Has the S5 Reached the End of The Line?

[Photographer]

I enjoy using my S5, and it serves my photographic needs as it is, but I didn't expect it to be abandoned quite so soon: The last firmware update for the S5 was August of 2022.

I presume that the S5 sadly does not have the circuitry to permit any further useful firmware updates. Of course, I could buy an S5II - and I would benefit from some of the capabilities the new model has over the S5, but I don't absolutely need the new capabilities so much as I would like to have them.

I come from an era where a camera stayed current for decades. (I bought my first Hasselblad 500C in the late 1960s and used it (and others) professionally until the 1990s.) The rapid near-obsolescence in the digital age is disappointing, but I suppose I must learn to accept it.

I was offered $650.00 CDN for my S5 body, if trading it in for a S5II, which was disappointingly low, or so I thought. I guess I'm more out of the loop now that I realized.

 

[D_Ch]

When was the last firmware update for your late '60 Hassy?
The S5 is not 'abandoned', will still be serviced for years. And without firmware updates it's not losing capabilities, only not getting new ones.

 

[xaviergut]

My wife owns now my former S5 OG, because we don't want to sell it. It is part of our family memories. We recorded with it our wedding, the birth of our daughter... It was good enough for video in AF-S auto-focus; it didn't lose focus a single time.

Moreover we think it is a superb camera for photography in low light, and the 4k/6k photo or the post-focus features are still great and a lot of fun to use. The S5ii don't have them (AFAIK). The AF of the S5 OG is more than good enough for photography despite the mainstream opinions.

 

[dirk]

You buy a camera for the use cases you have at the time of buying.

If your use case does not change, there is no "need" to buy another camera for the next 30 years, no matter how many firmware updates other cameras get.

If you realise that you need a new camera, then either your use case changed or you did not learn enough how to use your camera to get the desired results or you bought the wrong camera beforehand.

Everything else is marketing only.

 

[Quentinquirelino]

I enjoy using my S5, and it serves my photographic needs as it is, but I didn't expect it to be abandoned quite so soon: The last firmware update for the S5 was August of 2022.

Then you have missed something. The last firmware update was in October 2023, version 2.7.

 

[Photographer]

Then you have missed something. The last firmware update was in October 2023, version 2.7.

Instead of checking in my camera's menus, I googled and got the website in the attached screenshot. I should have looked at other Panasonic sites, where, yes, 2.7 is the latest update. Thanks for catching my error.

 

[Quentinquirelino]

The even older S1 series got its latest update in January 2024. I think we will still get some updates for our S5s. However it will be most certain small updates for lens support only.

 

[Photographer]

... I think we will still get some updates for our S5s. However it will be most certain small updates for lens support only

I hope you're right. Really, that's all my post was about: the likelihood or not of more updates for the S5. Didn't expect the responses. Guess I'm too old to do other than lurk.

(Hope this thread can just die now. I regret starting it.)

 

[CMS]

I'm sorry I didn't do what you asked me to do - let this thread die - but please don't feel obligated to respond. I just wanted to say that I share your sentiments, although I don't have that much experience with older cameras. I am surprised at how quickly the market value has dropped, and I would like to see a long support period with new features. But I can see that technology is advancing fast, and of course new possibilities are tempting.

 

[ChrisM]

I understand where you are coming from but despite no further firmware updates I remain very happy with my S5 and have no intention of replacing it unless it develops a major problem in the future. It remains the incredible camera I purchased.

 

[Oíche]

I was offered $650.00 CDN for my S5 body, if trading it in for a S5II, which was disappointingly low, or so I thought. I guess I'm more out of the loop now that I realized.

Yeah I know that is low in comparison to what you paid for it new but you could get more selling private. The good thing about trading in is then you can forget about it and move on, a nuisance Ebay buyer or private could cause you grief. I never want to sell on it again after 25 years doing so.

I traded my Pentax gear in for a S5ii, 24-105 & 70-300 and some of it is still on their website. I was glad to get rid, wash my hands of it and no hassle. With the superb S5ii combo deals it made up for the supposed loss of value.

People want the PDAF and other advantages of S5ii hence the relatively low resell value of S5. But if you get a great S5ii deal then that makes up for it and if you don't use it any longer it'll just get hoarded to a lower value. I know sone people like having multiple cameras and back-ups or something but I don't. I can't justify keeping anything I don't use, I learnt my lesson keeping stuff and never again... You get buried in it and becomes evident if you move house, it becomes a nuisance and a burden

 

[Markuswelder]

Which features are you missing, that require a new, higher specced camera?

 

[Pete_W]

The S5 is still a great camera. I didn't need to upgrade, but I was keen to try PDAF and get the upgraded viewfinder and decided to treat myself. I traded my S5 in along with a G95 and some m4/3 lenses. That made the upgrade price quite low.

If Panasonic release a rangefinder style L-mount camera I won't need it. But I will probably want it!

 

[Markuswelder]

The S5 is still a great camera. I didn't need to upgrade, but I was keen to try PDAF and get the upgraded viewfinder and decided to treat myself. I traded my S5 in along with a G95 and some m4/3 lenses. That made the upgrade price quite low.

If Panasonic release a rangefinder style L-mount camera I won't need it. But I will probably want it!

I was wondering more if the missing features could actually be added via firmware updates.

 

[Pete_W]

I was wondering more if the missing features could actually be added via firmware updates.

I'm sure it would be technically possible to add new features via firmware but I am guessing that Panasonic won't do that given there is a newer model on the market. Same would apply for the original G9. It got lots of firmware updates over the years but now there is a G9II, I suspect new firmware updates would be limited to bug fixes, support for lenses, improved stability, etc.

 

[Oíche]

I traded my S5 in along with a G95 and some m4/3 lenses. That made the upgrade price quite low.

Best way and it made sense. With the combo deal I got the S5ii only cost me £600 over buying the 24-105 and 70-300 individually.

As I traded my Pentax gear for £1100 the dealer gave me £1500 12 month 0% which wasn't available without trade-in and I wrangled them into it.

BTW my particular combo deal now costs £600 extra! They do have new deals including the Lumix S Pro 70-200 f2.8 but it appears few own or want this lens, maybe the size/weight and cost to buy individually.

For example £3299 GBP combo deal for S5ii, 14-28 and S Pro 70-200 f2.8. Buying these individually costs £4997!

The S Pro 70-200 f2.8 is £2099 individually so such combo deals (with trade-in bonuses or 0% deals) work best when you really want the lenses along with the camera and not, for example, the 50 or 85 prime you wouldn't need as was my case.

S5ii most likely will receive further updates so I think those who are thinking about it should do it and find a combo deal for those lenses you really want along with it to make it viable.

 

[Oíche]

I'm sure it would be technically possible to add new features via firmware but I am guessing that Panasonic won't do that given there is a newer model on the market. Same would apply for the original G9. It got lots of firmware updates over the years but now there is a G9II, I suspect new firmware updates would be limited to bug fixes, support for lenses, improved stability, etc.

The firmware 3.0 updates would have required the faster processor, buffer size, memory capacity and memory speed on this L2 silicon inside S5ii which is most likely "SoC" architecture... Same with G9 versus G9ii

The older cameras are hardware limited besides PDAF on sensor. The only viable possibility maybe could have been frame.io but this also too easily could be hardware limited to the S5ii. BTW this feature often deemed as "I don't need that" will become increasingly useful for more of us and really helps future proofing the S5ii... Just watch every other manufacturer jump on board soon! If you already use Lightroom it is already brilliant.

I think this gives more thought for the potential S5 owners thinking of it.

 

[Markuswelder]

The only viable possibility maybe could have been frame.io but this also too easily could be hardware limited to the S5ii. BTW this feature often deemed as "I don't need that" will become increasingly useful for more of us and really helps future proofing the S5ii...

How can I "need" something that I don't even know what it is?
What is this "future proofing" of electronic devices you speak of? Can I upgrade the camera motherboard? Update the sensor? Install a faster CPU? Add some more RAM?

 

[Oíche]

BTW all this development is brilliant, I switched from Pentax and any of their forums is Agony Aunt and Delusion Central. It reads like an unloving wife with a queue of strange men waiting in the living room and at the bottom of the stairs and the husband making tea and cakes for them asking them does she ask about me.

 

[Travis Butler]

I was wondering more if the missing features could actually be added via firmware updates.

The main feature that really 'grabs' me on the S5 II so far is the ability to store multiple sets of manual lens info in memory and switch between them when you switch lenses. ^^;; Which seems like the kind of thing that might be possible to do in firmware, but only if the S5's image processing system has a place available in non-volatile storage to store that data; since IIRC they changed the processor in the S5 II, the new processor may have more storage area than the old one.

The IBIS improvements would also be nice, but they're something that almost certainly had a hardware change behind them, so that would require an actual upgrade.