Panasonic Lumix S9 image leak spoils tiny, slow 26 mm pancake prime lens, articulating screen coming for full-frame creator camera
The upcoming Panasonic Lumix S9 has been leaked before to be launched alongside a 18–40 mm zoom lens, but the latest leaks have recently spilled the beans on more details about the launch, including a new pancake prime lens that is slated to launch alongside the Lumix S9 combo.
A leak from Andrea Pizzini (video embedded below) claims a new compact pancake prime lens will join the previously leaked pancake zoom lens, although both new lenses will only be available for purchase around September, despite being developed alongside and for the Lumix S9. The existence of this lens is corroborated by a subsequent leak revealing a promotional image of the 26 mm prime lens mounted to the Lumix S9. In the recent leaks of the claimed Lumix S9 images, the compact camera can be seen in a number of retro-inspired colourways, with the presumably leatherette material on the body coming in at least a deep red and green.
The new pancake prime will supposedly be a 26 mm lens with an aperture of F/8.0, which is almost certainly a sacrifice that had to be made to reach a desired form factor — one that allegedly makes the whole package of camera and lens smaller than the Fujifilm X100VI — on the full-frame sensor. Although Pizzini, who claims to have seen and used the Lumix S9 and the new 26 mm prime, says that the combination is "more than the sum of its parts," the limited aperture will undoubtedly make the lens a tough sell for anyone looking to do anything outside of video work or shooting in bright daylight.
To be fair to Panasonic, the F/8.0 aperture should be fairly usable in a lot of scenarios, as long ISO is bumped up, but the Panasonic Lumix S5II (curr. $1,799.99 at Best Buy), which will supposedly share its full-frame sensor with the upcoming Lumix S9, has a bit of a reputation for getting noisy at higher ISO. This high-ISO performance is exemplified by the DPReview studio scene, where the Lumix S5II starts to fall behind its competitors at 6400 ISO already.
