I used to be fairly vocal in regards to the Lumix S9 when it was introduced. I noticed what Panasonic was proposing: a compact full-frame mirrorless digicam that prioritized portability… and I feel that was the foundation of the issue.
I do not know who began this, whether or not it was Panasonic’s advertising staff or one thing a YouTuber mentioned, however everybody appeared singularly targeted on only one factor: that the S9 with its 26mm f/8 pancake lens was the identical dimension because the Fujifilm X100VI.
And I feel that is what rubbed me up the mistaken method (particularly given the well-documented compromises of that lens).
The entire “smaller than the X100” factor was a strawman resolution to an issue that Panasonic had already solved, with its Micro 4 Thirds cameras (which, bizarrely, had been truly getting larger whereas this full-frame Lumix was the one getting smaller!).
I get it, you wish to convey that the S9 is a small digicam. However squeezing into the identical field (actually) because the X100VI does such an epic disservice to a digicam that’s a lot extra spectacular in so many extra fascinating methods.
Is the Lumix S9 small? Sure, it’s. Very small, particularly for a full-frame mirrorless digicam. However as quickly as you set 90% of lenses on it, that promoting level kinda falls aside (as we noticed with the outsized Lumix 20-60mm, with which the S9 was initially bundled).
The Lumix S 18-40mm, which wasn’t launched till after the S9, makes a significantly better tag staff companion if dimension is the one factor we care about. And for prime shooters, you can too throw on the Sigma 35mm f/2 to underscore the scale distinction (as Sigma did with the even-smaller Sigma BF).
However once more, we’re actually promoting this digicam quick if all we’re specializing in is how small it’s.
For starters, it is a full-frame digicam that prices beneath a grand within the UK – which is improbable worth primarily based on the sensor format alone, earlier than you even begin trying on the options and capabilities that the S9 boasts.
Living proof, it is a digicam for actual creators. And I feel that is the place everybody will get so confused with the X100VI; sure, it blew up on TikTok, however simply because influencers had been speaking about it doesn’t suggest they had been truly utilizing it.
Small just isn’t all
The Lumix S9 is not for posers on TikTok; it is for honest-to-goodness content material creators, road shooters, journey photographers… and certainly, anybody who is a few amalgam of all these issues.
Sure, being small is a part of that. However extra necessary is the power to make use of an arsenal of L-Mount lenses to {photograph} the issues {that a} compact digicam cannot. To document video that is not simply “adequate for a Reel”, however places professional-grade open gate 6K 30p seize in your palms.
You then’ve received Realtime LUTs, which is a reputation that sadly places off photographers. As a result of whereas Realtime LUTs do imply that videographers can grade movies on the level of seize, I feel they’re truly extra interesting to photographers as soon as they perceive that these are successfully Movie Simulation killers.
Sure, movie sims are nice (even when most individuals solely shoot in Basic Chrome more often than not) however the recipe course of leaves so much to be desired.
Realtime LUTs are like movie sims on steroids, as a result of you should utilize any LUT you want (together with some that ape Fujifilm‘s simulations completely) and you possibly can create your personal – and you should utilize two of them collectively.
The Lumix S9 successfully kills the enhancing course of. Whether or not you shoot stills or video (or each), you possibly can apply your personal appears to be like in-camera after which all you have to do is add them whenever you’re achieved – no extra having to carve out further time throughout (or after) your journey to edit a mountain of information earlier than you should utilize them.
I feel the S9 is as near the immediacy of capturing along with your telephone {that a} digicam has ever received – solely it is clearly lightyears extra succesful. And that is the place all people (myself included) received this digicam mistaken.
The S9 is not about being small, it is about with the ability to ditch your telephone and your Osmo Pocket and all that point you spend enhancing on apps or your laptop computer. It is a digicam that allows you to shoot photos in essentially the most friction-free method conceivable.
Should you dismissed this digicam, I might extremely advise you to provide it a re-evaluation. Go to a digicam retailer and choose one up. Rent one for a weekend. You is perhaps amazed to seek out it is the digicam you have at all times been in search of, with out even understanding it.
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