S1II Speed v. S1RII Image Quality

Hey all, I’m in the process of trading up from an S5IIX, and I had been pretty dead set on the S1II since I would say I’m 80/20 on video/photography, but now I’m wondering if the S1RII might still be the better option despite my focus in video. Especially now that the playing field has been made even regarding overheating and autofocus performance.

Mainly where I’m getting caught up are the many discussions surrounding the S1II’s compromises when it comes to the higher speed shooting modes. For example, as far as I can tell, no one seems too happy with the loss in quality when shooting at 4K120, and there are still some gripes about the autofocus in such speeds.

I’m also not sure rolling shutter would even be a real issue when the max camera movement I make are the relatively slow pans one would find in most real estate videos.

Cut to the S1RII online discourse, I see so many rave about the out-of-camera color fidelity and decrease in the digital sharpness. The sharpness is something I haven’t noticed in LUMIX’s current lineup, though I can see the colors do seem a lot better. Though I’m sure that can be matched by the S1II in post.

But the thing that really gets me is that the low-light situations seem to benefit a lot from the S1RII’s higher megapixel count, with the noise grain being so small. That to me is a very tangible benefit. Not to mention that the sensor is obviously equipped for better photography.

In summary, a bunch of the video benefits I’ve seen online for the S1II over the S1RII seem to be modes that users have deeper issues with. On paper, they seem nice to have, but on closer inspection, many complain about these modes and it makes me wonder if they are even worth having. The S1RII photography benefits on the other hand, seem a lot more real and like they are actually something that can be taken advantage of even in video work. I would appreciate any thoughts to help me make a more informed decision.