Panasonic LUMIX G9 II Camera Review

The Panasonic G9II isn't especially portable for a Micro Four Thirds camera. It's similar in size to the full-frame Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, although it's a bit lighter due mostly to its smaller sensor. Though it's a relatively large body, it's well-suited to larger telephoto lenses and is similar in size and weight to its predecessor.

The camera feels remarkably well-built. The body is made of plastic and magnesium alloy, and it's weather-sealed to keep out dust and moisture. Panasonic also notes that it can be operated in temperatures down to −10°C (14°F). The buttons and dials feel sturdy and tactile, and the battery compartment and SD card compartment are both covered with locking hinged doors that feel secure. Like the S5 II, the shoulder strap attachments are fixed, so they won't rattle around when shooting video. However, unlike that model, there are no heat vents around the viewfinder, suggesting that the G9 II is intended as a stills-first camera.

• Panasonic LUMIX DC-G9 II camera body (not pictured)
• Sensor cap
• Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-35mm f/2.8 ASPH Power OIS lens
• Lens cap
• Rear lens cover
• Lens hood
• Soft pouch for lens
• Hot shoe cover
• Battery grip connector cover
• 1x Panasonic DMW-BLK22 battery
• AC adapter
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• Shoulder strap
• User manual and documentation

The Panasonic G9II has excellent ergonomics. Though it has slightly different dimensions, its design is nearly identical to the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, with extensive, well-spaced physical controls that make it easy to adjust your settings. The dedicated ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation buttons near the shutter are also nice to have and really give you full control over the most important settings without having to dive into the menus. The hand grip is also large enough for most hand sizes and has a rubbery finish that provides a secure grip. Overall, the handling and ergonomic design feel very well thought-out, and there are a wide range of customization options to tailor the controls to your preferences.

The electronic viewfinder (EVF) is nice and large, with a high-res 3.68 million dot display, giving you a crisp image when shooting through the viewfinder. The eyecup is also soft and comfortable.

The camera has a fully articulated display with full-touch navigation. You can use it to scroll the menu, activate the shutter, select focus points, and even adjust the size of the focus area or move around the manual focus preview box. The screen gets bright enough to overcome glare in sunny conditions and has a very high resolution, giving you a crisp image when shooting in Live View or reviewing images.

The menu system is fantastic. Settings are clearly organized and labeled, making finding what you're looking for easy. You can also create a custom menu for all of your most-used settings, and there are plenty of customization options. Some nice quality-of-life touches make it easier to navigate. For example, when selecting from the many resolution and frame rate options, you can filter the settings by resolution, frame rate, or codec to more easily find the settings you need. That said, more advanced settings, like HDMI output settings, can be a bit hard to find, and the quick menu is somewhat limited, although you can still customize it to your preferences.

The G9 II uses a new 25 MP Micro Four Thirds sensor, which offers more resolution than the 20 MP sensor of the original Panasonic LUMIX G9. Panasonic also advertises a new processing engine developed with Leica as part of their L² Technology agreement. The new sensor has a dual output gain design that allows it to capture 16-bit RAW files.

The camera also has a 'High Resolution' photo mode, which shifts the sensor around in increments for a series of frames and then combines those frames in-camera into a composite image with a resolution of up to 100 megapixels, depending on your quality and aspect ratio settings. The standard 'High Resolution' setting is meant to be used with a tripod, but there's also a 'Handheld High Resolution' mode. You can see a sample of the 'High Resolution' (tripod) mode here (RAW file download), compared to a regular image of the same scene here (RAW file download). Likewise, you can see a 'Handheld High Resolution' image here (RAW file download), compared to a regular image here (RAW file download).

The camera has great battery performance overall. It's CIPA-rated for approximately 390 shots on a full charge, though the rating also varies depending on the lens. With the Lumix G 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6, the camera's rated for 390 shots, but with the Lumix G 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0, it's rated for 370 shots. In any case, CIPA ratings should be taken with a grain of salt. Your real-world battery performance will vary depending on how your shooting habits and settings. Though it isn't the highest CIPA rating for its class, it's still respectable, so you can expect to go a reasonable length of time before having to recharge the battery.

In video mode, the camera performs very well, capturing over two hours of continuous 4k video before running out of battery, with 'Recording Max Temperature' set to 'High'. In 'High', the camera doesn't stop recording even if the temperature rises. When set to 'Standard', we recorded a battery life closer to 100 minutes, with two overheating interruptions. If you need to extend the battery life further, the camera supports external power supply via USB-C with a PD charger or power source.

The Panasonic G9II can shoot at a very quick 14 fps max burst rate with its mechanical shutter, although you'll only get speeds that fast in single autofocus (AF-S) mode. If you want to use continuous autofocus (AF-C), the burst rate maxes out at 10 fps, which is still respectable but nothing extraordinary. When using the electronic shutter, on the other hand, the camera can shoot up to a whopping 75 fps with AF-S or 60 fps with AF-C. That being said, you're more likely to experience rolling shutter artifacts with the e-shutter, so it's less suited to tracking moving subjects. In addition, the camera has a useful 'Pre-Burst' function that lets you capture frames for 0.5, 1, or 1.5 seconds before you fully press down the shutter to start burst shooting. This is helpful when you're anticipating a subject's movement—for example, a bird about to take flight—to ensure you don't miss the critical moment.

While the camera doesn't have the largest JPEG buffer size compared to some of its peers, it does have a fairly large buffer overall. However, if you manage to fill it up, it takes a long time for the buffer to clear, slowing you down.

Note: This camera behaves a bit unusually when it comes to emptying its buffer. We noticed that empty times were quite inconsistent when shooting RAW files, and after investigating further, we noticed a pattern. After an initial burst, the buffer fills up after about 170 frames and it takes about 55 seconds before you can start shooting again, but on the second burst, the buffer fills up after about 120 frames and takes about 80 seconds to empty. The pattern repeats for subsequent bursts. This indicates that after filling up the first time, the camera will let you shoot before the buffer is fully empty but will empty the buffer completely on every second burst. Given this behavior, we've used an average of the buffer empty times to get the figure noted in the results above. If you fill up the buffer with JPEG files, on the other hand, it more consistently takes about 30 seconds for the buffer to empty.

This is the first LUMIX G camera to feature a hybrid phase-detection autofocus system, following in the footsteps of the full-frame Panasonic LUMIX S5 II. The Panasonic G9 II has dedicated subject detection modes for Humans, Animals, Cars, and Motorcycles, with the option to focus on either bodies or faces/eyes when using the former two detection modes. Overall, the autofocus tracking performs fairly well. It's even a little more reliable than its full-frame stablemate and competitors like the OM SYSTEM OM-1. While it won't nail focus every time and can fall behind with fast-moving subjects, it's a notable step up in performance from older Panasonic cameras.

When using center point AF without tracking, the Panasonic G9 II does an excellent job of quickly and accurately adjusting focus. If you can keep your subject under the focus point, you'll likely have plenty of keepers.

The Panasonic G9 II has a five-axis in-body image stabilization (IBIS) that's advertised to offer up to 8 stops of compensation, according to CIPA standards. The 'Dual I.S. 2' system combines in-body stabilization with optical stabilization from Dual I.S.-compatible Panasonic lenses. Overall, the camera does a great job of stabilizing shots taken at very slow shutter speeds. That said, stabilization performance can vary depending on your lens, focal length, and even the steadiness of your hands. We tested image stabilization using the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-35mm f/2.8 lens, which also includes optical stabilization.

The Panasonic G9 II has impressive usable dynamic range, particularly for an MFT camera. While it can't capture as wide a range of detail as full-frame models like the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II, it still captures high-contrast scenes with good detail preservation.

The camera is good at resolving fine detail. While there isn't as much leeway to crop in as cameras with higher-resolution sensors, images still appear quite sharp. You can also use the 'High Resolution' drive mode to capture composite images with an even greater level of detail.

The Panasonic G9 II has okay noise handling. With bright lighting or settings that allow adequate light to hit the sensor, you're unlikely to see much noise, but otherwise, the camera's only decent at managing noise levels in low light.

Though it's billed as a still-first camera, the Panasonic G9II is no slouch regarding video features, matching up in many ways to the more video-oriented Panasonic LUMIX GH6. In addition to 4k (16:9) capture, the camera can record in C4k (17:9), 4.4k (4:3), 5.7k (17:9), and open gate 5.8k (4:3), which is great if you want more flexibility to crop into different aspect ratios. You can see sample test scene extracts for each of these below:

• 5.8k open gate
• 5.7k
• C4k
• 4.4k

There's also a wide range of 'Photo Style' picture profiles to choose from, including V-Log to capture a wider dynamic and tonal range for those who prefer to color grade their own footage. You can even apply these profiles to JPEG images in photo mode. That includes the new Leica Monochrome profile (sample snapshots here and here).

The 'View Assist' feature is available for both V-Log and HLG formats and lets you simulate what your footage will look like after processing with any LUTs saved to the camera. You can even import up to 10 custom LUTs to preview or apply in-camera. Unlike most other brands, Panasonic includes a vectorscope tool in addition to waveform to help you monitor exposure levels in video. On top of that, connecting an external SSD lets you shoot with Apple ProRes 422 or ProRes 422 HQ codecs to get higher bit rates. On Dec 20, 2023, Panasonic also released firmware Ver.2.0, which adds 12-bit RAW video output, in either Apple ProRes RAW or Blackmagic RAW, to a compatible Atomos or Blackmagic external recorder via HDMI. That's a pretty impressive suite of video features for a "photo-first" camera.

Although the camera can only record ProRes formats in 4k to an external SSD, it does support ProRes internally when shooting in 1080p. Note also that All-Intra compression is only available when using MOV format.

The camera can record at up to 120 fps in 4k without a crop, making it well-suited to capturing high-speed action or generating slow-motion footage.

The Panasonic G9 II has fantastic internal recording capabilities. It supports 10-bit internal recording, though 4:2:2 chroma sampling is only available when using MOV or ProRes formats. The camera can capture very high bit rates when using the highest quality settings; the max bit rate noted above was recorded in 4k 60p in MOV format, with 10-bit 4:2:2 color, All-I compression, and LPCM. In MP4, you'll get more manageable bit rates. If you want even higher bit rates, you'll have to use an external SSD, which allows you to use ProRes codecs for less compressed video files in C4k and 5.7k.

Additionally, there's no recording time limit, and the camera doesn't overheat too easily, though it can still overheat in more strenuous conditions. When 'Recording Max Temperature' is set to 'High', it raises the temperature threshold at which the camera stops recording, which is how we managed to get the zero recording interruptions noted above; however, the camera still gets hot and, in hotter conditions, it may still shutdown. When set to 'Standard', the camera shut down twice throughout its battery life. Unlike the Panasonic LUMIX S5 II or the Panasonic LUMIX GH6, it doesn't have heat dissipation vents to help reduce overheating.

The camera's AF system does an excellent overall job in 4k video mode. While it isn't totally seamless, it stays with moving subjects very well, even as they move around the frame. It's quick to shift focus on moving objects, though again, the transitions aren't as seamless as the leading AF systems seen on a camera like the Sony α7C II, for example.

The Panasonic G9II records excellent 4k video quality, especially when shooting in more controlled lighting conditions. It does great in low light as well, but noise handling is more limited.

Besides regular IBIS, the camera also includes an 'E-Stabilization' setting in video mode, combining IBIS, OIS, and electronic stabilization. You can set it to either 'Standard', which incurs a 1.09x crop, or 'High' for even greater camera shake compensation, which incurs a 1.26x crop. While it can help give you a bit of added stability, the e-stabilization is also prone to warping at the edges of the frame, which can be distracting. There's also a 'Boost I.S.' setting, which, according to Panasonic, boosts the effectiveness of the camera's IBIS for "when you want to perform recording from a fixed perspective." This is most useful for getting tripod-like stability when shooting a stationary handheld shot but isn't meant to be used when panning or moving the camera. Finally, there's an 'Anamorphic' stabilization setting for anamorphic lenses. You can see a comparison of the different video stabilization modes here.

There's some fairly noticeable rolling shutter effect when panning the camera from side to side, indicating that the sensor readout speed isn't the fastest. It's most noticeable with quicker camera movements, but it can still distract in scenes with a lot of vertical lines present in the background or when tracking moving subjects horizontally.

The Panasonic G9II can record at up to 240 fps in 1080p without a crop and in its standard recording mode, which is excellent. Many competitors can only manage such high frame rates in dedicated slow-motion modes without audio, but this gives you more flexibility to slow your footage down however you need to. In addition, you can record 1080p at up to 300 fps in the dedicated 'Slow & Quick' mode, with various playback speed options.

Internal recording specs are just as excellent in 1080p. The camera can record 10-bit 4:2:2 internally in MOV and ProRes formats, with very high bit rates using the highest quality settings. The max bit rate noted above was recorded in 1080p at 60 fps in Apple ProRes 422 HQ format. If you use MOV, you'll get bit rates closer to 200 Mbps, while MP4 will nab you around 30 Mbps.

The autofocus does a fantastic job in 1080p, particularly when tracking moving human faces. It's quite smooth and accurate overall. When manually selecting a subject to track, like an object, it still does an impressive job, but transitions aren't always seamless.

The camera's 1080p video quality is great overall. In brighter conditions, it looks quite detailed and well-rendered. It's also quite good in low light, with fairly well-preserved details and relatively little noise.

As with 4k, there's noticeable skewing from the rolling shutter in 1080p.

The Panasonic G9II has dual SD card slots, both rated for faster UHS-II cards, which is great for those who like to have backup storage on the go or prefer to keep RAW and JPEG files separate. The slots are easily accessible on the side of the camera.

The Panasonic G9 II has a full suite of ports, including a full-sized HDMI port, a USB-C port for charging and file transfer, along with both a headphone jack and a microphone input.