John Matthews

I would say yes, but it'll take time I'm sure. Dream on. Won't happen. I shoot with the electronic shutter all the time. It really doesn't bother me either. The problem is that if that were the only thing they stripped out, it would be ok. Unfortunately, the list is very long and the price is only $300 less. I plan on getting this camera too as a travel camera (if nothing else comes out for M43), but it won't be for $1500! Also, this camera is only as good as the lenses and panasonic is in desperate need of some very small AF f/2.8 primes (like Canon and Nikon). Yes, the lenses are the problem. I can live with the audio though. The MF fixed F8 "lens" for $200 (for beginners?) looks so great on the camera, but EVERYONE was wishing for different specs. You're right, it's laughable! Panasonic is going to get hit pretty hard in the teeth over this one. There will be blood. :-)

As always, Gordon has a decent review:

The GM5 will never go out of fashion. I've been watching it on the used market and it's been going up and up. Soon, it'll surpass the brand-new discounted prices of 8 years ago- crazy!!! Why isn't Panasonic listening? Oh wait, they were and they came out with the S9. I agree that this is cool. I like that and I'd assume that feature would make its way into the S5ii as well. Actually, I wish it were one of the proxy settings. There are also the 3x digital zoom feature which is fantastic; no more having to switch into pixel to pixel mode to get closer. The 20-60mm now goes out to 180mm equivalent field of view seamlessly without too much loss in quality in good light.

There should be more stuff coming out- fingers crossed! :-) They really went all-out again with the social media crowd with the S9. However, comments have been turned off on the release video (they were up for some time but I think everything went sideways). The $200 body cap is going to go down in history as the coolest looking thing that no one wants to use. Did all the good Panasonic engineers get replaced with disgruntled Pentax ones? Is that too harsh? Where's that Z6iii? Are there problems with parts?

(Re)updated list: Pros for S9 258g lighter Smaller body $300 cheaper than S5ii LUT mayhem if you're into that Cold shoe Pros for S5ii EVF Mechanical shutter Dual card slots Headphone jack True unlimited recording with a fan Way more buttons and customization in the body Proxy recording 14bit Raw files Better grip Weather sealed body Hot shoe for flash photography and XLR adapter Full-sized HDMI Clearly, if anything, the S9 is a true testament to how good the S5ii is in terms of engineering and size. For the form factor and l mount, would you prefer the almost 5 year old Sigma FP or the brand new Panasonic S9? The Sigma is 64g lighter and has a fan, but no IBIS or decent AF.

The problem is when you look at the footage 2-30 years down the line or even after just a few hours in some cases. Some of that stuff will be impossible to fix. Hell, how long did it take Sony to come up with OK color science? They had engineers, colorist, and programmers figuring it out. Now, Panasonic wants Joe Blow to figure it out in unlimited lighting situations on a 3 inch screen. It doesn't sound like it's going to end well. Maybe I'm taking this way too seriously; after all, it supposed to be a fun camera. I can only imagine the dad/daughter conversation 30 years from now. Why do the videos look so weird, Dad? Was I ill? No, I put on this super cool blockbuster theme. I was going for the Micheal Bay look. Sorry.

Finally, I will personally hold Panasonic responsible for effing up millions of hours of footage with Realtime LUTs. You're asking people (often beginners) to judge their footage on a 3 inch screen. What could go wrong. I'm watching footage from these youtubers that looks awful IMO! There's got to be a reason you don't do this in camera.

Updated list: Pros for S9 258g lighter Smaller body $300 cheaper than S5ii LUT mayhem if you're into that Cold shoe Pros for S5ii EVF Mechanical shutter Dual card slots Headphone jack True unlimited recording with a fan Way more buttons and customization in the body Proxy recording 14bit Raw files Better grip Weather sealed body Hot shoe for flash photography and XLR adapter The more I think about the S9, the more I think it really has a "it doesn't have an optical low-pass filter" as a feature kind of vibe. Also, I'm truly baffled by the 26mm fixed f8 manual focus "lens" for $200- WTF. What were you thinking, Panasonic?

Based only on specs: Pros for S9 258g lighter Smaller body $300 cheaper than S5ii LUT mayhem if you're into that Pros for S5ii EVF Mechanical shutter Dual card slots Headphone jack True unlimited recording with a fan Way more buttons and customization in the body Proxy recording 14bit Raw files Better grip Weather sealed body These are just off the top of my head and there are probably more. The S9 will never have those things, but I bet the S5ii will also pick up the S9's LUT features. That's a HELL OF A LOT for the price of 258g and $300 more. You'd really have to love the looks of the S9 I think (and it does look cool). If the S9 were sub $1000, maybe (for me).

Don't worry just yet. There might be a fix for the S5ii if they fixed it in the S9- and that's a big "if".

So, Panasonic seems to have designated the S9 as the "fun camera." It seems that would have been better for M43. Also, the Realtime LUT feature reminds me why I hated using Sony picture profiles- you just never really understand what they're doing. Actually, it's such a breath of fresh air to use the VX 981 camcorder as there's NO picture profile, just "standard" with contrast, saturation, and sharpness. I can see people being completely overwhelmed with these LUT features- you can stack up to 2 LUTs with varying degrees of opacity! That's crazy talk! My "magic sauce" for my shots will be VLOG with Bob's version of Kodachrome 64 set to 40% with Biff's Orange and Teal blockbuster LUT set to 60% and it only took me 3 years to figure it out.

Doubt it. You'll be fighting with lighting frequencies due to the electronic-only shutter. It might not be that bad though, but I think you might miss some shots. IMO it's more of a "if I miss the shot, no big deal" type camera.

Something tells me that this wasn't a camera made for a grip. Panasonic screwed up the marketing and release of this camera. From the lrumors.com "leaks" to not being clear when to release product shots, the communication is all over the place. My guess is that this camera will be available very soon; otherwise, there wouldn't have been so much info. We'll see later today what this thing is all about.

I took out my VX980 and film this in the morning. After, I threw it into Final Cut and added Film Convert to it. It was so easy. I let the camera figure the exposure on all the shots, but I had a ND32 on it at all times. All the shots were on a tripod. I probably should have uploaded in 4k, but oh well. It still looks good.

I won't list all the cameras, especially M43 I've had over the past years, but it's a lot and I'm rather embarrassed about it. Your assessment of the GX8 is probably right. It is significantly bigger than the GX85 and would be able to accommodate the all four fingers on the grip. It looks chunky. I've got the GX800. It's just so fun to use. I've always felt the G100 and GX85's viewfinders were sketchy and I almost never used them. I briefly had the GX7 for a month and loved the 1080p image off it, but I felt the GX85 would have been a better purchase; so I got that. The GX800 has a decent image, but suffers from moiré in 1080p (but could be worse and the same could be said about the others too). Recently for video, I've been shooting so much with my VX-980 camcorder. It's just so easy to use for video as it's made for it (no moiré). The image isn't as nice as the any of the above 4k images and it cannot take photos, but the fact of having a smooth zoom from 30-630mm is really incredible.

I can understand the reasons for not having an EVF, especially if there's a super-bright panel on it (there's not). I've had a fairly decent experience with the GX800 by putting a non-glare screen protector on it, but it's still not ideal. I will definitely be asking Sean of LUMIX USA the question if they are giving info to l-rumors.com or 43rumors.com. I know he's commented on those websites in the past, saying they had "wild and incorrect" information. My message: don't work with those website! Although I've never tried the GX8, there are so many people that simply love it, even after having the GX80/85, and the GX9 available with newer everything. One of these day, I'm going to have to pick one up. What exactly was the feature that you loved so much about it?

Apparently, l-rumors.com/43rumors.com bans you if you question why, after his seeing and shooting the camera, he can't say any more information. To know any answers, you need to sign up for his BS newsletter, subscribe to his BS YouTube channel, watch his incessant ad-copy, self-promos, and BS clickbait several times a day. Those sites are clearly milking info for personal profit at all costs. I sure hope Panasonic isn't working with him as it will be a dealbreaker for me if I find out (and I'm fairly sure they are). I will no longer be going to any of that guy's websites ever again for any reason.

We'll see what this lens is all about in a few days. The term "pancake" can represent many different ideas. I think the Panasonic 26mm is going to be a truly small, but it's MF and F8. Maybe it'll just come with the camera as I can't see how they could make into a real product.

The producer and actor, Micheal Douglas was at the origin of this film I believe. As per wikipedia: "He sits on the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, is an honorary board member of the anti-war grant-making foundation Ploughshares Fund and he was appointed as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 1998."

So, I guess the pancake is a 26mm f8 manual focus lens. What were they thinking? I guess I'll stick with my GX800 + 14mm f/2.5 as it's probably better in every way if the goal is "small".

Yes, that's right. No fan either. The hot shoe is actually a cold shoe. Also, it's much chunkier than previously though to believe IMO but still rather small. For video and for the price, I'd think the FX30 which is only marginally bigger would be a better choice as there are so many video features on it (4k 120fps, for one) that this camera will not have. It's really too bad they didn't go with the flip-up screen; invariably, there are as many or more people wanting the flip-out one. We'll see on the 22nd what this thing is really about.

We'll see. The rumor has it as being IBIS, but who really knows. The G100 had that exact same system. Most of the reviews were hard on the G100 because Panasonic had a serious case of putting its head in the sand when it came to AF and massively overpromising with every release. Then when they didn't include proper IBIS, I think the poo hit the fan. Still, that camera sold really well according to Panasonic USA. It's also interesting they replaced it with a G100D which was almost the same. People really wanted a GX85 with PDAF, a flip-out screen and mic jack- that was all they needed to do. In fact that's all what people still want; instead, we're getting a low-light camera without a shutter. My guess is that the problem will be rolling shutter in photo and video. Actually, RS was also a problem on the G100.

I think as a product, some sort of image stab is going to be important. The G100 didn't have it, but it was quite usable EIS. The conundrum is that it's such a small, light camera, it would be really hard to handhold, but if IBIS adds 200g and bulk to the product, it would make sense to go with EIS. Given the competition and Panasonic's strengths, I think it'll be included (and it'll be up to snuff).

The word has it that there's a 18-40 and a pancake coming with it. If it does have a proper shutter and IBIS, I'll probably get it, but I need more info. I would have rather had a flip-up screen and no hotshoe though because it's just more fun (like the GX850). If Panasonic doesn't release more pancakes and smaller affordable bodies for M43, there won't be many people going to it. The problem is that cameras like the GM1 were too small to operate with adult hands whereas the GX85 was just big enough. The S9 looks about the same size as a GX85.

Apparently, this is the size of the S9, the new l-mount camera which is significantly smaller than the S5ii/G9ii. It looks about 500g which would seem correct as the GM1 was about 202g. So many questions remain though. Will it have IBIS? Will it have a proper shutter? What's the max sync speed? There's a hotshoe on top and I'm guessing a flip out screen rather than a flip up one? Is there a mic jack? Overheating will be an issue, but will it have some limit or not? I like how they wrote L-rumors.com on it with the word "Dummy". I'm not a fan of that site or community, but I go because apparently that's one of the only places. Anyone know of another one?