Lens Choices for the LUMIX S9…
Introduction
The LUMIX S9 is my favourite camera. It’s a small, full-frame, little beast of a camera that I carry with me everywhere. When this camera was released in 2024 however, it was met with its fair share of negativity which has followed it around ever since.
I made a Reddit account recently and one comment about the S9 that keeps popping up is that there are no compact lens options for this camera. I took this opinion as a bit of a challenge and decided to go on the hunt to find the best, most compact lens setup for my full-frame LUMIX S9 - so let’s talk lenses…
Native LUMIX Lenses
I have a few native LUMIX lenses so let’s start with those.
The LUMIX S 24-60mm f2.8 is a brilliant, brilliant lens. I use it primarily to shoot weddings (and also sometimes to record YouTube videos) but definitely too big for carrying around your neck everyday on the S9.
It’s an excellent lens for professional work both video & photography but it probably weighs more than the body of the LUMIX S9 alone. Check out what it looks like on the S9 below…
I have a few of the native prime lenses like the LUMIX S 18mm, 50mm & 85mm f1.8
Again these great lenses from LUMIX that are actually quite lightweight and very bright. The cool thing about these lenses is that most (if not all) share a filter thread size. I’m dying to get my hands on the 100mm f2.8 macro lens at some point. Keep an eye out for that!
Anyways, size-wise these primes are perfect for the bigger mirrorless cameras like the S1 or S5, but in my opinion they are still a bit big for using on LUMIX S9 body as an everyday setup.
Check out what the LUMIX S 85mm f1.8 looks like on the S9 below…
LUMIX also have a couple of smaller lenses that have been specifically designed to use with the S9 like the LUMIX 18-40mm f4.5-6.3 or the LUMIX S 26mm f8 fixed pancake lens. Both of these lenses are super small and compact and fit nicely on the S9 however the downside is that neither are very bright and (something I didn’t realise until writing this) the 26mm pancake lacks autofocus!
I have to admit that I have not yet used either of these two lenses. I’d be happy to give them a try but I’m not sure either are right for me.
SIGMA Contemporary Lenses
The lens I use with my LUMIX S9 about 90% of the time is the SIGMA 45mm f2.8 DG DN lens which I couldn’t recommend higher. If you’re looking for a well built, compact, bright, autofocus lens for your S9… I don’t think there’s currently another option as good as this one.
I love this lens! Can you tell? It’s sharp, built like a tank and goes great with the LUMIX S9. If you head over to my Instagram the majority of my photographs will have been shot with this lens. See the SIGMA 45mm f2.8 on the LUMIX S9 below…
SIGMA does have other contemporary L-Mount lenses like the 24mm, 35mm, 65mm & 90mm all I think brighter at f2, but as far as I’m aware the 45mm f2.8 is the smallest in size. That being said I have still noticed people commenting that this lens is still not small enough, especially with the lens hood attached. See below…
Third Party Manual Focus Lenses
Going down in size you’ve got the likes of 7Artisans or TTArtisan or other companies like that who make full-frame L-Mount lenses, most of which are manual focus. Personally I think if you’re going down the manual focus lens route, you’ll have way more fun with vintage lenses.
You can check out this YouTube video where I stuck a TTArtisan ‘Fisheye’ lens on my LUMIX S5IIX…
Vintage Lenses
I’ve been collecting vintage lenses only for a few years, with my most recent collection being my M42 Mount lenses. Two lenses in particular I love from this collection on my LUMIX S9 are the Helios 44-2/44M 58mm f2 & Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.4 lens. See below…
Both of these lenses by themselves are small enough to pair with the LUMIX S9 but because they’re not L-Mount lenses, they need an adapter and it’s the adapter that adds the size to the setup.
Check out this video below where I only used vintage M42 lenses on my LUMIX S9 to capture some winter photographs…
LTM/L39 Lenses & Urth Adapters
My search for the perfect tiny vintage lens for the LUMIX S9 took me to Urth’s website which you can check out here https://urth.co/
I found myself looking at the thinnest L-Mount adapters available and I stumbled across an adapter that said M39 Mount which I knew nothing about. After a little research I found out that M39 (like M42) is a screw mount lens system mostly found on old rangefinder lenses.
There are a few different variations but the lenses that interested me the most were the LTM lenses, LTM meaning ‘Leica Thread-Mount’ also known as L39.
Some of these LTM/L39 lenses it turns out are legendary and one in particular stood out to me…
Presenting the Canon 35mm f1.8 LTM/L39…
As soon as I saw this lens and viewed some examples from it, I knew it would be perfect for my LUMIX S9… and it is! This lens is literally from like the 1950s or something like that but it feels like it was made for this camera.
This little tiny lens is bright with a max aperture of f1.8, it's full of soft, vintage, swirly, hazy filmy character when shot wide open and it's really sharp at f5.6/f8 but keeps loads of character in the corners. I think it’s a perfect size for the LUMIX S9. You could have this lens on the adapter, adapter on the camera, camera over your shoulder, and forget it’s even there!
The only downside to this lens that I’ve experienced is that it doesn’t allow you to focus very close. Comparing this lens to my Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.4 lens, the CZJ is practically a macro lens. Something to think about if you’re looking into these LTM lenses for yourself.
Check out some images below from when I first attached the Canon 35mm f1.8 LTM/L39 lens to my LUMIX S9 with my ‘Season’ LUTs loaded…
Conclusion
Is this Canon 35mm f1.8 LTM/L39 the solution to the lack of compact lens options for the LUMIX S9? Well for the average LUMIX S9 user probably not. It’s quite niche to be into shooting with vintage lenses (especially old rangefinder lenses like this one) with a modern digital body (especially ones without a viewfinder) like the LUMIX S9.
Is there still a desire out there for compact, bright, native, autofocus lenses… absolutely! However if you’re looking for a tiny, fun, vintage, beautiful looking lens to pair with your LUMIX S9 you can’t go wrong with a lens like this!
If this post has helped you in any way, why not leave a little something in the Tip Jar below. It would be massively appreciated!
