Panasonic LUMIX S9 | A Must Have for Content Creators?

Panasonic recently released the Lumix S9, their lightest and smallest S Series camera yet. Packed full of impressive features such as a full-frame 24.2MP sensor, Industry-leading image stabilisation technology, a free-angle rear screen and 6K Open Gate video which gives you a wealth of possibilities for repurposing your content for whichever social media platform you require. There is also a new file format that has been optimised for use with smartphones, real-time LUTs as well as the new LUMIX Lab app.

Check out the video or keep reading to find out more.

So, What's New?

I think it is fair to say that the Panasonic LUMIX S9 is aimed at content creators who are looking to step up from using a smartphone into something much more professional but that being said there are still a lot of fantastic features here that will appeal to other users.

This is Panasonic’s lightest and smallest S Series camera yet weighing in at just 486g as well as being incredibly compact at just 126 x 73.9 x 46.7 mm. The S9 features a 24.2 MP full-frame CMOS sensor, which is equivalent to that in the LUMIX S5II. The camera comes equipped with Phase Detection Auto-Focus as well as Deep Learning Technology for Human, Animal, Car and Motorcycle recognition to ensure everything is in focus.

There is a free-angle rear screen that allows you to shoot at all angles and we also have extended battery life thanks to USB-C Charging.

There is a mic input but unfortunately we don’t have a headphone jack so you won’t be able to monitor the volume levels. That may be a deal breaker for some but many of you will be using mics like the DJI Mic 2 that I'm using where you can monitor the sound that way. It’s also worth pointing out that it has a cold shoe so there is no flash sync connection but that’s not the only omission…

Photo Capabilities

One of the most obvious features, or lack thereof in this case, is that there is no viewfinder. As a man hurtling into his twilight years, this scares me but for anyone who has done most of their photography through smartphones this won’t be a big deal at all.

We do however have up to 6.5 stops of IBIS which is going to be incredibly useful for slower shutter speeds, especially as we don’t have that additional point of contact that we would get with the viewfinder.

Other features useful for photographers include Time Lapse, Stop Motion, a 30FPS Pre-Burst mode and a 96 MP Handheld High-Res as well as a Crop and Hybrid Zoom.

The crop zoom uses the centre part of the camera sensor to extend the zoom range while maintaining the image quality, while the hybrid zoom function combines both the optical and crop zoom to extend the focal length further.

A hand-held shot taken at 1/6 sec.
Demonstration of black and white colour profile.
Image taken at 105mm.
The same lens using Crop Zoom (328mm)

Video Capabilities

One of the stand-out features of the camera is its versatile nature when it comes to repurposing content. This is thanks to Open Gate recording which enables the full-sensor while capturing video.

You can then crop the footage to whichever format you like whether it be 16.9 for Youtube as well as having that extra leeway to crop vertically for the likes of Instagram or TikTok. (We happen to have both of those accounts for Clifton Cameras so make sure that you follow us on both)

Not only does this give you more headroom in the image but it is captured in 6K so you don’t have to worry about losing any resolution when cropping in.

But that’s not all!

The S9 has a new recording format called MP4 LITE which allows you to capture this high-quality video in the optimum format for a smartphone. The file size is 41% smaller than the standard MP4 format, which enables up to 1.7x faster data transfer time.

All of this footage can be transferred, edited and shared in the newly launched LUMIX Lab app.

LUTs (Look Up Table)

Another feature that is fantastic for those of you creating video content is the ability to apply LUTs directly to your footage in-camera. This can be done easily and there is even a dedicated button for doing so.

You can record in V-LOG so that you can grade the footage as you would like but the camera comes with 3 custom LUTs already included as well as slots to store up to 39 in total.

You can apply up to 2 LUTs to your footage at the same time and there are also other filters that you can use such as added opacity control and a grain effect.

A lot of these functions can be achieved in-camera but for even more versatility you can use the LUMIX Lab app which I’ve mentioned a couple of times at this point so I think it’s about time we looked into it in a bit more detail.

LUMIX Lab app

The app was incredibly easy to set up and connect to the camera and you can do so via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Once you're in the app you can see everything that you’ve captured so far and download it to your phone depending on which format you filmed in. This is where the new MP4LITE option really comes into play as it has been optimised for use with smartphones. You can also create your own custom LUTs in the app and store them for later use as well as download LUTs designed by popular creators.

Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier, this has definitely been designed with content creators looking to up their game in mind but I still had a lot of fun with it.

Though I personally love using a viewfinder, I found this pretty easy to adapt to and when you consider how much more compact the camera is to other full-frame cameras it is definitely a tradeoff worth considering. That being said, I would rather have an EVF to look through but there you go.

The video features are just fantastic with the Open Gate recording giving you so many options to play with in post-production as well as the manageable file sizes that the MP4LITE format gives you for transferring and sharing.

The 6.5 stops of IBIS made everything so much more pleasant to use especially for video and the auto-focus system was great and will be of particular use to those of you transitioning from using smartphones for your content creation.

Even if you aren’t interested in the content creation side of things this is still a great camera that offers professional results in a compact form.

Key Features:

6K Open Gate 30p/25p/24p
C4K/4K 60p/50p
14+Stops of V-LOG/V-GAMUT
Dual Native ISO
Time Lapse
Stop Motion
96MP Handheld High-Res
AFS/AFC 30FPS Pre-Burst
Extended Battery Life
USB-C Charging
MP4 LITE

Click to view Panasonic LUMIX S9 Full Specifications

Thank you!

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog, we really do hope they help you out and answer some of your questions. If you still have some unanswered, then please feel free to get in touch with our team of experts.

We have a LiveChat option on our website and we can, of course, be contacted via our email, we're also on the end of the phone too! Read more on how to contact us here >

Want to write for us?

If you've got experience with producing content on photo, video and/or optics products or techniques then we would love to hear from you. Contact our blog editor, Bea, with a sample of your work at bea@cliftoncameras.co.uk.

By Ben Wright
26 Jun 2024