It’s a black camera, but trust me when I say it could be blacker. And thankfully Panasonic will soon do something about that. | Image: Panasonic

Panasonic’s new cameras are finally making the leap to a new autofocus system, potentially putting them in line with the latest offerings from Sony, Canon, and Nikon. At CES, the company is announcing the Lumix S5II and its stealthy, blacked-out cousin, the S5IIx — a duo of 24-megapixel full-frame mirrorless hybrid cameras for both stills and video, due out in January for $1,999 and May for $2,199, respectively. Also announced alongside them is a $799 14-28mm f/4-5.6 S Macro lens, arriving in February.

Unsurprisingly for Panasonic cameras, the S5II pair have a lot of video features, like 6K recording with real-time LUTs. This year, they ditch the dated and clunky contrast-detect autofocus for a new hybrid phase-detect system Panasonic…

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