Our honest consumer feedback after six months of taking pictures and video with the Panasonic Lumix GX9 mirrorless camera
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| Panasonic Lumix GX9 in 2020 |
It is 2020 and the Lumix GX9 that we bought last year was first released in the mid-2018.
What this means is this is no longer the star of Panasonic's lineup, even though they haven't released anything significant in the entry-level mirrorless camera segment.
What this means is this is no longer the star of Panasonic's lineup, even though they haven't released anything significant in the entry-level mirrorless camera segment.
Today, we will share our honest opinion about what is the experience of having and using the GX9 for half a year now.
Panasonic GX9 - Picture quality
To judge the picture quality of a camera by comparing it with other cameras from different sources is not the most accurate feedback one can get.
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| Sample photo taken with the 12 to 60 kit lens (no edit) |
Since the photographer, the lenses used and few other important aspects play a significant role in the result it would be only fair just to share our personal impressions - how we feel about the quality of the pictures we got with the Lumix GX9.
By using the kit 12 to 60 mm kit lens we managed to get decent shots and the zoom came in hand in many situations. The built-in image stabilization really works and we never felt the need of using third-party accessory for everyday photography or street photography (which we did a lot).
Anyways, the images that we manage to take with the kit lens were good but honestly nothing special. And the 20MP MFT sensor in the GX9 is something special and we knew we needed better tools to take the most of it. There it came the Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH. POWER O.I.S. Lens.
Portraits
From the very first photo we took with the Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH. POWER O.I.S. Lens we were impressed with this portrait oriented lens. The open blend delivered sharpness that couldn't be achieved with the kit zoom lens and the depth of field was really amazing.
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| Very sharp image taken indoors with the 42.5 f/1.7 lens |
The bokeh effect was great when we manged to focus the object well. And honestly that was quite easy thanks to the GX9 touchscreen - just pick a spot on the screen and it focuses almost instantly.
Panasonic GX9 - Video
Honestly, we couldn't make the most of the GX9 video capabilities. Well it is not meant to be a video camera like the bigger GH5 or even the G9 but still it shoots in 4k and 30 fps which combined with the class leading in-body image stabilization made it a pretty decent video camera.
Panasonic Lumix GX9 video test at Full HD (handheld, down-scaled to 720p)
And what a stabilization that is, especially when combined with stabilized Power O.I.S or Mega O.I.S (the older model) lens you get 5 stops of stabilization which is more than most gimbals offer.
In Full HD and 4k the Lumix GX9 did a very good job with the kit lens. But honestly, we definitely need to think of a video oriented high-end lens for video recording to get even better results.
As we offer remind you, this camera does not have a mic-out so investing in a voice recorder and decent mics would be another reasonable thing to do if you plan to make quality videos with the GX9.
Other impressions
In general, the Panasonic Lumix GX9 still works as new and we didn't encounter any problems with it (besides what we've mentioned as product limitations before). It is a great travel camera, with nice sensor and lots of lens options to fit any photographer profile.
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Panasonic GX9 -
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| The optical viewfinder in the GX9 is just useless |
Micro 4/3 systems are hated by so many "photographers" but we believe MFT equipment is great value for money and way cheaper than most APSC or full frame equivalents.
If we were buying a street photography camera today, again it would be the GX9. The only major thing to bother our minds with changing it is another product that came from Panasonic - the G9, which has everything we miss in the GX9 but in a bigger form factor and more expensive.
Thanks for checking our six-months Panasonic Lumix GX9 camera review. You can find many of the actual photos we took at the Banda Photo and Digital page.
You can also check the rest of our Lumix GX publications:
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