G9 first impressions

The G9 was always going to be my next camera after my beloved GH4. As a long-term owner of GH cameras, I've always used them for photography and rarely for video - I found the horsepower under the bonnet made them particularly good for photos.

So when Panasonic announced a photography-focused camera in a similar vein to the GH5, I was instantly attracted to the prospect.

I am in the fortunate position with work to receive an annual bonus, and when I checked my account this month and saw that it had arrived, I was instantly in the car and on my way to Park Cameras.

And returned with a big black box containing one Lumix G9 camera.

So, my thoughts...

It is noticeably bigger both in the hand and visibly than the GH4, and the GH4 always struck me as a large m43 camera. It is comfortable in the hand though, fitting the hand perfectly with all the controls within reach without moving (though I'm struggling to find the joystick - more because I haven't had to before than anything).

Speaking of the joystick, I'm loving it for the instant manual focus with my Voigtlander 17.5mm lens. Simply clicking it in zooms, allowing me to focus much more quickly and accurately with it than with the GH4.

The EVF also assists in this. I can actually manually focus with a degree of accuracy I'd never experienced before. And that's before you zoom in.
I've got the EVF set to the middle-zoom setting, due to wearing specs. If I mash my face right up to it, I can see the corners at the widest setting, but it isn't very comfortable...

Image quality is brilliant. I have noticed a magenta cast when pushing RAW files that isn't present in the same test scene shot with the GH4, but I should be able to fix this in post.

I've taken some test landscape shots in the standard 20mp resolution, and the image appears sharp throughout. Trees certainly jump out of the horizon better than they did with the AA-filtered 16mp sensor on the GH4.

I did test the 80mp pixel-shift mode with a still-life, and am highly impressed with it. Whether it's worth shooting that rather than the standard resolution, I'm not sure - I've never had to print anything over A3 borderless in size. I think the best test would be a landscape scene, so will try and find something good for that.

Read and write speeds to SD cards are swift, and I don't even have any of the UHS-II capable cards. Quick 4K clips wrote without issue to them, but I wasn't using 4K/60.

The top-plate LCD hasn't really factored into my conscious yet. I've never owned a camera with one, so have never felt like I've been missing anything by not having one.

Anyway, that's it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll add it to the comments below this.

Cheers,
Paul

PS. The G9 used the same batteries as the GH4. I didn't think they did, and bought an extra one, despite having two extra ones at home (and one in the GH4).

tried the g9 at the photo show with the pl100-400lens and was very impressed with it,the lvf is excellent for spectacle wearers and is so clear, I use the mk2 Olympus at present and I am happy with it but the g9 just has the edge at present. the sony a9 was good also and will be formidable if the 400mm -2.8 lens is a good one but the price is a lot for it I will wait to see tests of this set up, I think you made a good choice with the g9.

I'd like to know why the EVF display shakes, when half-depressing shutter to focus? What causes this? The DFD focus? I tried the GH5 and G9 both in store, and both did this. Also not too impressed with the EVF. I wish Panasonic would start using OLED for both the EVF and LCD's.

Congrats for your purchase.. I played around with G9, and despite its weight and size, the ergonomic and EVF are surprisingly one the best and most comfortable I have tried..

I did test the 80mp pixel-shift mode with a still-life, and am highly impressed with it.

Did you use a tripod?

What about removing the Eye cup when wearing specs? Did you try this?

I'm saving my money for a G9 too

Donald B wrote:

VisualFX wrote:

I'd like to know why the EVF display shakes, when half-depressing shutter to focus? What causes this? The DFD focus? I tried the GH5 and G9 both in store, and both did this. Also not too impressed with the EVF. I wish Panasonic would start using OLED for both the EVF and LCD's.

I agree i was out shooting with my em52 this morning and deceided to go and have a look in a large camera shop while i was in the city. Had a play with the g9 and the evf wasnt the same quality as the oly it was like it was blurry , not quite sharp and panning it stepped and completely blurred the image, my eyes went funny just tring to look into it.

That is very odd behaviour. I've noticed nothing of the sort in my camera.

Could the blurriness have been down to the diopter setting? No idea about the other effects though!

Cheers,
Paul

gwaschoenmakers wrote:

I did test the 80mp pixel-shift mode with a still-life, and am highly impressed with it.

Did you use a tripod?

What about removing the Eye cup when wearing specs? Did you try this?

I'm saving my money for a G9 too

Yep, mounted on a tripod. The process if very quick, and does it all in-camera to boot. I was pleasantly surprised by the output! Maximum shutter of 1 second though.

Haven't considered removing the eyecup...

Cheers,

Paul

I received my G9 with the LEICA 12-60 and 8-18 and all I can say Panasonic got it right.

Been shooting Nikon crop and FF gear for years and still love my D810 BUT the G9 is a beauty of camera. Only had time to play with it indoors and OMG is the AF fast and the speed the camera operates is simply amazing.

From the build quality to the ergonomics. The grip is deep but not too deep, the overall button layout is for my medium sized hand spot on and I can’t believe saying this but the EVF is miles better than shooting through my D810 viewfinder.

I have two Of the 300MB/s SanDisk 64GB cards in the body and the buffer clears like mad.

Now i need to find a good new bag for the set I have and need to figure out what features I assign to the fn buttons that would be best suited to my shooting style.

Its an expensive camera but I did not regret this purchase.

Anyone got any view on a camera bag? Looked at the PeakDesign sling 10L or the Tenba DNA 11.

sea_dragon wrote:

Congrats! I also just got a G9 along with the Pana-Leica 12mm prime. Was playing around with it tonight and while playing back some photos I took, I suddenly got an error “The lens is not attached properly”. Camera and lens are brand new so not sure what to think of that.

Otherwise, I’m very pleased with it.

I remember getting this in the past with another body, the Gh2 I think. A remount sorted it - could just have been a bit of fluff in the mount I guess!

Enjoy your new camera and lens!

Cheers,

Paul

FriskyMoose wrote:

I received my G9 with the LEICA 12-60 and 8-18 and all I can say Panasonic got it right.

Been shooting Nikon crop and FF gear for years and still love my D810 BUT the G9 is a beauty of camera. Only had time to play with it indoors and OMG is the AF fast and the speed the camera operates is simply amazing.

Have you shot with m43 before? The AF is impressive, particularly in low light.

From the build quality to the ergonomics. The grip is deep but not too deep, the overall button layout is for my medium sized hand spot on and I can’t believe saying this but the EVF is miles better than shooting through my D810 viewfinder.

I have two Of the 300MB/s SanDisk 64GB cards in the body and the buffer clears like mad.

I still need to invest in some fast cards. Will need them for the Royal International Air Tattoo in July!

Now i need to find a good new bag for the set I have and need to figure out what features I assign to the fn buttons that would be best suited to my shooting style.

Its an expensive camera but I did not regret this purchase.

I have a small bit of buyers remorse, mostly down to not having enough time to get out and about with my camera. Will the G9 really give me better shots than my stalwart GH4? Remains to be seen.

Anyone got any view on a camera bag? Looked at the PeakDesign sling 10L or the Tenba DNA 11.

I've been using a Thinktank Retrospective 5 for years with m43 gear. The G9 may be a bit big for it... but I really need to get out with the thing to truly work out if that's a problem.

Enjoy the G9!

Cheers,

Paul

Its an expensive camera but I did not regret this purchase.

Can imagine

Anyone got any view on a camera bag? Looked at the PeakDesign sling 10L or the Tenba DNA 11.

Yes. Manfrotto has some nice bags, first one is still on sale but has no options for carrying a tripod:

1) https://www.manfrotto.nl/advanced-active-sling-1

2) https://www.manfrotto.nl/nx-camera-and-laptop-backpack-v-blue-for-dslr-csc

Regards!

...to positives!

I felt a bit peeved that the drive dial no longer contains the exposure bracketing setting for HDRs. Which meant diving into the menu every time I wanted to use it.

In addition, I couldn't assign the zoom-focus view to one of the forward function buttons.

BUT

With a bit of playing, I've managed to set bracketing to the front lever, and pinpoint zoom focus to a front function button! Huzzah!

The latter is particularly useful for manual lenses.

Cheers,

Paul

amipal wrote:

With a bit of playing, I've managed to set bracketing to the front lever, and pinpoint zoom focus to a front function button! Huzzah!

The latter is particularly useful for manual lenses.

Well, sort of.

Further testing shows that the pinpoint zoom focus only works when AFS/AFC are selected on the focus-lever. MF does not allow it.

So while it is useful for autofocussing Olympus and Panasonic lenses, it isn't for my manual lenses like the Voigtlander f/0.95 17.5mm.

I'll have to conduct further experiments.

Cheers,
Paul