Robin Wong G9 Review - Thoughts?

slartz wrote:

I've read through it... it has some interesting bits and pieces in it

(you can read the full review here - https://blog.mingthein.com/2018/01/22/review-the-2018-panasonic-lumix-g9/)

There are a few weird parts to this review, and I'd like to hear people with G9 where they stand on this:

• "There were moments when the AF failed to lock focus, and then the EVF/LCD screen went completely black for a couple seconds, before returning to normal. I’m not sure what caused this temporary black-out, but I have not observed this with any other camera, not even with the other Panaosnic cameras I have used (LX100, GH4 and GM1). The EVF black-out happened only when the camera struggled to acquire focus repeatedly." - Did anybody experience that?
  Also - he claims AF is great (and faster even on an Oly lens than on the EM1.2) but then says it has all those limitations. I'm trying to understand if it's just nitpicking or if there are real issues here worse than in other cameras?

• "The continuous AF is one of the best I have seen on a Micro Four Thirds camera" - This is also interesting in his conclusion. He does not say it out right, but he essentially claims the new DFD C-AF is better than the PDAF on the EM1.2...

He also says he rarely photographs fast action and doesn't use continuous autofocus in his usual photography and suggest you look at other reviews for flying birds....

A dog swimming in a pool is not a difficult target and I suspect his few misses were more user error than the camera focus problems.  My 8 year old E5 would have no problem with this target.

• "There is no easy way of saying this, but I dislike the color profile of the G9. The default JPEG color and the white balance engine don’t work for me. I find the reds unnatural with strong hints of magenta and the green channel is off as well. Skin tones don’t look close to real life and the overall balance is not pleasing. Perhaps the problem is not with the camera, but my own preference." - This is also very weird as ALL other reviews claims this camera has finally great JPGs. Any ideas?
• "The default JPEG engine does a poor job at managing the high ISO noise and details balance. There are noticeable traces of over-sharpening and artificial blurring of details at ISO3200 and higher. I also observed random, stray color fringes in shadow areas that look ugly. I tried various noise reduction settings in camera and they all produced undesirable results. In summary, at high ISO, shoot RAW."
  This is also not inline with a lot of other reviews. In fact I read claims by other reviewers they were unable to replicate the excellent noise reduction of Panasonic with LR.

Imaging Resource also mentions this..., but since it is jpeg, one can always change the defaults so I do not see why either would be a serious problem.

"Again, I'm basing all this just on in-camera JPEGs (at camera default picture style settings), but it can look a bit unnatural at close-inspection with a kind of artificial-looking smoothing of detail. JPEG sharpening also felt a bit too strong for my taste, depending on the subject. "

Happy to hear thoughts of G9 owners here...