Lumix G9 and Mega Files

Panasonic recently released the Lumix G9 as the stills flagship camera. Just received mine and I am exploring new features. Here is an exciting treat that will get you some serious megapixels. It’s called High-Resolution Mode. You can double or quadruple the 20 MP files size. That is correct. The G9 can serve up an eighty Megapixel file.

Below you’ll see my first test shot using the red rocks of Sedona. It doesn’t hurt to live in a place with some beautiful scenery. ; )>

Pictured below is Courthouse Butte in the Village of Oak Creek where the red rocks begin.

straight out of camera photoAbove a RAW file straight out of the camera (SOOC) with no processing in Adobe Camera RAW. (ACR)

ACR processed fileThe image after a little massaging in ACR. Adjustment were made of highlights, shadows, blacks and whites, saturation and vibrance. All settings were changed sparingly, but that led to quite an excellent rendering of the scene.

image with additional processing in luminar 2018Here is the final image after a trip into Luminar 2018 software for a little image enhancement. Settings were adjusted (gently) for clarity, saturation, contrast, highlights, shadows and polarizing filter.

I wasn’t sure how much of much of a difference there would be with the added megapixels. There was a huge difference. With that number of pixels to work with, there is a lot of ‘headroom’ when making adjustments. The base file opens with an approximately 235 MB. That is twenty-six by thirty-six-inch file at 300ppi native. And it looks gorgeous.

You might ask, “How is this possible, Bob?” Here’s how. The camera makes eight exposures while off-setting each capture by one-half pixel then uses that info to render the larger file. Of course, that can be a drawback. You won’t be photographing moving subjects with an 80 MP files size. But… I will be trying that. I see possibilties of artistic captures with moving water, trees in the wind, people moving, or disappearing, in a scene.

I’ll report back with my testing in future posts.

Yours in Creative Photography,      Bob

Photographed with the Lumix G9 and the Leica12-60mm f2.8-4 lens