The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 9mm F1.7 ASPH
That’s too much of a mouthful for a name. It seems like, of all companies, Camera manufacturers seem to embrace the most ridiculously long model names. Car companies know better, they know a snappy name like “Mustang” provides better purpose than “Ford Sports Car, 5.0 2 Door.” In fact, Playstation has been indexing the same name since the venerable PS1.
All that aside, this is a users review of some time with the Lumix 9mm. I’m not a benchmark tester, or even any longer a professional photographer. Just an enthusiast who’s used a few wide angle lenses over time.
I’ve shot with Micro 4/3’s for a while now. I used the G7 and the 25mm f1.7 almost alone to shoot my documentary GOOSECHASE. After I secured a deal on a used G9, I felt it was time to realize my long awaited desire of a wide angle lens. Fortunately, not too long before, Lumix had released the 9mm to rather positive reviews. With a field of view equivalent to 18mm on full frame, and with a wide aperture of 1.7, I was confident that the lens would deliver. The fact it was weather sealed to some degree, just like my G9, was merely icing on the cake.
As you can see above, my first few shots with the 9mm were nonsense in the woods. The truth is that shooting with an ultrawide takes a new way of seeing, and although I’d used this rough focal length a great deal in the past, I was far out of practice. However my first few shots confirmed two things - the lens was sharp, and even with such a wide FOV it could deliver a slight blur to the background if used properly.
In addition I found the lens to be ideal for nighttime photography. I’m no astro buff, but thanks to long nights in the Canadian winters, I do love being able to shoot in very low light with a tripod, the wide aperture of the 9mm lens works perfectly for this.
Slowly I began to see in wide angle again. I experimented with the all important foreground placement, trying to create depth and layers in my images. Here a massive cedar leans over a trail in Elliot Lake, complemented by a moss covered stone.
I also found it to be true that the lens has a remarkably close focus distance. In fact, this mushroom was nowhere near as close as it could have been. However this would have caused the depth of field to become razor thin, and as I was shooting handheld, I could not close my aperture enough in the dim forest to allow that.
Of note - the lens performs very well when shot into a bright light source. In this case, stopped far down, the sunstars are beautiful. It’s not good practice to rely on the dynamic range of a single raw as I did here, but it worked out well enough in my opinion, thanks to the very acceptable latitude in the G9’s files.
On a work trip to the Soo, I felt that the lens finally came into its own, or rather that I had once again regained my skill with an ultrawide. I love this sunset shot at the Gros Cap park, shot just slow enough to allow the water to slightly blur, thanks to the wonderful IBIS of the G9.
Somehow, I’ve been on a bit of a roll with waterfalls lately. Northern Ontario is full of them. Some are barely known, like this beautiful broad one down a long logging road outside Elliot Lake. Here the 9mm let me capture the entire falls (nearly), and paired with a stellar 10 stop by K and F concept, I was able to shoot nearly a 60 second exposure. Surprisingly, stopping down to the extremes does little to damage image quality. I found on the 25mm that anything past f11 became noticeable softer, however the 9mm holds together very well.
So, in short, I find this to be a fantastic lens. The price is very reasonble. It is small and weather sealed. It accepts standard filters, is sharp, and only vignettes slightly wide open - hardly a problem as I find that, when blurring the background, I nearly always add some vignette in post regardless. Light, affordable and high quality. Lumix struck it out of the park with this one. Micro 4/3 is far from dead.