So many surprises - Panasonic G9 II Review (wildlife photography)
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- Опубліковано 22 гру 2023
- I tested a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera! The new Panasonic Lumix G9 II has some impressive specifications and features. I tested it in practice and photographed various birds and squirrels.
Noise reduction software (affiliate links):
DXO PureRaw 3: tidd.ly/3ZWqi95
Topaz Photo AI: www.topazlabs.com/topaz-photo...
Do you want to get better bird pictures? Check out my new E-Book: naturfotografie-fopp.ch/wp/e-...
You can buy the camera and lenses here (affiliate links):
Panasonic Lumix G9 II: bhpho.to/48nswSW
Leica DG Elmarit 200mm f/2.8: adorama.rfvk.net/eK2AZQ
Leica 100-400 1;4-6.3: adorama.rfvk.net/Pyg6dR
You can buy the camera and lenses here (affiliate links):
Panasonic Lumix G9 II: bhpho.to/48nswSW
Leica DG Elmarit 200mm f/2.8: adorama.rfvk.net/eK2AZQ
Leica 100-400 1;4-6.3: adorama.rfvk.net/Pyg6dR
Great review, thanks. Subscribed.
Thanks 😊
hi Fabian
Thanks again for this clear review, have you ever tried the Olympus Om-1? Of course M4/3 has its limitations, especially in difficult lighting conditions.
with kind regards
Thanks! No, so far I could not try the Om1
@@FabianFoppNaturephotography maybe in the future. In my opinion, M4/3 cameras perform best in good and favorable lighting conditions. M4/3 cameras are fair weather cameras due to their small censor, but it is a nice system, especially OM systems is very nice and good, but full frame cameras remain the masters of light
The advantage of m43 in wildlife I can illustrate here on a comparison of the usual combo of a FF camera w one of the various
Go into dial set in the menu, go to Control Dial Assignment, there you can set that dial to ISO. The top two dial can only be set for F-stop and SS.
I got my front dial set to F, rear dial set to SS and control dial set to ISO
Thanks, I will try that tonight!
Thankyou. If it is possible please do a review of om system om1 and comparison with canon r5/nikon z9 also.
I will try my best to get an OM1 in my hands 😊
@@FabianFoppNaturephotography oh thankyou for replying your videos are very nice calm and informative.
Your Every talk about is camera is so technical and good🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thanks
The EVF lag could be caused by recording via the HDMI output. I know the Petapixel guys always test Panasonic’s autofocus speed by the focus confirmation beeps because of this. Would be interested to see if there are impacts to the EVF or Autofocus when say shooting raw with a shogun or BMVideo assist monitor. Very helpful video!
Thanks! Unfortunately, the lag is also there if there is no monitor/recorder attached.
Thanks Fabian.
I upgraded from my G9 a couple of months ago.
I have one problem worth noting - when set on single shot and 'P' for taking landscapes (sunsets) and I press the shutter button half way to focus it sometimes will not focus!
As far as I can remember I have never had this problem on any other camera in all my other past experiences.
Yes, eventually it will focus but I have to point the lens away from the distance and down in front of me near my feet for instance to get it to focus!
Very annoying!
Not impressed!
Any ideas please?
Which focus point/area did you use?
The sluggish processing time is also a problem on gh6
Interesting, thanks for sharing
The external battery charger is available from Panasonic and from third-party brands.
Sure, but it’s not included
Hi thanks for the video, I enjoyed it😊
After years with Nikon, and also currently with Fuji, I bought the G9ii and the Leica /Pana 200 F2.8. Mainly using for sport (football) and must say I'm impressed: if you have reasonable light it's a great combination. Not so great under lower league floodlights but I guess that's a problem across the board :)
Thanks
I don't know if it helps anyone else, but I discovered by accident that my USB external charger for G9 batteries also worked for the G9II batteries and vice versa. The G9 batteries do not fit the G9II, but the batteries seem to suppor the same chargers.
Interesting, thanks for sharing
If you use lenses with aperture like 1.4 or 1.7 there's no low light problem ,unless it's completely dark with no light source at all.Then you use a flash. I use currently the original G9 which produces great images. My opinion is based on a long experience. The G9 mark 2 excels over its predecessor in almost every aspect ,definitely in the image quality, dynamic range, i.b.i.s. ,autofocus ,and many other features. I am going to buy it soon. By the way I saw other reviews on the phase detect autofocus, and wildlife photography with the g9ii ,and their conclusion was very positive.
For wildlife, flash is most of the times not a good option. And there is no suitable f/1.4 lens available! At 300mm, the best you can get is currently f/4 which can sometimes be a bit challenging
@FabianFoppNaturephotography You have Leica 200 mm (400 f.f. equivalent) f2.8. ,for example. In very dark conditions, I don't think that you take too many wildlife images anyway...
I usually do, yes 😊 even with a f/2.8 lens I sometimes push the ISO close to 10‘000
The play button issue is usually due to slower sd cards. On the original G9 it's slower when I use UHS1 versus 2
I was using UHS2 cards (even two different brands)
@@FabianFoppNaturephotography It will revert to the slowest card or at least that was the case with the original.
Yes, but I mostly didn’t have both cards in the camera at the same time. So I think it was not the card, especially since it was uhs2
@@FabianFoppNaturephotography So I did a bit of research and apparantly *small file* read speeds can be different to normal read and write speeds so potentially could just be an SD card issue :)
Fabian, please give the OM-1 and 300mm f4 or 150-400mm f4.5 a try. What you lose in noise performance, you gain in ergonomics, handling, AF and Pro capture, burst rate, weather sealing and weight.
What OM1 + 150-400mm f4.5/300mm f4 combo has over Nikon and Sony:
ProCapture, with raws unlike Nikon. This feature also means you have to do less culling during post-processing
Better weight distribution , since the lenses are physically shorter - even if the weight is somewhat similar.
Lower weight, with Om1 + 150-400mm weighing 850g less than Nikon Z8+spare batteries+1.4x tc + 180-600mm.
Burst rate, 50fps> 30fps
AF acquisition, since f4/4.5 is always going to result in better AF than f6.3 regardless of sensor size, especially in low light.
OM1 and its lenses are the only in any system with an official weather sealing rating (IP53) and are rated to withstand heavy rainstorms or blizzards
I would like to try it for sure. I‘m curious if and in which regards in can beat a Z8 or R5 in real world
@@FabianFoppNaturephotography from what I understand, yes, the final image will not be as clean as one from R5 or Z8. But the experience of shooting in the field is much smoother, and you can end up taking shots that you wouldn't have gotten with a bulkier and heavier setup.
Stacked sensor so almost no rolling shutter (warped fast moving objects).
one small difference, if i understand correctly, the R5 does not support preburst/procapture, on r7 and r6.
Yes, more MFT content. I hope Panasonic addresses your comments via firmware updates if the company has not done so already.
They mentioned to me that they are working on it
Is there a reason they can't make a 100-400 f4.5 in the $2000 price range for m43?
I guess this would be more expensive (no other manufacturer has it)
@@FabianFoppNaturephotography we have Canon EF, Nikon Z and Sony GM 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 full frame lenses for ~$2,300ish. I'd imagine m43 should be able to offer something similar with slightly brighter apertures (F4) in that bracket? Just my thoughts and frustrations with the system
They have the 300 f4 wich is more expensive than the nikon 300 f4 pf, and the 150-400 profesional ar 6000€...
@@planetfun85 well that's because if you drink the kool-aid, the Olympus 300mm f4 is actually a 600mm f4 (because apparently f4 is f4 🙄). So in that regard, what a bargain!
@@Jay-sr8ge ,dunno, process is the same. Like weight, price should also be an advantage. At the end of the day is just a 300 f4(good one)
Hello Fabian,
the combination G9 II 200 2,8 compared with the 1,4 Teleconverter, is an absolute Killer combo
when it comes to Wildlife Video, Makro especially Slowmotion, this is simply outstanding.
Had only two days my hands on, simply cant afford it yet. But fall in true LOVE!
Regarding the Hyprid Autofocus, Sony and Canon do better right now, but Nikon and Fuji not realy,
when it comes to updating the firmware, I have the strong belief that Pansonic will improve the good
to bether and bether. Looking forward I would guess in a year they will catch up to Sony and Canon, just on Updates, in this matter.
Did you try the Z9 with the latest firmware? It locked on the bird much better than the G9 II
Of Course Z9 is not G9 II maybe some difference in price? I like bulky cams but this one is too bulky for me. Personaly I look forward to 300 fps in Full HD, a feature no one talks about, ever seen a house martin going with high speed through a window gap of 1 inch? Will test in May of course this is very video centric. Will have to keep the gap in focus manually , but the moment that maybe I can see how they do it! Ups!
Omg that EVF lag is atrocious.
Yeah, this was my biggest complaint with the camera
I took a lot of pictures today using the electronic shutter of my G9 II at 20 frames per second and did not notice any EVF lags. My G9 II has firmware version 2.0. Perhaps those lags have been fixed already.
You can set it to 120fps
The strength of the G9II is the video feature set. To omit the primary strength of the camera and endlessly harp on the autofocus is simply imbalanced. The x2 crop factor is HUGE when shooting wildlife. You can get to the required reach with M43 for less than 1/2 of FF camera's. Image quality from that sensor is also phenomenal too, as well as a feature set that blows away full frame camera's in this price range.
The aim of the video was a photography review, not video. That’s why I mentioned it. I still prefer fullframe, as I don’t like the 2x crop. But I understand that some people have different preferences
This is a hybrid camera but primarily for photographers.Definitely a very capable camera .With the right lens, you have no low light problems in normal shooting conditions.The preproduction gear is not the best for real tests.
But Lumix endlessly harped on the autofocus when marketing the G9II. It is the main upgrade feature from the original G9. The original G9 already had x2 crop factor. I don't think anyone complained about the G9 not having 25MP, or 4K120. But a whole lot did complain about it's autofocus. Why kid ourselves? Everyone knew what the G9II aimed to achieve. It didn't live up to the expectations - deal with it.
G9ii is a photo centric camera, a lot of photographers pick it, its extremely helpful to get some perspectives from photograpers instead of videographers that does youtube cinematic shots.
If the reviewer is a photographer and not a videographer then I see no problem with their review focusing on their specialisation! There are plenty of other reviews about video capabilities as he noted.
He spent about 3 minutes on AF, so about 20%. The weaknesses flagged are similar to other wildlife photographers (esp initial lock on / detection of animals) and as disclosed the camera was pre-production. So there is opportunity to remedy weak spots.
I own a G9 OG and the mark II is better in almost every way but the new AF is now very very good. It is close to but perhaps not as good as THE BEST cameras from Sony, Nikon and Canon. I’m sure my next camera will be a LUMIX but I’m not sure whether it will be a MFT or FF. Video features are important to me and LUMIX offers the best VFM in my opinion, especially after post-launch discounting sets in. There are already amazing deals on the S5 II such as in a kit with a couple of zoom lenses (wide and standard, not telephoto unfortunately) for about AU$2800.