S9 thoughts: Great camera but feels “chunky”. It’s not much bigger than a X-E4 but for whatever reason it feels like it is? It’s enough bigger than the XM5 it’s obvious. I wish this had a mechanical shutter so that I didn’t have to worry about those issues. I don’t love the menus but that’s because they’re different. Setting up Q and My menus makes it fine (I wish Q could have more options!). It’s also very weird that LUTs and picture styles aren’t the same thing to me? If you want to push LUTs panasonic, you should have made your picture styles work in that system too so I didn’t have to use both? Some of that is I’m new to panasonic with a camera where they added LUTs as something new. AF is really good. The 18-40mm is what makes this body worth it. Also the 14-28mm and 28-200mm are basically the same size as fuji’s 10-24mm and 18-200mm. In camera 65:24 is where it’s at! Hyper zoom -vs- their crop option is a bit weird, it starts digitally zooming before you’ve gone past the max optical zoom in stills mode in hyperzoom. I get that this is for the video people so they get smooth zooming and they’re not using the full sensor anyway. But for stills shooters you need to switch to “crop zoom” and manually hit a button if you want full res to the end of a zoom then only crop once you want more than that if that makes sense. They also only have 1.4 and 2x zoom options not anything goes like sigma.
full post:
ugh, dude, GAS bit me HARD these past 2 months. I have a source from Japan so I can order things for cheap enough I can sell them on ebay later for break even or profit. And I’m a hands on guy who likes to try stuff myself. I also realized I didn’t love/use my X100v (too big, don’t love the FL) or XE4 (XM5 is smaller and the better AF wins every time) so I sold both to “fill the wallet”. So I’ve bought (in order):
- sony 10-18mm (had before, to use on my NEX5 as smallest pocketable wide zoom, will be getting sold soon…)
- sony 16mm wide converter (as much as people crap on the 16mm it’s a great FL for me and with a NEX5 it’s tiny, the converter gets it wider but is easier to toss in a pocket, V1 is also dirt cheap)
- s9 w/18-40mm
- m6 w/22mm ef-m (got it as a cheap X100 replacement but also as a size test for the V1)
- fp-L
- sony 10-20mm (it’s even smaller than the 10-18mm so selling it for the better/smaller version)
Now in playing with all of these, the S9 might replace my XM5? AF is just as good and it’s not all that much bigger (it’s actually easier to fit in a pocket with the 18-40 -vs- the 10-18mm sigma):
The issues become the fp-L and s9 don’t have a mechanical shutter. So they’re not good at fast moving things or panning. They can also have issues with lights flickering (both have ways to avoid this) and both aren’t great flash cameras (something I don’t use much). The s9 has amazing AF, beats the XM5 (which is the first fuji I’ve owned with what I consider good/usable tracking). The fp-L has good enough AF but no tracking. It trades the AF for the smaller size and higher res when needed (can be shot with cropped or lower res DMGs/RAWs if you want). So I’m kinda stuck wanting to keep all three? The NEX5 will stay since it’s my first mirrorless ever but also not worth enough to sell.
fp-L thoughts: A little cyberpunk beast of a camera. It’s quite a bit smaller -vs- the s9. If this had the s9’s AF it’d be game over for me. The menus are better than the lumix and I’d even say fujis. Again give me more QS menu options and let me customize all buttons (why does the dedicated video record button only have on/off in still mode as options and not using it for something else?!?!?!). The way they designed their grip is just perfect for me (doesn’t force a full cage or plate). The fact the strap lugs are removable is amazing. I’m not an EVF guy anymore so the way that’s an option but so is having a tiny body is just awesome. I love everything about this camera except it’s AF. Will that make it like the XE4 for me (not used once I got the XM5 for AF reasons even though I prefer the XE4 in every other way)? The funny thing with the fp is it NEEDS more small lenses. It’s great with the 18-40mm. I’ll likely add the sigma 24mm f/2 (yes 2 not 3.5). Panasonic has done an amazing job making small light travel specific lenses in the 18-40, 14-28 & 28-200mm, but no one has gone after small primes. I want the nikon 26mm 2.8 type lenses. Yes slightly worse IQ in trade for “pancake” style lenses to take advantage of what the fp-L is size wise. But please sigma give me custom aspect ratios on the stills side?! 21:9 is good enough but it’s not the 65:24 I want and the whole point is to have it in camera… Sigma’s implementation of crop/zoom AND choosing my resolution AND choosing my aspect is just amazing though.
M6 w/22mm: This lens is amazing. It kinda proves fuji could make their X100 lens a pancake and sell it on it’s own… Canon WB is also really really good -vs- anything else I’ve used lately (sony fuji pani sigma). This body has me really excited for the V1 as the V1 is going to be smaller in 2 of 3 dimensions and 33% lighter. Not sure if I’ll keep it long term but I can easily sell for a profit.
The big issue for me is I now have 3 systems I’m actively using plus “P&S cameras” (fixed lenses like the X70 and also M6 for me since it’ll only ever have the 22mm). GFX, Lumix/fp-L and X mount with the XM5. I got into the GFX from sony a7r bodies mostly because it had 65:24 and I just wasn’t enjoying my sony’s. It’s big and chunky and slower but I like that for my landscape and architecture shooting. But… The s9/fp-L can do pretty much everything the GFX can (the mechanical shutter isn’t a help really on such a slow camera). So should I keep it? I need to shoot a big more with all of them to see if I go back the the GFX or if I’m just using the L mounts. The XM5 stays for now as I live near yellowstone NP so having a long lens is nice to have. The fuji 150-600mm replaced my sony 200-600. If there’s a good L mount option I might switch but I really like internal zoom and the 300-600mm is too big and too much $ (the fuji 150-600mm AND X-M5 cost what the sony 200-600mm does). I’d love a sony 400-800mm but it’s also too much for me for what I do with this lens, it’s also bigger and I’d need a $1k+ sony body to drive it.
TLDR; that’s kinda a lot of notes I’ve been meaning to write down as a blog post but here we were… sorry!
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