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Beginners: Basic hacks questions
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  • @Dusty42 that largely depends on the composition of the shot. Lighting and exposure are not simple subjects. In some scenes like snow or bright sand it can be really tricky. Light your subject well so you can stop down and expose the highlights in the frame. In the GH2 use the histogram to make sure you are not clipping.

  • I have just installed the latest unified 88 EOSHD firmware on GH2. (From EOSHD Firmwares Vault) (in order to enjoy European "HBR" 1080/25p mode) I have just purchased a Sandisk SDHC 8 Go "Extreme" Class 10 card. (30 Mo/sec) It seems GH2 is unable to play the files on camera LCD ("unable to read movie..." displayed on screen)

    Each time I reboot the camera the files can be played on LCD... pretty weird. I wonder if I should buy an "Extreme [Pro]" Class 10 card wich transfer speed is 95 Mo/sec (higher than the one I have) 95 Mo/sec speed may be help to record and play 88 Mbs Intra AVCHD Excuse my naive question... if someone can help Best

  • @ghostlayer

    I suggest you to look at Settings Vault topic and other popular settings and stop using things made without any testing to get more clicks on his site :-)

    P.S. Using word "patch" in the way you use it, is prohibited here.

  • Thanks Vitaliy, I have deleted the forbidden word from my post :)

    I'm not sure Andrew makes pat*h to have more clicks on his site, he always respectfully refers to you :) I think he wants to bring some help for end users or cinematographers that are not familiar with technical issues. I'll try to find the Setting Vault topic... Thank you for answering me anyways.

  • @ghostlayer

    This is not my words.
    Problem is that making really good settings require quite a time, and 99% of it is spend on careful scientific testing using proper tools. So, all the guys who are spending such time are easy to spot on this forum and are highly regarded memebrs.

  • I know that it take a long time. I don't work in the same field but I know what meticulous and time consuming work is... I really bless you for bringing such unbelievable quality on GH2. Discussing with people from Panasonic France I know that are far from realizing the exact value of your researches. When I was ask to directed GH2 first French Shoutout in San Francisco I was a bit sad that GH2 image was not as good a my GH13 image :) GH2 is now brought to the next level.

  • Hi guys, I'm off on a Discovery Channel wildlife shoot next week and wanted to try out the GH2 for B cam work. I wondered if anyone has a recommendation of what hack would best suit the following uses:

    • 1080 25p
    • 720 50p
    • ETC modes of 1080 25p and 720 50P
    • Low light night shooting
    • Fast panning (birds in flight)

    I've gone for the fast Sandisk cards and quality is a large requirement, as it's for broadcast and will be graded. Although I do also need reliability in case the card stops recording in the middle of a predation! Could be quite interesting as the A cam will be a £35k DVCProHD Varicam with a £36k lens, while I'll be shooting with the GH2, a £1100 Canon 100-400L and £500 2x extender. It would make my day if the GH2 could outshine it! Many thanks!

  • Most of my cards are class 10 with 20/30mb transfer rate (SanDisk). So obviously I can't use the awesome top end patches, but I would love to know what I am actually capable of using. I am slightly confused regarding the read/write speed on these cards. I am able to easily use a patch like cBrandin's 44M spanning patch, very basic and decent upgrade from stock, but my card has 20/30mb listed as the transfer rate. I assume that is the read speed and not the write speed.

    How can I discover the write speed? If this is not the right place to ask this question then please point me in the right direction or PM me, but can someone recommend a mid-range patch that isn't 100M+ but instead in in the middle ground between a basic patch and the top end.

    I used Driftwood's Spanmy patch (I think, gotta find it again) without issue at one point and I love his patches, just don't want to get out in a bad situation where a card crashes or I am unable to do my job because of recklessness on my part! And yes, I have looked on the thread that contains all the popular patches, but I am still learning.

    Thank you in advance for your help. Love this forum and I am learning every day regarding the hack. Vitality, I will be donating soon. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

  • @Flacnvinyl Hey, my Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s Class 10cards play and record ALL the patches. If you can use SpanMyBitchUp (especially v2b) you'll be fine.

  • @lunalobo75 Where can I find SpanMyBitchUp? I have looked around and I don't see an updated version of it for the new ptools. I did use it at one point with great results, but I did have one of the insane high end (100M+) patches fail. Almost every high end patch fails with EX or 720p/60, for me.

  • @Flacnvinyl http://personal-view.com/talks/uploads/FileUpload/67/8f1ad7ca0ce0baa06e363e950e9b11.zip Just in case, re-install 1.11 firmware (have newest 3.64 Ptools), then install the settings fresh. As for 60p failure, I haven't had any, but I haven't tried to stress it out (except for 24p, no errors) . Also, try the newest Dark Matrix V3.

  • @lunalobo75 Thanks! I am loading that patch now and will see if it works for me. As a side note, I just tried Driftwood's 66M Long GOP patch and it crashed immediately. I was using a SanDisk Extreme Class 6 20MB/s 16gb card. Cbrandin's patches work just fine with that card (my slowest card) but not Driftwood's. I did NOT test it on my 30M cards, which I have several of, and I speculate my slower card was probably to blame. As Driftwood and Vitality both say on a regular basis, the patches are tested on high speed cards. My goal is to get a middle of the road nice patch that will work on most of my cards.

  • @Flacnvinyl I've never used anything below Class 10, and SanDisk Class 10 Extreme (HD) cards are solid and worth the money. If you want to use the Higher settings, then I recommended them. 30MB/s are being phased out for the 45's, and you can get 2 32GB for under $110 at BHphoto.

  • @davidlean I suggest you try a Topic that the experts visits more often or create a new topic with a challanging title so the experts looks into it. This way I think you get the right answers faster as your need is for next week. I think you sould look into Topics by @driftwook , @LPowell, and many others.

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2477/driftwood-quantum-x-series-settings-orion-v4d-inc.-hbr-fix-rocket-%CE%B2-pictoris-series-2#Item_187

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2099/100mbps-flow-motion-v1.11-failsafe-patch-with-hbr-25p-50p-modes#Item_359

  • @lunalobo75 I had no idea how dramatic the price drop has been. That is honestly shocking. Tomorrow I have a shoot where a client is asking for footage in 1080p/25 (usually i shoot 24) so I'm testing out a few hacks. Spanmybitchup works perfectly but the file size is absolutely huge. Do you know whether it is possible for me to simply lower the bitrate on that patch and still be able to use it, or does lowering the bitrate without modifying other sections of the patch break it?

    For now I am working on a modified version of cbrandin's 44M patch with ISO limit removed and audio boosted to 320kb.

  • Maybe this question had been asked but I could not find any answer for it. What is HBR mode really? According to StreamParser and Sony Vegas, a clip shot in HBR mode is the same as 1080i except that the clip has higher bit rate (24mbs). Am I understand it correctly?

    Thanks.

  • @Flacnvinyl - If you you think that 44M is good enogh for you I think that cbrandin's settings still stands, I started to use them with firmware 1.0 and now with 1.1. But with 1.1 you also have an option to use enduser settings only as Vitaliy has built in a lot of experience from guys like cbrandin and others in those.

    Look at my topic http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2414/basic-ptool-settings-for-end-users#Item_1 for ideas. My Nature setting is very close to what cbrandin 44M does. Se post 3 in that topic for my current updated settings.

    I think you also could look at towi's 24P/25P NINE - http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2409/24p25p-nine-gop9-hack-for-friendly-co-existance-of-24p-and-25p/p1

  • Hello everyone. This is my first post. I recently purchased a GH2 to function as a secondary cam to my AF101. I primarily shoot weddings. I've been delighted with the stock images resolved from the GH2 and even more delighted with the improved settings made by folks on here. I'm aware of, though I will probably never fully understand, the hard work of Vitaliy that has made these hacks possible. I'm very grateful to Vitaliy for creating this resource. Thanks also to driftwood and LPowell (and many others) for all their hard work in creating settings that so many end users are benefitting from.

    I live in PAL land and shoot @ 25p. I have studiously followed the devlopments since the launch of the latest stock firmware and I have been impressed with the settings made available for PAL users particularly: Flow Motion,Sanity,24p25p-NINE &Driftwood baby Quantum X.

    It is my understanding that these 4 settings represent the only viable options for 25p shooters.

    I have been using 32GB Class-10 Lexar Pro cards but their read/write speeds are insufficient to deal with the above settings. I have had write error freezes with all settings above. Sometimes I can shoot for 1 hour, sometimes only 2 minutes. For this reason I have ordered some of the highly regarded 64GB Sandisk Extreme cards as replacements.

    In my line of work, reliability is probably most important. I cannot afford any card errors. Card spanning is also important. Being able to record approx. 2 hours on a 64GB card is also important. Being able to reliably use ex-Tele mode would also be very useful (although not a deal breaker).
    I understand that there is no certainty with any of these settings or cards but I would appreciate some feedback as to what other PAL users are using, specifically those users who prioritise reliability and need a healthy ratio between record times and image quality.

    I would also like some advice on what setting would be best purely for image quality. I know 'quality' is subjective and the approriate setting may depend on whether static or moving shots are mainly used. I will be shooting both static and moving shots so a compromise between both would be great. I would like the option to use such a setting for certain nature shots and b-roll footage where the shots can be repeatable and it is not a disaster if there is a card write error.

    As a noob, I must admit I have not done any scientific testing. I have mainly been evaluating footage with my eyes and using streamparser to confirm bitrates etc. What has worried me is extremely low bitrates in low light situations. Could some kind soul explain to me the benefits of using MJPEG in these settings and how I exactly I could do this?

    To summarise, for 25p, with latest firmware/ptool,using the SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB card, what is the:1. Best setting for relaible,spanning, long record-time with ability to use ex-Tele. 2. Best MJPEG setting for increased variable or constant bitrates in low light and how exactly to configure such a setting. 3. Best setting purely for image quality at the expense of reliablity,record times or aiblity to safely use ex-Tele.

    I realise the answers to these questions are buried somewhere (and maybe I already know them) but, given my line of work, it would really help if a qualified person could just confirm things for me. It would give me peace of mind to know I'm on the right track.

    Thank you all so much.

  • @driftwood and everybody

    I really need help.

    Since there is a new ptool I feel totally lost, it's becoming much more technical even if I read everything and try to understand (maybe it's because my English is no good enough). I'm leaving France next week for a long trip in Vietnam and I want to take pictures and to shoot films.

    I have 3 sd cards: 2 sandisk Extreme Pro 45mb/s 8 GB and 1 sandisk Extreme Pro 45mb/s 16 GB

    I bought 2 cheap sd cards (class4 4GB) to be able to load 2 different patch. Can someone help me to choose 2 good and "secure" patch. I'd like to shoot in 25p cause I'm living in a pal country but if it's 24p it's also ok for me. I don't know how often I will be able to unload my cards so I'd like to have a patch that doesn't use too much space. I believe that many people have the same kind of wishes so any help should be very useful.

    What are your recommendation?

  • Little question of which I'm sure it had been asked before. Just can't seem to find the right words to find anything via search.

    Am I able to shoot 720p60 instead of 720p50 with my hacked PAL GH2? And if yes, how do I do it? The PAL<>NTSC switch which comes with all hacks is turned on by standard, isn't it? Those 10 extra frames really make a difference.

    Thanks guys.

  • @bricolo - for safe settings (1080p/24) I've been using LPowell's Flow Motion 1.11 (can be found here: http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2099/100mbps-flow-motion-v1.11-failsafe-patch-with-hbr-25p-50p-modes/p1)

  • Hi guys this seems like a ridiculous question just can't seem to find an answer, Are all GH1's hackable? Or is there a specific firmware that needs to be avoided? you help would be really appreciated.

  • @Dusty42 : "HBR" stands for "High Bit Rate" this mode is 1080p 25p for PAL users (Broadcast is usually 25p in Europe) it replaced the former 1080p 50i mode. All post guys hate interlaced footage that bring many problems. So this was a great news.

  • @ghostlayer, My camera is NTSC and I have this HBR mode too. I tried it out and looked the clip in StreamParser and found that it was also 1080i. The HBR mode in NTSC camera is about 24mbps and 17/13mbps for FSH/FH modes if unhacked. But when the camera is hacked, the FSH/FH modes are about the same as HBR mode, I think. But I am still not sure though that HBR is 1080i. I thought I read it somewhere that the HBR mode for NTSC cameras is actually 1080p at 30fps. I just hope someone knowledgeable can chime in to clarify.

    Thanks.

  • @Dusty42 I'm sorry I can't tell you about NTSC HBR, it might not be "patched" yet. I guess someone will help here.

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