will the gh3 get a hack?

[Alex Anderson]

I just started looking at the GH3and I know a little about the GH2 hack. I need to get up to speed on it all. Is there any chance of the GH3 also getting a similar hack, especially those high bit rates or even RAW??

Alex

[Paul Mailath]

you really need to follow the developments on Vitaliy's personalview site and donate if you're able - but to simplify matters - to hack the camera they need camera to test and a software update, once the update is issued the 'modifiers' can go to work.

I believe there will be a hack but there is no guarantee as to when and what it will do. I think the biggest problem is that people seem to be thinking that the gh2 or gh3 are no good without the hack - they are both amazing good cameras, sure the hack improves certain aspects but it's not a miracle.

[William Hohauser]

The impetus to hack the GH3 is there but not as strong as it was for the GH2. First off, I am not sure if it's as easy to hack as the GH2. Second, one of the reasons to hack the GH2 is to escape the limitations of the AVCHD recording bandwidth. This has been accomplished by a number of hard working programmers but not without exposing some of the limitations of the camera's internal working and that of the recording media. The GH3 has been partially designed by Panasonic in response to the hacks and they delivered stabile improvements to the standard AVCHD recording codecs. Plus the GH3 has a clean HDMI output which makes it easier to record to better codecs on external recorders. And now that there are cheaper than before cameras like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera that can record "raw" cinema files, professionals are not so enthusiastic about hacking cameras like the GH3 anymore.

[Bill Koehler]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

The impetus to hack the GH3 is there but not as strong as it was for the GH2....The GH3 has been partially designed by Panasonic in response to the hacks and they delivered stable improvements to the standard AVCHD recording codecs. Plus the GH3 has a clean HDMI output which makes it easier to record to better codecs on external recorders.

And among the stable improvements is 50 Mbps IBP / 72 Mbps I-Frame recording, so whatever improvements there are would be very small and incremental. Basically, Panasonic ponied up enough, short of RAW, to all but eliminate the desire to do a hack. It helps to remember that the hacks on the GH2 could result in unstable performance depending on the lens being used.

[Alex Anderson]

I appreciate your replies. Thanx guys.

Alex