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Dusting off the GH1 for 60fps work
  • Hi, longtime lurker. Appreciate what this site and its members provide.

    I have a GH1 and would like to revive it as a 60fps b-cam. After the GH2 dropped and the dust settled, what was the best patch left standing for the GH1 and 60fps work? I have fast cards. Thanks.

  • 18 Replies sorted by
  • Without a doubt, http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/334/gh1-75mbps-peak-reliability-setting-v2-update/p1 I've shot hundreds of sports event videos with this patch, all in 60 or 50p depending on where in the world the event is.

  • Awesome, that looks like what I need. Thanks Rambo.

  • Well....I took this patch out for a spin on my revived GH1, and have extreme macroblocking in defocused areas. Smart-phone video macroblocking, that bad. Doesn't seem like the patch and my cam are able to play nice, even though Quicktime info is showing 75mbs on the clips. Glad others have had better luck with this over the years, but think it's time to shop for a 60p cam. Appreciate the suggestion in any case.

  • Just to be clear we are talking 720p @ 60 FPS here, right?

  • Correct. "SH" video mode on the GH1.

  • I take my GH1 to forest few weeks ago (after 2 years on shelf) and I got crashing after every few seconds even 2.8f and 50shutter can't use it in detail environment. This tread remind me to refresh hack on my old friend. Do you remember safe long recording settings (like cake for GH2) ? for 1080 25p use only

  • Did you try resetting the camera after applying the hacked firmware?

  • You probably need to read that thread to get the best results. I doubt your getting 75mbps on the clips, my average rate with sharp kit lenses, deep DOF and lots of motion and detail is 35-42mbps, 75 is the peak max. If you have little detail and mostly shallow DOF, the gh1 with any patch will fall back to 20-30mbps, even less in poor light. The gh1 is not the gh2 by any click of the clock.

  • @jpbturbo

    After applying the hack I only formatted the card. What do you mean with a cam reset (and could "not" doing this have caused the terrible compression artifacts I saw)?

  • @Rambo

    Yeah, I found it odd that Quicktime info is reporting the patch's max as the clip's data rate. Another weird thing, I did not get a folder of .MTS files from my shoot, but rather a single AVCHD file that seems to have all the clips embedded? I don't remember this being the case. I certainly could have done something wrong here.

  • I just tested "lpavel 75 v2" in 25p - its not the best unfortunately. Good thing is its keep rolling forever with no crashing even with sharp lens, f6 shutter400 grass filming. However nitrate is quite low maybe even lower then stock ;). Does not even hold little adjust of WB in Pro. 2h15min detailed footage its only 7.18 gb. I will test 1080p 100mbs mention in the topic.

  • 100mbs patch seems to be better for 1080 25p however when freeze you loose recorded file :( btw 720p records 25p not 50 in Pal mode. Can you tell me which patch I was using and was so happy with not so long ago? :)

  • I use "reliable playback". It's lower sustained bitrate than peak reliability but imho the quality is great ....also in 720/60p. I use cinema tools to conform. Your file structure should look exactly the same. I'd guess something's wrong with your hack job. And even with reliable playback you need a fast class 10.

  • GH1's weak point is the data bottleneck of its SD card slot. I have managed to get the highest bitrates in the "Varigop" setting and wonderful image quality both for 50/60p and 24p.

    Yet, the hacked GH1 is not really a stable camera. Try to make a shot of lavander by sunshine where all is in focus. Green colors + lots of details = GH1 freezes (with just any setting) after max 2min. I still love that camera and use it a lot. I don't encounter any problems by fast motions or tele shots.

  • Attached are a couple 1:1 crops off the card, showing the kind of compression artifacts I'm seeing. In motion the artifacts dance around horribly. I know this isnt the GH2-4, but I was sure the cam was capable of more. Is this to be expected in SH mode with the best 60p patch? Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try Reliable Playback and Varigop next.

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  • Why are you using 60p in poor lighting conditions like this, your bitrates will be really low and yes you will have macro blocking in the dark areas, all this is covered in the 75peak thread. It's not the patch, it's the limitation of the gh1.

  • Well I shot a number of tests in different conditions with the patch to see how it handles them. Your right, in sunlight it's solid, so I could definitely see this being a great sports patch. I'm going to do a bake-off with the other ones mentioned soon to see how they handle.

  • @kurth So far Reliable Playback's doing decent in (even very) low light on SH mode. Not perfect but usable. May leave this patch on the camera, although I'm also real curious about humpman's mysterious firmware.

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