First Setup
What should you change on a brand-new Panasonic Lumix S5 II before your first shoot — cards, backup, files and stabilization, set once and saved?
Format both cards in the camera
Formatting builds the folder structure the camera expects and clears a card that has lived in other devices. Both slots take SD cards — SD, SDHC or SDXC — and the camera supports UHS-I and UHS-II, so fast cards run at full speed in either slot. Format is set per slot: run it once for Card Slot 1 and once for Card Slot 2.
Make the second slot a backup
Double Card Slot Function offers three recording methods. Relay Rec fills the priority card, then relays recording to the other slot. Allocation Rec lets you send JPEG, RAW and Video to destinations you choose separately. Backup Rec records the same images to both cards simultaneously — the working setting for anything paid. Panasonic's conditions: use cards of the same Speed Class and the same capacity; if either card's speed or capacity is insufficient during video recording, recording to both cards stops; and SDHC-plus-SDXC pairings cannot back up video at all.
The honest file
Set Picture Quality to RAW + JPEG — the JPEG to share, the RAW as the negative — and Photo Style to Standard while you learn the body. Photo Style is the look system: Standard, Vivid, Natural, L.ClassicNeo, Flat, Landscape, Portrait, Monochrome, L.Monochrome, L.Monochrome D, L.Monochrome S, Cinelike D2, Cinelike V2, Like709, V-Log, REAL TIME LUT (which records with a LUT already applied), the two Like2100(HLG) styles, and ten My Photo Style registers. LEICA Monochrome is on current bodies — it arrived in firmware Ver. 3.1; if your list lacks it, update the firmware (Setup Menu (Others) → Firmware Version).
Stabilizer on Normal
The in-body sensor-shift stabilizer pairs with lens stabilization as Dual I.S.2. Panasonic's Specifications give 5.0 stops for the in-body stabilizer and 6.5 stops for Dual I.S.2 (CIPA, Yaw/Pitch). Leave Operation Mode on Normal for everyday work; the Panning modes are for deliberate pans. If you use a lens that cannot communicate with the camera, register its focal length under Lens Information in the same menu — without lens information, the manual states stabilization cannot work correctly.
Register it to the dial
Save to Custom Mode registers the camera's current recording mode and menu settings to C1, C2 or C3 on the mode dial. Under Custom Mode Settings, [Limit No. of Custom Mode] sets how many sets C3 can hold: three by default, up to ten. Turning the dial to C3 and pressing MENU opens the set list. Temporary changes made inside a Custom mode never overwrite the registration — re-register deliberately. Save/Restore Camera Setting can also write the entire camera configuration to a card.
Do the steps now, in order, then register the setup to C1 and turn the dial away and back to prove it returns. Finish by checking Firmware Version — detection types, a Photo Style and stabilizer settings on this body all arrived by update.