Okay, I was wrong about this camera – the Lumix S9 deserves respect

I was quite vocal about the Lumix S9 when it was announced. I saw what Panasonic was proposing: a compact full-frame mirrorless camera that prioritized portability… and I think that was the root of the problem.

I don't know who started this, whether it was Panasonic's marketing team or something a YouTuber said, but everyone seemed singularly focused on just one thing: that the S9 with its 26mm f/8 pancake lens was the same size as the Fujifilm X100VI.

And I think that's what rubbed me up the wrong way (especially given the well-documented compromises of that lens).

The whole "smaller than the X100" thing was a strawman solution to a problem that Panasonic had already solved, with its Micro Four Thirds cameras (which, bizarrely, were actually getting bigger while this full-frame Lumix was the one getting smaller!).

I get it, you want to convey that the S9 is a small camera. But squeezing into the same box (literally) as the X100VI does such an epic disservice to a camera that is so much more impressive in so many more interesting ways.

Is the Lumix S9 small? Yes, it is. Very small, especially for a full-frame mirrorless camera. But as soon as you put 90% of lenses on it, that selling point kinda falls apart (as we saw with the oversized Lumix 20-60mm, with which the S9 was initially bundled).

The Lumix S 18-40mm, which wasn't launched until after the S9, makes a much better tag team partner if size is the only thing we care about. And for prime shooters, you can also throw on the Sigma 35mm f/2 to underscore the size difference (as Sigma did with the even-smaller Sigma BF).

But again, we're really selling this camera short if all we're focusing on is how small it is.

For starters, this is a full-frame camera that costs under a grand in the UK – which is fantastic value based on the sensor format alone, before you even start looking at the features and functions that the S9 boasts.

Case in point, this is a camera for real creators. And I think this is where everyone gets so confused with the X100VI; yes, it blew up on TikTok, but just because influencers were talking about it doesn't mean they were actually using it.

Small is not all

The Lumix S9 isn't for posers on TikTok; it's for honest-to-goodness content creators, street shooters, travel photographers… and indeed, anyone who is some amalgam of all those things.

Yes, being small is part of that. But more important is the ability to use an arsenal of L-Mount lenses to photograph the things that a compact camera can't. To record video that isn't just "good enough for a Reel", but puts professional-grade open gate 6K 30p capture in your hands.

Then you've got Realtime LUTs, which is a name that unfortunately puts off photographers. Because while Realtime LUTs do mean that videographers can grade videos at the point of capture, I think they're actually more appealing to photographers once they understand that these are effectively Film Simulation killers.

Yes, film sims are great (even if most people only shoot in Classic Chrome most of the time) but the recipe process leaves a lot to be desired.

Realtime LUTs are like film sims on steroids, because you can use any LUT you like (including some that ape Fujifilm's simulations perfectly) and you can create your own – and you can use two of them together.

The Lumix S9 effectively kills the editing process. Whether you shoot stills or video (or both), you can apply your own looks in-camera and then all you've got to do is upload them when you're done – no more having to carve out extra time during (or after) your trip to edit a mountain of files before you can use them.

I think the S9 is as close to the immediacy of shooting with your phone that a camera has ever got – only it's obviously lightyears more capable. And that's where everybody (myself included) got this camera wrong.

The S9 isn't about being small, it's about being able to ditch your phone and your Osmo Pocket and all that time you spend editing on apps or your laptop. This is a camera that enables you to shoot images in the most friction-free way imaginable.

If you dismissed this camera, I would highly advise you to give it a second look. Go to a camera store and pick one up. Hire one for a weekend. You might be amazed to find it's the camera you've always been looking for, without even knowing it.

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Take a look at the best lenses for the Panasonic Lumix S9, along with the best L-Mount lenses from the whole range.