“The Panasonic G90/95 sits between the smaller and cheaper GX9 and their top range G9 and GH5 models. Its predecessor, the (still available) 16Mp G80 met with many accolades. Does the 20Mp G90/95 render obsolete the G80? Or should you skip this one and wait for a G10?”
Panasonic Lumix DC-G95 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS zoom lens and Panasonic DMW-BGG1 Battery Grip.
Commentary
Former Fleet Street newspaper and magazine photographer David Thorpe is one of the best and most quietly-spoken video reviewers of Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses, lately supplemented with Panasonic’s L-Mount 35mm sensor-equipped mirrorless cameras and lenses, and I cannot recommend his sensible, down-to-earth video reviews highly enough.
I have yet to experience the Panasonic Lumix DC-G95 aka G91 and G90 depending on territory, and so greatly appreciate his thoughts on this value-for-money camera that appears to be an excellent lower-cost alternative to the Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 or GH5.
In my experience, Micro Four Thirds cameras are ideal for immersive documentary and photojournalism work as well as Super 16-style documentary moviemaking, and Panasonic’s high-end and mid-level Lumix cameras are great solutions especially as they appear to be almost invisible to onlookers and subjects more accustomed to 35mm sensor DSLRs, especially if designed with the pro-quality Panasonic Lumix GX8’s size and form factor.
PV: Many members of the ‘Personal View’ community are shooting with the Micro Four Thirds (MFT) system digital cameras including many of the Panasonic MFT system products. Therefore when during the Leica and then Panasonic press conferences prior to the opening of Photokina 2018 we have learned about new L-mount alliance, many of our community members become concern that MFT system is in danger because of these new series of L-mount cameras. Can you give us some insight on the destiny of the Panasonic MFT products?…
… PV: Will the new L-mount system affect the Panasonic development of new MFT products, for example will some of the proposed MFT lenses be delayed? Another concern is that the MFT could be refocused primarily towards the basic entry-level of cameras, eliminating the semi-professional MFT category of products. Will the MFT cameras have the same attention from the best Panasonic engineers and designers, or it will suffer from lack of resources?…
… PV: How do you see the future development of the MFT cameras? For example, one of my favorite MFT camera series is a rangefinder-style GX line, such as GX8. I have noticed that in latest GX-series release, the Lumix GX9 camera is more GX7-alike than GX8, similar to GX7 in size and less advanced in some of its features than GX8, such as weather-sealing, OLED viewfinder, fully articulated display, or availability of external microphone port. Can we expect another series of the compact rangefinder style MFT camera with more advanced features, or all future MFT cameras with advanced features will be solely designed in GH5-style of camera bodies?…”
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with optional screw-attached hand grip that must be removed to access SD cards and batteries. The DC-GX9 reportedly has short battery life so you may well be unscrewing this hand grip many times throughout the day.
Optional normal-sized eye-cup for Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 on tilting EVF is a must the shooting in daylight outdoors.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 professional rangefinder-style camera with Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 Aspheric Power OIS lens. Note the tilting EVF, turning the GX8 into a waist-level viewfinder camera on command, enabling discrete waist-level shooting as on long-gone classics like Rolleiflex’s normal, wide and telephoto lens-equipped twin lens reflex aka TLR cameras, for example.
The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens is well-balanced on the GX8.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8’s fully articulated monitor beats any tilting or fixed LCD monitor screen especially in combination with its tilting EVF.
Commentary
There is much more to the conversation between Personal View’s Igor Drozdovsky and Panasonic’s Adviser for Technical PR Mr Michiharu Uematsu, the Imaging Section’s Ms Emi Fujiwara and Engineer Mr Taku Kariyazaki than the questions above of whether Panasonic will be dropping development of the professional cameras in the GX series and whether the company will also cease development of its Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses in favour of the 35mm sensor cameras and lenses of the recently announced S Series.
I recommend reading the interview in full for those of us with the same questions as asked by Mr Drozdovsky, and I hope that answers about the future of pro-quality rangefinder-style GX cameras will soon be provided by Panasonic.
I seriously hope that Panasonic will not be trying to tell us that pro-quality DSLR-style cameras must now somehow replace pro-quality tilting EVF rangefinder-style cameras just as I hope the company will not try to convince us that 3-way tilting monitors must now always replace fully articulated monitors.
Since when is a reduction in capability somehow an advance in capability, other than in the imaginations of marketing department managers?
Panasonic DC-GH5S with DMW-BGGH5 battery grip and Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 Aspheric Power OIS zoom lens.
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“The sinew and texture of history are to be found in this grippingly detailed documentary by Peter Stephan Jungk, based on his 2015 book The Darkrooms of Edith Tudor-Hart. She was Jungk’s aunt: an Austrian-born documentary photographer and socialist, domiciled in Britain during and after the second world war, whose work brilliantly recorded the lives of the urban working classes in Vienna, London and the Rhondda valley….”
“Her brilliance as a photographer perhaps involved a spy-like skill in ingratiating herself into a certain situation and unobtrusively recording it. The photographer as double-agent? Perhaps photographers like Tudor-Hart have to cultivate a spy-like tradecraft. Critic Duncan Forbes notes that this was partly about using a Rolleiflex camera that had to be held at waist height, away from the face.” Rolleiflex 4.0 FT twin lens reflex telephoto portrait camera, special edition. Photograph courtesy of Franke & Heidecke.
Commentary
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 camera with tilting electronic viewfinder and Panasonic Lumix G 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Power OIS zoom lens with JJC lens hood. HDR brackets processed with Skylum Aurora HDR.
This documentary on the life and work of Edith Tudor-Hart is currently doing the rounds of cinemas and film festivals, and I hope that it will eventually become available for viewing or purchasing online.
Far too many historically important female photographers and especially female documentary photographers have been forgotten about and left out of the historical record, gallery shows and museums, and time is well overdue for Edith Tudor-Hart and so many others of her ilk to be recognized, racy political background or not.
Comments in the media about Edith Tudor-Hart’s reliance on a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex aka TLR camera are interesting.
I used several Rolleiflex TLR cameras during the analog era and would have loved to have been able to buy one each of the most recent standard lens, telephoto and wide-angle lens versions of the camera, but Rolleiflexes were always hard to find and costly new or secondhand.
Their waist-level viewfinders and other viewing options made it possible to melt into the crowd when photographing in public or next-to-invisible when making portrait photographs in public or in the studio, aided by their relatively quiet leaf shutters.
There was no mirror slap as their twin lens reflex design meant they had a lower lens for making the photograph and the upper lens for viewing, with the viewing compartment mirror fixed.
Viewfinder and filter options for Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex aka TLR cameras. It is a pity that few of these sort of viewing options have been produced for digital camera users.
Rolleflex and other brand TLRs such as those made by Mamiya and Yashica continue to be popular amongst certain documentary photographers who are blessed with access to good secondhand camera suppliers, but there are digital alternatives such as Fujifilm’s medium format GFX 50S with optional tilting EVF adapter and more affordably Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GX8 and DC-GX9 Micro Four Thirds camera, both of which have built-in tilting EVFs.
It is also possible to make waist-level-style photographs with cameras having tilting LCD monitors, though I much prefer fully-articulated LCD monitors for the purpose and some Panasonic cameras have these too, on cameras including the DSLR-style Lumix DMC-GH4, GH5, GH5S and G9.
Given the choice between tilting EVFs, tilting LCDs and fully articulated LCDs, my preference by far is for cameras combining tilting EVFs with fully-articulated LCDs as they present the most versatile viewing options and thus the most ways of seeing and shooting stills and video.
Waist-level and tilting viewfinder cameras and users
Photojournalist Ian Berry of Magnum Photos using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7.
Photojournalist Thomas Dworzak of Magnum Photos using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7.
Australian photojournalist Daniel Berehulak using his Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 with fully-articulated LCD monitor.
Small tilting electronic viewfinder (EVF) on the Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 rangefinder-style camera.
Fujifilm GFX 50S medium format digital camera with Fujifilm VG-GFX1 Vertical Battery Grip and tilting LCD monitor.
Fujifilm GFX 50S medium format digital camera with Fujifilm EVF-TL1 EVF Tilt Adapter.
Fujifilm GX680 II 6cm x 8cm format 120 roll-film camera, like a cross between a view camera with camera movements and a waist-level twin lens reflex camera, lovely for portraits and product shots. Photograph courtesy of Cambo.
Hasselblad 203FE with waist level finder. Photograph courtesy of Japan Camera Hunter.
Phase One XF 100MP cameras. Photograph courtesy of Phase One,
Rollei Rolleiflex 2.8 FX Medium Format Twin Lens Reflex Camera with 80 mm Planar f/2.8 HFT lens, now no longer in production.
Rolleiflex 4.0 FW Medium Format Twin Lens Reflex Camera with Built-in Schneider Kreuznach Super-Angulon 50mm f/4 HFT lens, now no longer in production.
Bertha DocHouse – Tracking Edith Trailer – “When she wasn’t working as a Soviet agent, she was taking photos of Vienna’s and London’s workers and street children, of poverty and social deprivation….”
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8’s large OLED live viewfinder features a unique tilting design to benefit working from low angles and also has an impressive 2.36m-dot resolution, 0.77x magnification, and 10,000:1 contrast ratio.
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Fujifilm GFX 50S Medium Format Mirrorless Camera – B&H – soon to be joined by the release of its larger GFX 100S and smaller GFX 50R siblings.
Fujifilm EVF-TL1 EVF Tilt Adapter – B&H – with the addition of this tilt adapter the Fujifilm GFX 50S in effect becomes a waist-level viewfinder camera.
Fujifilm VG-GFX1 Vertical Battery Grip – B&H – adding this battery grip helps turn the Fujifilm GFX 50S into a viable vertical/portrait format camera for handheld or tripod use for portraiture and documentary photography.
Fujifilm 64GB Elite II Performance UHS-II SDXC Memory Card – B&H – until this fast SDXC card appeared at B&H, I was unaware that Fujifilm also makes memory cards. Worth buying and trying.
Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5S Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Body Only, Black) – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 12-60mm Lens – B&H
Panasonic DMW-EC5 Eyecup – B&H – essential for getting the best out of the GX9’s small field sequential viewfinder.
Panasonic Hand Grip for Lumix DC-GX9 Mirrorless Camera – B&H – essential for safe, secure grip of the GX9 when using medium-sized to large lenses.
“Recently we visited the 2018 CP+ show in Yokohama, Japan and booked an in-depth interview with Panasonic. Among the topics covered were the company’s new twin flagships, the Lumix GH5S and G9, as well as how Panasonic hopes to grow their appeal to professional and advanced amateur stills photographers….”
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 professional rangefinder-style camera with Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 Aspheric Power OIS lens. Note the tilting EVF, turning the GX8 into a waist-level viewfinder camera on command, enabling discrete waist-level shooting as on long-gone classics like Rolleiflex’s normal, wide and telephoto lens-equipped twin lens reflex aka TLR cameras, for example.
Panasonic Lumix LX100 with fixed Leica DC Vario-Summilux f/1.7-2.8 zoom lens.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5 with interchangeable Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens.
Commentary
Panasonic’s Lumix DC-G9 DSLR-style stills-oriented camera and the Lumix DC-GH5S DSLR-style video-oriented are remarkable achievements of which the company can be justly proud, but it is good to read that Panasonic does not intend to rest on its laurels when it comes to new stills photography camera offerings.
… Our business philosophy is based on ‘changing photography.’ And any change we make must be a benefit for the customer, and for the last two or three years, we’ve really focused on our video capabilities. But we still want to satisfy stills-focused users with our philosophy….
I really want to see Panasonic adhere to that philosophy and to change photography as much as it has changed video for independent documentary photographers and videographers like me.
I hope that coming Lumix stills-oriented cameras will not suffer the fate of Panasonic’s professional rangefinder-style flagship Lumix DMC-GX8, which was “replaced” with the non-professional Lumix DC-GX9 aka Lumix GX7 Mark III rangefinder-style aimed at enthusiasts and street photographers.
DSLR-style cameras do not and cannot “replace” rangefinder and rangefinder-style cameras.
I will repeat that.
DSLR-style cameras do not and cannot “replace” rangefinder and rangefinder-style cameras, and so the Lumix DC-G9, no matter how great it may be for sports and wildlife photography, does not and cannot “replace” the Lumix DMC-GX8.
Panasonic, we are waiting to hear that you will be coming up with a professional rangefinder-style successor to the Lumix DMC-GX8.
Meanwhile we are also waiting to hear what you intend to do to come up with successors to two cameras which fill a currently unfulfilled need, that of eminently portable compact rangefinder-style cameras with fixed or interchangeable lenses small enough to carry anytime anywhere in any general-purpose bag or dedicated small camera bags such as the attach-to-anything Think Tank Photo Little Stuffit! V3.0.
Right now there is no successor to either the Lumix DMC-GM5 or the Lumix DMC-LX100 and there needs to be, just as there must be a real successor to the Lumix DMC-GX8.
Think Tank Photo Little Stuff It! V3.0 can be attached to a belt, bag rail or vertical straps such as Think Tank Photo Pixel Racing Harness V3.0 or straps on other camera bags and backpacks.
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Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Body Only) – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5S Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 12-60mm Lens – B&H
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H
“The new LUMIX GX9 is the one letting fashion portrait photographer Viviana Galletta explore LA’s stylish sidewalks on her terms. Combining incredible image quality with an impressively compact design, its tiltable viewfinder frees her up to capture her unique perspective on the city. A 20.3-megapixel sensor + no low pass filter with Dual Image Stabilisation guarantee head-turning image quality, while creative in-camera effects let her add an artistic flourish to her photography.”
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 in silver and black, from and back, with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS kit zoom lens, excellent for stills and good for video so long as you do not hang step-up rings and variable neutral density filters off its front. This lens does not have a manual focus ring so must be focussed via autofocus or back-button focus.
Commentary
Panasonic Lumix DMC-85, also named DMC-GX80 in certain territories and Lumix GX7 Mark II in Japan, with the excellent and tiny but grossly underestimated Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 collapsible kit zoom lens. The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/4.0-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS collapsible zoom lens makes a fine telephoto companion lens.
Panasonic has released its very first photographer video for the Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 featuring German fashion photographer and model Viviana Galletta, perhaps signalling the camera’s intended user base or at least two of them, fashion photographers working on location and women.
Ms Galletta is a former user of the Lumix GX80, known in the USA as the DMC-GX85 and in Japan as the Lumix GX7 Mark II, as she attests in an interview by the German Lumix G Experience website.
Will there be further such videos in the series and what genres of photography will they feature?
Will they, too, be created by West London creative agency Brave, notable for its female creative director, Caroline Paris, in an industry still employing far too few female creatives altogether and even fewer in senior agency roles?
This is the first time that, to my knowledge, Panasonic’s Lumix brand has commissioned an advertising agency to produce its YouTube videos and the move has its merits.
I have worked at and for top British creative hotshop advertising agencies, incidentally while living just down the road from Brave, and have some insights into how the agency/client relationship can work at its very best.
Great agencies can help a brand understand itself and its products by acting as, as the great Australian copywriter John Bevins puts it, brand custodians that know the brand better than its owners.
That is crucial for giant global corporations like Panasonic with their many product divisions, product types, constantly churning management infrastructures and management staff, and a tendency to forget those divisions’ achievements, history and missions.
Panasonic’s product pages appear to be orienting the enthusiast-level GX9 towards street photographers as opposed to the documentary and photojournalists and other professionals at whom was aimed the flagship-level GX8, and this fissure between the GX8 and its supposed successor in the GX9 has created confusion, dismay and disappointment in the ranks of the GX-series’ professional user base.
Brave may be able to help Panasonic better understand the GX-series and the havoc it has wreaked by replacing an advanced flagship camera with a lower-order camera, and how to better target another user base given the GX9’s more limited feature and applications set.
Brave could also have a hand in better evening up the extreme lack of gender balance in the marketing of photography and video production hardware.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, ancestor of the GX9 aka the Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark III
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens
The Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 aka Lumix GX7 Mark III hearkens back to the first Lumix GX7 camera, though minus its rather decent built-in grip.
What does the GX8 flagship camera have that the GX9 enthusiast camera does not?
Extensive sealing at each joint, dial, and button to render it both splash- and dust-proof.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8’s body is substantial enough to handle large lenses like the Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f/4.0-6.3 Aspheric Power OIS.
Likewise larger lenses like the Panasonic Lumix G 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS that may dwarf smaller, lighter camera bodies.
The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens is well-balanced on the GX8.
The GX8 has a good built-in grip and no need for optional hand grips to be attached in order to securely grip and balance big, heavy lenses.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8’s fully articulated monitor beats any tilting or fixed LCD monitor screen especially in combination with its tilting EVF.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 with fully-articulated monitor flipped out, often used relied on by vloggers.
The fully-articulated monitor that the GX8 has and that the GX9 does not have is superior to monitors that tilt up or down. I use my GX8 like this for portraiture in portrait format with camera handheld or tripod-mounted.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8’s large OLED live viewfinder features a unique tilting design to benefit working from low angles and also has an impressive 2.36m-dot resolution, 0.77x magnification, and 10,000:1 contrast ratio.
The GX8 comes with a good built-in rubber eyecup and an even better optional eyecup great for when shooting video is available. This optional replacement sits on my GX8 24/7.
Magnesium alloy body with die-cast front and rear frames.
The sadly discontinued Really Right Stuff BGX8 L-Plate for the still-currently-in-production Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 for use when shooting in landscape or portrait orientation.
L-plates like this one by Really Right Stuff are invaluable when quickly switching from horizontal to vertical orientation during environmental portrait photography sessions.
Really Right Stuff bizarrely discontinued this L-plate before I had a chance to buy it, so if any readers have one for sale please let me know.
The discontinued Really Right Stuff BGX8 L-Plate for the still-in-production Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8.
Camera cages for the GX8 are available due to it being taken seriously as a movie production camera.
Enough said. The Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 is anything but a replacement for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8.
A great 4-lens kit of little, lightweight Lumix lenses
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 with, left to right, Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS, Panasonic Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/4-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS, Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II Aspheric and Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 Aspheric Power OIS. Image produced at CameraSize.com.
Recently I have been digging into online information about Panasonic’s Lumix G lenses in an effort to understand their benefits and differences from the Panasonic Leica DG and Olympus M.Zuiko Pro lenses that are often perceived as being sexier and more professional.
While I default to the Olympus M.Zuiko Pro prime and zoom lenses for professional stills and video due to their weather sealing, high-quality optics and constriction and especially their repeatable manual clutch focus, Panasonic’s Lumix G lenses are worth a serious look given their adherence to the Micro Four Thirds format’s founding philosophy of high quality combined with affordability, small size and light weight.
I am considering adding three of the four lenses illustrated above to my first purchase, the excellent collapsible Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS lens, and I will probably purchase them secondhand as I did the 12-32mm given much of my lens budget needs to go into M.Zuiko Pro lenses for professional documentary projects.
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS – only available on the secondhand market or when bundled with a Lumix camera.
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/4-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS – B&H – a fraction of the price of Panasonic’s Lumix G X 35-100mm fixed maximum aperture alternative.
Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II Aspheric – B&H – the “perfect normal” focal length I much prefer to the more usual 25mm “standard” lens that I find a little too narrow.
Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f/1.7 Aspheric Power OIS – B&H – reportedly excellent fast portrait-length short telephoto lens for portraiture, documentary photography and photojournalism.
Cosyspeed Camslinger Streetomatic Plus camera bag is an excellent waist-pack for carrying a minimal kit such as a GX8 plus two or three small lenses or one large one.
The only downside to all these five small, affordable, lightweight lenses is that you will need to attach one or two step-up rings if you wish to use your 77mm or 82mm diameter fixed or variable neutral density (ND) filters for video production.
Their filter diameters range from 37mm through to 46mm, and top-quality step-up rings, protection filters, UV filters and ND filters can be limited in those sizes.
The 12-32mm zoom does not have a focussing ring for focus-by-wire; the 20mm pancake prime may be too short to fit your fingers behind step-up rings and ND filters for manual focussing and the 12-32mm and 35-100mm are collapsible lenses whose mechanism may not safely support step-up rings and NDs.
Otherwise, these look like a terrific matched set of lenses for stills photography and video when you need to carry your gear in small bags like those made by Cosyspeed.
All these lens purchases are predicated on Panasonic continuing to make professional-quality rangefinder-style cameras like the GX8 and that, sadly, currently remains under question.
“… At the Cp+ show Panasonic is displaying that history tree table….”
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 professional rangefinder-style camera with Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 Aspheric Power OIS lens, now replaced by Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 II Aspheric Power OIS lens, with its unique tilting electronic viewfinder for waist-level or eye-level use. With the GX9 enthusiast camera most certainly not being an upgrade to the professional GX8, what fate does Panasonic have planned for its professional rangefinder-style camera line?Panasonic camera family tree displayed at CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2018 inducing more questions than answers. Is the GX8 professional rangefinder-style camera to be upgraded sometime in the future? What is to happen to the unique, tiny and very desirable GM camera line?
Commentary
Panasonic Lumix G Tenth Anniversary Family Tree, different again.
Panasonic’s latest action in apparently replacing the professional-quality Lumix DMC-GX8 with the enthusiast-level Lumix DC-GX9, more accurately named the Lumix DC-GX7 Mark III in Japan, has the many professional users of the GX8 asking questions that are simply not being answered.
Two recently published graphics, the Panasonic camera family tree displayed on a wall at the CP+ trade show in Japan and a different Lumix G camera family tree distributed as part of the company’s celebrations of the launch of the first Digital Single Lens Mirrorless (DSLM) camera, the Lumix DMC-G1, back in 2008, are inducing even more questions that remain unanswered.
Is Panasonic’s professional rangefinder-style camera line really now dead, with the GX8 the very last of its kind?
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5, the perfect tiny top-quality interchangeable lens camera for discrete, near-invisible documentary and street photography. Has Panasonic killed the GM line dead for all time?
Where is the update for the GM5, the best small, discrete, near-invisible camera for street photography and unobtrusive documentary photography I have ever seen?
I missed out on buying my own GM5 and have been searching fruitlessly ever since for a tiny but top-quality camera equipped with interchangeable pancake prime or zoom lenses to be carried at all times wherever I go.
Until Panasonic shocked and disappointed its professional stills and video user base with the GX9 aka GX7 Mark III, I had been planning on adding a GX9, what should have been the real GX9, to my kit for use in documentary moviemaking and photography.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with optional hand grip with screw that must be removed to access SD cards and batteries. The DC-GX9 reportedly has short battery life so you may unscrewing and screwing back this hand grip throughout the day. The attached Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS is reportedly a good lens but perhaps not the best fit for this camera.
Now that may never happen.
Now I am wondering if I should be spending my money on Fujifilm cameras instead even though there are no direct substitutes for the GX8 and GM5 in Fujifilm’s otherwise promising camera collection.
Fujifilm’s rangefinder-style X-E3 does not have the GX8’s unique tilting EVF nor its more pro-quality stills and video features although it is reportedly a great little interchangeable lens camera for stills and video though crippled by Fujifilm’s bizarre aversion to exposure zebras.
Fujifilm X-E3 with Fujinon XF 23mm R WR, the company’s APS-C/Super 35 rangefinder-style camera, also able to use the Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8 pancake lens as well as all other Fujinon X-Mount prime and zoom lenses.
The X-E3 might otherwise make for a good, discrete, near-invisible documentary and street camera when equipped with Fujifilm’s only pancake lens, the Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8, though I have yet to obtain an X-E3 review loaner to put this hope to the test.
There is also the fact that Fujifilm does not make other equally good pancake prime lenses and nothing like Panasonic’s amazing though awfully under-rated Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Mega OIS zoom lens.
Fujifilm X100F with fixed 23mm f/2.0 prime lens, that can be supplemented with the Fujifilm WCL-X100 II wide conversion lens and TCL-X100 II tele conversion lens, giving the camera 23mm, 18mm and 35mm focal lengths, equivalent in 35mm sensor terms to 28mm, 35mm and 50mm, at the price of extra cost, size and weight.
Fujifilm’s real-rangefinder fixed-lens APS-C-sensored X-100F makes for a great little documentary and street photography camera though it badly needs its own version of the Fujifilm MHG-X100 hand grip, a crucial accessory given the X100F’s small, slippery body.
Panasonic’s recent design, manufacturing, marketing and naming decisions and lack of communication about them have thrown me and not a few other professional users into a quandary to the point where we are wondering if we should be looking at other makers’ products even though the Micro Four Thirds Super 16 format has its many advantages and those other makers also have their own bizarre blindspots and weird omissions.
Rolleiflex 4.0 FT twin lens reflex telephoto portrait camera, special edition. The GX8 allows me to emulate its magnified waist-level viewfinder for portraits and fly-on-the-wall documentary photographs.
Then there is the question of the GX8’s unique and irreplaceable tilting EVF, the one thing that allows me to shoot in the magnified waist-level viewfinder manner of great classic analog cameras like the Rolleiflex TLRs and that no other camera maker emulates in the digital era, not even with tilting monitors you have to squint at and shade with your hand in order to have a hope of seeing well enough under bright outdoor light.
If Panasonic no longer makes the stills cameras I need and my GX8 finally wears out after too many shutter actuations, I face kissing goodbye to a way of seeing and photographing upon which I built my style, my career and my life.
There is so much more to the GX8 and the technology it gave me and that is mostly absent from the GX9 than an homage to some of the best of the past, as I was reminded on absentmindedly picking up and handling my GX8 just now.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8’s fully articulated monitor beats any tilting or fixed monitor screen especially in combination with its tilting EVF.
Its combination of fully-articulated touchscreen, touch focussing, tilting viewfinder mechanism and beautiful, brilliant EVF screen is an incredibly potent one for unobtrusive, immersive documentary and portrait photography often at times mere centimetres away from your subjects.
If you are lucky enough to have a GX8, pick it up, turn it on, flip up its EVF, open its monitor to the left and tilted slightly flat, place your left thumb on the touchscreen to perfectly nail focus, operate the camera’s buttons and dials with the fingers of your right hand, all simultaneously, and feel the power and control in your hands, the GX8’s uncanny ability to help you capture the perfect moment.
The fully-articulated monitor that the GX8 has and that the GX9 does not have is far superior to monitors that tilt up or down. I often use my GX8 like this for portraiture in vertical aka portrait orientation with camera handheld or tripod-mounted.
Now consider what has been lost to us with the GX9.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens, for “street photography”. This is an excellent lens for “street photography” being tiny, discrete and collapsible though you will need to supplement it with a fast pancake lens like the Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 II Aspheric or Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric prime lenses for indoors and available darkness use. Bizarrely, the 12-32mm is not being bundled with the GX9 in the USA so far as I can tell.
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Panasonic has been scoring some especially impressive runs with its Micro Four Thirds stills photography and video cameras lately, the Lumix DC-GH5, the Lumix DC-G9 and most recently the Lumix DC-GH5S, so it is deeply disappointing watching them drop the ball, even hurl it over into an adjacent field, with yesterday’s announcement of the Lumix DC-GX9, supposedly the replacement for the Lumix DMC-GX8.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens, for “street photography”.
Perhaps “drop the ball” is too delicate an expression to describe the magnitude of what has occurred with the GX9 so I will borrow a phrase from Amazon’s DPReview and instead name it a fail.
More accurately, a major fail.
Screenshot from a google search for the GX9.
The GX9 with either of its apparently bundled kit lenses may be a good entry-level camera and lens combination for those new to the Micro Four Thirds sensor format or to the GX9’s rangefinder-style form factor though it is a rather costly entry-level combo compared to, say, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85, also named the Lumix DMC-GX80 in some territories outside the USA.
The Lumix DC-GX9 comes with a kit lens, which one depending on where you live
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS collapsible standard zoom lens.
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS standard zoom lens.
Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric prime lens. Narrower than a 28mm-equivalent 14mm lens in Micro Four Thirds format, but at least it is generally available whereas Panasonic’s 14mm pancake lens seems to have vanished.
The camera known as the Lumix DMC-GX7 in Japan appears to be the same as the camera called the Lumix DMC-GX7 elsewhere.
Image from Panasonic Japan’s Lumix GX7 Mark III aka Lumix DC-GX9 product page.
Panasonic Japan’s naming is at odds with the company’s convention everywhere else where, for example, GX8 denotes the professional, top-end version of a line of cameras, GX80 and GX85 denote the second-level version of the same line and GX800 and GX850 denote the third-level version of the GX rangefinder-style line.
Top view of Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark II on the Panasonic Japan website’s product page. The GX7 Mark II appears to be the same camera as the one designated GX80 or GX85 in other territories.
As my partner reminds me, former employer Canon follows a roughly similar naming convention for its cameras whereby its DSLR product range falls into three levels, DSLR for Beginners, DSLR for Enthusiasts and DSLR for Professionals though with the further complication of Mark I to IV and probably beyond thrown in for good measure.
Panasonic’s coming and current GX-Series rangefinder-style cameras
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS lens.
Panasonic Lumix GX8 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric II Mega OIS kit zoom lens.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-85, also named DMC-GX80 in certain territories and Lumix GX7 Mark II in Japan, with the excellent and tiny but grossly underestimated Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 collapsible kit zoom lens. The Panasonic Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/4.0-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS collapsible zoom lens makes a fine telephoto companion lens.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX850 aka DMC-GX800
If we borrow Canon’s camera naming convention, then Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GX850/800 is their rangefinder-style camera for beginners, the DMC-GX85/80 their rangefinder-style camera for enthusiasts and the DMC-GX8 is the camera for professionals, which indeed it is in my experience and that of a number of other professional moviemakers and stills photographers of my acquaintance.
Three highly-esteemed photojournalists and one documentary moviemaker who use Panasonic Lumix GX-Series cameras
Photojournalist Ian Berry of Magnum Photos using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7.
Photojournalist Thomas Dworzak of Magnum Photos using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7.
Australian expatriate photojournalist Daniel Berehulak who shoots for The New York Times amongst others, using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8.
Australian expatriate documentary cinematographer Rick Young uses several Lumix DMC-GX8 cameras and many Panasonic lenses for TV production clients, and he is not the only professional moviemaker doing so.
And then there is the Lumix DC-GX9.
Lifestyle photograph from Panasonic media/press release image collection depicting Lumix GX9 with the pricey Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens.
Judging by the product itself, its specifications and its marketing material including product and lifestyle photographs, the GX9 is not aimed at professional cinematographers and photographers including those working in the fields of documentary and photojournalism, but rather at “street photographers”, beginners and enthusiasts, to borrow Canon’s terminology.
Professional users are conspicuously absent from the Lumix DC-GX9’s marketing material in contrast to that of its predecessors, the Lumix DMC-GX7 and Lumix DMC-GX8.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 with Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens
Magnum photojournalists Ian Berry and Thomas Dworzak were depicted working with the GX7 while Australian expatriate photojournalist Daniel Berehulak produced photographs and video footage in Cuba with the GX8.
In the GX9 press kit, the sole user image is that of an unnamed young woman holding a GX9 with optional though reportedly essential accessory eyecup and optional though reportedly necessary plastic hand-grip, sporting a Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens.
At time of writing, the GX9 apparently cannot be bought body-only but with the kit lens designated for the particular territory in which it is bought, and research to date indicates that may be one of three lenses, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS collapsible zoom lens, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f3.5-5. Aspheric Power OIS and the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric.
Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric prime lens
I suggest that this pairing of the GX9 with the Leica 12mm f/1.4, the lens costing far more than the camera plus kit lens much less camera body only, is a highly unlikely choice for the camera’s apparent user base, whether beginner, enthusiast or street photographer.
The two kit zoom lenses are more appropriate choices priced well in line with that user base, with the Leica Summilux 15mm f/1.7 prime lens a more appropriate choice for a street photographer, however that is defined, with something of a purist’s attitude to lenses.
I own a Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens bought as-new secondhand from an eBay seller whose camera came with it as kit lens.
The collapsible 12-32mm is a perfectly fine, sharp and well optically-corrected lens despite its tiny size and pancake prime lens dimensions that I bought for use when photographing in the middle of daylight outdoor events where I need to be as discrete, as near-invisible as possible.
In other words, classic photojournalism, documentary and breaking news situations.
SmallRig Cage for Panasonic GX8 1844, the camera cage I use when shooting documentary video with my Lumix DMC-GX8. Even with accessories attached, the GX8’s form factor and tilting EVF allows me to work right in the middle of crowds of strangers at public and private events.
The Leica Summilux 15mm f/1.7 might be a useful choice for those purposes, too, but I find it an odd focal length almost halfway in-between my two preferred prime lens choices, 14mm and 17mm or 17.5mm, though I may change my mind if I manage to borrow one for some extended real-life testing.
I would choose none of these kit lenses, 12-32mm, 12-60mm or 15mm for shooting video though the latter may be appropriate if attached to a drone camera.
Documentary video requires the use of lenses with good manual clutch focus, or linear focus-by-wire or fully manual lenses for fine control of focussing as a graphically creative and emotive storytelling element, and my preference is Olympus’ M.Zuiko Pro prime and zoom lenses while cinematographer Rick Young carries a large set of upper-end Panasonic Lumix and Leica lenses.
The Panasonic marketing staff’s apparent confusion over the Lumix DC-GX9’s naming, user base, best choice of lenses and indeed overall message is reflected in their marketing materials and website content.
If going by the press kit user photograph then I would give them benefit of the doubt and assume their main GX9 user base is street photographers.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5 would have been best choice if going small for street photography
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5 with interchangeable Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5, the perfect tiny top quality interchangeable lens camera for discrete, near-invisible documentary and street photography.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5, the perfect tiny top quality interchangeable lens camera for discrete, near-invisible documentary and street photography.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5, the perfect tiny top quality interchangeable lens camera for discrete, near-invisible documentary and street photography.
I make no claim to the title street photographer though I do keep my eye and hand constantly exercised by carrying a camera every day and making storytelling urban documentary photographs so I have some well-qualified thoughts on best cameras for street photography.
Were Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GM5 still in production, I would choose it due to its tiny size, good-enough 16 megapixel sensor and for looking as little like a serious camera as possible while delivering excellent quality results.
Even better, the cigarette pack-sized GM5 was made in three colourways, all black, red and black, and silver and green, the green and red being, one hopes, fake leather.
Street-bound members of the public glancing at a street photographer equipped with one of these would be even more oblivious to the presence of a serious photographer than if spotting somebody with a GX9.
Panasonic’s DSLR-style stills camera solutions, the Lumix GH5 and Lumix G9
If that photographer were toting a DSLR-style camera of any size and brand with prime or zoom lenses of any size and shape, I can guarantee the street photographer in question would be noticed and their presence would adversely affect the images they produce, no matter how terrific the camera.
There is one feature that the GX7, GX8 and GX9 can boast and that remains unique amongst contemporary digital cameras and that is their tilting electronic viewfinders.
It also tilts, as it were: the Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex
Rolleiflex f/2.8 Twin Lens Reflex with standard lens. Photograph courtesy Franke & Heidecke.
Viewfinder and filter options for Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex aka TLR cameras.
I value my Lumix DMC-GX8 for many things but foremost is for its tilting EVF, the closest thing I have nowadays to the tilting or upright magnified viewfinders of one of the finest analog cameras for unobtrusive, fly-on-the wall documentary photography and photojournalism.
As with the Rolleiflex and its telephoto and wide-angle variants, the Lumix DMC-GX8 with its tilting EVF and fully-articulated monitor is a brilliant solution for those two forms of photography as well as portraiture where you need your sitters to rapidly relax on being confronted by the top of your head rather than staring down the barrel of a sniper rifle-like DSLR.
The Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 is to be released on April 1st, 2018, which would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Panasonic, please give us the fully up-to-date GX8 successor we need right now and well deserve, and stop trying to fob us off with this aptly also-named Lumix GX7 Mark III waving the false flag of “GX9”.
Panasonic has announced the Lumix DC-GX9 rangefinder-style camera, reportedly the successor to the Lumix DMC-GX8, and this article lists links to articles, press releases, reviews and videos about the camera. I will be sharing my thoughts about the GX9 in a separate article coming soon.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with kit lens, Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6, being touted as a “street photography” camera.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 Camera for “Street Photography”
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens, for “street photography”.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens, for “street photography”.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens, for “street photography”.
Small tilting electronic viewfinder (EVF) on the Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 rangefinder-style camera.
Small tilting electronic viewfinder (EVF) on the Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 rangefinder-style camera
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9, no microphone port, no remote release port, no headphone port.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9, no microphone port, no remote release port, no headphone port.
No fully-articulated monitor for the Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 – you will have to make do with a slightly tilting monitor instead.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS lens.
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9, rear
Optional normal-sized eye-cup for Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 for shooting outdoors.
Optional normal-sized eye-cup for Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 on tilting EVF is a must the shooting in daylight outdoors.
Optional hand grip for Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9
Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with optional screw-attached hand grip that must be removed to access SD cards and batteries. The DC-GX9 reportedly has short battery life so you may well be unscrewing this hand grip many times throughout the day.
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS collapsible standard zoom lens.
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS standard zoom lens.
Lifestyle photograph from Panasonic media/press release image collection depicting Lumix GX9 with the pricey Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens.
Panasonic Lumix G 10th Anniversary Family Tree, with the Lumix DC-GX9 in the wrong place, beneath the GX8 instead of the GX80/GX85.
DPReview – Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9: What you need to know – “… the GX9 can be thought of as a step-up model from the GX85, rather than as a direct successor to the more expensive GX8.”
DPReview – Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 First Impressions Review and Sample Gallery – “Speaking of viewfinders, Panasonic has gone back to a field sequential panel (a different technology than traditional LCD or OLED,) which some people may find distracting due to ‘color tearing’.”
Panasonic Japan – NEW 一眼カメラ DC-GX7MK3 3月中旬発売予定 – In Japan, the Lumix DC-GX9 is named as the Lumix DC-GX7 Mark III, successor to the Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark II and Lumix DMC-GX7. Outside Japan, the Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark II is named as the Lumix DMC-GX80 and Lumix DMC-GX85.
Three Blind Men and An Elephant Productions – GX9: Mind. Officially. Blown. – “… for street photography, when paired with the Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 it’s a compelling alternative to my just-announced best street photography camera/lens combo ever, the Sony a7R III with Sony/Zeiss 35mm f/1.4.”
