Panasonic S1 II Menu Setup Guide: Best Fast Filmmaking Settings For Video

Panasonic S1 II Camera Menu

The Panasonic S1 II is one of the most powerful hybrid cameras Panasonic has ever released. It is absolutely loaded with professional video features. The downside is that it ships with hundreds of menu options that are not optimized for real-world filmmaking out of the box.

If you want to get the best image quality, best autofocus performance, and the smoothest shooting experience possible, you need to customize the camera heavily.

This guide walks you through how I set up the Panasonic S1 II for video. These are the same settings I use for client work, YouTube, and paid productions.

If you want to save a ton of time, I also provide a free downloadable S1 II preset file that applies all of these settings automatically, including button layouts, custom menus, and quick menu shortcuts. You can download that here and follow along if you want the fastest setup possible.

I also teach all of this in much more depth inside my Panasonic S1 II Pro Video Guide course, where I break down why these settings work, how to adjust them for different shooting scenarios, and how to get the most out of the camera long term.

Now, it’s time to dive into the menus!

Start With a Full Camera Reset

Before changing any settings, I recommend resetting the camera back to factory defaults. This ensures we are starting from the same baseline.

To reset the S1 II:

  1. Turn the camera on
  2. Go to the menu
  3. Navigate to the blue wrench icon
  4. Go to the gear submenu
  5. Select Reset
  6. Reset all settings, network settings, and custom setup settings

Once this is done, your camera will behave exactly like it did when you first took it out of the box.

Set the Physical Camera Controls First

Before touching the menus, make sure the camera is physically set up correctly.

  • Set the top mode dial to M (Manual)’
  • Set the left-side dial to the video camera icon
  • Set the focus switch to C (Continuous AF)

This ensures the camera is fully in manual video mode and ready for menu customization.

Image Quality Settings (Red Video Menu)

Photo Style

Set your Photo Style to V-Log.

V-Log is the profile I recommend using for about 99 percent of video work on the S1 II. It gives you maximum dynamic range and flexibility in post.

There are separate lessons in my course that go deep into V-Log settings and color grading, but for now, just make sure it is selected.

Metering Mode

Leave this set to the default multi-metering option. This tells the camera to measure exposure across the entire frame.

Dynamic Range Boost

Turn this off.

While Dynamic Range Boost can increase highlight retention, it limits you to 30p, increases rolling shutter, and disables slow motion. For most filmmaking scenarios, it is not worth the trade-offs.

Dual Native ISO

Leave this set to Auto. I will show a more precise way to control ISO manually later.

Synchro Scan

Leave this off unless you are dealing with flickering lights.

If you ever shoot under problematic LED lighting and cannot eliminate flicker by adjusting shutter speed normally, Synchro Scan allows extremely fine shutter adjustments to match the light refresh rate.

Shutter Speed Limiter

Turn this off. This is only useful for auto shutter modes, which we are not using.

Shutter Speed and ISO Display

The S1 II lets you display exposure in multiple ways:

  • Shutter speed in fractions
  • Shutter angle
  • Gain in decibels

Unless you come from a broadcast background, I strongly recommend sticking with Seconds / ISO. It keeps things simple and predictable.

Shutter angle is useful in theory, but it adds unnecessary complexity for most shooters. If you ever feel overwhelmed, remember this rule:

Set your shutter speed to roughly double your frame rate, and you will be in good shape.

Lens Corrections and Filters

Turn off the following settings:

  • Vignetting Compensation
  • Color Shading Compensation
  • Diffraction Compensation
  • Filter Effects

These are all automatic corrections that can affect exposure or bake unwanted looks into your footage. Anything like this is better handled in post.

Recording Format and Resolution

File Format

Choose MOV, not MP4.

MP4 limits some of the camera’s higher-end features and reduces image quality. MOV gives you better codecs and more flexibility.

Image Area

Leave this set to Full most of the time.

Use APS-C mode if you need extra reach, such as filming from far away at an event. Pixel-by-pixel is rarely worth using.

Recording Quality

For general filmmaking, I recommend 5.9K at 24p as a starting point.

This gives you excellent detail, flexibility for reframing, and strong image quality. I cover frame rates and resolutions in detail in my course so you know exactly when to use each option.

Recording Quality My List

Use this feature to save your favorite frame rates and resolutions so you do not have to scroll through the full list every time.

Proxy Recording

If your computer struggles with high-resolution footage, enable Proxy Recording.

The camera will record full-quality video to your CFexpress card and a low-resolution proxy to the SD card. I recommend setting proxy quality to Low for smooth playback.

There is also a Real-Time LUT Proxy option, which is useful if you want an easy-to-edit version of your footage while preserving a flat master file.

Autofocus Settings

The S1 II has dramatically improved autofocus, and these settings matter a lot if you want it to look smooth and natural.

Subject Detection

Turn this on.

  • Detection Subject: Human
  • Target Parts: Eye / Face / Body

Autofocus Custom Settings (Video)

These are critical:

  • AF Speed: -3
  • AF Sensitivity: -2

This slows the autofocus down and makes it look far more natural for video.

Turn off the AF assist light. You do not want a light turning on while filming.

Audio Settings

Audio Levels Display

Turn this on and set it to Small so your screen stays uncluttered.

Sound Recording Level

Set this to Low. This helps prevent clipping.

Recording Level Adjust

Aim for peaks around -12 dB.

Wind Noise Cancel

Turn this off. Handle noise reduction in post for more control.

Mic Power

Leave this set to Mic + Power for most external microphones.

Display and Monitoring Tools

Histogram

Optional, but not my preferred exposure tool.

Grid Lines

If you use them, stick to the simple 3×3 grid.

Level Gauge

Turn this off by default. You can assign it to a custom button if needed.

Luminance Spot Meter

This is one of the most useful exposure tools on the S1 II.

It lets you check exposure at a specific point in your frame. I recommend enabling it and learning how to use it properly, especially when shooting log.

Custom Buttons and Controls

The S1 II allows deep customization of nearly every button and dial.

I do not recommend randomly changing these without a plan. In my course, I walk through:

  • Which buttons to customize
  • What to assign to each one
  • How to build an efficient shooting layout

If you want a shortcut, the free preset download applies all of my recommended button mappings automatically.

Final Thoughts

The Panasonic S1 II is not a camera you can just turn on and expect to get the best results from. But once it is set up correctly, it is an absolute powerhouse for video.

If you want the fastest setup possible, download the free S1 II preset file and load it onto your camera. It applies all of these settings in seconds.

If you want to truly master the S1 II, understand why these settings matter, and learn how to adapt them for different types of shoots, check out my full Panasonic S1 II Pro Video Guide. It goes far deeper than a single blog post ever could.

Is The M5 MacBook Pro Better For Video Editing? (Buyer’s Guide)

Matt Johnson holding an M5 Macbook for Video Editing

M5 MacBook Pro Buyer’s Guide for Video Editors: Should You Buy It and What Specs Actually Make Sense?

The new 14 inch Apple MacBook Pro with the M5 chip is finally here, and if you are a video editor who has been thinking about buying a new laptop, you are probably asking yourself two very specific questions:

  1. Should you even buy this new M5 MacBook Pro at all?
  2. If you do decide to buy one, what specs actually make sense for video editing without wasting a ton of money.

In this buyer’s guide I want to help you answer both of those questions clearly and honestly, because not every new Apple release is automatically the best choice for video editors.

At the time of writing this, Apple is only offering one version of the M5 MacBook, which is the 14 inch MacBook Pro. There is no MacBook Air with M5, no 16 inch MacBook Pro, and no M5 Pro or M5 Max chips available yet. If you want an M5 laptop today, this single configuration is your only option.

Should Video Editors Buy the M5 MacBook Pro?

The short answer for most video editors is: probably not (at least not right now).

Based on everything we know so far, the M5 is a fairly incremental upgrade when it comes to video editing performance, and until we see an M5 Pro or M5 Max, it is hard to justify choosing this over discounted previous generation models.

That said, there are some real improvements with the M5 that can matter depending on how you work, so let’s walk through those before writing it off completely.

Faster Storage and Larger SSD Options

One of the most noticeable upgrades with the M5 MacBook Pro is the internal storage speed. Apple has moved to PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, which support transfer speeds up to roughly 6800 megabytes per second. That is nearly double the roughly 3500 megabytes per second we saw on the previous generation, and in some real world tests it can be even faster depending on the workload.

If you regularly copy large video files to and from your internal drive, especially if you shoot in 4K, 6K, or 8K resolutions, this faster storage can genuinely save you time over the course of a project. It is not the kind of upgrade that makes headlines, but it is absolutely something working editors will feel day to day.

Along with the speed increase, Apple has also expanded the maximum internal storage option on the 14 inch model to 4 TB, up from 2 TB on previous base models. As always, Apple’s storage pricing is extremely expensive, so this is more about what is technically possible rather than what I would actually recommend most people buy.

GPU and AI Performance Improvements

When it comes to raw performance, the CPU improvements in the M5 appear to be fairly modest, roughly around a 10 percent increase compared to the previous generation. For video editors, though, the more interesting change is the GPU, which has seen a much larger jump, with Apple claiming around a 34 percent increase in GPU performance.

This matters because modern video editing software, especially DaVinci Resolve, relies heavily on the GPU for playback, rendering, and effects processing. A stronger GPU can lead to smoother timelines and faster exports in many situations.

On top of that, Apple has added neural accelerators directly into each GPU core, and this is where things start to get more interesting for editors who use AI powered tools. Every major editing platform is adding more AI features with every update, including things like AI music editing, animated subtitles, multicam switching, voice isolation, upscaling, and denoising.

Apple specifically calls out tools like Enhance Speech in Premiere Pro, claiming it runs over four times faster than on an M1 MacBook Pro and nearly three times faster than on an M4 MacBook Pro. They also tested Topaz Video AI, where the M5 reportedly performs over seven times faster than an M1 and more than three times faster than an M4.

If your workflow leans heavily into AI based tools, these improvements can actually be meaningful.

Hardware Encoders, Decoders, and Real World Editing

Another important area for video editors is hardware encoding and decoding. These dedicated media engines are one of the biggest factors in how fast your laptop can play back and export video, especially when working with codecs like H.264 and H.265.

With the M5, these encoders and decoders do appear to be faster than on the M4 and earlier M series chips, so if you frequently export client videos in H.264 or H.265, you should see some speed improvements.

However, things change once you move into RAW workflows. Formats like RED RAW, ProRes RAW, and Blackmagic RAW still benefit from hardware acceleration, but they also rely very heavily on GPU performance. The important thing to remember here is that the M5 only has a base level GPU. It does not have the extra cores and performance you would get from an M5 Pro or M5 Max chip.

Because of that, editors who spend most of their time working with high bitrate or RAW footage may actually see better overall performance from an older MacBook Pro with a Pro or Max chip, even if it is technically a generation behind.

So, Who Should Buy the M5 MacBook Pro?

If you regularly use AI powered effects in your editing software, do work in Fusion or After Effects, and want to be somewhat future proofed as these tools continue to evolve, then the M5 MacBook Pro can make sense if you specifically want the newest Apple laptop available right now.

On the other hand, if you mostly edit RAW footage or want a more powerful machine overall that excels at heavier timelines, I would strongly recommend skipping the M5 for now and looking at an M4 MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip. With current discounts, those machines are often priced very close to a base M5 and offer significantly more sustained performance for professional video work.

The M5 MacBook Pro Specs I Would Actually Buy

If you do decide that the M5 MacBook Pro is the right choice for you, my recommendation is surprisingly simple. I would go with the base configuration, which includes the base M5 chip, 16 GB of memory, and a 512 GB SSD.

If you have a little extra budget, I would consider upgrading to the faster charger, which is a relatively small cost, and if you often edit in bright environments like coffee shops or near windows, the nano texture display is absolutely worth the upgrade in my opinion.

What I would not recommend is upgrading the memory or storage. The moment you do that, you are pushing the price to around $2000, and at that point you are much better off buying an M4 Pro MacBook or waiting for the inevitable M5 Pro and M5 Max models, which will almost certainly be significantly faster for video editing.

Should You Wait?

If you can wait, history suggests that the M5 Pro and M5 Max models will arrive sometime in early 2026, likely around the $2000 price point, and they should be a massive upgrade over the base M5. There are also rumors that Apple may introduce OLED displays in future MacBooks, possibly in 2026 or 2027, which would be a truly meaningful upgrade for video editors.

If you cannot wait, the M4 Pro MacBook Pro currently offers the best balance of price and performance for most editors.

No matter which route you go, choosing the right laptop comes down to understanding your workflow and not just buying the newest thing because it exists. Hopefully this guide helped you make a more confident decision.

If you want to dive deeper into editing techniques themselves, I also have a free “Edit Videos Like a Pro” guide that covers some of the most important lessons I learned over years of professional editing, and it applies regardless of which software or computer you use.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped you choose the right MacBook for your video editing workflow.

Interested in building your own PC instead? Check out my buyer’s guides.

Please note: Some of the Amazon and B&H links in this article are affiliate links and I earn a commission from them.

The Best Sony Video Format Settings (And When You Should Not Use Them)

Matt Johnson holding a Sony camera with the video format menu open

You just bought a Sony a7V, or another recent Sony camera, and now you’re staring at the video format menu wondering what on earth you’re supposed to choose.

Totally fair question!

Sony gives you a lot of options, and while that flexibility is great, it can also be confusing if you just want to know what setting will give you the best results without wasting time.

So let’s start with the short answer, and then I’ll explain why I recommend it, plus the specific situations where you should actually do something different.

Here’s The Short Answer:

For most situations, I recommend filming in XAVC HS, selecting the highest bit rate available, and making sure it says 4:2:2 10-bit if your computer can handle it.

That’s it.

If you want a quick reference you can come back to later, I’ve also put together a Sony Video Formats Cheat Sheet that shows you exactly which settings to use. It’s completely free!

Now let’s talk about why these settings make sense, and when they don’t.

A Quick Note on Testing and Hardware

Before we get into the menu breakdown, you should know that while this video and article are not sponsored by MSI, they did provide me with the RTX 5080 graphics card I used for all of the testing discussed here. Thanks to MSI for that.

I’ll also link to this card, along with other MSI GPUs I recommend for video editing, since they currently offer the fastest performance for modern codecs.

This hardware context matters a lot for what we’re about to talk about.

Understanding Sony’s Video Format Options

When you open the Sony menu and go to Shooting → Video Format, you’ll see several options, including:

  • XAVC HS
  • XAVC S
  • XAVC S-I
  • XAVC S HD

If you’re using a cinema-line camera like the FX3, FX30, or FX2, you’ll also see a DCI 4K option.

For the vast majority of your filmmaking, I recommend XAVC HS, and the reason is simple: XAVC HS uses H.265 compression, which is the most advanced and efficient codec your camera can record internally.

That means higher image quality and smaller file sizes at the same time, which is exactly what we want.

Choosing Frame Rate and Bit Rate

Once you select XAVC HS, you’ll need to back out and head into the video settings to choose your frame rate and bit rate.

You’ll typically see options like 24p, 60p, and 120p.

If instead you’re seeing 25p, 50p, or 100p, that means your camera is currently set to PAL mode, which is used in many countries outside the United States. This has to do with electrical frequency and broadcast standards, and we don’t need to go down that rabbit hole here.

What you need to know is that if you want access to frame rates like 120p, go into the yellow toolbox menu and switch your camera to NTSC.

From here, let’s assume we’re choosing 24 frames per second, and now Sony throws a bunch of other options at you, like 50M, 100M, 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 8-bit, 10-bit, and it suddenly feels overwhelming.

Let’s break it down quickly.

Bit Rate, Bit Depth, and Chroma Subsampling Explained

The number followed by an “M” represents the bit rate, measured in megabits per second. Higher numbers mean more data, which means higher quality video, so I recommend choosing the highest bit rate available.

Next comes 8-bit vs 10-bit, and this one is easy. Always choose 10-bit.

10-bit video records dramatically more color information, enabling your camera to capture billions of colors instead of millions, which results in smoother gradients, better skin tones, and far more flexibility when color grading.

The last option, and the one that causes the most confusion, is 4:2:2 vs 4:2:0, which refers to chroma subsampling, or how much color data is stored per pixel.

4:2:2 records more color information than 4:2:0, so on paper it sounds like something you’d always want to use. And in a perfect world, that would be true.

But here’s where your computer matters.

Why Your GPU Determines Whether You Should Use 4:2:2

This entire topic is the reason I reached out to MSI and asked for an RTX 5080 to test with.

Older computers, including Macs from before Apple’s M-series chips, older NVIDIA GPUs, and essentially all AMD GPUs at this point, do not offer hardware acceleration for H.265 video encoded in 4:2:2 color.

What that means in practice is that editing 4:2:2 footage on those systems is noticeably slower, with choppy playback, laggy scrubbing, and longer render times, because your computer has to decode everything in software.

Newer hardware changes that completely.

Apple’s M-series Macs and NVIDIA’s 5000-series GPUs support hardware encoding and decoding of 4:2:2 video, which makes editing dramatically faster.

To show you what that looks like, I tested the same DaVinci Resolve project on the same desktop computer, first using an RTX 3080 and then swapping in the RTX 5080.

With the 3080, playback wasn’t terrible, but scrubbing wasn’t smooth, and rendering a 10-minute project took 4 minutes and 6 seconds.

With the 5080 installed, playback was dramatically smoother, scrubbing felt instant, and the same render finished in 1 minute and 23 seconds, making it roughly 66% faster.

That’s a massive difference.

So Which Settings Should You Use?

If you’re editing on:

  • A Mac with an M-series chip, or
  • A Windows PC with an NVIDIA 5000-series GPU

You can safely shoot XAVC HS, highest bit rate, 4:2:2, 10-bit and enjoy both great image quality and fast editing performance.

If you’re using:

  • An AMD GPU
  • An older NVIDIA card
  • An older Intel-based Mac

Then I recommend choosing 4:2:0, 10-bit instead. The image quality is still excellent, and your editing experience will be significantly smoother.

The One Big Limitation of XAVC HS

There is one annoying limitation of XAVC HS that I was really hoping Sony would fix with the a7V, but unfortunately it’s still here.

You cannot record 4K at 30 frames per second using XAVC HS.

Yes, it’s weird, and yes, it’s been weird for years.

If you need 4K 30p, the workaround is to switch your video format to XAVC S, then select 4K 30p, 140M, 4:2:2, 10-bit.

XAVC S uses the older H.264 codec, which is less efficient than H.265, but the image quality is still very similar, so don’t stress about that.

The good news is that now that Apple and NVIDIA support hardware acceleration for 4:2:2, using XAVC S no longer comes with the editing penalties it used to.

Final Thoughts

Sony video formats can get complicated quickly, but once you understand what the camera is doing and how your computer factors into the equation, the right settings become pretty straightforward.

For most situations:

  • XAVC HS
  • Highest bit rate
  • 10-bit
  • 4:2:2 if your hardware supports it

And remember, if you want a quick reference you don’t have to think about, you can download my Sony Video Formats Cheat Sheet completely free.

If you want to learn more about cameras and filmmaking, consider subscribing, and as always, thanks for reading.