The flagship camera of Panasonic’s Lumix lineup, the GH5, has been out for about a year now. Its relatively rave reviews almost always come with a caveat: it’s a bit one-dimensional. While the GH5 is a capable stills camera, it was built for video. So today, Panasonic is tilting the scales the other way with the Lumix G9.
The G9 — which costs $1,699 and goes on sale in January — is a stills-focused powerhouse of a digital camera built on mostly the same architecture as the GH5. It employs the same 20.3-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor, has 5-axis mechanical image stabilization just like the GH5, and Panasonic is using the same image processor — though it’s been tuned for much better stills performance than the GH5, Panasonic says.