’SONIC BOOM

Panasonic’s new G9 mirrorless flagship boasts a mouthwatering 80MP-equivalent high-res mode

Pitching the Panasonic Lumix G9 as ‘the ultimate outdoor and wildlife camera’ invites certain expectations. A rugged, weather-sealed body armed with accurate and low-light friendly autofocus? Rapid burst rate? Effective stabilisation that kills the effects of camera shake with longer focal lengths? The G9 has aspirations to satisfy all of these aspects and more.

Let’s take the last of these features first. According to Panasonic, the G9’s in-body stabilisation offers the equivalent of 6.5 stops of shake reduction. If the real-world performance matches Panasonic’s tests, that’s certainly impressive.

The G9 is a camera that sets the pace too, with a 60fps burst mode at full resolution, dropping to a still-excellent 20fps when continuous autofocus is enabled. It’s also armed with a 225-area AF system, which Panasonic claims delivers the world’s fastest mirrorless camera autofocus acquisition speed of 0.04 sec (when using the Leica DG 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 ASPH lens).

Other numbers worth crunching are the 380-shot battery life, 60fps 4K video and, of course, its 80MP High Resolution mode. The G9 inherits its 20.3MP Micro Four Thirds sensor from the G5, but the High Res mode debuting on the G9 captures and combines eight images into one 80MP-equivalent JPEG or raw file. www.panasonic.com; £1,699/$1,699 (body only)

2 filter free The 20.3MP sensor has no Optical Low Pass Filter. 3 build quality The body is splashproof, dustproof and freezeproof.

easy control The three-inch free-angle screen includes touchsensitive technology. 1

4 convenience In addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy, the G9 features dual SD card slots.