DxOMark Ranks Panasonic S1R Among Best Digital Cameras

2019.05.07

DxOMark just unveiled their ranking of the new Full-Frame Mirrorless Digital Camera flagship from Panasonic. The 47 Megapixels Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R is built around an L-mount platform from Leica and adopted by Panasonic and Sigma, although the latter has yet to introduce any cameras.

This professional mirrorless digital camera features a brand new sensor mounted on a 5-axis image-stabilization system, effective to 5.5 stops over hand-holding. It offers a large number of controls, including triple control-dials, in a weatherproof and freezeproof body. The S1R features the highest resolution EVF ever produced at 5.8 megapixels of resolution, large 0.78X magnification and, of course, 100% coverage.

DxOMark scores the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R at 100, the highest performance for a Full-Frame Digital Camera, making a 3-way tie between the Nikon D850 reviewed here, Sony A7R III and S1R. This marks a spectacular start for Panasonic's entry into the Full-Frame world! Although delivering the same score as its main competitors, the breakdown of points shows some differences between these three models.

With a bit-depth of 26.4 megapixels, it can render incredibly nuanced colors which bests all but one digital camera, the Medium Format Phase One IQ180 which costs $42K USD. This is the same score as the D850 which is only 0.4 bits higher than the A7R III. Dynamic-Range of the Panasonic is at 14.1 EV, a score that pulls this camera back to the level of APS-C offerings such as the Pentax K-5 IIs. In comparison, the D850 manages to pull-off 14.8 EV of dynamic-range, the highest of any digital camera ranked by DxOMark.

The surprise performance of this digital camera, particularly for such a high resolution offering, is its low-light score of 3525. This is the 5th highest of all times, with the top two score belonging to Medium Format Digital Cameras and the next two cameras with 1/2 and 1/4 the resolution, respectively. This is essentially the same score as the Sony A7R III which has a 42 MP sensor. The D850 on the other hand finds itself behind 20 cameras on the same scale.

These numbers show that the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R matches its top competitors with its own unique image quality. This digital camera should be particularly well-suited for low-light photography intended for large print sizes.