TRASH in Low Light? LUMIX G9ii Limits Tested
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ธ.ค. 2023
- How does the Lumix G9ii perform in low light situations? I took it out and tested the low light capabilities of the Lumix G9ii in a very real, everyday situation, a Christmas light walk.
I tested out several different color profiles at different ISO ranges. I think I found the limit on what the G9ii can handle.
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I’m 70 years old and bought the G9II just for video. I appreciate your videos so much. I need to keep things simple as I’m just not into learning a bunch of new stuff at this point in my life. I want to shoot video and not overthink things like Vlog, etc. Seeing how great this looks in Natural was really encouraging to me. Thank you, Caleb, for sharing your expertise.\
You have me beat. I’m 69 and want too keep it simple.
That's actually very impressive for MFT for lowlight at only 2.8 constant aperture. Although many people would agree it is good for MFT; many folks are brainwashed with FF shallow DOF and bokeh. It really is astounding how much of a difference of light gathering there is between MFT compared to APSC and FF camera systems. I think if people would just give MFT a chance, then they'd agree that MFT is amazing for what it is as a small, compact camera system.
Yup, went from a7siii to bmcc4k and now getting g9ii . Love mft. My footage is 5x better even with mft
i really do love the versatility of the mft systems
@@OSKVIDCreativemedia Bought my first S5 from a wedding shooter, who went back to MFT. And I respect it 100%. Plenty of pros I know keep at least one MFT body somewhere in their kit.
G9II is super enticing. My dream EDC though is an updated LX100 with a brand new lens. Actually a whole refresh of all the rangefinder bodies would be awesome.
I have both a7sIII and G9II. To give you guys some perspective. The a7sIII has a lot noise reduction at iso 12800. Yes it is clean at 12800 but I can certainly see the image went under quite heavy noise reduction. And G9II v log default is 0 NR. It has very orgranic noise but more noise. If you bump NR to +5 or even +10. I find that kind match the noise reduction degree the a7sIII iso 12800 has. And image become less noise. Even at iso 3200 looks pretty clean. I would say iso 3200 with NR +10 is similar to a7sIII at iso 12800. And to make this even more interesting. iso 3200-10000 from a7sIII looks so bad that G9II blow it out of the water. Yes G9II iso 3200-10000 is a lot better than a7sIII iso 3200-10000. A7sIII really is meant to use ISO up to 1600 and then jump to iso 12800.
😮 love this
I'm very impressed as a daily GH5 TH-camr, how good the G9ii handles high ISO! great test thank you so much for your work, I'm impressed how those m43 systems are getting better and better. greetings !
awesome!
I like to walk cities in the night and do this kind of shots. That's why I added the 12mm/1.4 to the GH5 7 years ago. Today I leave the 12-60 behind when I go out in the evening and have the 12mm/1.4, the 9mm/1.7 and the good old 20mm/1.7 in the bag. Your video shows how much the two additional stops are worth. You can go for ISO 800 instead of 3200. You can go for 4k120p much easier. I also think this is better for walking around than the 10-25/1.7, that is of course better in any other aspect.
When I film slow motion at night, I often switch to 360° shutter angle. This gives a stop more light, thru going light trails and looks better if I don't slow it down.
I think what impresses me most about the G9M2 with pushed ISO levels is how well it accurately renders color compared to some of its predecessors.
The more time I spend looking at reviews of the G9ii, the more convinced I become that I'm one of the few people who wants one to shoot stills lol
Ahaha agreed, there are a few G9ii photo focused videos but mostly video.
I am curious as I shoot video professionally and photos hobbyist, I am interested in the G9ii to also replace my gh5 as my c cam while also doubling as my wildlife and travel camera.
Seems to be a real jack of all trades!
It all looks great, Caleb. I'm a G9 owner looking to keep the G9 but also get the G9II as new primary cam. Thanks for sharing this.
Wow . A very impressive performance. Thanks for this comprehensive video.
Your Punch Lut works very well Caleb, loaded it to my G9 ii, thanks!
Thanks for showing it capabilities and the user tips.
Ordered the G9 II today and traded in one of my OM-1's to finance it, get it somewhere this Friday. Ordered the G9 II mainly for its video capabilities to have the best of both worlds with the OM-1. Considered waiting for the GH7 but I am sure it will be overkill for my videography experience and use. As the G9II is also a great stills camera. Before I've always been an Olympus/OM-system user mainly. It starts becoming more Panasonic crowded here with the G9II, GX9 and the S5 Mark I. Considered upgrading the S5 instead but for my professional use S-AF is fine and I don't have an as broad lens selection for L-Mount as I do for MFT. Don't want to over-invest any more as I am a camera gearaholic😅.
Got the camera since it was released and its simply amazing.... and a beast for making videos..Love my G9II
Cool video! GH6 looks amazing at ISO 4000 and DR Boost on. I was wondering how the G9II would fare with the lower base ISO
Great job as always! I would love to see the results with in camera noise reduction - have you ever tried that?
G’day Caleb mate, happy 2024. As always a great camera review.
Would you recommend this G9ii and a good upgrade camera from my GH5ii ? Cheers Spike Western Australia 🇦🇺✌🏻😎
I must say I am very impressed of your lowlight footage. I would never expect such a quality from a MFT sensor. I own the G9 I and have some trouble in lowlight conditions but it seems that PANASONIC is on a good way.
I think it all looks great. I watched it on a laptop, and it ALL held up well. I'll probably hook it up to my 27" 4K and watch again. For the sort of work I do, it's fine. I seldom need more than ISO 6400. When I do serious work, I bring lights, anyway. I'm sold.
Thanks Caleb for all these recommandations. I will make some new edit allowing the image to be darker than what I make. Since I have a GH5 II and use VLog L all the time, I'll make some new footage soon with both profiles @ f 1.7.
Do you have some recommandation for max ISO on a GH5 II ?
Hey man. Went for an s5iix after your suggestion. Since it's my first camera, it may seem a dumb question bust still: the boxed in "MM" numbers with values from -3 to +3 in the lower row of the minitor are the exposure assist correct? And they are only and indication, they don't actually change anything in the clip as long as I keep everything in manual right?
I liked the 120fps fire shots at the end. I always struggle with focusing in low light, even manually focusing. I wish camera's had some low light tool for focusing.
Hey Caleb, do you notice a difference between the lumix 12-35 and leica 12-35? Is the leica worth the extra cash? thank you brother
I'm still trying to work out how to use LUTS properly and I'm an old fart too 65 LoL but like everything new it takes time to learn, I know how to do most anything with photos but video is more different than I thought it would be I'm slowly getting there and well it's more of a hobby for me though I would like to manage to film my nieces wedding in August and I hope I'll manage to get it down by then not that she's expecting me to do anything but it would be the icing on her cake, thanks for your very informative vlogs. Jim in Liverpool
Hello
I just did a quick test with the VLOG profile at 3200isos with the sigma 16mm f1.4. It's an indoor test at night with just a light wich bounces on the wall.
It's amazing. I just add the color space transform and a bit of denoise in resolve: It looks very good!!
The GH5 was a mess at 3200isos !!
The iso 2000 footage was very impressive. I find ISO 1250 works well for GH5, but 2000 is def too high for it. I would be interested to see how the G9ii goes on a cloudy evening, with grey clouds in shot. I find that in those grey skies you get some of the hardest noise to avoid.
Good video! Agreed, Definitely need to shoot on a Sirui Nighwalker 1.2 or Leica 1.7 in low light with boost on.
Short question.did you apply the luts in post process, or directly by recording? Thanks from Switzerland ❤
What is the difference between real time lut and same lut (panasonic vlog to rec709) applied in post?
Great content as always Caleb, this is the video I was waiting for on this camera.
Question for you if you have the time: if you can get a clean image on the g9ii at iso 1600 in vlog and 2000 in natural, what isos are you able to get a clean image on with on the S5iix in these profiles ? Thanks
you can definitely go higher. the nice thing about the s5ii is that it's dual native iso meaning you have a high frequency iso and low frequency iso. so you can shoot at high frequency iso which is 4000 and it's still native to the camera and will give you a clean image.
@@CalebHoover thanks for your reply
Im considering this camera or the S5IIx or the G9II. I currently have a canon 80D, and some basic primes and a sigma 10 to 20, thoughts?
I'm not heavily invested into any system right now.
Here on TH-cam, it all looked great tbh. Even 10,000 looked alright, just need to know when to use it. The shot of your wife at 4000 was super clean.
Noob question, but when grading/editing footage like this on S5II, should i put the color setting on my monitor to sRGB or DCI-P3?
Maybe it's the TH-cam compression, but dayum, that 10,000iso shot (RealTime LUT - Nicest 809) of the boy looks really clean... I don't see much noise in there at all. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE my a7Siii and it's 12,800iso as I shoot a lot of low light 60fps, but Panasonic is reeling me back in slowly but surely. I never did get rid of my GH5 or my Micro 4/3 gear as I have a feeling I might be making the switch back in the future.
Yeah it looks great to me at the high iso's. What happened with my older less performing cameras, is the blacks would smear out and not usable contrast, but the blacks look black, I don't see activity in the blacks, nothing looks like they have the fuzzies...so from this it looks like its performing a lot better than you're giving it credit.
I have the lumix g9 ii with the panleica 12-60mm f2.8-f4 and I would only use this on daylight settings or indoors with super bright lighting. Otherwise I have the sigma 30mm f1.4 which i would use either for portraits (photo and video) and for lower light scenarios.
yeah having that f1.4 or f.95 would be ideal for this for sure
When you use the ‘natural’ profile, do you make any adjustments to it. Or do you keep it all at ‘0’ ?
Hello, I request you to make a video on Lumix g9 ii autofocus with adapted lenses and the best adapter for them. With the introduction of PDAF I really wonder how sony, nikon, or canon ef lenses would act when adapted.
I have recently purchased the camera but don't have the budget to do the comparison myself and try out a variety of adapters, It would be of great help since no one has done such a video.
Thank you so much!!
Does this camera have native ISO, similar to the Sony cameras?
I'm just waking up, so maybe my eyes aren't working right yet, but that all looked pretty good to me for MFT. I think every one of those shots was usable in a pinch. Which is especially impressive at 2.8. Caleb, you would know this better than me, but I feel like most wedding clients (assuming the shots were interesting and well composed) wouldn't even notice this level of noise? I agree with you that the stuff at 2000 and below was better and where I would try to stay, but I feel like if granny was busting a move or something and you had to go to 5000 to capture it, the client likely wouldn't scoff at it and would be happy to have the image? MFT wouldn't be my first choice for weddings, but paired with a s5ii or even an s5 I feel like it would be awesome. I also feel like if all someone had was MFT, they could turn out some great stuff now even in low light. I had to send my g9ii back cause of a defect. Ordered another and can't wait for it to arrive. Thanks for your videos. I missed your channel when I was over in Sony land this last year. lol. Good to be back.
we definitely like to pixel peep on youtube and you're right, in 90% of situations, these images would be totally fine. just some higher end client work, you might want to be careful but like i said in the vid, this is an everyday carry cam for me and i'm not using it for client work, so all of this would be great in my eyes especially cleaning it up in post - also, welcome back to lumix land haha
does the g9ii get streaking like the GH6 in high dr occasions.
I like my G9m2 so much that I've relegated my GH6 to the shelf. And, I think, like you I can't decide between a Rec709 colour Profile or vLOG in low light becaue the camera is that good. MTF cameras have come a long way since my GH4. My mate's S5m2 still win's hands down in low light, and so it should. Physics is still physics and a Full-Frame sensor will laugh at a MFT but I'm more than happy with the results of my G9m2.
However I still don't see the point of an in-camera baked in LUT. A display LUT, I understand.
Why bake-in something and then limit your options in "The Edit" for the sake of the illusion of speed?
In the "Edit", tomorrow or even years down the road, you have so many options if you shoot/exposing with a Display LUT and vLOG. Fashions change and if you've baked in your colours then you won't be able to adapt your footage with the Cool Kids for the sake of saving a few seconds to your editing workflow.
I have never been picky about noise before. Recently it started to bother me a bit, but... Still, with a fair amount off NR in DR, I would say I would still use m43 footages with ISO6400 or even 12800 in emergency situations. Looks acceptable to me and I will use additional film grain anyway
I personally own the predecessor, the g9, and really enjoy that camera, picture quality, improved autofocus (compared to g85 it's vastly improved) and video capabilities.
Besides the major upgrade in autofocus your video shows how capable the g9II is in low light. In combination with 1.4 or even 1.7 budgetfriendly primelenses the results should be even more impressive. None of the clips looks like bad digital noise to me and we used to have a lot of filmgrain with high iso analog film. To be honest, I don't really understand the obsession of footage having to be noisefree. Filmcompanies ad grain to movies to make it look more natural. I know that is filmgrain and not noise, but some noise looks quite a lot like filmgrain to me.
I'm on a budget, so I won't buy the g9II now, but she is on my list for later. 🙂
Can you compare the g9ii to the gh7?
Hey Caleb. I am a rookie on this VLOG / Rec709 topic and by the way, also a rookie using my GH6, I am more a GoPro user for my outdoor adventures. On timeline 7:35 you mention that the camera setting is VLOG to Rec709, what does it mean? I use Final Cut Pro to edit my GoPro footage, but now that I have a GH6 I am recording in VLOG. When I go to to Final Cut Pro to color grade my VLOG footage I go to settings and on "Camera LUT" I choose "Panasonic V-Log" and it brings color to the footage. However, just on top of that "Camera LUT" dropdown, there is another option that reads "Color Space Override" that by default is set to "OFF". When you click on that dropdown you'll see some options including "Rec.709". I've noticed that when I click on the "Rec.709", the colors of the footage pop up and look nicer than with only the "Panasonic V-Log" LUT. I am not sure if I should just keep the "Panasonic V-Log" LUT and work the color grading or should I keep the "Panasonic V-Log" LUT and the "Rec.709" together and work the color grading. Thank you buddy! Great G9ii test.
it just means that i shot in vlog but when i edited, i converted the footage to rec709 with the panasonic vlog to rec709 convert lut - probably would be best to shoot in vlog and convert in post
I do weddings and other event work with the 2.8. It works well, and I use a light sometimes as well. photographers use flashes, why can't videographers use lights? That said, I do enjoy my faster lenses more in low light situation. Like my 25 1.4, and my 45 1.7.
Caleb, are you intentionally balancing your audio slightly to the left for your talking scenes? I noticed on some of your videos. B-roll music sounds fine. Cheers!
when i edit is seems balanced then put it on youtube and it's off - i dunno
I like JUST Panasonic rec 709 mode, then use V log in Resolve, and adjust to DR taste. its amazing oh on a gh6 btw. yes gh5 , never above 1600. gh6? like g9II, you can boost ISO a lot and very little noise. Congrats Lumix on that amazing 25.2 mp 4.3 sensor.
How it compares to the om-1?
its not bad to use those iso settings, what about over 6400 iso, like 8000 or 12800?
Before I switched to the S5 and now S5iix, I had the MK1 G9 with a bunch of Leica lenses. I highly recommend the Leica 10-25 F1.7 and dne 42, 5mm F1.2. Absolutely amazing lenses. Leica 25-50mm F1.7 came out after I already sold the g9 but I guess its amazing too
After using MFT/ APSC/ Full frame mirrorless, the versatility of MFT is king. My G9 is still my main camera. When in tough situations, I grab my Nikon D810. So funny- we all moved away from DSLR because they were heavy, bulky, unwieldy, slow. They provided 12+ stops of dynamic range, great auto focus, and 40+ mega pixels, but consumers valued convenience, usability, portability, and more in the 2010s.
Now the market has been moving BACK to these massive DSLR style, slow read out speeds, full frame, mirrorless cameras... that STILL don't even compare to DSLRs from 2015! Haha. So weird! Like, if dynamic range and bokeh is all you people care about, go grab a DSLR from 2014 for a couple hundo. Bam, done. Saved ya $2,000. Lenses are cheap too! I mean there is a reason pro photographers/videographers at Disney properties all use Nikon D610 or D750s to this day.
For those really rare occurrences where my MFT won't provide usable pro shots, I'll keep shooting my dinosaur that I paid 300 dollars for, that has more DR and megapixels than 99% of full frame mirrorless cameras on the market when I run into those extremely specialized situations, while I use my MFTs for 95% of the normal time.
If you ever get a chance to test HLG in low light I'd really appreciate it.
I think that also at 12.000 iso the result is excellent the 210 thumb up is mine - low light anyway is when there is no light at all in the frame I mean not a lamp inside the frame - for instance, sometimes I video record the moon and I have to position iso at 250 Iso because the moon is very bright so also a lamp can condition the video test if there are shadow and lamp around together into the frame so the real best test is nonartificial lights in the frame
I want a microphone there's user and I just got to be frank and say if you're going to be shooting doesn't look like you're zooming at all. Why are you using a 2.8 lens? You're going to have that issue what you should be shooting with since it's wide angle. The 17 mm prime lens for shooting videos would be optimal for the situation. It's smaller, more compact and it's going to let a lot more light in.
Will the GH6 ever get the REAL TIME LUT feature really?
with the gh7 round the corner and the gh6 on offer currently , the g9ii is kind of in a weird spot right now
Speedbooster and lens that goes down to F1.2 with ISO 1600 you probably end up overexposing a lot of stuff, thats at least my experience with the G9, I overexposed the milky way doing this which is good because then I can increase shutter speed.
I guess youtube isn't a great judge here but I'm not really seeing the issues you mention when going over ISO 2000, the high iso footage looks okay to me on this video. I mean noise itself is no different than film grain, the nasty noise is the color splotchy kind. But I'm not seeing that in this video so, my impression was not going over 6400 for photos, but not sure about video. Seeing here even 12800 didn't look ghastly with blacks etc all washed out or anything.
How it compares to GH6 low ligh capabilities?
better i think
I would like a proper conclusion at the end of the video on your thoughts overall about the topic. Sure I can look at the footage in the video, but this is one sample, whereas you have obviously much more experience dealing with low light with the camera than I do. Nice video, but lacks proper conclusion I would say
I'm currently shooting with the FX30. But, I miss the skin tones from Panasonic. To me they seem more natural. With Sony, I'm often wrestling with skin tones depending on the LUT or color profile I use. Plus, seeing the S5iix come out, I am drawn back to Panasonic. And since both the G9ii and the S5iix can record to SSDs, that's also a huge feature to me. Having had the BMPCC4K, I was spoiled by being able to record to SSDs. It's great not having to worry about running out of storage space when filming. Right now, I feel like I would be happy with either the G9ii or the S5iix. I've subscribed especially to follow your journey with LUMIX since I am thinking about joining the family again.
Hi from Switzerland
The zcam E2M4 is mft and has good iq even at iso 25600. Only beaten by A7S3.
Watching all of this footage on TH-cam, everything seemed usable. I would argue that a little grain even makes the footage more filmic and less video like… Criticism of this cameras image quality is truly a first world problem, few clients or audiences would know enough to say anything negative about the results, and even then it could be calked up to artistic vision…
I think professionalism is simply a buzzword people like to use to seem important or knowledgeable. This camera is fine, if not better, so ZERO worries…
🤔
Considering how capable the 1st G9 is in low light, I'm not at all surprised by the performance of the G9 II. I think people just have quite the misconception when it comes to MFT.
I was thinking the same. I have set the upper ISO limit of the G9 to 1600. 2000 ISO is a welcome step forward. But I wouldn't be surprised the G9ii is much better than the G9 at high ISO.
I'm not that impressed... I would like to see what an OM-1 does in similar situations, specifically regarding color rendering.
Just here to help out the algo
I prefer Lumix S5 Mark 2 to Lumix GMark2. Because if you shoot 25/24 or 30fps, S5 Mark 2 is always beat G9 Mark 2. And their price is very very near. Why am I choose G9 mark 2? Only 120 fps? I think that G9 Mark 2 is a GH6 killer camera. Thats why, every GH6 users sell and buy G9 mark 2. I think that panasonic have to add Braw internal shooting capabilities to GH6. Because it has fan system. And it can be work. Or Gh6 legend will die forever...
If portability is not an issue and if you don't shoot super-telephoto, then I think the s5ii is definitely the way to go. But I vastly prefer the lightweight and relatively cheaper lens options of MFT. Yes, uncropped high frame rates are also a bonus. Personally, if I only wanted to shoot up to 70mm I wouldn't bother going for MFT anymore. But once you start shooting above 70mm the lenses start to get much heavier and more expensive. For me that is the continued selling point for mft. Also, personally I hate the corner wobble of the full frame stabilization. G9 mark ii stabilization is bonkers good. But in a perfect world, I'd want both cameras as the S5ii destroys the g9ii in low light. In truth, I'd feel spoiled with either camera compared to what would could get even a few years ago.
@@nolannatashaTV Yes, I think so. That's why I bought Lumix S5 mark 2. Lumix s 50 mm f1.8 and 20-60 kit lens are enough for me. If you shoot only video, S5Mark2X is the best choice then. Telephoto features of G9 Mark 2 is very well, you are right. But I think that new osmo pocket 3 cameras and some action cameras beat G9 mark 2 for the stabilization issue. Panasonic has to decrease the price of the G9 mark 2. That price is very high for this camera.
love this convo! it definitely just comes down to what you need for the type of content you're making
4K60 and 4K120 without crop.
g9II overheats. yes I said overheats. great camera but run it a while and she shuts down with overheat warning. not a prob with my gh6 and 5. g9II not a good choice if you record longer events like weddings, concerts, etc. but if that don't matter, it's a hell of a camera for the money.
overheating Caleb. g9II wonderful camera. however, no fan. hence weddings, long events? sucker is going to shut down. never had that problem with gh5. heat sink architecture just works. oh the 5 will get warm, but not shut down.
You should be sleeping at night
These types of videos really get on my nerves. You test out low light performance of a camera and apply a LUT?? That is beyond idiotic for numerous reasons, you don't
make any comparable shots with different camera which made anything you say baseless. And your conclusions who should abandon what makes no sense at all because
people that use these types of cameras know what type of lens is adequate for what type of situation. And being that is M4/3 lenses are numerous times more affordable
than FF ones and people tend to have several of them. Basically the fact that you don't know how to use this gear is not cameras fault. Not to mention that for that price range
no one comes close with capabilities. And I have owned and used all sensor sizes, at the moment don't even own m4/3, this is not coming from a fanboy.