Panasonic Lumix G9
£1,499/$1,698 (body only)
How does Panasonic’s new flagship mirrorless camera fare? We put it through its paces to see
Panasonic’s new mirrorless model is built for capturing fast action at high frame rates Specifications
Sensor 20.3MP MFT Live MOS, 17.3 x 13.0mm Image processor Venus AF points 225-area DFD contrast AF ISO range 100-25,600 Max image size 5,184 x 3,888 Metering zones 1,728 Video 4K UHD at 30fps Viewfinder OLED EVF, 3.68 million dots Memory card 2 x SD/SDHC/SDXC, both UHS II LCD 3-inch vari-angle touchscreen, 1,040k dots Max burst 20fps with AF, 60fps with focus locked at start (600 JPEG, 60 raw) Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Size 137 x 97 x 92mm Weight 658g (body only, with battery and memory card)
Billed as the ultimate outdoor and wildlife camera, the G9 is Panasonic’s new flagship
stills-oriented camera. It joins the company’s video-orientated GH5 and GH5S at the top of the range. While the GH5 previously served as the flagship Lumix camera, it’s a video/stills hybrid that’s never been intended as a direct rival to a similarly priced APS-C DSLR.
The new Lumix G9, however, changes things. It’s the perfect complementary model to the GH5 and especially the new GH5S, but optimised for regular photography rather than video. With a focus on fast-burst shooting and refinements to its AF system, it’s up against the likes of the action-focused Canon EOS 7D Mark II and the Nikon D500, as well as recent high-end mirrorless options such as the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II.
The 60fps burst mode, which comes down to 20fps with continuous focus, is just slightly better on paper than the 60fps/18fps option offered by the OM-D E-M1 Mark II, and Panasonic matches Olympus’s claims of 6.5-stop image stabilisation using a similar combined in-body and lens-based stabilisation system.
The G9 inherits the 20.3megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor from the GH5, which has no optical low-pass filter. The Venus image processing engine is the same, but Panasonic says the processing itself has been improved.
The G9 also has the same kind of High Resolution capture mode introduced by Olympus, which takes a sequence of images with a tiny shift in the sensor position for each, then combines them into a single 80-megapixel image.
Panasonic says the G9 has the world’s fastest AF speeds for a mirrorless camera with a focus time of just 0.04 sec with the Leica 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 ASPH lens.
It uses Panasonic’s Depth From Defocus (DFD) autofocus technology and there’s a joystick on the back of the camera for moving the focus point around the frame.
It might not be a video specialist like the GH5 or GH5S, but the G9 can still capture 4K video, and Full HD video at up to 180fps for a 3x slowmotion effect on playback.
Build and handling
The G9 is pretty big for a Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera – but that’s no bad thing, because it gives it better handling with larger lenses like telephotos. It’s about the same size as a mid-range enthusiast DSLR, but the smaller sensor does mean that the lenses for this camera are smaller and lighter than their DSLR counterparts. The G9 might not be any smaller than a DSLR, but your kit bag is still likely to feel a good deal lighter.
The G9 feels solid and well-made, but the external design is somewhat underwhelming for a top-of-therange camera. Its sharp edges and crease lines are typical of Panasonic’s current styling, but it feels a bit downmarket compared to its smoother-profiled DSLR rivals. The inclusion of a top-plate LCD, though, should please the same audience. The information in this screen is presented nice and clearly – perhaps not as large as on a similar DSLR displays, but the range of information here is broad.
Another new feature is a lever on the front of the camera, which allows you to instantly switch from one combination of camera settings to another. It is welcome, but for a camera of its size it’s a little fiddly and on the small side.
The new High Resolution shot mode, which blends a number of images into a single high-resolution file, is something we’ve already seen from Olympus and Pentax. In use, the eight images are not only captured quickly but processed in what feels like a couple of seconds. The fact that you need to use this mode on a tripod, and with static subjects, makes fast speeds here less crucial.
This camera is designed as a dedicated sports/action specialist,