooter with too many cameras, and you include this one too, you will get annoyed at how complicated its thought process is.
This also - in my opinion - excludes the Panasonic Lumix S1R as a 'backup camera' to Leica SL or another camera system. You cannot have a backup camera that is so different and requires so much learning and handling. A backup camera is usually one more of the same as the one it is backing up (and the irony is that you seldom need a backup if you have one. It's only those who doesn't have one that get into trouble).
For me, the Panasonic Lumix S1R opened my eyes to the need to have a production camera that can be used for studio work, product photos and things that have to be done in a reliable high quality. Ironically, the Panasonic Lumix S1R opened my eyes to the need to have the Leica SL2 when it comes. Same camera, but a much simpler and elegant interface.
A lot of buttons. Granted, this camera can do everything for anybody. But on top of that, if there was an empty space, they put a button there. Some of the buttons have functions that you had to invent, and the fact that it has three wheels (front wheel, thumbs wheel and control wheel) ... is a little too many wheels in such a small space.
A not so simple camera
Photography is simple, and I like to keep it that way. That's where my views depart from most camera systems. They simply have too many buttons; too many decisions to make about which settings should be tweaked in the camera menu before you can get down to business and take some photos.
The Panasonic Lumix S1R is a camera with a lot of features, maybe too many. The good thing is that any photographer in the world can set it up to his specific use, no matter how specialized that may be. The bad thing is that every photographer in the world has to live with all the other buttons and features that they don’t need. The Panasonic Lumix S1R is wanting to be the camera for everybody, not a select group of photographers such as press, studio, street, landscape, product photography, concert photography, portrait, Formel 1 photographers or safari.
Once you realize that this feature is only made for capturing Olympic runners, you can disregard it. But there are many such disregards and a lot of choices to be made, before this camera is truly yours.
One of the things that should mean the most, is the image quality of the sensor. We tend to talk about megapixels, and yes, the Panasonic Lumix S1R has all 47 million pixels. That's the reason I got the S1R with 47MP. I didn't even consider to get the 24MP edition, the Lumix S1.
Dxo Score
Dynamic range
Year
Panasonic S1R:
100
14.1
2019
Panasonic S1:
95
14.5
2019
Leica Q2:
96
13.5
2019
Leica SL:
88
13.4
2016
Leica M10:
86
13.2
2017
What is visible to the eye when you work with the files has been confirmed by DxO (and DxO traditionally tests all new cameras after they have been released): The sensor of the Panasonic Lumix S1R ranks in the top of echelon of sensors ever produced, by anybody.
As a side-note, the Leica Q2 that was released around the same time, ranks also in the top of DxO sensor tests, and it is also a 47MP. "What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?", you might wonder. The thing is that the sensor in the Panasonic Lumix S1R is likely in the same family as the Leica SL sensor, and the upcoming Leica SL2 sensor. If not the same, actually.
Leica always declines to speak of their sensors, and nobody knows who makes them. Ah, it must be Panasonic then, you think. But that's not a given, and that's not the point either. What is the point is that someone (Leica, likely) designed or specified how the sensors should work, and then had them produced at one of the large sensor factories. The key in sensors is not who made it, but who specified and designed it.
Apart from an interest in having nice colors and a good dynamic range (as well as low energy consumption and not too much heat produced internally by the sensor), Leica sensors usually require one very specific twist, and that twist is being able to take Leica M lenses. The “eyes” in the sides and the edges of the sensor have to point inwards. They can't sit and look straight forward, because then the edges of a image with an excellent Leica M lens gets blurred and appear strange in the corners. The reason is that the Leica M lenses sit so close to the sensor that the light rays from the lens hits the sides and the corner at a narrow angle. That's why the “eyes” (which are in fact small optics) have to help bend the light. It's a special design, and it would make sense if this design would help all lenses see better.
The way other producers of mirrorless cameras and sensors usually deal with the sensor quality issue is that they rely on firmware correction. Because you can. The way you do this is that you design a lens to the best of your abilities, and within the limitations of space and production costs that you agree you have to live below. Then you couple that design with a software correction that kicks in automatically when the RAW image is imported into a computer (or in the firmware when the camera makes a JPG or shoots a video), and then it is all straightened out to look right. And fundamentally, it is right. This is one of the blessings of modern micro-technology. You can do stuff.
Now, Leica M lenses are made to be optically perfect creatures and these don't rely on nobody to fix anything. You take a photo of a building, and it looks like that building with straight walls and such. No need for straightening things in firmware or software. It's a tradition from back when. It's the way Leica made it. Just like some people can write without spelling suggestions, it is possible to make lens designs that are right.
This difference in philosophy comes to view when you mount a “perfect” Leica M lens on a camera that has a sensor which relies on firmware and software correction. This is where you will see blurry edges, stranger colors than usual in the edges and corners, and usually quite some purple fringing overall in the picture (where there is high contrast). The sensor wasn't made to deal with 'perfect lenses' which sit that close to the sensor.
Back on track after this little explanation: The Panasonic Lumix S1R sensor, the Leica M10 sensor, and the Leica SL sensors are true Leica sensors in the sense they were all built to handle Leica M lenses. This minimally reveals that it was the same designer who specified the sensors, and where the Leica M10 sensor is clearly not the same as the Leica SL sensor, the Leica SL and Panasonic Lumix S1R have very much fallen from the same family tree. They are as identical as we can presume, without anybody at Leica or Panasonic wanting to state the least bit about how, who and where their sensors are made.
The Panasonic Lumix S1R sensor got a 100 DoX score, which is in the top-10 of all sensors.
The Leica SL sensor was also magnificent for video already when released in 2015, and the Panasonic Lumix S sensors (S1, S1R and S1H) are great video sensors. I have no idea how that is, but a great still image sensor is not necessarily a great video sensor. But this one is.
You may see rumors that Sony, Panasonic or some other company produces the sensors, "a source close to the factory tells us", but those are rumors.
It's like the automobile industry. Nobody really cares if this or that part of a BMW was made in Stuttgart, Barcelona, Warsaw or Madras. It sits in a BMW, so it's a BMW part. It's how the car drives, not who made the parts that counts.
In the case of the Panasonic Lumix S1R, the sensor plays the music you tell it to play, with brilliance, and likely it points to how future sensors in Lumix S1, Leica SL2 and Leica M11 will be playing.
In short, it's good news.
The Leica SL special prices
At the end of the product run, the Leica SL (24MP) is on sale while we anticipate the Leica SL2 with 47MP or larger sensor to be announced around September. So if the thought was, "Should I get a Lumix S1 with 24MP?", I would consider the package deal with Leica SL + 50mm Summilux f/1.4 for just $7,995 (Normally $11,795). As the 50/1.4 is nomrally $5,295 alone, you almost get the camera thrown at your for free (which translates to $2,700 for the body). You could almost buy that package, then trade in the SL for the SL2 when that one comes. Hmm ...
The sensor race
Something more seems to be going on beyond the megapixels in current sensor-technology. And this is the part I try to understand and try to keep up with so as to not be left behind or surprised.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Leica SL sensor (24MP) renders images different for certain newly designed lenses, than what we're used to seeing in other sensors. The Leica 50mm APO is a good example because it was born for the Leica M camera with 24MP sensor. But when the Leica SL came out with the seemingly same 24MP sensor, the image looked more alive, detailed and crisp.
Two things account for this upgrade. One is that the 50mm APO was developed with double the resolution as Leica M lenses had been designed with. And all new Leica L lenses, as well as new Leica M lenses such as the 28mm range and others have been designed with similarly improved resolution power (how many lines per inch they can resolve).
The Leica SL sensor, despite being the same 24MP as the Leica M sensor, is not the same. What it is, and why it is, Leica Camera has absolutely no intention of revealing. They simply stay very silent as to their sensor technology.
In many ways, I'm sure it's the same sensor in the Panasonic Lumix S1R as the one we will see in the coming Leica SL Mark II. Both will be direct descendants of the Leica SL sensor, which has some excellent qualities when it comes to using the resolving power of the optimized Leica lenses.
So if you thought the race was about megapixels, think again. Nobody really needs more megapixels. But once you rethink the lens design and the sensor design, you see that we're moving into something new and different, and then suddenly megapixels become relevant again.
It scares me, and does so because I thought I had figured it out. I thought we were on top of it all with 18MP sensors and that there wouldn't be need for much more. 18MP is what the eye can resolve, so nobody really needs more than that - except for the marketing of new cameras “with more megapixels”.
What we see now is a new dimension in photography, a new layer of technical accomplishment revealed before our eyes.
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The New Photography vs The Old Photography
There's an interesting trend in modern reportage photography. More people go back to film, and more people go back to older lenses. The sharpness, clarity and perfection of modern cameras and lenses is simply too perfect, too conforming, too much of the same predictable look. If you want to redefine yourself and your photography, you must make different and less perfect photographs than what iPhones, modern cameras and such offer to everybody who can press down on a shutter release.
One of the obvious problems of a 47MP camera with an excellent sensor and excellent lens is that no detail is hidden. Every little detail of skin and hair is recorded and revealed. Every little text detail in a photo can be read if you enlarge it enough.
A good book tells you only what they author wants you to know, in the sequence he wants you to know it. Storytelling is not about laying all the cards on the table, or revealing everything in detail. Good story telling, and fantasy stories and fairytales in particular, is the ability to tell things the way you want them told, with an aim to put the audience in a mood, in suspense, keep them interested, keep them mystified, keep them fascinated.
On one hand it's hard to keep the possible improvements of digital imagining under wraps. On the other hand it may be going in a direction we didn't want.
But it's moving that way anyways, so you might as well be in on it and be part of redefining how it's being used.
Historically the wired telephones had great sound, and they had the advantage that if you went outside, it was nice and quiet. No phone calls. Yet we advanced to having smartphones on which nobody can hear what anybody says, and these follow us everywhere. Not a smart move, but one that couldn't be stopped.
Fundamentally, the dSLR cameras at large were pronounced dead a few years ago. Mirrorless small cameras were the future. Everybody knew.
But then Leica Camera AG re-invented the 'mirrorless dSLR' (digital Single Lens Reflex). They designed the new Leica SL (Single Lens) camera system that thanks to mirrorless has no mirror (Reflex), but in the size of traditional dSLR cameras.
Big cameras are in again.
Leica rightly named their new camera system “SL" in that it is a Single Lens, and they omitted the R as the Leica SL doesn't have a Reflex mirror. Hence, the 'mirrorless SLR' was born, even though everybody had agreed this type of large camera was a thing of the past.
Why is it called a "camera"..?
The word Camera is today's short name for Camera Obscura (which originally means “a dark room”).
Origin of the word Obscura means "dark" or "covered", and the word Camera meansChambre and was used originally only as a Latin or alien word, actually only for Spanish soldiers' rooms, until popularized in connection with photography in 1727: “Camera Obscura”.
In 1793 the slang term “camera” was used by Sterne Tr. Shandy: “Will make drawings of you in the camera” and by Foster (1878), “The eye is a camera”.
Ibn-al-Haytham mentioned Camera Obscura in his "Book of Optics" in 1021.
The concept of Camera Obscura was described by Iraqi scientist Ibn-al-Haytham in his book, “Book of Optics” (1021) and by Leonardo da Vinci in 1500; popularized and made widely known in 1589 by Baptista Porta when he mentioned the principle in his book “Natural Magic”. Johannes Kepler mentions Camera Obscura in 1604.
Camera = chambre (room), Obscura = dark (or cover).
Part of the idea of the SL was that it was an entirely new design, sized with a large enough lens bayonet mount that would allow for any possible lens design that any lens designer could ever dream of making. In other words, a new camera system without any limitations, enabling the optimum perfect lens design, forever.
As it's happened before in camera history, Leica Camera AG invented something brilliant that other brands caught onto. That is why Nikon Z, Canon R and other similar camera systems were introduced 3-4 years after the Leica SL system. The SLR was reborn, but now as a mirrorless professional camera
.
Gunslingers united: Panasonic Lumix S, Nikon Z, Canon R and Leica SL follow the same philosophy as Leica used for the Leica SL in 2015: Mirrorless, with a large opening to the optics, new lens designs and adapters to use older lenses.
Here's how it looked in 2015 when Leica SL was the only SL amongst dSLR cameras (notice the tickness of the bodies because they had to have spade for the reflex mirror).
Leica went with a 51.6 mm bayonet diameter. Nikon went with a 55mm diameter. In the words of product manager Stefan Daniel of Leica Camera AG, that allowed Leica to use the “large but compact” L lenses on both the Leica SL, Panasonic S1 and other large mirrorless cameras, as well as on compact cameras such as the Leica CL, Leica TL2, etc. The Nikon Z system is bound to make larger sized lenses, due to their choice of a 55mm bayonet size.
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Put on any lens
You can get a LeicaM-Adapter L to put on M lenses ($398), R-Adapter to L to put on Leica R lenses ($798), PL to L to mount PL cinema lenses ($1,300), or S to L to mount Leica S lenses ($1,295) on the Panasonic Lumix S1R.
The L Mount Alliance
Kazuto Yamaki (Sigma), Andreas Kaufmann (Leica) and Junichiro Kitagawa (Panasonic)
What the headline-like title, "The L Mount Alliance" covers, is the fact that Leica Camera AG made the L-mount in 2015, and that from 2019, Panasonic and Sigma would also be using the L mount. Every participant in the L Mount Alliance will make lenses, and Panasonic and Leica Camera AG will make cameras independently.
So far, L-mount lenses fit on Panasonic Lumix S1 and Panasonic Lumix S1R, Panasonic Lumix S1H, Leica SL, Leica T, Leica TL, Leica TL2 and Leica CL.
After the alliance, also Kipon, 7artisans and others have decided to make L-Mount lenses.
For me, as for most people who have been using Leica lenses for years, it is of little significance that Sigma and Panasonic will now be making lenses that fit the Leica cameras. Once accustomed to using the best lenses in the world, why would you care to get a Panasonic or Sigma lens? But obviously, the wider use of the L-mount will mean something. More lenses will be available, and more camera bodies, and there will be a fierce competition within the alliance.
The Sigma 35mm Art Lens L f/1.4 costs $899.00 whereas the Leica 35mm Summicron-L APO f/2.0 costs $4,595. It's evident that you can easily build a wide collection of Sigma lenses for the Leica SL or Panasonic Lumix S1R for a reasonable budgert, comparatively.
I found that when I had something such as a project or assignment, the Panasonic Lumix S1R was the one I picked. It makes perfect sense. It's not a natural born street camera, it's more of a studio camera and an assignment camera. You need the shot, the Panasonic Lumix S1R delivers. I found that I put on L lenses for this.
When I had to do product photos of my new camera bags and desk blotters, I picked the S1R, and for the first time in a very long time, I put a camera on a tripod. It just felt natural to do so.
The S1R handled the project excellently. Great colors, sharpness, details that I can crop into without ever running out of excellent details.
Unless you go manual, the camera presumes you want to use its automatic features. It's good if you don't know what you are doing, but if you have a plan, the camera has another one for most things.
For example, you can lock the exposure by pressing the shutter release half down, but once you have taken the first photo, the camera takes over in the following photos. That also applies even if you keep the shutter release down to take a series.
It's as if the philosophy behind this is that everything you want to do is action photography, so the camera will measure and determine everything from second to second, and make the changes according to its own logic.
When the exposure is locked (by pressing the shutter release half down), the photo will be exposed the way you wanted it.
However, in a burst of photos, the ensuing photos will be as the Panasonic Lumix S1R determines as it measure the scene "live"
Friendly towards Leica M lenses
The Panasonic Lumix S1R is made for the L mount (from Leica, Panasonic and Sigma), but in the new tradition of mirrorless SL cameras, it can adopt the entire backcatalog. Hence it can adopt the entire backcatalog of Leica lenses. The Leica R lenses, Leica M lenses, and even old Leica screw mount lenses. And of course the L-lenses it was designed for, which Panasonic, Leica and Sigma now make.
Adopting the backcatalog of good ol' lenses is part of what mirrorless allows, which is a part of the concept. Nikon, Canon and other producers of mirrorless SL cameras allow these to adopt their entire backcatalog of older lenses. (See my Leica Lens Compendium here for overview of all Leica lenses ever made
This also means that the Panasonic Lumix S1R can take on virtually any lens you can find an adapter for. As what you see is what the sensor sees, any lens that can produce an image onto the sensor can be used. That means that you can get a Leica L to Nikon F adapter and use, say the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 lens (now remade and available for only $599.00) on the Panasonic Lumix S1R, should you want to try that. Just as you can get an Leica M to Nikon Z adapter to apply the Leica 50mm Noctilux-M ASPH f/0.95 onto a Nikon Z, should you wish to do so.
You see where this is going? One camera takes all lenses made throughout the last 100 years. The enthusiasm will have no end, we'll be selling and buying those old jewels with no end.
Unlike Fuji and other mirrorless cameras, the Panasonic Lumix S1R likes M lenses. It was built to love them. There's no corner blur, no purple fringing and all those things you may very well see in other mirrorless cameras.
The Leica M lenses are very compact lenses that sit close to the sensor, and that is why Leica adopted their own sensors in the Leica M camera. These have 'bended micro-optics' in front of the sensor to pick up the light rays in the edges of the sensor that comes in from the side rather than from the front.
When Fujifilm for example makes the Fuji X-Pro2which I bought and used for a while, they make a camera sensor that works well with most lenses. It's not geared to handle the Leica M lenses, nor is the Sony A7, which is why you experience the oddity that a perfect Leica M lens (which you paid a lot of money to get) performs less than the cheap Fuji kit lens. The reason is that the Fuji camera is made with the expectation that you will use Fuji lenses; and the camera deploys software correction to make the lens perform perfectly. There’s nothing wrong in that, really. Leica does the same with the Leica Q and Leica Q2 where shortcuts made in the lens design (for the sake of price and size) is made up for with software correction. The Leica Q has a fixed lens, so how the camera would work with other lenses is not really a concern.
Fact of the matter is that the Panasonic Lumix S1R sensor works as well for Leica M lenses as the Leica SL sensor does. And that is quite something.
Here is a review or the Panasonic Lumix S1 from Craig Norris on Macfilos, using wider Leica lenses.
Perhaps the only place that the 47MP sensor makes a difference, compared to the 24MP sensor that sofar sits in the Leica M and Leica SL, is when you do extreme crop.
I don't see any advantage in having the 47MP sensor of the Lumix S1R over 24Mp sensor of the Leica M10-P, when using Leica M lenses. Not that I won't be looking forward to a Leica M11 with a 47MP or 60MP sensor, but for most things, it just doesn't change a thing.
You can take a 24MP image and make it a 100MP image. That's not difficult. I know, because I did so several times. For example, I took this 18MP image from the Leica M9, cropped it, and made it into a 6 feet tall gallery print. Nobody can tell the difference. What you do with any image, 5MP or 18MP or 240MP, is that you open it in Photoshop and resize it: You maintain a resolution of 300 dpi but give a new dimension to the image. This will make a very large file (as large as you need and want it to be), that can be printed as a 10MP or 100Mp or 500MP file.
The whole point with “having enough megapixels” is that you want a large enough file that you can print without resolution problems. The printer needs 150 dpi to 300 dpi per inch to resolve the image in high quality. The moment you feed a printer a relatively small file that it has to stretch too large to cover the paper, the resolution may drop to 30 dpi or 100 dpi. And that's how you get low resolution prints.
Once a file is enlarged to a large file that can feed the printer 300 dpi per inch, the printer will be happy and it will look good.
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Focusing manual lenses on Panasonic Lumix S1R
Surprisingly, the 5.7MP electronic viewfinder on the Panasonic Lumix S1R is not as detailed as the one on the Leica SL. I would almost sign any paper claiming them to have the same electronic viewfinder, but in practical use, you can focus the Leica SL manually without zooming in, whereas on the Panasonic Lumix S1R that is not possible.
I have my suspicion that it's the optics you see through when you view the EVF, but I wouldn't know. But Leica is known for excellent optics, even in viewfinders, so it wouldn't surprise me.
In any case, next there is the focus peaking. I just found this feature too excessive. In the examples below you can see how much the focus peaking “lights up” the image so you can hardly see what you are looking at. In the Leica M, I consistently turn off focus peaking as I find it easier to see if an image is in focus (clarity), than relying on the camera to light up high contrast areas. So I turned it off in the Panasonic Lumix S1R as well.
Focus peaking has the downside that it depends on high contrast. For tele lenses it makes some sense, but if you mount a 28mm f/1.4 lens on a camera, you won't be able to see where the exact focus is for focus peaking colors 'lighting up' a large area. In other words, if you rely on focus peaking, you might likely come home with pictures that are not in exact focus; but you trusted that when it had a color, it was in focus. It was, but only in “acceptable focus”, not in exact focus!
Here the carpet is painted all blue with focus peaking. As it's a 50mm f/1.4 lens, this large area is not actually in focus. Instead, the focusing aid covers the image so you can't judge when the image is actually sharp.
In this case, the metal buttons on a sofa is highlighted and are in focus. The pattern on a pillow 2/3 feet behind is also in focus (which is not real). This also illustrates that the focus peaking works when there is high contrast; as in metal buttons. The black leater doesn't get highlighted.
Use Focus Aid to focus manual lenses
The focus button below the C here is the one you press to activate the Focus Aid that zooms in on the photo.
When you press the focusing aid button (or press the joystick button in) on the back of the camera, the viewfinder zooms in on the picture so you can focus. This is how to focus manual focus lenses when you want to make sure the focus is right on.
The focus point moves with the joystick, which I find annoying. It's easier to move the camera to a focus point (presuming it stayed in the middle), than it is to move the focusing point with a joystick.
The Lumix S1R has a great feature, which is a Lock button. It locks all buttons and joystick so nothing gets affected by an accidental push. It's the best ever. Just remember that when the buttons don't work, it's probably because you locked the camera.
A button to lock all the buttons on the camera!
Mirrorless on stereoids
The electronic shutter has a maximum speed of 1/32000 sec, the mechanical shutter can go up to 1/8000th sec. The electronic shutter is soundless, and the mechanical shutter gives a short, decisive metallic click.
That the camera goes to 1/32000 sec means that you will have no need for ND filters (see under definitions in the buttom of this article).
The base ISO of the sensor is 200 ISO, so that whould be the working ISO most of the time, and then only raised to 3200 or 6400 ISO when it gets dark. When set at 200 ISO, the Panasonic Lumix S1R will fire at around 1/16000 in sunshine when you use an f/1.0 lens. So there is plenty of room to do this without having to lower the ISO or mount ND filter on the lens. Any lens can be used wide open on this camera.
The ISO goes down to 100 ISO and as high as 25,600 ISO. If you use Auto ISO, the lower limit should be set to 100 ISO and upper limit to 6400 ISO.
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Testing Panasonic Lumix SR1's 187MP images with High Resolution Mode
If the Panasonic S1R is set to "High Resolution Mode" that makes it possible to make a 187MP image (in the S1 with a 24MP sensor, the High resolution Mode file will be 97MP).
It takes eight separate exposures and make them into one image file.
In the menu under High resolution Mode:
Set Simul Record Normal Shot to ON
and Shutter Delay to 1 second.
Motion Blur Processing should be set to MODE 2.
Then, to start the process of taking High Resolution Mode images, press Start in the menu of HRM pictures. Then the camera will take HRM pictures every time you press the shutter.
To stop the Lumix S1R from doing High resolution Pictures, press Q button on the back of the camera.
After the Lumix S1R has taken 8 photos, it creates a high resolution image of 187MP from the 8 exposure, it did. It goes pretty fast.
High resolution Mode test photograph
The idea of a 187MP high resolution file is intended for landscapes or such where the trend seems to be that one should get as much detail as possible. It obviously can't be used for things that don't stand still for 8 frames, like a portrait, or a snowstorm.
I put on one of the highest resolution lenses, the 50 APO-Summicron f/2.0 and did this one. You can download the RAW file here and play with it.
This is how the image looks in detail if enlarged 4X in Photoshop to be the same size (16,736 x 11,168 pixels; or 186 megapixels). Most would be happy with this
This is the same crop from the High Resolution Mode 186 megapixels file of the Lumix S1R. As it is possible to see, the darker areas are slightly more open, and the paper structure and the edges of the black letters are more defined and alive. Download the test files from the link just below the video in this article above
Download free Panasonic Lumix S1R sample files:
Simply add to chart, check out and you get a mail instantly with a download link
47 MP Lumix S1R Test Files (650MB)
187 MP Lumix S1R High Resolution Mode (930MB)
User Manual Lumix S1R (PDF)
Another High Resolution Image sample
Here is another image. I like plants because they are a good test of the 3-dimensional feel and how alive things look, using different technologies. They should look alive, real and wet. Not sharp, dead and one-colored. Not a big issue with a Leica lens, but an interesting subject to test whether the HRI brings more or less natural life to things.
This is how the image looks in details if enlarged 4X in Photoshop to be the same size as the High Definition File.
This is the same crop from the High Resolution Mode's 186 megapixels file of the Lumix S1R. Not much difference, really, but edges and such are more well-defined, should one ever want to look at the image in such close detail. Taking photos of buildings, I would imagine the details would be delightful for those zooming in really close. Download the test files from the link just above.
Printing High Resolution Images
For use on screen, there's hardly any reason to use a 186 megapixel image. For print it might be another story. So I printed both on my Canon Pro 1000 printer and compared. Actually, it wasn't that visible at normal viewing distance. Only when you go really close, you may manage to see the details.
The place where photographs (in general) allow us to view details, is on a screen. Prints are great for overview and an excellent statement of "I did this!". Hence, the detail captured in an 187MP file is more for the user than for the world to see.
Conclusion on High Resolution Images
Well, it's free. It comes with the Lumix S1R, so you might as well do some. All you got to do is have a little patience while the camera produces the file.
It's a feature I would use if I had climbed a mountain to take the one important photo I had worked to get for some weeks. I would also first take some normal 47MP images as I wouldn't risk losing the moment while working with taking the relatively time-consuming High Resolution Images.
It only works on a tripod as the camera takes 4 photos of the scene and merges them. I wouldn't use it for studio photography of products unless some special requirement deemed it necessary to record such an amount of detail.
47MP files require a workhorse. If you want to be mobile, look for the MacBook Pro with 32GB RAM and 4TB hard drive and the new improved (less power; more speed) AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphic card. The graphic card alone improves the speed of import/building previews and export/building building JPG's by 50%-100% when using Capture One Pro or Lightroom Classic CC. I haven't measured the new 8-core MacBook Pro yet.
I use a raid SSD drive and backup drive for my MacBook Pro, the Glyph 4TB SSD. I went with SSD because 4TB is large enough to last some time into the future, and this raid one is the fastest available (because it is raid), with 1800MP/second writing/reading speed. (See my article on SSD drives here).
I use an Eizo 27" ColorEdge screen to edit and judge my work on. Not because it's cheap but because Eizo is the standard for photo editing screens. I could read a lot of reviews and find a good deal, but I don’t have the time. I buy any Eizo ColorEdge screen; I buy into the legendary quality of Eizo screens. You can get 4K and larger (and smaller) Eizo screens. They're all the same quality, just different sizes and resolution. It has to be the ColorEdge screens made for photo editing, the other models are for hospitals, stock brokers and different needs than photo editing. Also, it has built-in hardware calibration, which means that you press a button and the screen calibrates. So easy and accurate that once you have it, you won't ever live without it again.
With excellent high resolution 47MP files, a print in 13x19" (A3+) or 17x22" would be nice. It's my new thing. Everybody see photos on smartphone screens these days, so when you give somebody a real print, they pay attention, and they love it!
I use and recommend the Canon Pro 1000 printer , and I use Canson Platin Fibre Rag 310g paper for color photos (13x19" and 8.5x11") and Hahnemühle Photo Gloss Baryta 320g for black and white prints (13x19" and 8.5x11"). I tested a lot of different papers, and I surveyed people (photographers, people without any special knowledge in photography, art buyers, the guy who frames for me, and more) to find out which prints they liked, and why. That's how I chose those two types of paper.
The rule of color printers is simply that the larger the printer, the more economincal the ink is to buy and use. The Canon Pro 1000 is a $1,295 printer that take up some space, but can fit on a table or in a closet. The larger printers are cool, more economical in ink, have the option for a paper roll feed - but they are HUGE and have to stand on wheels. They take up a corner of a room and have to be hand-fed.
Hence the Canon Pro 1000 printer as the best choice. Forget the Pro 10 and Pro 100, they're too expensive to feed in terms of ink. They are nice printers, the Pro 10 and Pro 100, and they throw them at you for almost nothing, but that's because they know they get access to your bank account when you start using the small ink cartridges these two printers come with. So go with the Pro 1000 or larger.
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When Panasonic do something, they do it
The Panasonic Lunux S series has come out in 24MP (model S1), 47MP (model S1R) and a video camera (model S1H), and they spit out accessories and lenses in short order. If anyone thought Panasonic would just tip their toes into the new SL market, that's clearly not the case.
From a Leica user’s viewpoint, this shows one of the forces of making the "L-Mount Alliance". Leica introduced the SL idea four-five years ago, and has introduced one camera body, the Leica SL and a handful of lenses in that period of time, as well as a roadmap for future lenses.
Panasonic Lumix S1H is going to be quite a video camera, not based on the same body as the Lumix S1 and Lumix S1R, but an entirely redesigned 6K and 4K video body with ventilator and all ... that takes L-mount lenses and can also take still photos. Look at the nice red release button.
When Leica took Panasonic and Sigma on as 'partners' in the L-Mount, they mounted a rocket engine on a Mercedes. Now it goes really fast. The new well-thought technology Panasonic packs in the S series (helped and inspired by the example of Leica), is impressive.
Sigma have already announced/released a quite fulfilling range of L lenses that fit the Leica SL and the Panasonic Lumix S cameras.
Leica will be making their Leica SL (24MP) and soon the Leica SL2 (47MP or more, expected in September 2019 or so).
Sigma will take the position as the third-party manufacturer of "a lot of cheap lenses" so the photo enthusiast who wants to build a large collection of gear can "complete the map" within relatively human economical means. Most Sigma lenses will be priced from $500 to $1,500.
Panasonic will take the position as the mass-market driver of the L-Mount, seemingly willing and capable of producing any forceful camera concept you can think of, with any and all the features you could dream of, and they have taken a position of making the Panasonic Lumix S series a professional series built in a quality not seen since the German Tiger Tank from World War II and the Nikon F3.
Leica will take the position as the ones who designed this concept that allow for any lens to be designed and fitted onto the L-Mount camera, and their intention with it was to be able to make the highest possible quality lenses ever made. Basically, medium format-sized lenses with no constrains on size, allowing them to make high-precision elements with extremely small tolerances; mount them with high precision in large lens mounts (where the tolerances are not as tight as in small lenses, say the 50mm APO-Summicron for the Leica M).
An analogy would be that Apple has refined the elements of a computer to be so tiny they can make a very compact MacBook; but imagine if they now made a huge MacBook Pro using those elements. The speed of it, all the power you could pack in a notebook with no considerations about making it compact, it would have unheard of power, packed with all the compact technology of today. This in essence, is what the L-Mount made it possible to do for Leica.
The L-Mount makes it possible to make lenses with no compromises at all, and that is what Leica intends to do, and this is why the Leica L-mount lenses are unparalleled in terms of expense. Because they are going to be unparalleled in terms of perfection.
Leica also brings to the table the ability to make things simple (at least for their own products). With a fraction of the buttons the Panasonic Lumix S has, the Leica SL performs the same operations. Strangely enough, Leica is the only camera brand that manages to remove buttons and simplify modern cameras. Despite the mass market and the almost unlimited resources that Japanese brands like Panasonic, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm have at hand, that is one thing they just can't do: Make things simple. They just must add everything. It's a constant mystery to me how Japan admires and excels in simple design and seems to not be able to get enough things of Scandinavian design, but when it comes to cameras, toilets and electronics, it becomes very complicated.
In any case. You can start seeing the perspective in this. Leica can focus on the perfection and simplicity, and charge Leica prices for making these miracles. Panasonic will be driving the L-Mount out to every corner of the known universe, and Sigma will make it affordable for even students to own and use the L-Mount.
For those who wonder why Leica shared the L-Mount with these magnificently powerful producers of camera equipment, simply imagine that just a small fraction of the L-Mount users becomes obsessed with optimum quality and can't sleep through the night without waking minimally twice, thinking of owning a Leica lens. That is all that is needed for it to be a massive boom for Leica. The world is full of people who gave up even trying a Leica lens because it seemed an impossible idea to afford one. With the L-mount widely used, some of those will be within reach for Leica.
Oh, and Leica gets royalties for their L-Mount and other patents used in the Panasonic and Sigma products as well. This could be an impressive sum as well, for not doing anything than sharing their technology.
"What do I care?", you might think. Well, it allows for us users to dive into a new level of photography, much as I remember the SLR race from 1960 to 2000 where new cameras and new lenses constantly pushed the speed and quality of photography. Also, in a time and age where much of the focus has been on electronics (in the camera, as if it was about making a camera as smart as a smartphone), now there will be a lot of focus on optical quality.
The range of Leica lenses for the L mount are a little strange looking, and they are expensive. They take a little more to read into, to understand if and why they are worth every penny.
The bargain of them all is the 90-280mm APO zoom. It's highly rated by buyers, and loved to bits. Every inch of its impressive length. Any man would be proud to feature this one. That it is APO makes is exceptional image quality, and that you can get that much Leica lens for $6,398 is a small miracle. I frankly expect them to re-calculate it any day and raise the price.
The TL lenses are crop lenses, so they won't cover the full frame format. They fit on the Leica SL and Panasonic S1R all right, but they crop the format to APS size. So the 35mm f/1.4 TL becomes a 50mm on the Panasonic Lumix S1R. Reason being that they TL lenses were made for the Leica T, Leica TL, Leica TL2 and Leica CL ... but share the L mount.
It can seem weak also that the zoom lenses are not simply f/2.8, but f/2-8-4.0, which means that when a zoom like the 24-90mm us at 24mm, it's a f/2.8 lens, but as it zooms towards 90mm, it becomes a less lightstrong lens, a f/4.0. Traditionally, a “really nice and perfect” zoom is one that is constructed to stay the same f-stop throughout the zoom range. It requires a larger lens (with more glass), and requires that the aperture mechanism changes as you zoom the lens. In short, a more delicate lens to make, and thus a more desirable and pristine piece of optics to own.
If one studies what chief lens designer at Leica Camera AG says, it is clear that his concern is not really the f-stop. No, he is working in an entirely different direction, which is optical perfection in an entirely new level.
You look at the lens range, and Sigma's 35mm f/1.4at just $899 is easy to understand. Then the Leica 35mm APO f/2.0 at$4,595. You wonder if they added a 0 too many, or perhaps they went back to Deutchmark overnight ... for a lens that is less light-strong than the f/1.4 of the Sigma.
Not so. Leica Camera AG means every bit of it, and every zero. The intention of Leica is to make perfection, and even if that optimum perfection they see possible comes with an extra price tag. They for certain are not going to try to compete with Sigma or anybody else on price.
The simple way to determine if it's worth the money is simply use your eyes. There should be a visible difference between a $899 Sigma lens and a $4,595 Leica lens. If you don't see it, you saved some money.
Lens designer Peter Karbe of Leica Camera AG has produced a series of APO lenses that are f/2.0, but deliver depth of field like f/1.4 lenses. The new series of APO lenses include a wide-angle 35mm, which is an unexpected use of APO. But it works. What APO used to be used for was long tele lenses. In recent years, Leica lens designers have implemented APO in more and more lenses. The first was a lens that isn't designated an APO lens, but in fact is: The Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4. Then next came the Leica 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH f/2.0, coined as "the best 50mm in the world" and a price tag of $7,000.00, which now can be seen as study of APO in other lenses than tele lenses. What APO does for a lens, in short, is that it gives extreme clarity to colors and details. Clarity is another word for sharpness, and I prefer to talk about clarity of a lens, rather than how sharp the edges of things are. Clarity is when you look through a binocular or a lens, and what you see you see clearer and more alive than with your own eyes.
Get my Leica Presets
for Lightroom and Capture One
Overgaard's Leica Presets for: Lightroom CC Classic (7.4 -->) Lightroom CC (version 1 through 7.2) Lightroom CC (cloud-based 1.0)
I have made a few essential Presets for Lightroom which do minor adjustments to the Leica files, so as to get the tones exactly how I want them.
The Presets have as their ideal, the Leica M9 sensor, as well as the Kodachrome film (which also happens to be the ideal for Leica, when they developed the Leica M9 sensor). Not that it matters much, but that is the reason why I made my own Presets: To get the that look, rather than a “digital sensor look”.
I have made a few essential Styles for Capture One that does minor adjustments to the Leica files, so as to get the tones exactly how I want them.
The Styles have as their ideal, the Leica M9 sensor, as well as the Kodachrome film (which also happens to be the ideal for Leica, when they developed the Leica M9 sensor). Not that it matters much, but that is the reason why I made my own Styles: To get the that look, rather than a “digital sensor look”.
Read more about my Lightroom Workflow on this page
Read more about my Capture One Workflow on this page
In-camera stabilization
The Panasonic Lumix SR1 has 'Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization', which means built-in stabilization in the camera body. Leica introduced image stabilization in their L lenses because optical image stabilization is thought to be more true than in-body image stabilization (the optical elements change their position, rather than the sensor moves). It is also a matter of space. In-body image stabilization takes space and battery power.
With both lens stabilization and in-camera stabilization, there won't be much camera shake that can’t be compensated for.
Video with Panasonic Lumix S1R
Frankly, I never pushed the video button on this camera. I don't do videos, though I consider using the upcoming Leica SL mark II for my own video channel, Magic of Light TV. Currently we use a Canon CX200 Cinema Camera and a Sony A7 as secondary camera.
The video on the Panasonic Lumix S1 and Panasonic Lumix S1R can be expanded by buying the release of video functionality:
4:2:2 10-bit 4K 24p/30p internal video recording
4:2:2 10-bit 4K 60p HDMI output
Full V-Log recording.
Or simply go with the Panasonic Lumix 1H video camera, if video is the thing you want to do.
The built-in stabilization, as well as the optical stabilization in most lenses is a help mainly for video. If I used it for video, the first thing I would get is the little French miracle, the $400 StewadXP. That's a stabilizer hardware/software kit that can stabilize almost any jumping footage. Easier than getting a Steadicam.
Tilting screen
An advantage in the Panasonic Lumix SR1 is the view screen on the back that tilts out, up, to the sides and all. It's a space-consuming feature one wouldn't put in a compact camera, but it's in the Panasonic Lumix S1R. I've used it a few times when I wanted the camera to be low and didn’t want to throw myself to the ground to get the shot.
Things that can go wrong on the Panasonic Lumix S1R
What the ...?
Quite often there are things on the Panasonic that don’t react or work as expected, and usually the answer is that when something doesn’t work, look in the EVF or on the display.
The camera as such hasn't had any glitches, so it's about getting used to it. Once you understand that you are “talking to a machine”, some of the odd things makes sense:
The display doesn’t respond?
When I mount a manual focus lens, the Panasonic starts each new session (turning the camera on) with asking on the display, in the viewfinder, “Is this a 50mm lens?” and I have to press YES or NO, before the camera’s other buttons will react. Or, I can simply release the shutter and that overrides the question that blocks the other operations.
Until I have done this, I cannot change the WB or ISO with the buttons next to the shutter release. I was quite surely in return-mode of the camera until I discovered this. When something doesn’t work, look in the EVF or on the display. Most likely there is a message in there that needs to be answered!
The Manual White Balance can’t be set?
When you set the white balance, you press the ISO button on top for 1-2 seconds (meaning; hold it down until something happens. If nothing happens, look in the EVF as there’s likely an unanswered question from the camera).
You now see that the ISO can be selected on the camera display on top of the camera, and you scroll through AWB, Shade, Sunshine and so on till you get to the symbol for Manual White Balance. There’s Kelvin 1, Kelvin 2, Kelvin 3, Kelvin 4, which means that you can store four (which is three too many) Manual White Balance settings. But let’s not get confused by that.
Let’s instead get confused what to do now. How do I set the manual white balance? Once again, you have to look into the EVF for answers: In there the explanation is quite clearly that you have to point upwards first, using the joystick, to set the white balance. A field in the center of the frame is now highlighted with a yellow frame, and you simply point that to a WhiBal card or a white piece of paper, or a neutral white or grey area in front of you. Once you have taken a photo of this, the camera responds with a “Completed”.
Kelvin can’t be set?
Another way to set the White Balance is by choosing Kelvin. You scroll down to K (of which there are K1, K2, K3, K4 which is way too many).
When you get to K1, you look in the EVF and see that you push the joystick up to set the Kelvin, and then you again have to use the joystick (not the wheel) to set the Kelvin at the right point of a scale (that you easily don't notice at first) in the upper right corner. Then you press SET.
Phew! This is very cumbersome to work with, and you will look like a complete novice to the world around you as you are standing there in the street looking troubled into your EVF, trying to navigate your way through these menus; and most likely taking a few wrong turns, or forgetting to save it by pressing SET.
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Is Auto White Balance AWB or AWBc or AWBw..?
Auto White Balance (AWB) is that the camera itself automatically finds something neutral white or grey in the frame , reads the color of the light, and then 'calibrates' the colors to be correct. In the Panasonic, they have complicated this slightly by introducing the choices of AWBw that retains a reddish tint, and AWBc (bluish tint).
Auto White Balance is what most cameras are used at, because most people haven't found out what it is, and don't know how important and rewarding getting the colors right in camera can be. If I was Panasonic, I would invest my time and energy in helping people simplify color control, and getting it to work, rather than adding more choices to something very few understand.
Setting the Panasonic Lumix S1R for manual of AF
The outside wheel has to be set to M for manual focusing lenses. For Auto focus lenses, you set it either to S (single focus, which means that the focus locks and stays there), or C (continuous) which means that the focus continues to follow what you are focusing (pointing) on.
Setting the Program Mode Dial
On top of the camera is the Progam dial. You can set it to A (Aperture Priority) for most things, or M (Manual) when you want to use for example an external light meter and set the camera's aperture, ISO and shutter speed according to those reading. P (program) mode will allow you to be in a sort of automatic state, but the changes you make overrrides the normal automatic choices the camer would make.
The C1, C2 etc is 'user programs', which I never got friendly with.
Ok, reset it all and start over
When you use one Program mode in the Panasonic Lumix S1R and set up the camera, you would expect that those choices were the choices you made. But you will find that when you change Program mode, you start all over again. As you try to get AF to work again after having used a manual lens for some time, you may get lost in the menu choices ... at times it just gets so complicated and slow to set it up that you go and reset the whole camera.
The idea that you can micro manage each program mode to your exact likings and use of the camera is a good idea. In theory. But in the real world, you simply can't comprehend and remember 750 menu choices x 6 program modes and where you left them.
Many things in the Panasonics Lumix S1R that suggest that if you had just one or two of these cameras and did everything with these (as in a studio for example), you would get this under control. But the reality of the matter is that most people have several cameras and will never get this camera to “sit in the fingers”.
That's when you hit reset.
There's relative few things you must set up in the camera, and sometimes it's faster to reset it and set those things than trying to find which settings you made (and where is that in the menu, by the way) previously that you now must change back.
That the camera operates as six-seven individually set-up cameras, depending on which program mode you set, certainly doesn't make it easier.
Odd things you might find useful
Inside the viewfinder you will see a green dot that hops around. What it does is actually showing you how much you move the camera or shake your hands. You might find it useful to stabilize your hand … or see the need to buy a tripod.
As always, feel free to send me an e-mail if you have questions, comments or suggestions.
What is that?
The Panasonic Lumix S1R buttons and details explored and explained.
The bayonet and sensor
The sensor sits just when you taqke off the lens and has (as sensors always does) a protective layer of glass on top of it.
There's a 10-pin contact as part of the L-Mount system.
You can see the little red metal dit sticking up, that is the one that the lens locks into with a click when mounted.
Sensor cleaning
The sensor cleaning swaps doesn't come with the Panasonic Lumix S1R, but you should get some. And always get the liquid optics cleaner as well, which is the liquid that cleans the sensor and evaporates by itself without leaving stripes or marks.
uThe sensor sits wide open just behind the lens, and that mans that you can easily get dust on it.
You can also find any professional photo store to clean sensors on any camera brand, should you need a thorough cleaning.
Fn (function) button
The top button by default has no function, but can be programmed have a function.
Preview button
The middle button you can press to see a preview of depth of field while looking through the viewfinder, or at the screen. It can also be programmed for other use (Fn button).
Lens release button
The button closest to the lens, and the one lowest, is the lens unlock.
Video mode
The V.MODE button is out of sight, but you press it and it circles between three magnification levels of the viewfinder.
Electronic Viewfinder
The beautiful optics is the view to the 5.6MP electronic viewfinder. It has a soft rubber ring around it so your glasses doesn't get scratched (and isolates light from outside).
The small vindow above it is a sensor that senses when you put your eye in front of it. If you use the screen, that will go off and the image will be shown in the EVF instead. It doesn't know it's your eye, so if you hold a hand over then sensor, the screen will turn off and the EVF till tutn on.
Flash shoe
If you take off the plastic cover, there's where a flash should sit.
Stereo Microphone
The two holes on top are the stereo microphone for video recordings.
Sensor plane measurement
The Ø symbol on the side of the 'EVF house' is where the sensor sits. It allows you to use a measurement tape from here to the subject and would give you the exact focusing distance.
AF Assist Lamp
and Self Timer Lamp
The tiny thing on the front of the camera, hidden next to the handgrip is the lamp that light up red at night to help the AF determine the focusing distance.
It also will blink a countdown if you use the self-timer in the camera.
The Button Lock
Then you tilt this button, almost all buttons on the camera are locked and won't be affected if you press them accidentialluy. It's a great thing.
Playback button
Next to it sits the playback button that you press to see the photos you did, on the screeen.
Video recording
The button with the red dot, sort of hidden to the right of the EVF, is the video recording button. You press it and the video starts recording, you press it again and video recording stops.
Program Mode Wheel
The wheen on top is the one you use to change between A (Aperture Mode), M (Manual Mode), Video recording, etc.
The buttoin in the center of the wheel is the lock button (you press it down to change Mode).
Drive Mode Wheel
On the side of the Program Mode Wheel you use the little thunbs tab to turn it so you can change the drive mode from Single Photo to Burst I and Burst II mode (or 6K/4K video if video mode is on!), or you turn it to Time Lapse of Self Timer (which looks very similar; but the left is Time Lapse and the last, the far right one is Self timer).
Front Dial Wheel
Just in front of the shutter release button sits the front dial wheel. It can be used to scroll the menu (WB, ISO, etc), change aperture, shutter speed, zoom in and out on a preview, etc.
Rear Dial Wheel
Or Thumbs Dial Wheel. This has the same functions as the Front Dial Wheel mentioned above.
Control Dial Wheel
For menu and numeric value settings, there's the dial on the back of the camera as well.
WB Button
The White Balance button sits conviently just next to the Shutter Release button. You press it and you can scroll between the WB modes on the display. For futher adjustments, you have to look into the EVF, or on the screen.
ISO Button
You press the ISO button and you can use the wheel to change the ISO setting (from 50 to 25,000 ISO)
Exposure Compensation
The third button on top is for exposure compensation.
3-Axis Tiltable Monitor
There is a small button to the left of the monitor that releases the monitor so you can tilt it out, enabling you to see from below, above, or from either side.
LVF Button
Hidden on the left side of the EVF house is the LVF button, which switches between EVF and Monitor.
LV = Live View, F= Function.
Top Display
The top display is always showing battery status and how many images are left on the mmory card, even when the camera is turned off.
When the camera is switched on, it shows f-stop, picrture format, exposure comopensation, WB setting, ISO, light meter mode and more.
Display light
To the right of the display is a button with a light bulb symbol. In darkness, you opress it and there is light on the display.
Flash Sync Contact
On the front of the camera is a flash sync contact covered by a plastic front that you can screw off.
Memory Cards
On the right side of the camera is the door to the memory cards. One slot for SD, one for XQD.
Contacts
On the left side of the camera is the door to contacts. From left to right:
- Microphone socket.
- Headphone socket.
- USB socket.
- HDMI socket.
To the left, outside thsi picture, is a remote control socket as well.
Shoulder Strap
The Panasonic Lumix S1R comes with a nylon strap with lots of adjustments.
I use simple leather straps of the right length (125cm for most people) instead.
Focusing buttons
There is a S (single focus), C (continious focus) and a MF (Manual Focus) selection on this.
In the center is a button for activating focus aid. This button works also when the Lock button is turned on (the one that loks all buttons on the camea).
AF ON
Activates AF if you want to activate AF without touching the shutter release button (!).
10-point contacts
The L-Moount has 10-point electronic contacts on lenses that connects to the camera. Use for AF, aperture control and more.
Lens adapters
A number of lens adapters exists for the L-Lount, enabling you to mount Leica M lenses, Leica R lenses, cine lenses and more to the Panasonic Lumix S1R.
Fn Lever
Hidden in the front right corner is this strange button. In older SLR cameras it would usually be a selection of flash sync at either beginning or end of flash.
Empty spot decoration: In this camera they seem to have found an empty spot on the body and decided to put a button there.
It's anything you wnat it to be (!). It's a Fn (Function) button you can program to any function, such as switching between image quality modes, night mode, self timer ... well, just about anything.
Battery door
The battery door is on the buttom of the camera.
Handgrip Contacts
Under the camera is a soft rubber cover that you cake off if you use a Battery Handgrib, so as to enable the handgrib and camera to communicate.
Handgip (extra)
The battery handgrip gives better comfort to the camera (and makes it bigger, naturallty) and contains a space for extra battery (same as the camera; there is no built-in battery).
The handgrib also has quite a lot of the same contacts as the camera so you can operate the camera vertical etc. and still have the shutter relase, WB buttons, etc 'where it's supposed to be'.
Tripod socket
and serial number
Under the camera is the screw for tripod. You will also fund the lavel with serial number.
DC Coupler Cover
There's a strange soft cover by the battery compartment unde the camera.
This is for an acessory so you can attach the camera to the outlet and not worry about power. For example for video, or if a camera is always mounted for photographing for example paintings on a museum. (Requires that you get the AC Adaptor (DMW-AC10) and DC Coupler (DMW- DCC16).
Panasonic Lumix S1R and Photography Definitions
AEL = Auto Exposure Lock. This is a function that can be used when you want to reframe the scene, but keep the current exposure from changing.
AFL = Auto Focus Lock. This is a function that can be used when you want to reframe the scene, but keep the current focusing from changing.
AF = Auto Focus. The idea is that the camera does the focusing itself (the word auto comes from Greek "self").
AF Assist Lamp = A little red lamp that some cameras have on the front, which will light up in dark places so as to help the Auto Focus to see in the dark. If you put a hand in front of the lens and press the shutter release button, you can see it in action. The AF assist lamp can be turned off in the menu.
Aperture = The f/ stop on the camera that regulates how much light passes through the lens. On a f/1.7 lens the lens is fully open" at f/1.7. At f/2.0 the aperture inside the lens make the hole through the lens smaller so only half the amount of light at f/1.7 passes through. For each f/-stop (4.0 - 5.6 - 8.0 - 11 - 16) you halve the light. The aperture of the lens is basically the focal length divided with the f/-stop = size of the hole (28mm divided with f/1.7 = the hole is 45 mm). ORIGIN: Late Middle English : from Latin apertura, from apert- ‘opened,’ from aperire ‘to open’.
APO = stands for "apochromatically corrected". In most lenses, optical design concentrates the focus of blue light and green light into a single plane, but red light falls slightly into another plane of focus. Red subjects, therefore, would be ever so slightly out of focus compared to blue and green subjects in the same frame. Not sure you'd ever notice though, the difference is so slight. This is the same basic principle that requires you to shift the focus for infrared photography, related to the wave length of red light. In APO lenses, the design and expense has been put in to making red light focus on the same plane as blue and green. Under a microscope you would see that all light subject is now in focus, creating a sharper image overall. Many manufacturers offer APO designs, but in most of these only the very center of the lens is APO corrected. Leica prides itself on making most of the frame APO correct.
If one look at the images produced by the APO lenses (Leica 90mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH f/2.0, the Leica 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH, and the Leica 50mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4 that is in fact APO-corrected), one will notice that the colors are really bright and alive, almost more real than to the eye.
Apochromat; ORIGIN early 20th century, made of the two words;
apo: Greek origin, away from
chromatic (Latin origin, meaing relating to color.
spherical (ball)
a-spherical (non-ball)
ASPH = (Aspherical lens) stands for "aspheric design".
Most lenses have a spherical design - that is, the radius
of curvature is constant. These are easy to manufacture by
grinding while "spinning" the glass. This design
however restricts the number of optical corrections that can
be made to the design to render the most realistic image possible.
ASPH lenses (a-spherical, meaning non-spherical), however, involve usually 1 element that does
*not* have a constant radius of curvature. These elements
can be made by 1) expensive manual grinding, 2) molded plastic,
or 3) Leica's patented "press" process, where the element
is pressed into an aspherical ("non-spherical")
shape. This design allows Leica to introduce corrections
into compact lens designs that weren't possible before. Practically,
the lens performs "better" (up to interpretation)
due to increased correction of the image, in a package not
significantly bigger than the spherical version.
There is another Aspherical lens manufacture technique: an uneven coating layer is applied to a spherical lens. The coating is thicker on the edges (or on the center, depending). Canon "Lens Work II" calls these "simulated" aspherical lenses. Simulated and Glass-Molded (GMo) asphericals show up in non-L Canon lenses, while the L lenses have actual ground aspheric elements.
A- means non, or without.From Latin, ex.
Sphere: ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French espere, from late Latin sphera, earlier sphaera, from Greek sphaira "ball".
Normal spheric lens (grinded)
ASPH (note the shape of the glass as result of pressing rather than grinding)
Auto- means “self”. The idea is that when a camera has auto-(something), it does that (something) by itself.
Banding = Noise in digital images. Horizontal lines in a horizontal pictures (if the camera is in portrait mode/vertical, the lines will be obviously be vertical). It's simply noise; the result of uncontrolled algorithms working overtime with an image the sensor really can't see because it's very dark. (If your image have vertical lines in it, it is more likely that the sensor needs remapping).
Base ISO = The ISO the digital sensor was born with. Even a digital sensor goes from say 50 ISO to 25,000 ISO, it only has one base ISO. Any other setting is an algorithm that figures out how the image whould look if there was 64 times more light, or half the light, etc.
When you go down from Base ISO (for example 200 to 100 ISO), you can expect a
decrease in quality. When you go up, the decrease is much less. For some sensors, you loose 2-3 stops by going down 1 step in ISO, but can go 8 steps up and only loose 1 stop in dynamic range. Basically, your ISO range should be from Base ISO and as far up as you can, before you see visible decrease in quality (mostly 3200 ISO - 6400 ISO).
Base ISO for Leica M9 is 160 ISO, for Leica M24o it is 200 ISO. For Leica M10 it is around 160 ISO. lFor Leica M Monochrom it is 320 ISO. For Panasonic Lumix S it is 200 ISO. For most Canon cameras the base ISO is around 100, for most Nikon cameras it is around 200 ISO.
Bokeh = The visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens: It's a matter of taste and usually photographers discuss a 'nice' or 'pleasant' bokeh (the out-of-focus area is always unsharp, which is why the quality discussed is if one likes the way it renders or not by a particular lens). The closer you get to something, the 'more' bokeh' you get (in that the focus becomes less for the background and foreground at close distances than at long distances). ORIGIN from Japanese 'bo-ke' which mean 'fuzzines' or 'blur.'.
C = Continuous shooting. The camera takes series of images as long as the shutter release is pressed down. In some cameras the speed of continious shooting can be adjusted.
Camera -is today’s short name for Camera Obscura (meaning “a dark room”). CamerameansChambre and was used only as a Latin or alien word, actually only for Spanish soldiers’ rooms, until popularized in connection with photography in 1727: “Camera Obscura”. In 1793 the slang term “camera” was used by Sterne Tr. Shandy: “Will make drawings of you in the camera” and by Foster (1878), “The eye is a camera”. Camera Obscura was described by Iraqi scientist Ibn-al-Haytham in his book, “Book of Optics” (1021) and by Leonardo da Vinci in 1500; popularized and made widely known in 1589 by Baptista Porta when he mentioned the principle in his book “Natural Magic”. Johannes Kepler mentions Camera Obscura in 1604.
Camera = chambre (room), Obscura = dark (or cover).
CMOS sensor = (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) chips use transistors at each pixel to move the charge through traditional wires. This offers flexibility because each pixel is treated individually. Traditional manufacturing processes are used to make CMOS. It's the same as creating microchips. Because they're easier to produce, CMOS sensors are cheaper than CCD sensors. CMOS allow Live View and use less energy than CCD.
Depth - Distance between front and back. Distance from viewer and object.
Digital Shutter = A digital shutter is simply "turning on/off the recording of the sensor. In the "old days" this had to be done with an actual mechanical shutter curtain; a metal curtain in front of the sensor (or film) that goes up for 1/125th of a second, for example.
Lens distortion looks like this. The lines are not straight. Our eye uses distortion correction. Lens designers can design lenses so they have very little distortion, or they can make less complicated lens designs and "fix" the distortion in software.
Distortion = In photo optics/lenses: When straight lines in a scene don't remain straight because of optical aberration.
Lens designers can correct for distortion to a degree so the whole image field is perfect corrected and all lines remain straight. In modern lens design many designs rely on Software Distortion Correction (SDC).
The eye adjusts for distortion so we always see vertical and horizontal lines straight when we look at things. Even when you get new prescription glasses (if you use such), you will often experience distortion in your new glasses. After a few days they eyes have adjusted for the glasses and the distortion you saw to begin with is now gone. Software Distortion Correction (SDC) is far behind what the human eye can perform of adjustments. (Also see my definition on Perspective for more on the eye and optics)
DOF = Depth of Field. This is how much of the image will be in focus or "acceptable sharp". The DOF is determined by the subject distance (the farther away, the larger area is sharp; the closer the focus is, the less of the lage is sharp), the lens aperture (the depth of field is narrow at f/1.4 and larger at f/5.6) and the focal length of the lens (tele lenses has very narrow depth of field whereas wide angle lenses has a wide depth of field) and film or sensor size (small-sensor cameras has a wide depth of field wheras medium format or large format cameras has a very narrow depth of field). As an example, a Leica 21mm Super-Angulon-M f/3.4 lens is sharp all over the focus field from 2 meter to infinity when set at a distance of 3 meters at f/3.4. The DOF scale measurement on top of the Leica lenses shows lines for each f-stop that indicates from which distance to which distance the image will be sharp. Shallow DOF is a generally used term in photography that refer to lenses with very narrow focus tolerance (which can be used to do selective focus; making irrelevant subjects in the foreground and background blurry so only the subjects of essence are in focus and catches the viewers eye).
Depth Of Field scale from Fujifilm.
Dynamic range. The grade of ‘contrast range’ (or number of tones) a film or sensor, or simply a photograph, possess between bright and dark tones. The human eye is said to have a dynamic range of 10-14 ‘stops’ (but because we scan area by area and compile a concept of the overall scene, they eye is often thought to have a much higher dynamic range), Film used to have 7-13 ‘stops’ and some modern sensors have up to 15-17 ‘stops’.
EVF = Electronic ViewFinder. A viewfinder where you look at a small screen through optics/prisms. The advantage is that you see what the sensor sees.
The EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) on the Leica SL 601.
Exposure Bracketing = The possibility to set the camera to automatically record a series of images where the exposure is above and below what the camera measures. The idea is that at least one of the images will be correctly exposed.
f/ (f-stop, also known as aperture).
f- (focal length). Often given in mm, for example 90mm. In the past they were often given in cm or inch, for example 9.5 cm or 3.2 inch.
f-stop = the ratio of the focal length (for example 50mm) of a camera lens to the diameter of the aperture being used for a particular shot. (E.g., f/8, indicating that the focal length is eight times the diameter of the aperture hole: 50mm/8 = 6,25 mm); or the other way around, the hole is the focal length divided with 8).
ORIGIN early 20th cent.: from f (denoting the focal length) and number.
One f-stop is a doubling or halving of the light going through the lens to the film, by adjusting the aperture riing. Adjusting the f-setting from f 1.4 to f.2.0 is halving the light that goes through the lens. Most Leica lenses has half f-stops to enable the photographer to adjust the light more precicely.
Flare = Burst of light. Internal reflections between (and within) lens elements inside a lens. Mostly, flare has a characteristic "space travel" look to it, making it cool. Particularly in older lenses with less or no coating of the glass surfaces to suppress this, it can be a really cool effect. In newer lens designs, the coatings and overall design try to suppress flare and any reflections to a degree, so that there is seldom any flare to be picked up (moving the lens to pick up a strong sunbeam), but instead a "milking out" (or "ghosting") of a circular area of the frame; meaning simply overexposed without any flare-looking flares.
Sunlight creating (fairly supressed) flare in the bottom right quadrant of the image of a modern lens.
Fn = Short for Function. It's a button you can program. In the Leica Q it is by default set to be White Balance, so when you press it, you can choose which White Balance setting you want. You can press again and another function comes up. To complicate matters more, you can program the FN button to your own likes.
A 28 mm lens has a 74° viewing angle
Focal length = Originally focal length referred to the distance from the sensor (or film in older days) to the center of focus inside the lens (28mm, 50mm, 400mm, etc). Today one call it effective focal length (EFL) as a 400mm lens is not nessesarily 400mm long due to optical constructions that can make it shorter. The 35-420mm zoom on the Leica V-Lux 1 is for example only ca. 135 mm long. Nobody uses that measurement, except those who construct lenses! For users of lenses, focal length refers to how wide the lens sees. The viewing angle, which is often given in for example 90° viewing angle for a 21mm lens, 74° viewing angle for a 28mm lens, 6° viewing angle for a 400mm lens, etc.
Each human eye individually has anywhere from a 120° to 200° angle of view, but focus only in the center.
Focus, in - Sharp and clear in appearance. Focus - “The burning point (of a lens or mirror)”. In Latin the word focus meant fireplace or hearth. The word was probably first employed outside of its Latin literal use as “the burning point of a lens or mirror” in optics, and then came to mean any central point. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler first recorded the word in this sense in 1604.
Full Frame is "king of photography"
Full Frame (FF) = The size of the sensor is 24 x 36mm which is the format Oskar Barnack and Leica Camera AG invented with the first Leica that was introduced in 1925. Many other formats invented since, such as APS, APS-C and all usually refer to Full Frame ratio, by which it means what size they have compared to Full Frame. The "full frame" technically deifinition thouhg is a sensor that camtures the full frame in one go (as the early sensors as in Leica S1 scanned the image/senor over a period of time). The 24 x 36mm Full Frame format is so "king of photography" that it has continued to be the ideal for all cameras. Besides this, there exists Large Format cameras such as 4x5" (100 x 125 mm) and Medium Format 6x6 (60 x 60mm amongst other sizes in that area).
Ghosting = Secondary light or image from internal reflections between (and within) lens elements inside a lens. The reflected light may not always be in focus, so overall it looks like a "milked out" image. A subject in focus has brightened patches in front of it that come from reflections inside the lens. the most elementary look of ghosting is when you look in a rear-view mirror in a car at night and you see doubles of the headlights behind you (a strong one and a weaker one), because the headlights are reflected in a layer of clear glass on top of the mirror glass.
Degrees of ghosting from strong sunlight entering from outside the frame. To the right the outside light has been shielded with a shade.
Hue = A color or shade depending on the dominant wavelength of red, green or blue. The word Hue comes from Swedish hy which is "skin complexion". It is independent of intensity, so often (in computer editing programs for example), Hue is an adjustment along Saturation which is (intensity of color as compared to white).
ISO = Light sensitivity of the camera sensor is given in ISO (International Organization for Standardization). It's a standard that was used in film and is now used in all digital cameras also. The base ISO for the Leica TL2 sensor is around 100-150 which means that this is what the sensor "sees". All other levels are computer algorithms calculating the effect as if the sensor could "see" more (hence noise at higher ISO levels).
ISO goes in steps of doubling: When the ISO is raised from 100 ISO to 200 ISO, the camera only need half the amount of light to make the same picture. For each step in ISO to 400, 800, 1600, 3200, etc. the light sensitivity is doubled for the sensor (and the camera sensor only need half the light of the previous ISO to record the same image).
JPEG = A standard for picture format made in the 1990's by Joint Photographic Experts Group). Mostly referred to as JPG as in L1003455.JPG which would be the name for a JPG file from the camera.
Summilux = Refers to the maximum lens aperture - normally f1.4 , "-lux" added for "light" (ie. the enhanced light gathering abilities). In the Leica Q the lens is a Summilux even it is a f/1.7 and not f/1.4.
Leica = A compound word derived from " (Lei)tz" and "(ca)mera". Apparently they were originally going to use "LECA", but another camera company already used a similar name in France, so they inserted the 'i' to prevent any confusion.
Lens - A piece of glass or similarly transparent material (like water or plastic). It has a shape so that it can direct light rays. The word “Lens” is used both for single piece of glass as well as a camera lens with several lenses that works together. From ‘lentil’ because similar in shape.
Lens hood = (also called a Lens shade). A tube or ring attached to the front of a camera lens to prevent unwanted light from reaching the lens and sensor. In the past where lenses were not coated to prevent internal reflections inside the lens, the lens hood was often essential. These days where lenses are coated, the shade serves just as much as decoration and protection (bumper) as well. ORIGIN Old English hod; related to Dutch hoed, German Hut 'hat,' also to hat.
Lens hood or Lens shade attached to the front of the lens to prevent light rays from the side to hit the optics, which could introduce unwanted light and hence reduce contrast of the image. These days where lenses are coated, the shade serves as decoration and protection as well.
Bubble Level Gauge to mount onto the flash shoe.
Level Gauge = This is a tool in the viewfinder to see if you hold the camera 100% horizontal and/or vertical. You can turn it on in the Menu > Photo Live View Setup > Level Gauge > On.
Before level gauge was integrated as a digitized feature in modern digital camers, it was a Bubble Level Gauge / Spirit Level you put on top of the camera.
The idea is to be able to get 100% vertical and horizontal lines (because if you tilt the camera slightly, the horizon will not be horizontal, and of you tilt the camera forward or backwards, the lines of for example vertical buildings will not be vertical.
Digitized level gauge in a Leica M10-P. You tilt the camera up and down (front/back and left/right) till the level is completely straight.
Light = Tiny particles called photons that behaves like both waves and particles. Light makes objects visible by reflecting off of them, and in photography that reflecting off of subjects is what creates textures, shapes, colors and luminance. Light in its natural form (emanating from the sun) also gives life to plants and living things, and makes (most) people happier. So far, nobody has been able to determine exactly what light is. The word photography means “writing with light” (photo = light, -graphy = writing). Read more about light in my book Finding the Magic of Light.
Live View = This is the ability to see the image the sensor see, live, via the screen, or via an electronic viewfinder (EVF).
Macbeth ColorChecker. A chart with key colors that you photograph (or record on film/digital video) and use to compare and adjust light sources, development, editing, etc so as to obtain the correct key colors. The top left colors on the Macbeth are skin tones, which traditionally are the most sensitive or difficult, to get right. The original Macbeth Color Checker i still available (about 20x25 cm in size).
Macbeth is a brand name and was bought by X-Rite who sells the "smaller version" of it, the X-Rite ColorChecker.
Megapixel (or MP) - Millions of pixels. See pixel further down. How many units of RGB is recorded by a given sensor by taking height x widt. A Leica M10 delivers a 5952 x 3968 pixel file = 23,617,536 piexls. On a screen the resolution you choose determines the size of the image. Say you have a 5000 pixel wide file and your screen is set for 8000 pixels wide. Then the image will fill only the 5000 pixels fo the 8000 and the rest will be empty, If you then change the screen resolution to 5000 wide, the image would be able to fill out the whole screen.
MF (Manual Focus) for lenses that are focused by hands, as opposed to Auto Focus.
mm = millimeter(s), as in a 50mm lens. (Earlier in lens history lenses focal length was given in cm = centimeters; as in a 5 cm lens). For anyone used to centimeters and millimeters, it’s no wonder. But if you grew up with inches, feet and yards, you may have had a hard time grasping what a 50mm lens was. But as lenses were designed first in Europe, the metric system with centimeters and millimeters was used to describe lenses.
The reason a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens is that there is 50mm from the focus plane (the film or sensor) to the center of focus inside the lens. When photography was a young subject, it was engineers who made it all, and the users were expected to understand. The engineers were so into the making of the lenses, that it apparently never dawned upon them that today’s users would think of a 21mm lens as a wide angle lens rather than a lens where there is 21mm from the sensor to the center of focus inside the optics.
MP
a) Stands for Mechanical Perfection, as in the Leica M-P.
b) Megapixels (millions of pixels).
c) Megaphotosites (millions of photosites).
ND = Neutral Density filters are grey filters that functions as 'sunglasses' for lenses. They simply block the light so that a lens can work at for example f/1.7 in sunshine.They're not really necessary for the Leica Q2 as the electronic shutter goes to 1/40,000th second and the ISO goes as low as 50 ISO.
However, if you wish to use only the electronic shutter that goes as fast as 1/2,000th second, you will need a 3-stop ND filter in 49mm size to be able to photograph at f/1.7 in sunshine. In sunshine, at ISO 50, the Leica Q2 exposure at f/1.8 would be 1/3,000, which would over-expose the image. So that is why HD filter is then used to reduce the light.
ND (Neutral Density) filters to put in front of lenses to reduce the amount of light that comes in. They don't have any other effect than that and doesn't change contrast, color or anything.
Noctilux = Also known as "King of the Night" because "Nocti" means Night and "Lux" means Light. The f/1.0 lenes from Leica are named "Noctilux". The first Leica Noctilux lens was the 50mm Noctilux f/1.2 which shortly after it's introduction was improved to the 50mm Noctilux f/1.0. In the current model the f-stop has been improved further to f/0.95.
"Noctilux" refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f1.0 . "Nocti" for nocturnal (occurring or happening at night; ORIGIN late 15th cent.: from late Latin nocturnalis, from Latin nocturnus ‘of the night,’ from nox, noct- ‘night.), "lux" for light. The Leica Noctilux 50mm f1.0 is famous for enabling the photographer to take photos even there is only candleligts to lit the scene. See the article "Noctilux - King of the Night"
The Noctilux "King of the Night" lens. From left the f/0.95 in silver (same on the camera, in black), the f/1.0 in the back and the rare and expensive first model, the f/1.2 in the front.
OIS = Optical Image Stabilization. This is used in tele lenses where blurring motion of the camera from inevitable vibrations are adjusted by the lens. At low shutter speeds and/or with long lenses, any slight movement would result in a picture with "motion blur" unsharpness. The Panasonic Lumix S1 supports optical image stabilization when A) OIS is turned on in the camera menu, and B) when you use lenses with OIS (the L lenses has OIS). The Panasonic Lumix S further has In-Camera Image Stabilization where the sensor moves to 'capture' blur. A third technology to deal with motion blur at slower shutter speeds (usually in combination with long tele lenses) is EIS = Electronic Image Stabilization. Here the problem of "motion blur" is corrected electronically after, which might lead to image degradation.
Optic = Eye or vision. From French optique or medieval Latin opticus, from Greek optikos, from optos ‘seen.’
Perspective = The way objects appear to the eye; their relative position and distance. Also, selective focus (foreground and background out of focus) can change the perception of perspective (also see Three-dimensional). A wide angle "widens" the perspective and makes objects further away appear smaller than they are to the eye; and objects closer, relatively larger than they are to the eye. A tele lens will "flatten" the perspective and often objects further away will appear relatively larger than close objects than they are in real life. A 50mm lens is the one closest to the perspective and enlargement ratio of the human eye.
The word Perspective comes from the latin word for optics (perspicere, per- ‘through’ + specere ‘to look’), and so-called Renaissance painting is simply painting done within the framework of optics and the linear perspective it presents.
Perspective is relative position and distance. The objects nearby are larger than objects far away. This is how the eye and the mind calculate distance. The eye and the camera automatically captures perspective. In darwing and painting one would see "stupid" two-dimensional drawings 500 years B.C where elements were thrown into the mix without considering that a an object far away must be smaller than if close to the viewer. The word "perspective" comes from "to look through (optics)". Pier 7 in San Francisco by Thorsten Overgaard. Leica M11 with Leica 50mm Noctilux-M ASPH f/0.95.
Vanishing points are the points where lines meet. This is how you make perspective in paintings and drawings (and some times make movie sets or theatre stages appear more three-dimensional than they are)
Painters works with vanishing points, which is where the lines meet, so as to create an illusion of perspective and three-dimensional effect on a two-dimensional painting or drawing.
The human eye corrects for perspective to an extreme degree. We always see vertical lines vertical and horisontal lines horisontal: The eye has a angle of view equivalent to an 8mm wide angle lens, a size ratio equivalent to a 50mm lens and we focus on relatively small area of the viewing field - one at the time. Three things happens that are worth paying attention to:
1) We compile areas of our view that we focus on, to one conceptual image that "we see". Ansel Adams, the great American landscape photographer pointed out that a large camera used for landscape photography capture every detail in focus and sharp so you can view it in detail after; but the eye does not see everything in focus when you try to compose the landscape photography, the eye scans only one part at a time and stitch the idea together. This makes composing or prevision of a landscape photography challenging.
2) We compile areas of our view that we individually adjust the exposure of. A camera adjust the exposure of the whole image frame to one exposure. That's why what looks like a nice picture to the eye of houses in sunshine with a blue sky above, becomes a photograph of darker buildings with a bright white sky: The camera simply can't take one picture that compare to what we "compiled" with our eyes, adjusting for each type of light.
3) Objects (on a table, for example) in the bottom of our viewing field will appear 100% perspective corrected - to a degree that it is impossible to correct in optics, with or without software correction. A wide angle lens, even with little distortion, will exaggerate the proportions of the closet part so it - to the eye - looks wrong.
Perspective correction - In software like Adobe Lightroom and Capture One Pro there is often a feature to correct perspective (and distortion) like seen below. You can change perspective this way, or at least make believe: If you correct a tall building on teh vertical lines, you will notice that the height of the windows doesn't match the perspective. If the building is with straight lines, the windows should all be of the same size. But a tall building seen from below and corrected with software will have taller windows (closer to camera) in the bottom than in the top (further away from the camera originally).
Photosite - The unit in a digital camera sensor that records intensity of either red, green or blue. Unlike the output of a sensor, measured in pixels (and where each pixel contains RGB), the photosite records only one color each, and it's intensity (how bright it is). A photosite can not distinguish colors, which is why there is a Color Filter Array (basically a prism) above them to filter the colors and send information to the photosite if 's a R, G og B color. See illustration below. In a monochrome sensor (as in the Leica M Monochrom and the Phase One Achromatic), all photosites are recording intensity of light only as there is no concern which color it is, and there is no color filter.
The ratio of photosites to pixels is not a given. Each block of 4 contiguous photosites contains one photosite sensitive to low wavelengths (blue), one photosite sensitive to high wavelengths (red), and two identical photosites sensitive to medium wavelengths (green). So four photosites would be the minimum to create one 'full-color' pixel. Apart from that, depends on the sensor specifications, which is different from brand to brand. Sometimes four photosites (two Green, one Red and one Blue) makes up one pixel, at other times it's more photosites to one pixel; and there is also pixels sampled from photosites across (sort of overlapping patterns).
Pixel - Made up word from Pix (picture) and el (element). A pixel is the smallest full-color (RGB) element in a digital imaging device. The physical size of a pixel depends on how you've set the resolution for the display screen. The color and tonal intensity of a pixel are variable, meaning that each pixel contains RGB. This is different from a camera sensor's small eyes (photosite) that are an intensity of either red, green or blue. You could say that the digital sensor's photosite (where each unit collects just one color; red, green or blue) is the input technology, whereas the pixels on a screen (where each pixel contains red, green and blue) is the output device. So while sensors are measured in megapixels (mega = million), it's their output unit of pixels, and not the input unit of photosites that is measured and stated. See illustration below.
Q = Model name for Leica Q type 116 (released 2015).
Q2 = Model name for second model of the Leica Q (2019).
S = Single image. The camera takes only one photo when the shutter release button is pressed. The other possibility is Continuous (see above).
Saturation: How colorful, intense or pure the color is. Less saturation would be less colorful, more saturation would be more colorful. In today’s photography, de-saturating a photo on the computer will gradually make it less and less colorful; and full de-saturation would make it into a black and white photo.
Sensor = A device that detects a physical property (like light) and records it. A camera sensor is a plane plate with thousands of small “eyes” with (photosites) a lens in front of each (CFA, Color Filter Array), which each individually records the amount of red, green and blue light rays that comes through the lens. Together, Red, Green and Blue form all colors of the spectrum, which becomes a pixel. Sensor comes from Latin sens- ‘perceived’.
SDC = Software Distortion Correction. A correction of lens distortion (not straight lines) applied in the camera and which is part of the DNG or RAW file. In Lightroom or Capture One Pro the SDC of the camera file is applied automatically (and cannot be removed), in software like AccuRaw one can open the DNG file without the SDC correction. Sean Reid Reviews have written a good article on what SDC is and does in "Software Distortion Correction".
SDC (Software Distortion Correction): In Lightroom the correction profile for the Fujinon 23mm is applied automatically and cannot be turned off.If you go into Develop mode in Lightroom and look under Lens Correction > Profile, you will see a message in the bottom with an exclamation mark. When you click on that, you get the message above.
Sharpness - See “Focus”
SLR = Abbreviation for Single-Lens Reflex; the lens that forms the image on the film/sensor also provides the image in the viewfinder via a mirror. The Leica Q has no traditional viewfinder and no mirror. the image seen in the EVF is what the sensor sees.
Three-dimensional = Having the three dimensions of height, width and depth. In photography and lens design, three-dimensional effect is also the perception of even small micro-details; the texture of skin can appear flat and dead or three-dimensional and alive. Also, selective focus (foreground and background out of focus) can change the perception of depth. Also see Perspective.
Viewfinder = a device on a camera showing the field of view of the lens.
1) A built-in viewfinder in a camera that simply show the frame you get when you look through the viewfinder.
2) A rangefinder viewfinder which is also used to focus the lens. In Leica M cameras two pictures has to meet and lay 'on top of each other' for the picture to be in focus.
3) An external viewfinder, usually on top of the camera in the flash shoe, so as to show the field of view of lenses wider than what the built-in viewfinder can show (15mm, 21mm, 24mm, 28mm etc viewfinders exist)
4) Very simple "aiming-devices" on top of a camera that is simply a metal frame without any optics. Just a frame, as for example very old cameras (the original Leica), or when using cameras in diving where you can't look through the camera.
5) A Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) that shows what the sensor sees "live".
Ø - Diameter. As in Ø49 for example which means that the filter diameter is 49mm for this lens (or if a filter is Ø49, it is 49mm in diameter and fits that Ø49 lens). Leica uses E to express their filters sizes, as in E49 for a 49mm filter size.
New from Thorsten Overgaard:
Panasonic Lumix S1R
Quick Start Video Course
Thorsten Overgaard Pansonic Lumix S1R
Video Course
& Panasonic Presets for
Capture One Pro
This is a pretty complete quick start package getting started with the Pansonic Lumix S1R for portrait, street photography and more. Deals with basic settings, getting colors right (white balance), getting the light right (exposure control), manual focus and more.
Panasonic
Founded 1918 in Japan, making light bulbs, they have grown to a 80 billion USD company in many areas of electronics and even non-electronics.
Lumix
Is the brand name for digital cameras from Panasonic since 2001.
Thorsten von Overgaard is a Danish-American multiple award-winning photographer, known for his writings about photography and Leica cameras. He travels to more than 25 countries a year, photographing and teaching workshops to photographers. Some photos are available as signed editions via galleries or online. For specific photography needs, contact Thorsten Overgaard via email.
You can follow Thorsten Overgaard at his television channel magicoflight.tv.
I am in constant orbit teaching
Leica and photography workshops.
Most people prefer to explore a
new place when doing my workshop.
30% of my students are women.
35% of my students dotwo or more workshops.
95% are Leica users.
Age range is from 15 to 87 years
with the majority in the 30-55 range.
Skill level ranges from two weeks
to a lifetime of experience.
97% use a digital camera.
100% of my workshop graduates photograph more after a workshop.
This is the same crop from the High Resolution Mode's 186 megapixels file of the Lumix S1R. Not much difference, really, but edges and such are more well-defined, should one ever want to look at the image in such close detail. Taking photos of buildings, I would imagine the details would be delightful for those zooming in really close. Download the test files from the link just above.
Bokeh: The visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image. Photo at Bar del Fico in Rome. 
Digitized level gauge in a Leica M10-P. You tilt the camera up and down (front/back and left/right) till the level is completely straight.
Thorsten von Overgaard
