Panasonic Lumix S5 Autofocus tests using object area AF area and people autofocus.

Tests bellow were performed using the Lumix S5 camera and with the kit lens S 20-60 f3.5-5.6.

Autofocus set to AFC continuous.

Autofocus with object area autofocus.

Object detection autofocus and vlogging

Testing Lumix S5 autofocus object area AF.

Lumix S5 autofocus test object detection

Face and body autofocus with area af

Testing Lumix S5 person autofocus on faces using area af.

Panasonic Lumix S5 face autofocus using focus area AF

Lumix S5 Autofocus in Low Light

Panasonic Lumix S5 autofocus test in low light conditions.
Recorded in AFC autofocus mode with 1 area autofocus setting covering a 1:1 large square in the center of the image frame.

Fishing boats in the evening in Larnaca, Cyprus.

Recorded in HLG2100 HDR processing to HLG HDR 4K video. Color graded Lumix S5 HLG in Davinci Resolve Studio 18.

Lumix S5 low light autofocus test video

Autofocus performance on Lumix S5

I’ve noticed, the Lumix S5 autofocus problems show in some specific situations.

Using the Panasonic autofocusing requires some getting used to but it can work really well when used with the right settings for the situation.

The Lumix S5 Best Autofocus Settings

The Panasonic Lumix S5 as does GH5, GH5s, GH6, GG5ii, S1H, S1, all have adjustable autofocus settings.

Autofocus settings can be adjusted by autofocus speed and autofocus sensitivity.

These settings both work well in some situations but in other situations they must be changed.
Default autofocus settings are af speed 0 and af sensitivity 0.

If you prever a snappier response you can increase the autofocus speed up to +5.

Sensitivity can go up to +3 to change if objects that aquire focus are stickyer or new opbjects coming into the focusing area will be prioritized.

The focus area can be increased with touch to focus and the scroll wheel.

My favorite autofocus settings

My favorite autofocus settings are speed 0 and sensitivity +3 in general situations but for focusing on bigger differences from foreground to background I like the speed +5 and sensitivity +3 setting.
What is your preffered settings?

Face detection autofocus

Face detection autofocus is a great option of you will have people facing the camera and can be enabled and disabled by pressing the af mode button.

My preference is to use area autofocus mode when recording videos with fixing things or making some delicious soup.

When people or animals will be in the picture / video then area af autofocus with people or people + animals is the best option in my opinion.

The video bellow, is a real world Lumix S5 autofocus test in nigh lights and moonlight. The video is HDR HLG2100.

Used Area + people detection and lens is the Lumix S 50mm f1.8. Hardest areas with dark low contrast images and the autofocus worked great in my opinion. Skater was a random encounter but focus followed him accurately. The moonlight scene too.

Panasonic Lumix S5 Autofocus Test at Night in Moonlight Darkness S 50 f1.8 hdr hlg

To enable combined modes, press up arrow when in area autofocus and it will tell you area + people face detection or area + people and animals.

For family videos I will use autofocus area + people to make sure it focuses on faces when they are in the frame.

The Panasonic Lumix S5 and S series autofocus is much better in reality than people would like to make you believe.

It seems to me, there is a new form of clickbait videos on YouTube. ‘Watch this before you buy” head in palm in disappointment… Oh not again. Is it any good? Now it’s enough to write Lumix Autofocus and put a head in palms epic failure or disappointed face as thumbnail.

These tests are here to show you how it really is. Not perfect, there are moments when the camera focuses on the wrong thing but once you learn to use pinpoint autofocus if the point is critical for you, it gets better. I use area autofocus because I prefer to have a few focusing transitions while moving without always focusing in one point.

It just works, at least most of the time haha.

Conclusion

It’s much better than tech review channels made me believe.

It needs more time sometimes to focus and it’s not perfect at all but the image quality and colors are so good straight out of camera and af is good enough for me.

For family videos af speed 5 is great!

It can do human and animal detection in afc.
I only used af area to see the afc problems. Normally I use afc area and make the af area bigger. For family home videos combined afc area + people detection mode seems to work best.

If near perfect autofocus is important and you can’t wait 2-3 seconds sometimes for it to aquire focus, check Canon or Sony otherwise enjoy the amazing image quality on the S5.