The reason I'm posting: Since updating to the lastest 100 Mbps Flowmotion hack (which uses a bit too much space for my current project) , I can't seem to change my firmware anymore. Even with a full battery and the new file in the root folder on the SD card (named correctly of course), the cam simply doesn't show any update message. Going into play mode doesn't work either, nor did replacing the battery and restarting.

Is there a way to force the GH2 into update mode? What could I do?

Overall, the information on the two features "Intelligent Resolution" and "Intelligent Contrast" in the GH2 manual is very scarce... can anybody recommend for or against using those features for shooting videos?

I tried to take some footage with and without, but hardly saw any difference - so I wonder whether I just did not try it under circumstances that would exhibit the benefit...

(These pages from Panasonic describe the features, but also without much real information: http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/289436/index.html and http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gh2/ia.html Seems like "Intelligent Resolution" is supposed to be kind of an "unsharp mask" filter applied to the images.)

The target here is more than likely DVD, but of course we want to maintain the highest quality possible within our means. We won't have the 95mb cards just yet for this shoot, and will still be using 30mb cards. We are not using PL glass (out of the budget) and instead using vintage FD glass for the shoot. I hope to one day have the budget to get a hotrod adapter and PL glass. My budget is going towards talent this time.

My question is, which hack should I be using to get the best quality out of the gear I am using. I have some transcend class 10 cards, and one sandisk extreme 30mbps card. I've tried most of the hacks on both cards, but which one should I actually be using for a feature? I know they are sort of designed for different types of film making. Driftwood? Terraquake? etc.

So far, five people besides myself have either confirmed or said tentatively that they will be participating. This includes my favorite rental house/production company hybrid in the Pasadena area.

Even so - we can still use more people and more gear.

We need tripods, cameras, camera operators, lenses and (possibly most importantly) memory cards.

If we have enough duplicates, we will be able to test not only image quality but spanning and reliability when shooting the same subject with the same lens. Having more duplicates also means that we will be able to accurately shoot material that could not easily be compared by one camera alone. We may even be able to shoot both NTSC and PAL variations in one shoot if we have enough cards.

SO if you want to be a part of this AND help out your fellow forum buddies, please message me with a list of what you can contribute in terms of either time/skills or equipment. Thanks in advance!

Thankfully, after importing the files to my PC, the clips are fine and are fully intact.

The card I was using was a near-brand-new 32GB SANDISK EXTREME (NOT PRO) 45MB/s

I decided to try a little experiment to see if was a fault with the card. I transferred all the data from the card in question to another SD card (same make and model). Exactly the same error cropped up on the exact same clips at the exact same places when playing back in-camera.

Has anyone else run into this or have any theories or solutions.

PIV is a technique whereby fluid motion is measured by illuminating a plane with a laser light sheet and measuring the motion of particles illuminated in the plane from one frame to the next via frame to frame correlation processing on subregions of pixels (for example 16 by 16 or 32 by 32 ).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_image_velocimetry

I need to use the 720p 60 fps mode as the 30 fps modes will allow too much motion between frames. The processing will be done on a frame by frame basis so the least interpolation possible in the video compression is desirable. Stability is also important as the clips will need to be ~ 15 minutes long to achieve adequate statistics of flow properties

Do any of the knowledgeable people here have any reccomendations on settings or a patch that I should try for this. Thanks,

-Peter

Can anyone out there point to very high quality, very stable hacks/patches (30min record times are minimum) that would function well in a variety of conditions, bright light, ocean, lots of vegetation, etc etc... I am aware that cards make a great difference as well and have purchased a couple of 32gb SanDisk Extreme pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-I Memory Cards so it wont be an issue.

Any help, is much appreciated

The request is to remove these restrictions to allow RAW shooting using this electronic shutter like the mechanical shutter. The benefit is huge. We will get silent photo shooting (good in places like churches), eliminate shutter induced vibration in long exposure, prolong camera's life by not using the mechanical shutter to do timelapse vid etc...

Removing the restriction on file size will probably reduce the 40fps to something low due to hardware. But it's something that I am willing to trade in a heart beat. I am sure some of us feel the same.

With the restrictions in place now, do you find the super high speed burst mode useful? Do you use this mode at all? In what application do you find the mode useful?

Please share your thoughts on this and cast your vote.

Thanks.

Series 1 Link

Series 2 Link

ALL PRESENT DRIFTWOOD SETTINGS LINKS ARE NOW INCLUDED BELOW ALONGSIDE THE SETTINGS - SEE LINKS.

ALL Settings require Panasonic firmware v1.11 & ptools 3.64d '200212' required). Settings for GH2 & GF2 Lumix cameras.

THE LATEST SETTINGS

VY Canis Majoris- Release TBC

Driftwood Sedna 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Release 15th March 2012, 01:30am

Stats: 24p Intra, 1080i/HBR Intra, 720 GOP3/GOP6 all settings as Orion with Sedna Matrices:-

A = High Detail matrix Good for Wide full detail shots.

B = Good allround detail matrix Great all round wide / mid shots.

C = Softer detail matrix Softer skin tonal detail.

Two packs, one at Quantisation 20 (default), the other AQ1 (pushed the Quantisation and bitrate further still). Note: AQ2 to 4 is unnecessary. Q20 is REALLY pushing the Quantisation to best levels without having to use AQ. Q20 Bitrate is measured to detail and will achieve in places AQ3 or AQ4 size bitrates without distorting Q so much as before.

Setting Links;-

Sedna Pack Q20 Link

Sedna Pack AQ1 Link

Driftwood 'Cluster' v1 With Orion (AVC Intra adapted) Matrix VBR 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Released 9th March 2012 1am

Stats: Upto 72M 24p, Upto 36M HBR, Upto 36M 720p modes. (*All REC MODES include B frames)

Cluster v1 Link: Cluster v1

Driftwood Quantum X (v4d Orion) 'Dark Matter' Matrix Pack + HBR FIX - CBR 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Released 18:30pm 06/03/2012

Details: Featuring the new 'Dark Matter' matrix set (three version variations) based on current Orion Matrix with hi/lo freq adjustments. Plus 720p on 9/6 GOP. AQ is NOT required. This is a constant Q (Q8) CBR setting which performs measurably better than with AQ4 on. All other settings as before. INFO: Orion 4d with Dark Matter matrix pack. Three adjusted matrices to try out, all scaled from perceived HVS Great Quality (v1) to middle of these (v2) and perceived HVS Highest quality (v3). HVS = Human Visual System. This is sharper than the Orion matrix of yore which is still great but many of you wanted to pull out a few extra stops. Let's see if this helps YOU. Only other changes from Orion 4b are GOP Releated, 720p is 9/6 for NTSC/PAL.

Orion 4D with 'Dark Matter' Matrix Link: Orion 4D

Driftwood Quantum X v5b and v5c 'β Pictoris' (baby Quantum X) VBR & CBR versions 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d - Released 10:30am, 01/03/2012

INFO: Two versions - 1) CBR constant Bitrate at 75M, 2) VBR Adaptive Bitrate 35-75M

There are actually four versions (two in each pack CBR/VBR versions) for you to try out of Pictoris, two different matrices - v5b is the new hybrid matrix, v5c is the Orion included matrix. with NEW Driftwood scaled Panasonic GH2 Matrix meets AVC-INTRA Matrix hybrid (somewhere in the middle of Orion matrix meets GH2 Stock matrix) inc;- Settings primed for 50/75M Standard Rec Modes plus additional 25M for Etc Mode, 1080p24 on INTRA 50/75M Standard/75M Etc Mode, 1080i50/60 INTRA 50M /75M Etc Mode, 720p50/60 GOP6/9 40/75M, Standard/75M Etc, MJPEG Highest Quality 1920&720 Mjpeg modes. Good standard SD card recommended

Two Zip files below contain the settings: Download all packs and try them out:

1. v5b Hybrid Matrix - β Pictoris with Hybrid Matrix
2. v5c Orion Matrix - β Pictoris with Orion Matrix

Driftwood Quantum X (v4b Orion) CBR 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Released 00:15am 28/02/2012

INFO: Settings include;- Quantum v9b style constant bitrate patch with full AVC-INTRA Matrix ; Requires firmware v1.1 and ptools 3.64d '200212 dated' (*Not compatible with 180212 dated ptools); CBR style 154M INTRA 108024p; CBR style HBR & 1080i INTRA 100M+ Max; CBR Style GOP12(PAL)/GOP15(NTSC) 720p 50/60 - 80+ Max; AVC Intra Matrix all round; GOP related Adjustments for B frames; EX Tele and 80% mode support. SD_Card=V good Class 10; SanDisk Extreme HD Video recommended

Orion v4b Link: Orion 4b with AVC Intra Matrix

Driftwood Quantum X (v3b Rocket) RC VBR 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d - RC Released 00:15am 28/02/2012

INFO: Settings include;- Adaptive Hi Bitrate INTRA on 1080p24 upto 154M; Adaptive Hi Bitrate 25p(50i PsF) upto 100M; Adaptive Hi Bitrate 30p (60i PsF) upto 100M+; Adaptive Hi Bitrate INTRA 1080i modes upto 100M+; Hi bitrate 720p modes on GOP 12/15 with B frames upto 50M safest; Highest Quality tested MJPEG on 1920x1080 (720 compression mode); Highest Quality tested MJPEG on 1280x720 (480 compression mode); EX Tele Mode support (will increase bitrate usage by around 20M); 80% on 1080p modes (will increase bitrate usage by around 25M)

Rocket v3b Link: Rocket v3b

Driftwood Quantum X 'SpanMyBitchUp' v2b - Released 10:15am 25/02/2012

Link: SpanMyBitchUp (SMBU) v2b

INFO: Updated version of SpanMyBitchUp.

Settings include;- Adaptive Hi Bitrate INTRA on 1080p24 - upto 100M. (* Only for GH2); Adaptive Hi Bitrate 25p(50i PsF) INTRA - upto 100M; Adaptive Hi Bitrate 30p (60i PsF) INTRA - upto 100M; Adaptive Hi Bitrate INTRA 1080i modes - upto 100M; 720p modes on GOP 6 with B frames - upto 98M; Highest Quality tested MJPEG on 1920x1080 (720 compression mode); Highest Quality tested MJPEG on 1280x720 (480 compression mode); EX Tele Mode support; 80% on 1080p modes; 24L, 720/1080i FH/H settings on Trick mode (encoder calcs bitrate)

Driftwood Quantum X (v2 Rocket) 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d - Released 22/02/2012

INFO: Adaptive bitrate settings. (See attached settings zip file below). Settings include;- Adaptive Hi Bitrate INTRA on 1080p24 - upto 154M. (* Only for GH2); Adaptive Hi Bitrate 25p(50i PsF) INTRA - upto 100M+; Adaptive Hi Bitrate 30p (60i PsF) INTRA - upto 120+; Adaptive Hi Bitrate INTRA 1080i modes - upto 120+; 720p modes on GOP 6 with B frames - upto 98M; Highest Quality tested MJPEG on 1920x1080 (720 compression mode); Highest Quality tested MJPEG on 1280x720 (480 compression mode); EX Tele Mode support; 80% on 1080p modes; AVC INTRA Matrix on I Frame coding with Flat 16 Matrix on P/B frames

Link: v2 Rocket

These settings are dedicated to VK @Vitaliy_Kiselev (master in control) and Chris Brandin @cbrandin (thee font of information).

IF YOU LIKE THESE SETTINGS PLEASE PAYPAL DONATE (ABOVE) TO VITALIY FOR HIS TIRELESS WORK ON GIVING US THE HACK.

I'd love to hear from someone who's done this before - successfully:

in 2 weeks, I will shoot a classical concert (orchestra), on a great looking concert stage, with two GH2s. One's going to be a static wide shot and the second one will shoot close up and different angles. The concert will run about 90 minutes total. The location will be bright enough, but I'd say I most likely will have to use an ISO of 640 or 800 in order to be able to shoot with an f 5.6.

I do own two fast 64 GB 95mb/s SandDisc cards. - I'll be shooting this in 24p.

I certainly want it to look as good as possible (with as fine a noise grain as possible - considering my ISO), but I also need about 40-50 minutes of continuous recording time per segment - and the full 90 minutes should fit on each of the 64 GB cards.

I'd really appreciate any real world feedback for this kind of task. VBR or CBR? What kind of bit rate should I be going for? Would any of the new Driftwood patches be suited for this?

Thank you so much in advance.

--- Markus ---

Which one is better for general documentary work (24p and 25p)?

Which one delivers better video quality at fast moving objects?

At this point, what is the most recommended patch for 25p (HBR)?

I'm going to try to be as clear as possible: What's the relation between the version incrament option and the naming of the bin-file itself?

The bin-file naming I think I've got. It seems to me like you always have to increase the number of it compared to the previous (although whatever happens when you get to 99 (that is, if you can start using a three digitit version number) never is mentioned). So I guess I will have to write down the latest bin-file naming in order to patch my camera again.

However, what about the version incrament? Does this have to relate to the bin-file naming in some way (that is, if I go from GH2__V10 to GH2__V11, do I have to set e version incrament to 1?) ? Do I have to take into consideration what version incrament I used for the last patching? Is it culminative? That is, if I remove PTools, will I have to put in a version incrament number that combines all the previous? (Let's say I'm patching my camera with version incrament 2, reinstall PTools, and then patch the camera with version incrament 10. Do I the next time have to patch it with version incrament 13 (2+10=12)?)

1920x1080 (FULL HD format)

2048x1152 (RED 2K format)

2240x1260 (deppending on comprimation set it uses to stop recording)

2560x1440 (deppending on comprimation set it uses to stop recording)

I know that regular todays TVs are ,,just,, Full HD :-) ... but sometimes it is usefull to shoot bigger resolution in cases, when the picture will be stabilized in postproduction... or, for some effects in After Effects...

So I would like to start this thema to find out, wether it is possible to get better quality picture from MJEPG then HBR (Let´s say just 1920x1080). I am not very skilled in comprimation settings, just trying different settings in PToolv364d (Thank you VK !!!)

Anybody wants to play with, lets say RED 2K resolution? :-)

1). And one question for Vitaliy... is it possible to set/programe GH2 to record Motion JEPG in 25/24 fps?

2.) Or to set it for native 2:1 size? For now 720 reccord 16:9 and 480 reccord 4:3 size.

Thanks

Stanley

I have found a gap between stock and extreme settings in the forums for us interested in an enhanced GH2 but still not an extreme almost RED camera. In current version of PTool 3.64 @vitaliy_kiselev in the background of the tool have built in the experience from the testing by the core team so when we end users are using “settings for end users” a lot happens in the background. I have tested a number of different settings only using “settings for end users” with bit rates spanning between 24 and 66 mbits and stock GOP’s of 12/15 as well as 6 and 3. When doing this I have adopted cbrandin’s method of using a multiple of stock bitrates.

With this Topic I encourage people like me to discuss and disclose basic settings in between stock and “extreme”. I start to include three different settings, one stock GOP, one GOP6 and one GOP3. A special thanks to @driftwood for his hint to use AQ values also found in “settings for end users” to tune the settings to get them working. This solved the problem I had in finding settings that worked without any problems.

These settings have been updated se post bellow - http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/44041#Comment_44041

its the same patch on both. I'm shooting tomorrow so I need to know asap.

• Updated to GOP6 from GOP5, to fix stuttering.
• up to 60mbps
• 2x trick mode in some scenes (Death chart)
• QP16
• Borrowed I, P, B frame scaling from Flowmotion
• Improved Stability, so far have not been able to crash this in any test

Icarus 0.0.6 (indoor scene, f/2.8, 24mm, ISO3200, custom WB) (first couple seconds had rough motion, second half of bitrate distribution is what you normally see fairly static, where as movement scales up the B frames), typical B frames larger than Flowmotion's I frames.

Flowmotion 1.11 (same as above), much lower bitrate (imho it just cannot deliver with HBR modes), also crashes death charts with speed errors.

See what you think.

This is currently an Alpha Test. It needs more testing, but since I am pursuing the best HBR can offer, I've always found full daylight to be the bane of any attempt at raising HBR bitrate, I shall see how it performs in the morning in that regard.

Thanks in advance and excuse my english, i am a french speaking person. Hello to Philip Bloom that spokes to me in french last year at NAB, what a great guy !

I do not know if anybody has reported the solution before, at least I could not find one here or the rest of the internet, but I faced this problem today and eventually found a fix.

The solution is that the SOURCE firmware, the one you load at the beginning, needs to be correctly named as well. When the problem happened to me, I had made a copy/paste duplicate of the very original Panasonic firmware that I had downloaded from the internet. This had resulted to a source filename "GH1__132 - Copy.bin"

One would imagine that it makes no difference, as PTool requests the user to give a name when saving and that is the only thing that has to pass the validity check. However, for some reason the original filename, probably "-" or " " character, echoes the saving procedure and the validity test is failed. For instance, when I finally tested renaming the source firmware first back to "GH1__132.bin and then saving it with the name"GH1__133.bin", it was suddenly again very acceptable name and finally got my hacked firmware saved.

For that I focused the camera on a strong light, started recording and then I quickly panned the camera horizontally on the tripod while varying the shutter speed. Then I looked at consecutive frames and measured the light interruption (measures.jpg) and computed the fluidity normalizing it as a percentage of the average segment length.

The results are in the attachment (MotionFlow.zip) which is also shown as a screenshot (MotionFlow.PNG). They are approximations as the values can have some variation, but will clearly show you which are the good ones and the others to avoid at all cost.

The resulting videos can also be downloaded (they are very small) from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ezz6zroqcronq28,ova2axx3qjev573,ca6o3g4cjhx46lc

As you can see, HBR 25p easily beats all other 1080p modes with no less than 5 100% FLUID motion shutter speeds, 4 of them very useful indeed. Now it's time to perform some tests to see (subjectively of course) how much we can notice it and how high can we tolerate the interruption before the motion flow stops looking natural.

(EDIT) The ideal patch GOPs should be useful in this thread. Here they are:

SS - Frequency of new frames - Ideal patch GOP

24p & 25p HBR

1/2s - 1/13 - GOP13

1/2.5 - 1/10 - GOP10

1/3.2 - 1/8 - GOP8

1/4 - 1/7 - GOP7

1/5 - 1/5 - GOP5

1/6 - 1/4 - GOP4

1/8 - 1/4 - GOP4

1/10 - 1/3 - GOP3

1/13 - 1/2 - GOP2

1/15 - 1/2 - GOP2

1/20 - 1/2 - GOP2

SS - Frequency of new frames - Ideal patch GOP

30p HBR

1/2s - 1/16 - GOP16

1/2.5 - 1/12 - GOP12

1/3.2 - 1/10 - GOP10

1/4 - 1/8 - GOP8

1/5 - 1/6 - GOP6

1/6 - 1/5 - GOP5

1/8 - 1/4 - GOP4

1/10 - 1/3 - GOP3

1/13 - 1/3 - GOP3

1/15 - 1/2 - GOP2

1/20 - 1/2 - GOP2

I'll start with this: HBR 25p - Quantum X V2 rocket vs. Flowmotion vs. Sanity vs. Quantum X V2 rocket.

tungsten (lowlight), 180MB: http://wtrns.fr/__Oa704p1LJRpgM

daylight, 180MB: http://wtrns.fr/WF2e4oVg21Rjv3Q

(over the course of the daylight shots the light has changed, however the comparision is not entirely useless).

Comparison of 24H vs. HBR of the respective patches.

Quantum X V2 24H vs. HBR 25p - Flowmotion 24H vs. HBR 25p - Sanity 24H vs. HBR 25p.

For these I first transcoded the MTS files to QT MOVs (ProRes422 HQ) through 5DtoRGB at 25p

daylight, 180MB: http://wtrns.fr/KoZfc797Jc5nix

tungsten, 180MB: http://wtrns.fr/JZj4cqWg1AgKq-f

For reference, here's also a comparision at 24H of the tungsten shot, 115MB: http://wtrns.fr/BvJYfswBCrXgQM

Downloads expire March 10th.

Movies use Avid DNxHD codecs. You can get them here (for free, of course): http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=263545

Settings used on all shots:

smooth, -2|-2|-1|-2. ISO200

Care has been taken to avoid the ISO bug on all shots.

Lens used on the tungsten shot: Nokton 0.95/25

Lens used on the daylight shot: Zeiss 2.0/50

My preliminary conclusions (based on these static scenes):

Quantum X V2 rocket:

• great at 24H

• great at HBR when the codec isn't pushed to its limits

• compressed/noisy at HBR when the codec is stressed much (I am sure Driftwood will sort this out sooner or later… perhaps even in an update of QXV3 rocket later today)

Flowmotion:

• great at 24H

• HBR looks mushy in both the tungsten and the daylight shots

Sanity:

• great at 24H. It shows less macro blocking than QV2 rocket and FloMo in the tungsten shot

• great at HBR also when the codec is pushed to its limits

Have fun!

I attached one setting which works great and very stable in 25p and 24p 1080 modes, spans until apertures f/3.5 always, if f/4.0 or darker- needs bit of luck, also with very fast SD cards. Firmware 1.0 and Ptool 3.63

I'm knew here and I really like this place. My name is Deniz and im from The Netherlands I just bought a Panasonic GH2 With 14-42 Kit lens and a Voigtlander 25mm 0.95. This is my first ever device that I take photo's and video's with, so im I'm pretty new to THIS? So... first day i hacked my GH2

Steps:

Downloaded ptool3d.zip Downloaded GH2__V11.exe Downloaded Driftwood Quantum X Make New Map Name ''Hack'' Extract ptool3d.zip to ''Hack'' Double Click GH2__V11.exe And install in ''Hack''

In ''Hack'' Map:

Open ptool3d.exe Load GH2__V11.bin Load Driftwood Quantum X Save Settings... Name it GH2__V12.bin

In the mean time:

I changed my settings to

Creative Mode>24P Cinema Film Mode> Smooth Rec Quality>24H Exposure Mode>M

BTW my SD Card is: Sandisk 95MB/s 32GB SD Card Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I

I formatted my sd card in my camera. Then I loaded the GH2__V12.bin on my sd card. Turned my camera on, and pressed the play preview button. It asked me for update firmware I clicked YES. It was finished then I rebooted.

Here what happens:

I record for 1 or 2 minutes. then put sd card in computer i click on the .mts icon it says on the bottom: Data Rate:54435kbps Total Bitrate:54691kbps

Sometimes its 34246kbps

Shouldn't this be much more? I tried different settings & patches same result also with 720p60 That's actually the simple question I just tried to explain everything I know about this camera and my problem with this camera

and am I to newbie for this forum? Or is this place oke for starters from scratch?

I hope you guys can help.