@@ToddBannor no in the documentation, I found a remark in this review and in one german review. www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dc-g9-ii-review
I agree on the slow startup times. My 2nd irk would be that long exposure/astro shots seam to be worse than my gx8. Not sure if this is due to DR boost not working with long exposure or increased heat due to the new sensor. But otherwise love the G9ii and the images im getting
I have that same body on my s5ii. Slow startup times & that rear aperture dial gets bumped all the time. I’ve set operational lock on the front function button to combat this. That 16 inch softball sounds interesting. I grew up in Minneapolis I don’t remember it there
I haven't run into the dial problem. 16 inch softball is popular in Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans and Portland, OR. So most people probably haven't heard of it.
Some folks in the comments say the slow initial startup is to save battery. That's fine, but it means that off isn't really off. So maybe someone can't point us to Panasonic documentation on this. What I've found online is the issue also affects the S5II. The S5I seems to have the issue as well, but not to the extent the S5II and G9II have it. If this is an actual characteristic of the camera, it should be in the product documentation. If it isn't, comments about it are just supposition.
One thing I do not like is how much the hand held high res mode fails with long lenses. I think it would be nice if they left a marker to know the lens is not drifting while the composite generates. I also wish they could have left the 6k post focus modes from the g9. Everything else I love. I jumped from the g9 and it is so much easier to take pictures or small birds now 😅
@@ToddBannor It was surprising, because I have heard positive reviews of the mode. I had a belted king fisher at a good distance and tried about 10 times withe the 100-400mm ii and failed all of them. Can only reliably use it at least on a monopod for anything that is far.
Many thanks for sharing your experience. My take out is that that G9II is FANTASTIC. i'm a G9 owner and for an enthusiast like me i think MFT is a superior choice for many (I also own a 5DIII and a bunch EF lenses for shallow DOF duties). Regarding the start up lag, it made me think back to film days when we would start shooting only to find we are at the end of the roll; the 'spare' roll we thought we had packed was used, undeveloped roll; and we were a decent drive from a shop to buy a new roll! Alas, our expectations are pretty high today. Based on the sample images and videos I have seen from the G9II, it really closes the gap on APSC but is still (understandably) one or 1.5 stops behind the best performing full frame cameras at higher ISOs, with the FF advantage starting from about ISO800/ ISO1600. The problem with the G9 was that noise including colour shifts were evident. The G9II seems to hold the colours much better which is excellent. So I think the G9II is a winner because the ISO noise gap can usually be addressed through a combination of more light (where possible), faster lenses (which are at least affordable and small with MFT) and software. Importantly, the G9II doesn't seem to suffer much from colour shifting until much higher ISO. Does this accord with your experience? Apart from AF, what would be the main G9II features you would miss if you were forced to revert to the original G9?
Great comment. I regularly shoot the G9II up to ISO 6400 with no color issues. I accidentally shot it at ISO 10,000 and the color was still good and the noise was easily dealt with by Topaz Photo AI. There is not much I miss about the original G9. Maybe the 4K Live Crop feature, but if I really want to do this, I can just shoot open gate and crop the video in post using the Ken Burns effect in Final Cut Pro or iMovie and get the same result.
@@ToddBannor hi Todd - many thanks for your reply. That is great news about colour stability up to ISO 10000 and that noise reduction software is working effectively. I guess the residual issues are mainly the additional time required to process the footage and remove noise etc, and also the ‘digital’ look sometimes attributed to MFT vs the ‘full frame look’. Having said that, it seems to me (again based on observations of others’ footage) that the images from the G9II are less ‘digital’ compared with the G9 and definitely MFT cameras with lower quality sensors. Any observations on these points?
Thank you very much for sharing, Please help :) : i.m still on the fens with the G9ii, have a G95 and use it mostly with the 50-200mm .P.L to photograph Butterflies during monitoring outings, have extremely hard times to AF on usually small butterflies (~0.5"+ and sometimes pale or gray when wings folded up) which are quite active and many times i really need to get the shot in order to identify the butterfly, the small butterfly looks always blurry (like on-purpose especially blurry...) on vegetation or on the ground, i tried everything from your and Graham Houghton guides but always have to resort to override the AF with slight focus ring move encouragement to "help" the camera to decide to AF (much better on the 50-200 then the 45-200 with it's by-wire focus). this action takes precious time and difficult because the butterfly is so blurred or faint that it looks like part of the vegetation or very far from the focus plane, if someone tells me that the g9ii solved this issue in the AF system or by using the Focus Near/Far option i may pull the trigger since i like the menu system, large EVF and better low light capability. This Focus issue looks sometimes to my unprofessional eye/mind like the firmware/features are incomplete or deliberately cut for marketing since the butterfly looks to be isolatedly blurry among very very close objects that look quite sharp...
Have you tried setting a focus point and adjusting it to the smallest size? You can use the touch screen to set it and the top back dial to adjust size. It’s how I do it.
@@ToddBannor yes-tryed all your recommendations, what is not understanable is that even in spot(small cross) AF mode the camera "insists to not detect" the butterfly even it is supposes just to tell the distance without any type of detection... thanx for helping🙏
Another suggestion. Lumix cameras have always had an issue, whether DFD or phase detect, with focusing on something close when the previous focus point was more distant. One thing you can do is focus on some nearby foliage without a single point selected to get it in the ballpark. Then tap the screen for a single point and focus on the butterfly. It's an extra step but it helps. Also, the G9II has built-in focus limitation settings, so you can set it to near to help with this.
@@ToddBannor Thanks for the tip on the G9i AF, i may have tried your spesific af suggestion (can't remember all of my experiments...) but will give it a nother chance and report here, as a method it is problematic for me to use on so many sunny and bright days, my first reaction is to go for the EVF...
@@ToddBannor Hello Todd, Tested the use of the screen and tap to focus on the Butterflies, it worked about the same success as with the EVF But had lots of issues with the screen going black as soon i got bit closer to verify what i see, without a will to use only the screen had no choice but to return to use the fastest method i can master which is a use of centered smallest single area AF (not customized from the matrix) with Lens manual focus override and focus assist PIP magnification, this action really doubles as "focus near" feature. Sadly it's extremely difficult to find new Lumix cameras on stores here - FF and MFT alike (problems with Importer) may pull the trigger if i find a deal on OB G9ii at B&H like with my P.L 50-200mm. Thanks very much for helping.
I've missed several video shots on the GH6 because the screen boots up quickly, but it won't start recording until about 5 seconds later, and if the record button is pressed in the window, it gets ignored. It's probably checking the memory cards, but even so, it should register that the record button was pressed and start when ready.
Vivid is a botched photo style, in my opinion, for almost anything. About the first startup time, honestly, I turn it on to check the space on the SD cards at the beginning, so it is a non-issue for me and I think for 99% of the use cases.
Could be for some folks, but I download my cards after every assignment and format them. I think in this day and age startup shouldn’t be as slow or slower than a camera I had in 2005.
@@ToddBannor I've seen the deep sleep comment. Not sure really. Just a few days ago I turned it on and thought the battery was dead. Changed the battery. Still didn't come right on. A few seconds later it came on.Thanks for bringing this issue up. Good question.
@@ToddBannor Sean on Lumix Live said the camera is made that way to save the battery. Like a deep sleep mode. I like saving battery life so for the 5 seconds it is no problem.
Yes, I mention that in the follow up video. But it would be nice for Panasonic to include this in their documentation. Otherwise, as can be seen from some comments, people think there is something wrong with the camera.
See update in the description.
Todd, I always find your videos both informative and entertaining.
@@ThatMicro43Guy Thank you Brian!
it‘s a „deep sleep“ mode to extend battery life. the internal computing stuff sucks too much energy. once the G9II is awake, all is fine
It’s a deep sleep mode when the camera is turned off?
@@ToddBannor yes, after a long off-period
Can you point us to Panasonic documentation specifying this?
@@ToddBannor no in the documentation, I found a remark in this review and in one german review.
www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dc-g9-ii-review
Great to see that you are enjoying your new camera.🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Great follow up, Todd. Glad you're still digging it and I don't miss your DFD talking head shots haha. 😂
Thank you Shane! Yeah, you can see the G95 DFD wobble in the lamp behind me.
I agree on the slow startup times. My 2nd irk would be that long exposure/astro shots seam to be worse than my gx8. Not sure if this is due to DR boost not working with long exposure or increased heat due to the new sensor. But otherwise love the G9ii and the images im getting
I have that same body on my s5ii. Slow startup times & that rear aperture dial gets bumped all the time. I’ve set operational lock on the front function button to combat this. That 16 inch softball sounds interesting. I grew up in Minneapolis I don’t remember it there
I haven't run into the dial problem. 16 inch softball is popular in Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans and Portland, OR. So most people probably haven't heard of it.
@@ToddBannor very interesting I’ll have to look into it. Living in Tampa these days
On the GH6 and the S5ii, I found the camera to be VERY slow to bring up the last photo after pressing the play button.
I need to check this.
Some folks in the comments say the slow initial startup is to save battery. That's fine, but it means that off isn't really off. So maybe someone can't point us to Panasonic documentation on this. What I've found online is the issue also affects the S5II. The S5I seems to have the issue as well, but not to the extent the S5II and G9II have it. If this is an actual characteristic of the camera, it should be in the product documentation. If it isn't, comments about it are just supposition.
One thing I do not like is how much the hand held high res mode fails with long lenses. I think it would be nice if they left a marker to know the lens is not drifting while the composite generates. I also wish they could have left the 6k post focus modes from the g9. Everything else I love. I jumped from the g9 and it is so much easier to take pictures or small birds now 😅
I haven't tried the hand held high res yet. I need to do this. Good to know about the long lens problem.
@@ToddBannor It was surprising, because I have heard positive reviews of the mode. I had a belted king fisher at a good distance and tried about 10 times withe the 100-400mm ii and failed all of them. Can only reliably use it at least on a monopod for anything that is far.
Many thanks for sharing your experience. My take out is that that G9II is FANTASTIC. i'm a G9 owner and for an enthusiast like me i think MFT is a superior choice for many (I also own a 5DIII and a bunch EF lenses for shallow DOF duties).
Regarding the start up lag, it made me think back to film days when we would start shooting only to find we are at the end of the roll; the 'spare' roll we thought we had packed was used, undeveloped roll; and we were a decent drive from a shop to buy a new roll! Alas, our expectations are pretty high today.
Based on the sample images and videos I have seen from the G9II, it really closes the gap on APSC but is still (understandably) one or 1.5 stops behind the best performing full frame cameras at higher ISOs, with the FF advantage starting from about ISO800/ ISO1600.
The problem with the G9 was that noise including colour shifts were evident. The G9II seems to hold the colours much better which is excellent.
So I think the G9II is a winner because the ISO noise gap can usually be addressed through a combination of more light (where possible), faster lenses (which are at least affordable and small with MFT) and software.
Importantly, the G9II doesn't seem to suffer much from colour shifting until much higher ISO. Does this accord with your experience?
Apart from AF, what would be the main G9II features you would miss if you were forced to revert to the original G9?
Great comment. I regularly shoot the G9II up to ISO 6400 with no color issues. I accidentally shot it at ISO 10,000 and the color was still good and the noise was easily dealt with by Topaz Photo AI.
There is not much I miss about the original G9. Maybe the 4K Live Crop feature, but if I really want to do this, I can just shoot open gate and crop the video in post using the Ken Burns effect in Final Cut Pro or iMovie and get the same result.
@@ToddBannor hi Todd - many thanks for your reply. That is great news about colour stability up to ISO 10000 and that noise reduction software is working effectively.
I guess the residual issues are mainly the additional time required to process the footage and remove noise etc, and also the ‘digital’ look sometimes attributed to MFT vs the ‘full frame look’.
Having said that, it seems to me (again based on observations of others’ footage) that the images from the G9II are less ‘digital’ compared with the G9 and definitely MFT cameras with lower quality sensors. Any observations on these points?
Thank you very much for sharing, Please help :) :
i.m still on the fens with the G9ii, have a G95 and use it mostly with the 50-200mm .P.L to photograph Butterflies during monitoring outings, have extremely hard times to AF on usually small butterflies (~0.5"+ and sometimes pale or gray when wings folded up) which are quite active and many times i really need to get the shot in order to identify the butterfly, the small butterfly looks always blurry (like on-purpose especially blurry...) on vegetation or on the ground, i tried everything from your and Graham Houghton guides but always have to resort to override the AF with slight focus ring move encouragement to "help" the camera to decide to AF (much better on the 50-200 then the 45-200 with it's by-wire focus). this action takes precious time and difficult because the butterfly is so blurred or faint that it looks like part of the vegetation or very far from the focus plane, if someone tells me that the g9ii solved this issue in the AF system or by using the Focus Near/Far option i may pull the trigger since i like the menu system, large EVF and better low light capability.
This Focus issue looks sometimes to my unprofessional eye/mind like the firmware/features are incomplete or deliberately cut for marketing since the butterfly looks to be isolatedly blurry among very very close objects that look quite sharp...
Have you tried setting a focus point and adjusting it to the smallest size? You can use the touch screen to set it and the top back dial to adjust size. It’s how I do it.
@@ToddBannor yes-tryed all your recommendations, what is not understanable is that even in spot(small cross) AF mode the camera "insists to not detect" the butterfly even it is supposes just to tell the distance without any type of detection... thanx for helping🙏
Another suggestion. Lumix cameras have always had an issue, whether DFD or phase detect, with focusing on something close when the previous focus point was more distant. One thing you can do is focus on some nearby foliage without a single point selected to get it in the ballpark. Then tap the screen for a single point and focus on the butterfly. It's an extra step but it helps.
Also, the G9II has built-in focus limitation settings, so you can set it to near to help with this.
@@ToddBannor Thanks for the tip on the G9i AF, i may have tried your spesific af suggestion (can't remember all of my experiments...) but will give it a nother chance and report here, as a method it is problematic for me to use on so many sunny and bright days, my first reaction is to go for the EVF...
@@ToddBannor Hello Todd, Tested the use of the screen and tap to focus on the Butterflies, it worked about the same success as with the EVF But had lots of issues with the screen going black as soon i got bit closer to verify what i see, without a will to use only the screen had no choice but to return to use the fastest method i can master which is a use of centered smallest single area AF (not customized from the matrix) with Lens manual focus override and focus assist PIP magnification, this action really doubles as "focus near" feature. Sadly it's extremely difficult to find new Lumix cameras on stores here - FF and MFT alike (problems with Importer) may pull the trigger if i find a deal on OB G9ii at B&H like with my P.L 50-200mm. Thanks very much for helping.
I've missed several video shots on the GH6 because the screen boots up quickly, but it won't start recording until about 5 seconds later, and if the record button is pressed in the window, it gets ignored. It's probably checking the memory cards, but even so, it should register that the record button was pressed and start when ready.
That's interesting. I wonder if they changed it on the G9II so the screen stays dark until it can record.
Vivid is a botched photo style, in my opinion, for almost anything.
About the first startup time, honestly, I turn it on to check the space on the SD cards at the beginning, so it is a non-issue for me and I think for 99% of the use cases.
Could be for some folks, but I download my cards after every assignment and format them. I think in this day and age startup shouldn’t be as slow or slower than a camera I had in 2005.
if it saves battery I can live with it
If the camera is turned off, there shouldn't be much battery drain. If there is, off isn't off.
@@ToddBannor I've seen the deep sleep comment. Not sure really. Just a few days ago I turned it on and thought the battery was dead. Changed the battery. Still didn't come right on. A few seconds later it came on.Thanks for bringing this issue up. Good question.
@@ToddBannor The G9II is on sale at B&H by the way.
@@ToddBannor Sean on Lumix Live said the camera is made that way to save the battery. Like a deep sleep mode. I like saving battery life so for the 5 seconds it is no problem.
Yes, I mention that in the follow up video. But it would be nice for Panasonic to include this in their documentation. Otherwise, as can be seen from some comments, people think there is something wrong with the camera.