Lumix S5llX brings live-streaming and boosted video options – including BRAW

We’ve known pretty much all we needed to know about the Lumix S5llX since Panasonic launched the Lumix S5ll at the beginning of the year. To allow users extra clarity, Lumix announced the specifications of the two cameras at the same time so informed choices could be made and those in need of the best video options could wait until the boosted X body arrived just four months after the initial S5ll. From the off the X version promised ProRes as well as All-Intra compression options plus the ability to stream video through wired and wireless connections. We also knew that the Lumix S5llX would be able to output ProRes RAW video via HDMI to an Atomos Ninja or Shogun Connect, but we didn’t know users of Blackmagic Design’s Davinci Resolve would be able to record BRAW to the 5in and 7in Video Assist 12G models. Including BRAW compatibility for this highly popular application opens a whole new world for a lot of videographers.

New features:

• Wireless and wired IP live streaming 
• ProRes recording 
• Adobe ProRes Raw 
• Blackmagic BRAW
• All-Intra codecs
• Recording to SSD via USB

The new Lumix S5llX is an extremely powerful video machine. Not only can it record ProRes RAW and BRAW formats to external recorders, its internal recording codecs are plentiful and very high-end. All-Intra compression is now available in codecs up to C4K 4:2:2 in 10-bit at 25p, creating 400Mbps of data. As the camera body is exactly the same as that of the Lumix S5ll, cages that fit the Lumix S5ll will also fit the Lumix S5llX – but not the original Lumix S5.

Like the Lumix S5ll, the new Lumix S5llX offers a full-sized Type-A HDMI socket for streaming video out to monitors, external recorders, video capture cards and storage devices. RAW video can only be recorded via the HDMI. Users can also stream via the USB 3.2 Gen 2 port as the Lumix S5llX can record content directly to an SSD. This is useful for all the camera’s video formats and for stills, and SSD devices of up to 2TB can be used. The camera also uses this function to record in ProRes when resolution exceeds FHD. Users can record FHD ProRes HQ in 4:2:2 at 50p directly to one of the two SDXC ll card slots, but anything more demanding than that needs to go to an SSD.

A striking feature of the new camera is its low-profile greyed-out lettering that gives it a sleek, discrete style. The camera’s name is in grey instead of white and red, and the markings on all the dials are also filled with grey paint. The only feature to really stand out is the red record button on the top plate. It all looks very smart.

The black and grey theme is carried on at the front of the camera, with its grey-paint Lumix logo, which marks the X version out immediately. Other than the colour-ways, the body of the Lumix S5llX is exactly the same as that used in the Lumix S5ll.

Lumix maintains its use of cooling fans to draw air into the ‘prism housing’ part of the camera’s body to maintain an even temperature during extended periods of video recording. The fans allow the camera to continue recording in hot conditions and they prevent the camera pausing due to over-heating – thus all C4K and 4K codecs offer unlimited recording times. As before, the fans are almost silent and are unlikely to impact audio recording, but even so their speed and modes are controllable via the menu system.

‘Open Gate’ recording is possible with the Lumix S5llX, as it is with the Lumix S5ll, and the cameras allow up to 6K resolution in a 3:2 aspect ratio using the whole sensor area with frame rates of up to 29.97p in 4:2:0 colour and LongGOP compression. The 5952x3968-pixel video resolution for all intents and purposes matches the 24MP 6000x4000-pixel resolution of the camera’s largest still image option. Further high-resolution full-width recording options are available in 6K for 17:9 and 5.9K for 16:9 aspect rations, while regular full-frame recordings can be made with C4K, 4K and FHD resolutions.
Anyone familiar with a Lumix G9, GH5 or S camera will feel immediately at home with the rear controls of the Lumix S5llX as the designers haven’t needed to alter the excellent original concept for a very long time – the layout works very well indeed.

The camera comes with the same style of vari-angle screen that Lumix G and GH cameras have been using for some time. It can be turned to face the back of the camera for protection, and can be flipped round like a fixed screen, as well as flipping out and twisting through 360 degrees to face any angle about a horizontal axis. The screen makes low and high angles easy, and is useful when the camera is fitted to the shoulder rig for filming. When vlogging or live streaming, it also allows users to keep an eye on their composition when facing the lens themselves.
Streamers will be able to choose between Wi-Fi, USB or LAN connections, and can work with frame-rates of up to 59.94p to make the most of the camera’s AF system as well as to produce nice smooth motion. Wi-Fi connections allow full frame resolutions of up to FHD, but cabled connections, whether USB or LAN, also give us access to S35 4K output.

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