It didn’t occur to me to use the Panasonic S9 with M-mount lenses until a colleague reminded me of it. But they’re perhaps the most perfect pairing for this camera, especially if they’re smaller lenses. The S9 is a range-finder style camera that in many ways, reminds me of the older Leica MDa cameras that didn’t have viewfinders. Instead, you zone focused or you used a visioflex. But in this case, you use the LCD screen or you shoot without it. With M-mount lenses, you’re then going to zone focus instead of manually focusing them each and every time. Essentially you’re going to have a lot of fun.
There are lots of things to love about the Leica M-Mount combo with the S9. First off, they’re stylish. Second, you don’t even need to focus them. Yuo set the lens and forget it. The image quality on the S9 is so good coupled with LUTs that you can just shoot and be happy with what you get. If you’re not happy with it, then you can fix it in post-production. But most of the time, I didn’t really need to do anything else beyond a crop.
To really make the most of this, we recommend using the Panasonic S9 with some of the smaller M-mount lenses. Sure, there are features like focus peaking, but we recommend using magnification instead if you’re working toward a really sharp focus.
These days, zone focusing is still faster than most autofocus situations. All you have to do is just walk up to your subject — at least when it comes to candid photography of humans in cities. Additionally, you get character from the lenses mixed with the film-look that you crave much easier. Better yet, it’s from a full-frame sensor.
What the Panasonic S9 lets you do is have a platform where you can talk your M-mount lenses out often. Sure, there are benefits to using a Leica rangefinder camera and its image quality. But the Panasonic S9 also quite good — and it’s full-frame.
But that’s enough tech talk.
The best thing about this combo is that allows you to be present first and foremost. I’m not talking about that faux marketing term associated with wellness. I’m instead emphasizing the importance of being in tune with what’s around you. You can pay closer attention to what’s around you, think about it, and then hit the shutter when it’s close enough to you. In this way, you’re more emotionally in-tune with the surroundings. A combo like this steps aside so you can take the pictures you really want — providing everything is set up ideally to your liking.
Most importantly though, it’s a combo that you actually want to bring with you everywhere and will give your images character that is otherwise majorly lacking from most of the photo-world.
And it’s about time.