Panasonic Lumix S1R Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

Panasonic Lumix S1R

Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

Industry shaping imaging news came in overnight as Panasonic Lumix announced the Lumix S1 and Lumix S1R Full Frame Mirrorless Digital Camera. I say industry shaping because the specs of this system place Lumix as top gun in the professional digital camera marketplace for both still photographers and videographers alike. We are Lumix Global Ambassadors, so this news is big for us personally. We moved over to Lumix from Canon years ago because they were innovating, and we wanted to be a part of the future of photography and not the past. No offense to Canon shooters of course. We love their cameras, but we all know they weren’t innovating any longer.

Lumix has a motto “Changing Photography”, and the fact is they have been doing just that since they debuted the first mirrorless single lens camera to market in 2008. Over the past 10 years Lumix has been, arguably of course, the biggest innovator in digital camera technology. But, we would most certainly argue that they have been #1 at innovation! Their only downside, up until now, has been that their cameras were built on Micro 4/3’s chips instead of full frame. Today, they upped their game when they announced that they would be putting virtually all the tech that they have built into their M43 cameras into two new full frame camera systems.

The Lumix S1R will be a 47 megapixel camera focused with the still photographer in mind. The Lumix S1 will be 24 megapixels and focused on the hybrid photographers out there who make their living on a blend of photography and video applications. Either way, the specs are downright amazing, and will force other brands to innovate in order to keep up.

Here is what we know… The cameras will be full frame, offer 4k 60p recording, have dual image stabilization, a high resolution EVF (which they say is being close to the human eye), they will be weather sealed, and will offer dual card slots.

Lumix also unveiled that they will create a line of Lumix lenses, 10 before 2020, and 3 at launch. The lens mount called an L-Mount already exists on Leica cameras, and Leica has 8 lenses already available at premium price points. Lumix is also working with Sigma to develop even more lens options for the new full frame series..

By the way… M43 is NOT going away anytime soon! Lumix says will continue to develop that ecosystem alongside their Full Frame systems. We are so thrilled to hear that because we happen to feel that M43 is the strongest travel camera format in the world, and that full frame has it’s place alongside M43 for specific professional applications.

Canon and Nikon have been forced to change their game due to the innovations of Lumix. They both made their initial offering last month with many pro-photographers feeling that both Canon and Nikon fell short of expectations. Lumix invented the mirrorless lens camera 10 years ago, so it’s no wonder they are years ahead of the competition. Now it’s up to those legacy brands to catch up, and who knows how long that could take.

Exciting times ahead in imaging, and truly exciting times for those of us who had a crystal ball and could see that Lumix was the #1 innovator in imaging!