Today’s Post by Joe Farace
An update from my post: What’s New: A New Camera for Me?
During the paradigm shifts and economic turmoil caused by the pandemic, I was saving my pennies to buy a new digital mirrorless camera. My first choice was the Olympus E-M1X but I don’t think there will ever be enough pennies in my piggy bank to be able to afford one, even now when it’s been discontinued.
I was hesitant to get a Panasonic Lumix GH5 or GH5 II, even though my pal Barry Staver loves shooting his and never had any of the problems that I experienced with my Lumix GH4, although for some reason (knock on wood) they seem to have gone away? With some input from friends whose opinions I respect, I decided on a Lumix G9 also encouraged by an Instant rebate dropping the camera’s price.
I also ordered a third-party battery grip ($59.99 vs $277.99 for Panasonic’s BGG9) along with three extra DMW-BLF19 Lithium-Ion batteries. For more thoughts on battery grips, check out my post Why I Like Battery Grips, when you have time. And if you think adding a battery grip makes the G9 as big as the E-M1X, think again. The E-M1X is 5.8-inches tall; the Lumix G9 with battery grip measures 5.6-inches high.
So how did it go with the Lumix G9? Initially I did test some shots with the new camera in Parker’s O’Brien Park and it worked great. It took pictures and the image quality was observably better than my GH4. Then I took the G9 with battery grip to Cars & Coffee and while I liked the quality of the images that it captured, I didn’t like the way the grip made the camera feel. So I decided not to use the camera/grip combo again. Interestingly, or not, the ergonomics of the Lumix GH4 with its (third party) grip is perfect. Then I put the Lumix G9 away for a few years…
Recently I dusted off the camera, sans grip, to use for my reunion shoot with the wonderful Erin Valakari and—bang zoom—quickly discovered its sensor needed cleaning. After a thorough cleaning by Denver Pro Photo, I used the camera for the follow-up shoot that I had with Erin. One of the images from that shoot is featured today. I also produced a short (three-minute) behind-the-scenes video for my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos based on this session with Erin. The direct link to this 18+ Age Restricted video is here.
How I Made this Portrait: I photographed Erin in my home studio using a Paul C. Buff DigiBee with a Plume Ltd Wafer softbox placed at camera right. Another DigiBee with a 18-inch OMNI reflector was placed behind a 42 x72-inch Scrim Jim that had a white translucent cover that alternated from being used as a large diffusion scrim with the DigiBee turned on or as a reflector with the DigiBee turned off. In the back of my studio (camera left) was a Paul C Buff Alien Bee with 16 x 30-inch Westcott Apollo Strip soft box used as fill. The background was a Red Apple Colorsmack produced by Silverlake Photo Accessories. The camera was a Panasonic Lumix G9 with a LEICA DG MACRO-ELMARIT 45mm f/2.8 lens with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/9 and ISO 200.
But overall I still had the same feeling about the camera’s ergonomics. I love the photos the Lumix G9 produced but didn’t physically enjoy using the camera. So I‘m going to sell this lightly and hardly used cameras. I’ll even throw in the battery grip and some never-used batteries for it. If you’re interested, click CONTACT and let’s talk.
Some final thoughts; You should know that I never considered a new camera outside of the Micro Four-thirds system so don’t ask me about Fuji or Sony or Nikon or even Canon although I am still somewhat invested in that system and don’t see myself fully retreating from it any time soon.