Introduction
First announced on May 2024, the Lumix S9 takes over from the S5 II as the smallest and lightest model in Panasonic's range of 35mm full-frame mirrorless cameras.
Thanks mainly to its compact, flat-style design and not having a viewfinder, it's considerably smaller than the more expensive S5 II full-frame camera, reminding us a lot of the Lumix GM1 Micro Four Thirds camera from 2013.
The S9 inherits a number of its main features from the S5 II, including the same 24.2 megapixel sensor that provides Hybrid Phase Detection Auto-Focus with 779 AF points and human, animal, vehicle and motorcycle detection.
There's also an expanded ISO range of 50-204,800, the latest Venus image processing engine, free-angle 3.0-inch touchscreen LCD with 1.84m-dot resolution, single SD UHS-II memory card slot, Bluetooth 5.0 and 5GHz/2.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity, 3.5mm port for an external microphone, 470-shot battery life and USB Type-C charging.
Other key features of the Panasonic Lumix S9 include a 6.5-stop 5-axis Dual Image Stabilizer, 30fps continuous shooting with the electronic shutter (there is no mechanical shutter), and the High Resolution mode which captures 96-megapixel equivalent photos by taking 8 separate images and combining them into one.
In terms of video, it supports internal 6K (3:2) and 5.9K (16:9) Open Gate at 30/25/24fps and 4:2:0 10-bit plus C4K/4K at up to 60fps and 4:2:2 10-bit.
It also provides HFR (High Frame Rate) recording at up to 120fps and Slow & Quick capture at up to 180fps and it has a Micro HDMI Type D terminal, rather than a full-size Type A version as on the S5 II.
Brand new features offered by the Lumix S9 and not featured on the S5 II include crop zoom and hybrid zoom, a dedicated real-time LUT button, support for the new MP4 Lite video recording format, the new Lumix Lab app for easier and faster editing and sharing, the ability to create and share LUTs using your smartphone, and automatic background image transfer.
In the UK the Panasonic Lumix S9 is available in four colours - dark olive, night blue, crimson red and jet black - from the end of June 2024 priced at £1499 body-only, £1799 with the 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 standard lens, and £2249 with the 28-200 mm F4-7.1 MACRO O.I.S. zoom lens. It is manufactured in China.
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this review were captured using the 24 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which yields an average image size of around 12Mb.
The Panasonic Lumix S9 produced still images of exceptional quality during the review period.
This camera produces noise-free JPEG images from ISO 50 all the way up to ISO 6400, with significant noise first appearing at ISO 12800. The fastest settings of 25600 and 51200 exhibit quite a deal of noise, but they're still acceptable to use for creating tiny prints and web images. You should avoid using the expanded ISO 102400 and 204800 settings if possible.
The High Resolution Mode is capable of producing 96 megapixel images, while the various Photo Styles and Filters enable you to swiftly and easily customise the appearance of the camera's JPEG and Raw images before you take them.
Noise
ISO sensitivity can be set between ISO 50 and ISO 204800 in full-stop increments. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and RAW on the right.
File Quality
The Panasonic Lumix S9 has 2 distinct JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the maximum quality option. Here are some 100% crops which demonstrate the fidelity of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
High Resolution Mode
The Panasonic Lumix S9's High Resolution Mode combines 8 photos into a 96 megapixel image to generate a 12000x8000 pixel ultra high-resolution photo. The resultant Raw files are 165Mb in size! We found during testing that selecting Mode 2 in the Motion Blur Processing sub-menu produced the finest images.
Read Also: Capturing Memories with Fujifilm Instax Mini 99
Photo Styles
Panasonic's Photo Styles are preset configurations of various sharpness, contrast, saturation and noise reduction settings. The 17 available Photo Styles are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences. There are also four Custom options so that you can construct your own styles.
Filter Effects
The Panasonic Lumix S9 offers a selection of digital filter effects that can be applied to both JPEG and Raw files, with 8 distinct options available in the primary menu.
