I like to describe love as a caterpillar that stumbles over itself past the cocoon stage to become the butterfly in your stomach. It isn’t perfect, and the Panasonic S9 isn’t perfect either. But it’s so gorgeous I had to use it just to know what its shutter sounded like. And for the first time, I’ve experienced an electronic shutter that whispers Persian poetry in my ear. Shooting with it is kind of like working like Daido Moriyama — and shooting blind. You might need an EVF but if you’ve done enough work on yourself as a photographer to be so in tune with the focal length that you’re using, then you realize that you won’t need it. The Panasonic S9 is a camera that’s targeted at being more entry-level, but it caters to a cadre of photographers who see but don’t look. These photographers can see something in front of them, connect their emotional side to their technical side, and take photographs. At the same time, it doesn’t want to come off as something just for the more regal shooters amongst us. It wants to be held by you too.