I have 2 main complaints that keep me away from buying a gh2, or g3, or gfn, or gx1. These are 2 standard features in every oly pen, or canon or nikon DSLR! They belong in cameras of this caliber.

For underwater photo, we always use strobe, and either A mode, (to maximize control of DOF and balance ambient and strobe exposure), or full M mode, to control blur and DOF, and balance the 2 exposures.

But with these pana cams, at these price ranges, there is no way to do the obvious. The A mode with flash forced on, is broken, since it allows 1/30 or 1/60 sec SS, which is way too slow, and will blur fish. Hoping that "intelligent ISO" will notice the movement, and do the right thing is absurd.

Is there a hack for specifying what the slowest SS allowed in "A mode, with flash" should be? (And bump the ISO if it is in auto, or just leave the exposure low, if not in auto ISO).

The alternative is to use full M mode, to specify SS and A for control over DOF, blurring, and ambient/strobe exposure balance. But this is so much easier in oly PENs, for example, which allow you to use auto iso in M mode, in 1/3 EV steps.

So, is there a hack for this? To make auto iso in M mode, set the ISO according to the meter reading? This sounds tougher.

Are these hacks possible? And for what cameras?

If you wanted to really beat the OLY/Nikon/Canon crowed, allowing us to use exposure compensation in M mode, to shift the ISO selection accordingly, would be awesome!

Is the firmware fully disassembled at this point? Can we all work on it too?

Thanks!
Don