At first glance, the Sony A7 V and the Panasonic Lumix S1 II are both mid-range full-frame mirrorless cameras that are designed to be all-round hybrid stills/video all-rounders aimed at enthusiasts.

They're very similar when it comes to their core specifications, so we're bringing you this Sony A7 V vs Panasonic Lumix S1 II head-to-head comparison to help you choose between the two cameras.

You can also read our detailed Panasonic Lumix S1 II review to find out exactly what we think of it in much more depth.

Sensor and Processor

These two cameras offer different megapixel counts and also use different sensor technologies.

The Panasonic S1 II features a partially stacked 24.1 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, which is a first for the Lumix range, paired with the latest generation Venus image processing engine.. This new sensor allows the S1 II to offer higher speed burst shooting modes all other Lumix models.

The A7 V features a brand new 33 megapixel sensor partially-stacked CMOS sensor paired with the equally new Bionz XR2 processor. This combination primarily offers even greater dynamic range, less rolling shutter and 4.5x faster readout speed than the previous A7 IV.

The A7 V offers 16+ stops of dynamic range, 1 stop higher than the S1 II when the Dynamic Range Boost mode is on and 2 stops higher with it off, with shadow noise claimed to be much less than its main rivals.

High Resolution Mode

The S1 II offers a special High Resolution mode, which captures 96-megapixel equivalent photos by rapidly taking 8 separate images and combining them into one.

You can capture these high resolution images whilst hand-holding the camera even at the full resolution, which makes it a lot more versatile than earlier Lumix models, although it's still best suited to non-moving subjects.

The A7 V does not have a comparable feature.

ISO Speed

The native sensitivity range of both cameras runs from ISO 100-51,200, which can be expanded down to ISO 50 and up to ISO 204,800.

Dual Native ISO is a feature on the S1 II that is borrowed directly from the S1H and Panasonic's broadcast line of video cameras. This automatically switches between native ISO settings of 80 and 400 without increasing noise by changing the way the camera reads out the image sensor.

You can manually switch between the LOW and HIGH settings or choose Auto and rely on the camera to do so at various ISO levels.

Video

The S1 II's fast sensor provides high-speed video modes including C4K/4K 120p and 5.8K 60p. In addition 5.1K Open Gate recording at 60/50p is available on the S1 II, another Lumix first, and a future firmware update promises the addition of multiple frame marker displays and Arri Log C3 compatiblity.

Other standout video highlights of this model include up to 5.9k 60p recording with no crop, internal RAW recording in 5.8k 30p and C4K 60p to a CFexpress Type B card, and 32-bit float audio support for the first time on Lumix full-frame cameras.

It also provides HFR (High Frame Rate) recording at up to 120fps and Slow & Quick capture at up to 180fps and it has a full-size HDMI Type A terminal.

The A7 V offers 4K/120p recording in super 35mm crop mode and 7K oversampled 4K/60p full-frame recording with no pixel binning, plus Full 1080 HD at up to 240fps, with the dedicated Slow and Quick motion mode offering frame rates ranging from 1fps to 240fps at 1080p quality.

It offers the S-Cinetone, HLG, S-Log3 and S-Log2 profiles and additionally supports M-LUT and Log recording with LUTs. There's a new noise reduction function on the A7 V for the integrated mic which reduces constant background noise.

The Auto Framing feature uses the camera's AI-based subject recognition technology to automatically crop the frame to keep the subject in a prominent position when shooting movies, even when the camera is mounted on a tripod.

Unlike the S1 II, there's no RAW format video recording available on the A7 V.

Autofocus

The Panasonic Lumix S1 II has a hybrid contrast and phase-detection auto-focus system which provides fast and dependable and providing 779-area metering. Able to detect target subjects in difficult conditions such as low light and backlighting, once locked on it will remain tracking them even with other moving objects in the frame.

Auto-focusing is further improved on the S1 II with better eye and face detection and AI-driven tracking accuracy for people plus the addition of a new Urban Sports AF mode for street dance, freestyle football, skateboarding, BMX and parkour.

Sony has added an AI deep learning processing unit to the A7 V which enables it to recognise more subjects than the previous model, and also greatly improves the detection of humans and animals/birds.

It can recognise a human via its pose as well as its eye and face. So if the person's head is turned away from the camera, it will still accurately detect the subject as human based on the AI deep learning. Animal and bird detection has been expanded from just being able to recognise the eye to the eye, head and body.

As well as humans and animals, the A7 V is also able to recognise birds, insects, airplanes, and cars/trains. In the latter category, it is capable of focusing on helmets, it can recognise the eyes of some grazing and small animals, and more easily pinpoint the eyes of a variety of bird types as well as recognising bird bodies.

There's also a very welcome brand new Auto mode which will choose the most appropriate subject mode (although this is slightly slower than choosing the specific mode yourself).

Burst Shooting

The partially stacked sensor inside the S1 II allows it to shoot at at even faster 70fps high-speed blackout free with AF/AE, 10fps with the mechanical shutter, and there's also pre-burst shooting for up to 1.5 seconds.

The A7 V can shoot a 30fps blackout free burst, the same shooting rate as the flagship A1 II. The continuous shooting rate for the mechanical shutter on the A7 V is up to 10fps.

The A7 V's buffer size with compressed RAW goes to 1000 shots+ and in the compressed 14-bit RAW mode you can get up to 95 images continuously.

Pre-capture is a new feature on the A7 V that has made its way from the A9 III sports camera. When activated, up to 30 frames per second are temporarily stored while the shutter button is half-pressed, and up to 1 second before can be captured once the shutter is fully pressed, providing a degree of leniency for fast-moving action.

The Continuous Speed Shooting Boost is another new function which provides an easy way to quickly engage one of the various burst modes (30/20/15/10/5fps) at the press of a button.

Both models offer a maximum shutter speed of 1/16,000th second when using the electronic shutter.

Body and Design

The Panasonic Lumix S1 II is a lot bigger and heavier than the A7 V, measuring 134.3 x 102.3 x 91.8mm and weighing 800g with batter and memory card fitted or 718g without.

The A7 V weighs 695g with battery and memory card and measures 130.3 x 96.4 x 72.3mm.

Both of them can be used with an optional battery grip, if you'd prefer to have a larger body with portrait controls and extended battery life.

Both cameras are fully weather-sealed, as you'd expect from such professional level models.

IBIS

The Panasonic Lumix S1 II has an enhanced in-body image stabilization system that offers 8 stops in the centre and 7 stops at the edges of the frame and 7.0-stops even in the telephoto range with Dual I.S. 2.

Thanks to a newly redesigned stabilisation unit, the new A7 V offers up to 7.5 stops of in-body stabilisation at the centre of the image and 6.5 stops at the edge, making it one of the more capable Alpha camera in this regard.

Viewfinder

The OLED viewfinder on the S1 II has a phenomenal resolution of 5.76-million-dots, offers 100% field of view, and a magnification ratio of 0.78x with a 50mm lens at infinity.

The EVF operates at a native rate of 120fps with a minimum lag of less than 0.005 sec, which helps to make it completely flicker-free.

The A7 V has a 3.69m-dot EVF that features 100% scene coverage, 0.78x magnification and a 120fps high frame rate option to help track moving subjects more smoothly with virtually no lag.

LCD Screen

The S1 II has a tilting 1,840k dot resolution vari-angle LCD screen which tilts out to the side and faces forwards for more convenient vlogging and selfies. You can flip out the screen to the side, rotate it forwards for easier operation when pointing the camera at yourself, and fold it flat against the back of the camera to stop it from getting scratched.

The A7 V has a 3.2-inch, 2095K dot resolution, 4-axis LCD screen inherited from the A7R V and which is unique to Sony. It can be flipped out to the side, rotated to the front, folded against the back of the camera to help protect it, and set to many other positions in-between.

Memory Cards

The S1 II has dual memory card slots, one UHS-II SD slot and one XQD / CFexpress slot.

The A7 V also employs dual CFexpress and SD card slots in order to support the faster video frame rates. One of these slots can interchangeably use UHS-II SD-cards and faster CFexpress Type A cards and one is only for UHS-II SD-cards.

Battery Life

The S1 II uses the DMW-BLK22 battery which provides up to 320 shots when using the Live Viewfinder and 360 shots when using the rear LCD screen.

The Sony A7 V uses exactly the same large capacity NP-FZ100 battery as the previous A7 IV model, offering a much better CIPA-rated battery life of 750 shots when using the LCD screen and 630 when using the viewfinder.

Connectivity

The S1 II features 5GHz wi-fi and Bluetooth 5.0 support, a USB-C 3.2 10 Gbps port, a full-size HDMI Type A port and the ability to operate as a webcam.

The A7 V offers 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz wi-fi compatibility, 4K/30p UVA/UAC live streaming and it has 2x2 MIMO antennas which provide 2x faster transfer speed than the previous model.

Both cameras can also be powered and charged via a USB connection, which is useful if you're out and about and have a compatible powerbank to plug the camera into, and both use the newer USB-C variant.

The A7 V has two USB-C ports rather than a single one, though, one faster USB-C 3.2 10 Gbps port for file transfer and one slower USB 2.0 480 Mbps port for recharging.

Price

On launch in mid-2025, the Panasonic Lumix S1 II was priced at £2,899 / €3,499 body-only in the UK / Europe.

The Sony A7 V has a price-tag of £2799 / €2999 / $2,899 body-only in the UK, Europe, and USA respectively.

Conclusion

Choosing between the Sony A7 V and the Panasonic Lumix S1 II is very difficult, with the former offering greater dynamic range, more resolution and much longer battery life, and the latter more advanced video recording, faster burst shooting and a better viewfinder.

So what do you think? Would you choose the Sony A7 V or the Panasonic Lumix S1 II? Leave a comment below!

Your Comments