Tiny and Mighty: Lumix S9 features

The Lumix S9 is the latest addition to the Lumix S full frame family, and brings a flat-top rangefinder style in a very small body form

Being an S-series camera, the S9 is compatible with the whole Lumix S lens line-up including the lightweight S f/1.8 collection of fixed focal length lenses

Comprehensive grading features in the app make really quite sophisticated looks very easy to create and to be applied to V-Log footage or to existing Photo Styles once loaded to the camera. These LUTs can then be used to record your finished ‘grades’ directly to the images or video without having to go near a computer.

This table shows how the size of the files created by the MP4 Lite option compare to regular MP4 shooting and MOV files. Each of the clips listed here lasts 21 seconds and the codecs were set to match as closely as possible. While the open gate MP4 Lite file contains more pixels it is just under 20% smaller than the regular MP4 and 66% smaller than the MOV file

These smaller H.265 files will run smoothly on your smartphone, will edit more easily in the Lumix Lab app and will use much less data when you post them to social media.

Our choice of movie formats has expanded to include the new MP4 Lite option. This format produces a smaller file size that’s quicker and easier to transfer to a smartphone, and makes for smoother editing on mobile devices

This MP4 Lite mode is offered in an open gate format, so the Lumix S9 uses the whole of the sensor to record a 3:2 aspect ratio video when this mode is selected. This 3:2 frame can then be cropped to multiple aspect ratios and orientations to suit different social media platforms. A frame from a 3:2 open gate video can be cropped to 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 17:9, 4:3 etc, so it saves shooting clips multiple times with different aspect ratios set in the camera. While shooting we can select frame lines to display on the rear screen as guides so we can keep the subject matter within key areas.
When we select the MP4 Lite option our resolution and aspect ratio is set automatically to 3:2 2560x3840 pixels with 4:2:0 colour in 10 bit with LongGOP compression, and we can record from the full area of the sensor or choose S35/APS-C and Pixel-Pixel options to crop in to the frame. In the camera menu this resolution is listed as 3.8K, which is a technically correct way to describe the resolution based on the horizontal pixel count – but it is exactly the same width as regular 4K video. The 3.8K open gate mode actually records more information than regular 16:9 4K, not less.

The Lumix S9 is a good deal smaller than the existing S-series cameras, and almost matches the dimensions of the Micro Four Thirds Lumix GX9 body

This really is a small camera. Its 126x73.9x46.7mm dimensions make it only slightly larger than the 124x72.1x46.8mm of the Lumix GX9 Micro Four Thirds camera, and its 486g weight when fully loaded isn’t much more than the 450g of the GX9 when in the same state - even though the battery for the S9 is much bigger and has twice the capacity.

Here’s the Lumix S9 compared to the Lumix G9ll, which has the same body as the Lumix S5ll/X. It offers a considerable size saving while at the same time offering the benefits of a full frame sensor

The Lumix S9’s compact design makes it ideal for travel, social events and everyday shooting, as small, lightweight cameras rarely become a burden. Its size also means it is a much more discrete camera, which allows us to shoot without drawing too much attention, so we can capture life as it happens without people stopping what they are doing to pose.

The LUT library has expanded considerably, and now stretches to 7 pages. There’s room for users to load 39 of their own LUTs to the camera, and a standard V-Log-to-Rec 709 LUT already installed

We can also download LUTs that other people have made to apply to our own pictures, and Panasonic supplies a collection of LUTs in its own online LUT library and in its Lumix Creators Collection.
LUTs provide something of a short cut to finished looking video and images as they give us an extra chance to alter the contrast, tonal values and colours of our work as it is being shot. What gets recorded to the memory card looks as though it has already been through editing and grading software. Once recorded it is then ready to use, so we can share it directly with whichever social media platform we use, or just send to friends.

These screen grabs show some of the tools in the new Lumix Lab app, as displayed on an Android phone. We can import, play and edit stills and video, and save our changes into LUT files that can be loaded back to the camera

Not technically a part of the camera, the new Lumix Lab app is a crucial element in connecting the Lumix S9 and its ready-made content to the web, so finished pictures and video can be posted on the go. The app allows us to import footage and images that we can then work on as we would in an editing program. We can adjust contrast, tonal values, colour, sharpness and noise reduction, as well as adding colours selectively to shadows and highlights. These changes can be applied just to a single image or saved as a LUT to apply to further images later. They can also be saved as a LUT that we can load to the camera so that look can be applied directly onto footage and stills as we shoot.

LUTs are like the Pre-sets we see in Lightroom – looks that can be applied to an image to make it look different. LUTs can be used to simply alter contrast and brightness or can shift colours to create a range of atmospheres

The app comes with a series of ready-made LUTs that we can load to the camera, and we can download LUTs from other videographers to use in the app as well as in the camera itself.

The Hybrid Zoom feature adds digital zoom to your zoom lens, but without altering your widest settings. Here the Lumix S Pro 70-200mm f/4 still offers its 70mm wide setting, but can give us a longest ‘focal length’ of 623mm – so long as we can accept a lower resolution. In this example the video is FHD at the longest setting, so there’s still plenty of resolution

Hybrid Zoom combines optical and digital zooming into the rotation of the zoom lens, so there’s a smooth and unnoticeable transition from optical to digital zooming. Unlike the tele-converter-style functions we’ve had in the past, this Lumix S9 feature doesn’t impact on the wider end of the zoom - so your 20-60mm lens keeps its 20mm setting but can reach beyond the 60mm range with some digital cropping. Setting the movie resolution to FHD you can make your 70-200mm cover 70-623mm, adding 3.1x extra zoom to your lens without sacrificing the resolution of your FHD footage.
When the Crop Zoom is used we can add a zooming function to even fixed focal length lenses by operating a slider control on the rear screen. Depending on the resolution you have set, you can ‘zoom’ into the central area of the picture.

The Lumix S Pro 70-200mm f/4 might not be the first lens you think of when considering companions for a small camera, but it still works perfectly well and allows up to 6.5 stops of image stabilisation

Both features work in stills and video mode, and obviously in stills mode the result will be in JPEG format rather the Raw.

With the S9 Panasonic reintroduces colours for Lumix cameras. We can choose our favourite colour, or get one of each to match all our outfits

The body shape and control layout of the Lumix S9 will be familiar to anyone who has followed Lumix cameras for a while. There are distinct flavours of the other small models that have come before, making it look remarkably like a Micro Four Thirds body rather than the larger forms we are used to in full frame mirrorless models from other brands. The flat top of the camera is very much like that of the popular GM series of tiny MFT models, with some of the more modern tweaks we saw in the GX880. The thumb rest on the rear has been a main-stay of these smaller bodies to make them comfortable to hold when using slightly larger lenses. It really is very nice to look at. 

The main control area of the Lumix S9 will be familiar to many Lumix users. The addition of a direct LUT button is an indicator of the expected user group

The most obvious new feature though is the LUT button on the camera’s rear. This takes us directly to the LUTs menu so we can quickly select LUTs and switch between looks. The AF-On button is in a place that will familiar to Lumix S and G series users, and the main mode dial is much the same as other Lumix models, and carries the S&Q (slow/quick) setting as well as the iA mode as we see them on the Lumix S5ll.

Many of the controls that sit on the top plate of the S5ll have moved to the position they occupy on the Lumix MFT miniature bodies, such as the ISO, WB and drive settings. The dial around the Menu button can be used for apertures, shutter speeds, exposure compensation as well as general navigation and option selection

It’s remarkable that Panasonic has managed to fit a full frame sensor into a camera as small as the Lumix S9, and it adds a whole new dimension to the Lumix S series. The previous bodies have been very much in the style of an SLR but this brings a compact rangefinder model to the system. The camera also has sensor-based stabilisation, and with a compatible lens will deliver up to 6.5 stops of stabilisation via the Dual IS ll system

There’s a microphone port under a protective flap on the top corner of the camera body, that accepts any 3.5mm jack as well as the ‘Special Mic’ control options we get with Panasonic’s DMW-MS2E Stereo Shotgun Microphone. Two-channel audio can be recorded in up to 96kHz in 24-bit when using an external mic

Power comes from the same 2200mAh DMW-BLK22 battery that is used in the Lumix S5 series cameras as well as the Lumix G9ll and Lumix GH6. As it doesn’t need to run an electronic viewfinder or a cooling fan we should expect about 100 extra shots per charge in the Lumix S9. Panasonic estimates 470 shots when the Lumix S 20-60mm lens is in use. It will give us about 2 hours of FHD video at 30p. The camera can also be powered, and the battery charged, via USB

The Lumix S9 is fully compatible with lenses from the L-Mount Alliance members, including Leica, Samyang and Sigma, so there’s no shortage of lenses to go with it. If you need a small, lightweight standard lens the Sigma 50mm f/2 DG DN Contemporary lens makes a good match