In a growing trend of cameras made for content creators, the Panasonic G9 II is a camera that puts still images first. While video is available, the features that interfered with still images — like the bulky fan — are axed to prioritize stills. As a result, the G9 II offers better weather-sealing, more stabilization, cleaner high ISO images, and a much-improved autofocus system over the hybrid-focused Panasonic GH6.
The G9 II is easily the best Micro Four Thirds camera that Panasonic has made so far. For stills, it’s a far better choice than the GH6, though the OM System OM-1 still has the top autofocus and high ISO performance.
But, shouldn’t Micro Four Thirds should come at a lower price point and in a smaller body than a full frame? That’s not the case here, as Panasonic’s S5 II is only $100 more and a few ounces lighter. Sure, the G9 II has better stabilization and more telephoto lenses, but the narrow price difference will push some Panasonic fans towards the S5 II instead.
Table of Contents
The Big Picture
With features designed specifically for stills, the Panasonic G9 II is the best Micro Four Thirds body that Panasonic has made yet. The body boasts both comfort and durability. The stabilization is an impressive eight stops. Speed is a quick 60 fps or 10 fps with the mechanical shutter with pre-burst. RAW images are a bit cleaner than on the GH6. And the best part? Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds finally has hybrid phase detection autofocus.
There’s a lot to love on the Panasonic G9 II. But, while the autofocus is leaps and bounds ahead of the GH6, the Animal Eye AF falls behind competitors and frustratingly delivers a lot of misses. Action shots, too, aren’t quite as good as other brands. But perhaps the biggest sticking point is that the cost of the body is only $100 less than the Panasonic S5 II, which offers cleaner images and more light-gathering power from a sensor that’s twice as big. The photographers drawn to the G9 II instead of the S5 II are those who really prioritize the telephoto reach.
I’m giving the Panasonic G9 II four out of five stars.
Pros
- Comfortable grip
- Better weather sealing than GH6 due to lack of fan
- Improved hybrid phase detection autofocus system
- Low light autofocus is good, with exposure preview off
- 60 fps AF-C bursts with electronic shutter, 10 fps with mechanical shutter
- Up to three seconds of pre-burst
- Up to 8 stops of image stabilization
- The Leica monochrome profile is gorgeous
- 100-megapixel handheld high-res mode
- More versatile RAW files than the GH6
- The warranty is three years, rather than the more typical one-year
Cons
- Video is limited to around 40 minutes, unlike the GH6
- While improved, AF still lags behind the biggest competitors
- Animal eye AF is frustrating
- Best kept at ISO 6400 or less
- Full frame S5 II is only $100 more
Gear Used
I tested the Panasonic G9 II with the Panasonic Leica 12-35mm f2.8 and the Panasonic Leica 100-400mm f4-6.3. Both the body and lenses are on temporary loan from Panasonic.
Innovations
With more than five years between the G9 and G9 II, the 2023 release has several updates. The biggest changes, as we shared in our G9 II preview, are:
- An updated 25.2-megapixel sensor, the same as in the GH6
- An 8-stop body IS and 7.5-stop dual IS system, a jump from 6.5 stops
- A hybrid phase detection autofocus system with 779 points
- Car and Motorcycle detection autofocus added
- 60 fps electronic shutter and 10 fps burst mechanical shutter with continuous autofocus and pre-burst settings of .5, 1.0 or 1.5 seconds
- 100 megapixel high res handheld compared to 80
- A lower base ISO of 100 (ISO 50 extended)
- An updated resolution for the Vari-Angle LCD at 1,840k dots
- Updated ports, including USB-C and synch socket
Ergonomics
If I had to choose between the design of the GH6 and the G9 II, I would definitely choose the G9 II. The Panasonic G9 II is a more comfortable camera, whereas the GH6 is a bit oddly shaped. Here’s the tour of the camera from our Panasonic G9 II preview:
Photographers familiar with Panasonic cameras will find themselves right at home with the G9 II. While the camera has a long list of improvements over its predecessor, the ergonomics remain relatively unchanged from the G9. The camera uses the same chassis as the S5 Mark II, so the G9 II feels similar to Panasonic’s full-frame bodies as well — in fact, the G9 II weighs slightly more than the full-frame S5 II which Panasonic says is due to the stabilization unit inside the G9 II. It weighs the same as the original G9, and the dimensions are off by only a few millimeters.
Like the original, the Panasonic G9 II has a really lovely grip. My fingers can wrap all the way around it, which makes it a more comfortable hold, even when working with heavier telephoto lenses. My thumb and index finger rest right near the dual control wheels at the top of the grip. The top also houses shortcut buttons for white balance, ISO, exposure compensation, and record, with dials for both the mode and drive mode.
A group of autofocus buttons rest near the thumb rest on the back. A focus mode switch wraps around an AF area mode button. Next to that is an AF joystick—which can also move diagonally, unlike the 4-way joystick on the original G9—and the AF on button. Below that is a set of menu buttons and controls. After jumping over the viewfinder, you’ll see playback and viewfinder buttons. The 1840k dot monitor flips out to the side for vari-angle viewing. The viewfinder boasts a 3680k dot resolution and, in electronic shutter mode, doesn’t black out between bursts.
The grip side of the camera houses two SD card slots and a remote control port while the opposite side has a bank of ports for a mic, headphones, HDMI, and USB. The front of the camera houses two shortcut buttons between the mount and the grip. The battery door is located on the bottom of the camera (the G9 II uses the same battery as the S5).
Build Quality
Where the GH6 is designed for content creators, the G9 II is designed for still photographers. Yes, the G9 II still shoots video, but the video features that interfered with photo features were paired back. The most significant difference is that the G9 II doesn’t have a built-in fan. This means it can’t record a one-hour video without stopping, but it does make the G9 II more ergonomic, leave room for better stabilization, and offer a bit better weather-sealing.
I shot with the Panasonic G9 II in some light rain and, just to be sure, also gave the camera a pretty good splash from the sink. The camera continued to function normally. While dust and splash resistance is common, Panasonic also calls this body freeze-resistant. (The weather didn’t deliver any sub-zero temperatures to test the camera in initially, however.)
While the G9 II doesn’t have the metallic feel of some camera bodies, it still feels nice in the hands. It doesn’t have that overly cheap plastic feel.
One thing the imaging industry doesn’t talk much about is warranties. But, that’s worth noting here because Panasonic offers a three-year extended warranty, where one year tends to be more common.
Ease of Use
Panasonic’s 4K and 6K photo modes have been phased out — but with electronic shutter capturing up to 60 fps with continuous autofocus, most of those modes won’t be missed. (The exception is the ability to choose the focus point later, but Post Focus was a bit gimmicky.) The electronic burst is plenty fast — and in many cases, too fast because culling through 60 fps bursts isn’t particularly an enjoyable process. The mechanical shutter bursts of 10 fps are more my speed and still plenty fast enough for most subjects.
Despite lacking the 4K photo modes, pre-burst is still part of the G9 II. With this setting on, the camera will start capturing images when the shutter is only half pressed, up to 1.5 seconds before fully pressing the shutter. That’s a helpful tool that helps avoid missing that decisive moment with active subjects.
Another perk to the G9 II is that through those fast bursts and pre-bursts in electronic shutter mode, the viewfinder won’t black out. That lets photographers see what’s happening rather than that view being interrupted by flashes as the shutter moves up and down.
Unlike the GH6, the G9 II includes Live Composite. This mode layers light-painting images together and makes it possible to tackle things like star trails and extreme long exposures in camera. Live Composite is much easier than creating star trails in Photoshop and is also hugely helpful for light painting.
Another tally in the Panasonic G9 II’s pros column is the stabilization, rated for up to eight stops. That’s enough to shoot handheld waterfalls with motion blur on a wide-angle lens. That also comes in handy, taking advantage of the 2x crop factor with telephoto lenses.
The menu will be familiar to any photographer who has shot with Panasonic. The tabs are reasonably well organized. Plus, the menu is touch-sensitive as well.
My only complaint about the usability of the Panasonic G9 II is that the camera is fairly slow to start up. Most cameras will boot up right away, but the G9 II takes long enough that I start wondering if the battery died before the screen flashes to life. It’s enough of a delay that photographers may not want to power off the camera to conserve battery life as often because it could mean missing a quick shot.
Autofocus
The autofocus on the Panasonic G9 II is leaps and bounds ahead of the GH6. With the G9 II, Panasonic has finally migrated to a hybrid phase detection system. There was a noticeable difference when I went from using the Panasonic Leica 100-400mm on the G9ii and the GH6. Photographing my dog running straight for the camera, the G9 II had a 70 percent hit rate, while the GH6 only had two shots that were actually in focus.
While the autofocus is a huge improvement over older Panasonic bodies, it’s still a few steps behind the fastest cameras from Canon and Sony. With the wiggle room provided by an f6.3 aperture on Micro Four Thirds, I would have expected that hit rate to be a bit higher. Yes, 70 percent is still usable, but it’s not great either.
The Panasonic G9 II has both human and eye AF. But, the animal eye AF was a frustrating experience. Animal eye AF is inconsistent, at best. The camera seemed to do a pretty good job of locating the eyes and drawing that little green box around the right area of the image. But, in scenes with objects like leaves or grass between the camera and the subject, the camera often focused on the leaves, despite that green box suggesting that the camera was properly focused.
There were even a few instances where there wasn’t anything between me and the bird, yet the camera frustratingly wasn’t focused at all, and even refocusing didn’t work. I believe this was in part due to using continuous autofocus. When the bird happens to stay still on the branch, continuous AF is going to cause a lot of errors. Yes, that’s what the different AF modes are for. But, some brands like Canon are able to do just fine in the same scenario without constantly swapping back and forth between single and continuous autofocus. The animal eye AF needs some work for sure — hopefully, firmware helps improve this feature.
On people, eye AF seemed to work a bit better. However, the eye AF doesn’t work as well on profile shots. Some camera’s eye and face detection work with profiles and even amazingly on the back of a head, but the G9 ii isn’t one of them. The eye AF here is just okay.
The G9 II adds subject detection for cars and motorcycles as well. On cars, the detection was good enough that it could find and capture a car that was only in the frame for a second or two. It also worked well at picking up the front of a car as well as the side view.
In the technical specifications, the -4 EV isn’t the best low-light rating that I’ve seen. But the camera seemed to focus pretty quickly in limited light. The camera focuses fastest in low light with the exposure preview off. A built-in AF-assist light helps with the low-light conditions as well. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the G9 II did, focusing in a dark room.
Metering
Following the Sunny 16 rule, the built-in meter on the Panasonic G9 II measured exactly in the middle where it should. I didn’t have issues using partially automated exposure modes or the meter.
Image quality
Panasonic has some great color profiles on their cameras — plus the ability to use LUTs — but my favorite part of shooting with the G9 II is the new Leica Monochrome color profile. I love Leica’s black and white, and the G9 II brings a gorgeous high-contrast monochrome without a high-end price tag. But, color on other profiles is still a highlight here, too, and, in good lighting, I was plenty happy with the un-retouched JPEGs.
The Panasonic G9 II houses the same image sensor as the GH6, yet it processes those images a bit differently. Because the GH6 is designed as a hybrid photo-video camera, the dynamic range boost doesn’t come into play until ISO 800 and above. On the G9 II, the camera exposes two circuits simultaneously for a sort of in-camera HDR without ghosting without being limited to higher ISOs. The camera has enough dynamic range to recover some underexposed shadows in post without too many editing artifacts.
When photographers want a higher resolution, handheld high-resolution images now boast up to 100 megapixels for a file that’s more than 11,000 on the widest side. This allows for more cropping and detail. Because the mode uses the stabilization system, these images can occasionally suffer from camera shake. This mode also takes up a lot more time than a typical single shot.
Is the G9 II going to offer the same dynamic range or high ISO performance as a full frame? No, but the Panasonic G9 II delivers pretty impressive images for the Micro Four Thirds category, particularly for photographers who want to use that sensor to get in twice as close. The G9 II has more editing versatility than the GH6, though the high ISO on the OM-1 tended to be a little cleaner.
High ISO Images
The Panasonic G9 II doesn’t go overboard on resolution, a likely effort to keep noise from becoming overwhelming on the Micro Four Thirds sensor. At ISO 1600, images still retail a nice level of detail. Fine textures are noticeably more muddled at ISO 3200. I wouldn’t push the camera beyond ISO 6400; there’s enough loss of detail that images start to look a bit soft. That’s an issue if using lenses like the Panasonic 100-400mm f4-6.3 because an f6.3 directed at all the animals that come out at dusk requires pushing that ISO too high.
While the ISO shouldn’t be pushed to the extreme, the G9 II fared a little better at editing those images. At ISO 3200, brightening the shadows tended to create color noise and banding on the GH6. I was able to brighten the shadows a bit more on files from the G9 II at ISO 3200 without those artifacts. The G9 II overall seems a bit more forgiving than the GH6.
While high ISO images are cleaner than the GH6, the OM-1 felt a bit cleaner here.
RAW File Versatility
While Micro Four Thirds isn’t known for its dynamic range, I was able to push the shadows a little more than with the GH6. On backlit cattails rendered not quite black, I was able to recover the original green color. On ISO 3200 birding images, I could bring up the shadows a bit without creating color banding.
As is typical, highlights are much harder to successfully recover than the shadows. Keep an eye out for white spots or use the histogram to prevent overblown highlights.
Extra Image Samples
From day one, the Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, lots of folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. You’re not showing what the lens can do. So we have a whole section in our Extra Image Samples area to show off edited and unedited photos. From this, you can make a decision for yourself.
Edited
Unedited
Who should buy it?
Photographers wavering between the Panasonic GH6 and the G9 II, the choice here is easy: get the G9 II. The ergonomics and stabilization are better, while the G9 II has a bit more editing flexibility in post. The G9 II also maintains modes like Live Composite. The only thing the GH6 is better at is video.
However, that choice becomes much tougher when widening the net beyond Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds. The OM System OM-1 does a bit better with Eye AF, both animal and human, and fares a bit better at high ISOs. On the flip side, the G9 II has better stabilization and a lower price point.
The price, though, will cause some hesitation — largely because the S5 II body is only $100 more. Jumping to full frame means stabilization isn’t as good, and you don’t have many options for super telephoto lenses without that 2x crop factor. But, full frame fares better at high ISOs, an important factor when photographing action that requires a really high shutter speed. The G9 II and the S5 II actually use the same chassis, so Micro Four Thirds isn’t saving any space in the body, just in the telephoto lenses.
Tech Specs
These key specifications are taken directly from Panasonic’s list of G9 II tech specs, adapted for brevity:
- Sensor: 25.21 megapixel Micro Four Thirds
- Recording file format: JPEG and RAW
- Viewfinder: OLED approx. 3.68 million dots
- Rear monitor: TFT LCD monitor with static touch control, free-angle 3.0-inch
- Focus type: Phase detection AF System / Contrast AF System with DFD
- AF detection range: -4 EV
- ISO sensitivity (still): 100-25600, 50 Extended
- Stabilization: 5 axis, 8-stop; Dual IS 7.5 stop
- Shutter: Focal plane
- Shutter speed (still): 1/8000- 60 seconds, bulb (max 30 minutes); electronic 1/32,000 – 60 seconds, bulb (max 60 seconds)
- Maximum burst speed: 14 fps AF-S, 10 fps AF-C mechanical; 75 fps AF-S, 60 fps AF-C electronic
- Number of recordable images; RAW + JPEG more than 160 images; JPEG more than 200 images
- Flash sync: 1/250
- Photo style: Standard / Vivid / Natural / L. Classic Neo / Flat / Landscape / Portrait / Monochrome / L. Monochrome / L. Monochrome D / L. Monochrome S / LEICA Monochrome / Cinelike D2 / Cinelike V2 / Like709 / V-Log / REAL TIME LUT / Hybrid Log Gamma / My Photo Style 1-4 (5-10)
- Card slots: dual slots compatible with UHS-I ,UHS-II UHS Speed Class 3
- Wireless: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery life: Approx. 370 images, 1300 Power Save mode using an SD card
- Dimensions: Approx. 134.3 x 102.3 x 90.1 mm / 5.29 x 4.03 x 3.55 inch (Body only, excluding protrusions)
- Weight: Approx. 658g / 1.45 lb (Body, Hot Shoe Cover, Battery, SD Memory Card x 1) (excluding body cap)
- Operating temperature: -10oC to 40oC (14oF to 104oF)