Tag: L-mount

News: Panasonic Lumix S9

The internet camera reviewers dumped their reviews of the new Panasonic Lumix S9 after an expense paid trip to Osaka, Japan.

It’s a full-frame L-Mount camera of a small form factor. It features IBIS, 6K video, 24MP sensor, on par with S5II.

Photography-wise, no breakthrough. One exception is the possibility to add multiple LUT to apply to the image processing for SOOC JPEG. It’s like film emulation but customizable. A purely software feature. LUTs can be loaded from the card or using the companion LumixLab app, which also include the editing feature for the profiles that aren’t anywhere. The reliance on a “mobile app” remain a bad trend. The LUT feature is actually expanded from the Lunix S5II where it was limited in numbers (maximum of 10 vs 39 on the S9) and to V-log.

Panasonic also released an L-Mount pancake 26mm f/8 fixed aperture manual focus lens to make a compact setup. Beside, they announced a 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3 a compact zoom lens that would help keeping the camera compact.

Missing are a viewfinder, possibly a hot shoe (it’s cold, ie no connector, not even flash sync — to be fair this only prevent using a flash strobe) and the headphone jack. Compactness has a price.

For video, it targets “social media” and support many formats and aspect-ratios, including vertical (yikes!), and while the built in mic doesn’t seem to reach the levels of Sony’s, it has a mic input jack (but no headphones). Also it has a tilt screen (hi Fujifilm!), and you can apply the LUT mentioned above to your video footage. It uses the whole sensor in a 3:2 aspect ratio for video, that can be cropped and reframed to your preferred aspect-ratio. However it has recording time limits of 10 minutes if you use 6K mode, 15 minutes in 4k, and 20 minutes in 1080 that the S5II doesn’t have.

MSRP:

  • 26mm f/8: USD$199
  • Lumix S9: USD$1499
  • 18-40mm: unknown

DPReview initial Panasonic S9 review

DPReview: Panasonic announces 26mm F8 body-cap manual lens and trails 18-40mm

On a personal matter, the lack of viewfinder remain for me a huge drawback as a photography camera. Otherwise if feels like a perfectly capable camera, and probably excel in video like most of the Panasonic lineup including in m4/3. And if you already have L-mount lenses, this could represent a great choice as a supplementary camera body, being a little less expensive than the Lumix S5II almost matching its capabilities. None of this opinion is based on hands-on use.

Sigma & L-mount

As previously stated, Sigma is part of the L-mount initiative. Not only as a lens vendor. In a press release, Sigma state they’ll develop an L-mount camera:

All future interchangeable-lens camera systems developed by SIGMA will feature the L-mount. SIGMA does not plan to develop new cameras equipped with an SA-mount.

Whether they’ll use the Foveon sensor technology or not is a question that is not answered there. I think they make the right choice here to not create their own mount.

Three’s company: Panasonic Lumix S

Right now, Photokina is happening in Cologne.

Detail of the Cologne Cathedral.

Panasonic, as rumoured, announced the Lumix S, a full frame mirrorless camera using the “L-Mount”. L-mount is the mount from the Leica mirrorless Leica SL (not the M rangefinder) and is the result an alliance between Panasonic, Sigma and Leica.

Petapixel dubs it “the mirrorless wars”

This is not Panasonic abandoning the M4/3 format.

What DPReview knows so far which is not that much:

Panasonic has announced it is developing two full frame mirrorless cameras: the 47MP S1R and the 24MP S1. Both will be built around Leica’s L mount, allowing their use with existing Leica lenses as well as lenses promised by both Panasonic and Sigma.

For the lenses:

Alongside the two cameras, Panasonic has announced it will introduce three lenses: a 50mm F1.4, a 24-105mm zoom and a 70-200mm 2.8. It has also said it will introduce more than ten lenses before the end of 2020.

These, in addition to the existing (expensive) Leica lenses available for the Leica SL.

Unlike the GH5, the S1 and S1R cameras don’t have a flip out screen. It does video in 4K60P with no indication whether it is cropped or not, in body image stabilisation, two card slots (one XQD, one SD). Currently the performance and image quality is unknown.

The camera is definitely aimed at the professional market as Panasonic introduce “pro-level service” for the cameras.

Availability is scheduled to be early 2019, with no pricing disclosed yet.

Will Olympus be joining the game later?