The game has changed for surf photography!
For people who require weather sealing, a viewfinder, mechanical shutter and hot shoe,lumix updated(via firmware) the S5 mk II and mkII X models to include hybridZoom.
Both share the same 24mp sensor of the S9.
Recently,Lumix released a high resolution camera body, similar size to the 5 series.it boasts a 43mp BSI sensor capable of high speeds and 8K video.It includes the hybridZoom as well and other newer functions over the 3 lesser resolution models.
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Hey, thats a statement and a half!
Let me explain, last year Panasonic Lumix released a full frame compact body for L mount(Leica owned).
No EVF, no weather sealing, no hot shoe, no mechanical shutter.So many traditional FF shooters said it wasn't suitable for them(and fair enough.)
Those features are not important to me but some of the new features are.
The Lumix S9 has the ability to store up to 39 LUTS(look up tables) in body.So whats a LUT, you may ask?Its just a technical name for a picture profile/film simulation/a preset.Some Luts come standard and others can be created, So the photographer can fine tune the look he likes and store it in the camera body.
What this does is provide an acceptable image thats ready to share online immediately.
THE most important feature for shooting surfing is called HybridZoom, which extends the range of the lens by 3.1 times.So effectively the Panasonic 28-200mm becomes a 28-630mm without any image degradation.The Sigma 60-600mm extends to 1860.the numbers are for still images only.For moving pictures(video) the extension is 1.5x.