How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Just curious to see if it's made a discernible difference or if it's caused any problems.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I haven't hacked mine as I am not convinced that there is any point. It only allows you to crank up the recorded bit rate & video already looks pretty decent at the stock 17Mbps. If the price is adding any instability then it's not for me. One reason for doing the hack might be to remove the 30 minute recording limit that we have here in PAL-land although that has never been an issue for me although I am used to the 12 minute limit of Canon DSLRs so 30 minutes seems fine. The one reason that I would hack my GH2 was if it were able to add 25p so that I could easily use footage with my other cameras that are all using 25p.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I agree. While higher bitrates will sometimes translate to slightly nicer looking images, it's just not worth it to me. I had problems with the higher bitrates on my GH1, and I don't need to risk any problems in the middle of a shoot.

Concentrating on other things like lighting, framing, camera angles, and audio will go much further to make the video look better, than cranking up the bitrate.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Yes, I've done it and I think it's amazing! I upped the bit rate from 24kbps to 42kbps. The file size is manageable and my Class 10 card has no trouble keeping up. The quality boost was significant. I tested before and after and it was amazing!

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I would love to see a 'blow by blow' description of how to go about the hack - for the less computer competent amongst us....
And any chance of 25P eventually? Would be most welcome in PAL-land.
Regards - Godfrey

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Do you have some side by side footage for us to compare? I have seen various footage at different higher bit rates but no direct before & after so that you can make a valid comparison. Standard un-hacked 24Mbps looks very good so I really would like to compare footage of the same scene in the same lighting conditions etc The two files need to be as off the camera not compressed to hell by Vimeo.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Sorry, but I don't. The hack only takes 15 minutes to install and you can go back in the same amount of time. I saw the most improvement in my low light/night shots. It was like "night and day" to abuse the pun.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

In what way was it better at night? Less noise? Greater latitude?

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

They are trying to hack the HDMI out. There's a cadence bug that sabotages the feature. HDMI out is the Holy Grail for the GH2 as far as I'm concerned.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I haven't had time to do a side by side with 40+ vs stock 24 but in playing around with the hack it seems to me that there is better detail in the image. It's a subtle difference but unless I'm shooting something that requires long record times I'll probably use the hack from now on.

It wasn't night and day & the DR & noise didn't suddenly improve, if anything the noise might have increased slightly but it's not at all unpleasant & is easily removed with Neat Video if you're so inclined to like that super clean look.

As the hack matures & the settings get dialed in better I don't see any reason not to give it a shot & see for yourself.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Surely a good HD large screen tv is needed if comparisons are to be seen not vimeo or you tube on pc size monitors.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

My only question is this; When I see the footage from the hacked GH2, will my initial reaction be, "Holy Sh*t!"?
If not, I may not bother with the whole affair. To start tampering with my camera, the results need to be pretty amazing. If they are, I'm in.

Evan

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Since the stock 24Mbps encoding is pretty good right out of the box & the hack doesn't suddenly give you HDR kinda dynamic range it would be hard to say that applying the hack to a GH2 makes it vastly superior. The first couple times shooting with the hack I thought it wasn't that big of a deal but the more I keep playing around with it the more I prefer the look I'm getting out of it even if the difference is more nuance than ground breaking.

The big thing about the hack to me is that it allows for flexability that wasn't there before, such as shooting 30p at anything near an acceptable bit rate rather than the crippled 17Mbps stock & allowing you to bump the audio bitrates up if you're in a situation that calls for relying on in-camera audio.

Also, the hack is so darn easy to apply that fear of damaging your camera need not get in your way. I'm in no way a computer genius or a hacker of any sort, luckily guys who are smarter than me had the foresight to dumb the process down to where average Joe's can figure it out & not be left with a pretty paperweight.

Try it on for size, you might just love it. I think it has made an already good & ridiculously cheap imaging system even better and other than needing to put 3 hours of footage on one 32GB card I can't think of a situation where using the hack isn't a better option than stock.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I'm waiting for the hack to 'mature' before I take the plunge, though it seems pretty safe. I'm shooting 60i footage that has to be matched with a Sony FX-1. Hour plus recording times, (theatrical productions), parts well lit, parts very dark. I wanted 1080P 30 or 60fps to sync with the FX-1, (instead of just 24 fps in 1080 progressive mode) which I believe has already been implemented, and if these hacks help lower macroblocking in the shadows then I'm really happy. If it means more latitude, I'll be ecstatic.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

The only way you might get the HS factor is if you're used to filming fast moving objects. The hack version handles motion way better. But relatively static shots? Probably it won't be a big difference. However hacking the HDMI will probably really supercharge the GH2. But they don't even know if its possible though the testers seem optimistic.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Does anyone have a link to the hacked firmware?

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Here are the two latest GH2 hack videos I looked at that looked great on my 1080p 47" HDTV using the downloaded files:

PTool v3.62d released

http://www.gh1-hack.info/wiki/PToolSoftware

GH2:
- Improved bitrate patches
- Improved GOP patches.
- Improved MJPEG size patches.
- Added quantizer patches.
- Added few other encoder related patches.
- Few fixes, including 24L behaviour.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Just so everyone is aware, this hack is not stable. I hacked my GH2 42 mbit high and I shot a wedding (foolish lover of quality that I am) and it worked fine all day EXCEPT for long clips. I reached about 10 minutes and it just suddenly stopped recording. Then I went to play back and it lost ALL my clips. I panicked, shut the camera off and then SOME of the clips came back. I had about 70 short ones in there. When I got the card home EVERYTHING was there. Thank God!!! But I would warn everyone, it is not stable on longer clips. The camera gets tired and craps the bed. I may test lower settings but it makes me nervous for weddings because normally I just let the cam run for an hour or so. I have still yet to do back to back testing. Who has the damn time????? I need to do that though. Just wanted to warn you quality lovers out there :0)

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

As with any hack, personal experiences vary. I shot some interviews this weekend at 66mbit that didn't stop at the 4GB limit. The longest single clip I recorded was almost 30 minutes. If you read through the forums over on personal-view some people are having trouble with spanning, some aren't & as far as I know there's no consensus as to why yet.

I was running a Lexar Professional 32GB class10 133x

Another known issue with changing the bit rates, sometimes playback freaks out & simply requires a restart of the camera. That happened to me this weekend & I almost freaked out when the screen said, "no files" or whatever it says but then I remembered the restart trick.

To reiterate, there is no bug that causes files to disappear from the card. Just don't want people getting the wrong impression.

The important thing to remember is to test any hack before taking it out into the field. If you know you're going to be running long takes then test long takes, if you know you'll be doing high detail shots or low light then test those before you go.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Yes,
It's a good idea for anyone considering the hack to read through the posts to determine possible issues.

Version 3.62d improves on image quality with the auto quantizer function. As Chris Brandon mentions on VK's forum "If you go towards "detail" more of the extra bandwidth is allocated to using less quantization of macroblocks - which means better shadow detail and smoother detail all around."

Also, file spanning "can be" an issue with above 32Mb/s with v3.62d. I believe with version 3.61d 42Mb/s spanned without issues.

I'm currently using v3.62d at 66Mb/s AQ4 and the image quality is excellent!
It does not span past 4GB files, but it won't be long before VK / Chris and others figure this issue out.

I've attached a high ISO (2500) comparison image.
This image compares stock 24Mb/s 1080P to 3.62d 1080P 66Mb/s AQ4.
This is an extreme test, but it certainly shows that the hack is able to resolve more image detail than the stock firmware.

Noise removal programs such as Neat Video will now be able to model the noise more accurately which will offer a better more detailed image in the end.
Simply amazing for the $$$

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Good morning, all! I searched through this thread and while there was a lot of commentary about hacking in general, I don't think I saw any specific instructions on HOW to do it. Ethan pointed out that we needn't be computer geniuses, but I'm a bit dyslexic and would want to be careful and not "brick" my camera! So if there is a link or links to instructions, I'd be grateful!

I am shooting our 10th annual "kazoo fest," where a bunch of us meander the neighborhood playing Christmas carols on--you guessed it--kazoos!! It's a blast and all the neighbors we visit get a kick out of it! It will be at night, so I will need to shoot fairly wide open, at a high ISO. I saw John @ Workstation's incredible clip at a 10,000 ISO, shot with a hacked GH2 and a Voigtlander 0.95 glass, and wondered what I might be able to pull off with the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens. Any feedback would be wildly appreciated!

~TRW

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I'm ready for the hack. Is there step by step directs and links available? I'm on a Mac if that makes a difference.

Thanks
Evan

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

You should be able to come fairly close. I wouldn't go higher than ISO 10,000, 12,800 looks pretty bad but that footage at 10,000 looks pretty good. Get out and test under conditions similar to what you will be shooting under. In most cases you should look for lighting situations where you can see the light from fixtures and windows illuminating faces.

On a lot of night street video I've done with f1.8 lenses, I found I often had to stop down to f2.8 to keep from overexposing and that was at ISO 3200 and 6400. So you should be fine with the 20mm f1.7.

The stock firmware GH2 has an upper ISO limit of 3200 in motion picture mode and all things considered it may be a sensible limit. The "patches" generally allow you to remove that limit but as I almost said above, 12,800 looks like "trash".

Looking forward to the GH3!

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Oh, to answer the question posed in this thread:

I've applied firmware patches to the GH2 body I purchased used. I first ran the Sanity 5 patch and recently changed to Flowmotion 2.02. With both I saw some improvement in rendition of motion.

The GH2 I purchased new remains "stock". If I run into "unpredictable" behavior on a project with the "hacked" body I can simply call a 2 minute break and reach for the "stock" camera. I've had no problems so far but I don't cover events where I have to leave the camera running, I work mostly in short "takes" and have no need for "spanning".

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Terry - Please see the personal-view ptool faq page for source files: ptool:ptool-faq [Personal View FAQs Wiki]

See Chapter 3 of the OSG Films GH2 Guide for Filmmakers for the best written explanation (consider making a donation for all the work that went into this free online book): The Panasonic GH2 Guide for Filmmakers | OSGFilms

See this video for a great explanation of the OSG GH2 Guide's written instructions:
Hope this is helpful,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

With the Sanity settings file, you won't run into any problems. I am using it over a year and it is as reliable as stock, with two - three times the quality. There simply is no risk.

I am using Intravenus V2 now with Sanity as my safe back-up.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Overated - unless you're shooting commercials/docos to be screened/streamed/broadcast in HD. Really !!
For the rest, it's amazing out of the box with good fast glass on the front.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I totally agree. There is a large element of the Emperor's New Clothes about all the 'awesome' clips that people post online that have been shot with the latest mega-bitrate hack. There is possibly some improvement in rendering fast motion but for most of us the standard 24Mbps AVCHD recording is perfectly adequate. The one useful feature of the hack is the ability to remove the 30 minute recording limit on PAL cameras.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I've shot extensively with stock bitrate, FlowMotion (50 & 100Mbps IPB), and a bit with "Apocalypse Now" (150+ I-frame). FlowMotion is dead reliable, everything works, plays back in camera, and yields less macroblocking, reduced black crushing, and thus significantly finer detail than the stock firmware. I've compared the two in enough situations to know this as truth. If it weren't true, I wouldn't bother using up more hard drive space because I am inherently cheap. AN and other ultra-high I-frame hacks have less appeal to me due to their fragility and diminishing returns.

That said, the stock firmware does fine for simple jobs. I don't bother with any hack on, say, a talking head or family outing. If I'm using it (as I usually do) for B-roll on corp and doc shoots, I go with FlowMotion. In post, you can lift a significant amount of detail from the shadows that is simply obliterated in the stock firmware.

Another benefit the hacks can yield is removal of the video ISO cap, allowing rolling video at 12800ISO. Quality is significantly degraded at high ISO, but in some doc situations where it's a matter of "get a crappy shot, or get no shot," I'll opt for the crappy shot. With a f0.95 prime it's as effective as some consumer cams' "night vision" mode.

As to switching out hacks, I keep a small SD card case in my shoot bag, with three ~2-4GB SD cards, pre-loaded with stock, FlowMotion, and AN settings, and write-protected. Switching firmware is thus only a matter of having a fully charged battery and two spare minutes.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Kevin - thanks for the honest and clear explanation of the pros and cons of the best hacks - and the overview of "hacked workflow". I am personally still very nervous about running out of batteries in the middle of a firmware load - or putting in SD card "A" when I meant to put in SD card "B" :)

...so I just went ahead and bought a GH3. I am not ordinarily tech-adverse, but I have a mental block when it comes to treating my camera like a computer (maybe that's because I have a stack of dead computers in my office - and yes, officer, I killed them - I killed them all ;))

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

I suppose I've been blessed/cursed with more tech skill than income ;)

To address your two concerns (should anyone else have them):
- Always use Panasonic batteries during upgrades (it won't even start the process if the battery is depleted). Generic batteries lie worse than gov't spokespeople, and you should trust them just as much.
- I put a sticker (from my stack of old MiniDV labels, cut to fit) on each of the hack SD cards, because my memory is terrible.

It'll do for now until I can justify a GH3... but like I said, I'm cheap... my ancestors were Scottish and German Jewish, for goodness' sake.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Bill - now that you've got the GH3 it would be a perfect time to hack the GH2. Seriously, there's nothing to be scared about.

The hardest part of hacking it is digging around on the personal-view website trying to find the right files. The second hardest thing is convincing yourself to drop the cash to get one of those fast Sandisk cards.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

FWIW, I tried Transcend's UHS-I 85/Mbps SDHC cards... they worked as well as the SanDisk cards and only cost about $1/GB

With FlowMotion, standard Transcend Class 10's have worked fine (and are even cheaper)

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

A hack 'may' look better when all variables are the same.
Same lighting, same lens, same location, same settings. So, whats the point unless you're looking at these same pics side by side on the same screen, edited in the same way, graded the same way and exported the same way.
A bitrate hack has so little percievable difference from a unhacked set-up after edit, as to be negligible.
For example if I use a kit 14-42mm with a vanilla HBR hack of 44 mb/s, will my footage look better than a standard set-up with good glass from Nikon, Leica, Olympus - No!!
If you are actually doing a test (eg.shooting at 12,800ISO), yes it may be great. In reality would I shoot at 12,800 - No, never.
If I'm shooting complex scenes such as moving water or lots of fast motion and action, for me, 100-150 mbs is not what I need and the last thing I want to do is go from hack to hack.
I know people that buy a camera and hack it - they don't learn to use it manually or investigate lens quality, or the best post-production workflows - they just hack it.
I have one cam hacked with a portrait lens and one unhacked with a wide and they cut together fine. No-one can tell.

Re: How many of you have hacked your GH2?
 

Where did you get a GH3? I didn't think they were available yet!