The Panasonic Lumix S9 has finally come out into the wild to a mixture of both excitement and skepticism. Sporting a full-frame sensor in a body so small, it’s already been panned for an identity crisis: is it trying to be a pro powerhouse or an entry-level camera? Many think, as we do at Tom’s Guide, that it doesn’t entirely please either camp-lacking some of the advanced features pros would want, yet still somewhat too complicated for rank beginners. Being a devoted Panasonic user, and specifically a Lumix GH7 owner, some obvious ways the S9 could carve its niche-if only it borrowed a few pages from its M43 brethren-present themselves.
M43 Lens Philosophy Unleashed
One of the core strengths of the Micro Four Thirds system is the availability of incredibly compact and versatile lenses. While full-format systems often fall into the trap of racing toward the largest aperture (think f/1.4, f/1.2), they occasionally forget about offering light, walk-around lenses-the perfect companions for travel, street, and landscape photography. This is a place where the S9 can make its unique contribution to the market.
Lightweight Full-Frame Lenses: A Call for Compactness
Panasonic should take a page from the M43 playbook and develop compact, lightweight full-frame lenses, just like Olympus did with their M.Zuiko 12-100mm f/4 Pro and Panasonic with their 12-60mm f/2.8-4. These lenses, though not the fastest, are made for portability and versatility. The Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO, for example, is a travel companion par excellence, thanks to its incredible range and sharpness. Another example is the Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4, which has shown us that we can have a versatile zoom with excellent image quality in compact form. Such M43 lenses show that a constant aperture is not always necessary to have great performance, but usability and size can take the lead.
Following the trend of full-frame lenses, as noted by DPReview, it’s probably designed with video in mind, placing lower emphasis on optical performance for stills. In most instances, this means larger, heavier lenses optimized for video’s controlled focus breathing and smooth bokeh rather than optimal sharpness across the frame. It just recently brought out the Panasonic Lumix S 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3, and Panasonic may already be on this path. Being touted to be the world’s smallest and lightest full-frame zoom lens, at only 155g weight and 40.9mm length when retracted, shows that they are now beginning to realize how important these are in their full-frame lineup. TechRadar also shoots the wide end of the lens, 18mm, best for vlogging and general content creation. The design and features actually spell out the attempts to heed the demands of users who are clamoring for portability and convenience.
Why is this important?
- Appeal to M43 and APS-C Users: Many photographers, especially those who use M43 and APS-C systems, are accustomed to the benefits of small and light equipment. By providing similarly compact full-frame lens options, Panasonic can attract these users who may be hesitant to switch to full-frame due to the typically larger and heavier gear.
- Everyday Carry: A smaller, lighter system would make one want to carry a camera more often, thus increasing creative opportunities for photography in a very organic manner. According to Micro Four Nerds, the S9 has great potential to be an outstanding “everyday carry” camera. That would be even better with smaller lenses.
- Travel and Street Photography: In travel or street photography, the facility of a compact zoom lens is considered one of the major advantages of travel or street photography. Because in such cameras, without changing the lens, one can click a number of variations.
Software Solution: Tapping into Digital Bokeh and Computational Photography
Though development of compact lenses is necessary, yet another way through which S9 may be made more appealing is via software optimization and most particularly about digital bokeh.
Emulating Shallow Depth of Field
The capability of larger sensors, such as full-frame cameras, to create shallow depth of field. the pleasing blurry effect in the background-is one of its key advantages. This would be tricky or impossible to accomplish with a smaller or variable aperture lens, which is why digital bokeh could help pick up the slack.
This can be overcome by Panasonic through software that simulates the effect of a wider aperture. This is not about adding a simple blur; it’s more about a more sophisticated approach, considering the focal length, subject distance, and lens characteristics to create a more convincing result.
This functionality can take several forms:
- Portrait mode: Following in the footsteps of most modern smartphones, the S9 may also offer a portrait mode enabled by AI that detects the subject and applies what appears to be a real bokeh to the background. Real-time bokeh simulation: It would provide an on-screen or viewfinder preview for adjusting the amount of blur before actually snapping the photo or recording a video.
- Other ideas: This would facilitate some post-processing possibilities about the bokeh effect after having a picture taken in order to grant more creative choices after the snapshot itself was already captured.
- While it’s true that some purists might say digital bokeh can’t replicate the true characteristics of a real wide aperture lens, it would appeal to the target demographic of the S9, geared more toward social media and content creation where the need for technical perfection may not be as high. In fact, other reviews note that the S9 has an extremely enjoyable user experience, especially with real-time LUTs, thus allowing users to focus on the moment rather than technical perfection.
The Role of Hybrid Zoom and Computational Photography
All the same, the S9 is already making use of a hybrid zoom function to expand its reach, and combining it with smart bokeh could make a camera achieve much. As noted by B&H Photo, the 18-40mm lens will be able to zoom into 18-120mm when using this hybrid zoom function, further increasing its versatility and making it even more usable across a wider variety of situations.
Why is this important?
- Smaller Lenses, Big Impact: The S9’s ability to implement creative focus through software means that it can provide the creative control of shallow depth of field even when using smaller, slower lenses. This removes the pressure to always use larger, more expensive lenses to get the desired look.
- Attract New Users: Most photographers migrating from smartphones are used to the convenience of simulated bokeh effects. This would make the S9 more attractive to the target group.
- Further Expand Creative Options: Being able to adjust the amount of background blur before or after shooting may further open up creative options with the camera and foster experimentation.
Controversy
It is important to realize that these suggestions are likely to be controversial. Some photographers simply believe that software cannot replace the optical qualities of a lens and will reject these suggestions out-of-hand. For many photographers, there is considerable debate between bokeh quality when generated by software versus that from a wide-aperture lens. The purists say that true bokeh has its characteristics derived from the design and physical properties of the lens. Very often, the way in which a lens renders out-of-focus areas provides much more pleasing and natural-looking blur rather than the “artificial” look one can sometimes see with computational methods. It is also argued that software bokeh can, at times, appear unnatural or in the form of “cut-out” around the subject. Also, excessive reliance on software may result in the technology not being developed any further as the manufacturer may focus more on software rather than coming out with better optics.
With modern technology and fast processing capabilities, the software-based solution might deliver surprising goodness to those in need. Additionally, with further improvements of AI technology, ways of a much more realistic digital bokeh effects open up. More so, as it seems that the users target audience by S9 do not particularly pay for slight bokeh quality variations; rather they pay for easy to use usability where high quality is being delivered on photos captured, targeting content production.
The bottom line is that both quality optics and digital augmentation have a place in today’s camera market, and manufacturers need to be in a position to accommodate the needs of both types of photographers.
Conclusion
The Panasonic S9 could be one of the best cameras, making it popular among a wide range of users. It needs to define its identity and avoid pretending to be everything to everybody. Considering how much the M43 system was all about compact, multi-role lenses, along with some really smart software tricks like digital bokeh, Panasonic could turn out a seriously singular and tantalizing full-format option. Using the very heart of what worked so well in the M43 system to build on their success within the full-format market. Admittedly more controversial, these suggestions provide a roadmap for Panasonic in the design of a camera that is technologically advanced yet highly practical, creative, and user-friendly. It is with such revolutionary ideas that the S9 could easily remain more than just another full-format camera; it could make a foray into leading a new genre in hardware and software integration to provide an imaging experience without parallel.
