I know two years ago Vitaliy said that buying a Lumix G2 is not good.

I got near new Lumix G2 kit for my wife in reasonable price. The third and fourth serial number is 0J. I think the camera is the last batch of Lumix G2 that could be hacked using Vitaliy's PTOOL. The camera runs LPOWELL's Fast 3GOP. It is indeed a very good HD video camera. The internal sound quality is not as good as my Lumix G6, but AVCHD 720p25 video from this camera until ISO1600 is good enough.

The firmware file size of the Lumix G2 is bigger compared to GF2 and GH2. It is 17MB for G2. This fact makes me wonder, what is inside the huge file firmware?

But leave the Lumix G2 alone, most of us at least already using newer generation camera.

@lenuisible thanks!! :)

@lenuisible Wow, good deal, only 150 for a GH1 body! ;) Where did you get it? ebay? I am not able to find a GH1 body here in Italy, I can find on ebay a lot of announces 350-400€ for body only...it's high price for an old model..

@lenuisible that's a good recommendation I had not yet thought about. I will look into specs of GH1 as it was previously a camera I always wrote off as too expensive, but I see the price has come down and it is similar to G2 spec wise, but obviously better on video.

I would like someone to confirm for me though if manual video controls DO in fact work with the earlier G2s.

Yes, they do.

By inspiration I would assume you mean considerable time and effort and imagination in order to "glitch" the camera into outputting a dump of some description, which can then be decrypted and so on.

It requires actual body to make chip dumping. Almost no one is interested, as of today, so I really suggest you to go the G5 or GH2 way.

By inspiration I would assume you mean considerable time and effort and imagination in order to "glitch" the camera into outputting a dump of some description, which can then be decrypted and so on. Am I on the right lines? I understand what you are saying. @stonebat no shoulder is required here. I am not complaining, and have only asked polite questions throughout rather than demands. I appreciate the work that goes into these hacks and I am grateful. I suppose if I really care to go on using a G2, I could swap it for an earlier model. It seems there is no easy way to tell which ones work or not either by serial or manufacturer date.

I would like someone to confirm for me though if manual video controls DO in fact work with the earlier G2s. I think they do.

Thankyou

Ok thankyou I understand. So there is no possible way without a newer G2 body. What if someone was to lend you one for an amount of time? What is involved in making a "chip dump". Is this an activity that requires minutes, hours, days, weeks or months?

I think I understand. You are saying you got a GH1 body to work with from before Panasonic changed the G2 firmware/hardware in newer bodies. When you say "I see no reason now to make G2 dumping, as new bodies prices are low enough." What do you mean? Are you saying that new body prices for other cameras that are better are low enough? Such as G3 for example? None of these "newer body cameras" can have manual video controls though, which is what was possible with the original G2 hacks no? It would just be nice to still use G2 newer bodies. Is it major work to do it all again?

So why did the ptools hack stop working on the G2? Panasonic changed something to protect it? If this is the case, why then is it not "re-hacked" again? I mean to say, why can new cameras like G3/G5 be hacked but the newer model G2 cameras cannot?

Hy! I have a problem with the hack :P i've a hackable G2 but the AVCHD hack is not working. (MJPEG ok)

i would like to try the earlier 3.40 ptool but i can't find anywhere. (one and a half years ago i hacked this camera and everything is working and now with the 3.6d something is wrong. :( ) pls if is it possible link us the 3.40 :)

thx! sry for my english :)

Yes, it is possible, your focal will be about 32-100 mm with ETC and this lens..

@Vitaly_Kiselev, my budget is very, very small.

Based on my reading, and viewing photos & videos posted online, and tests using a borrowed G2, at this point:

• I'd rather have one G2 than no G-series Micro Four Thirds camera, and
• I'd rather have one hacked G2 than an unhacked G2.

When my budget improves:

• I'd rather have a pair of hacked G2s than one hacked GH1/GH2.

(I've ruled out the GF1 and GF2 because they neither have articulated screens nor video output while recording.)

The problem is: how to achieve this. If buying a second-hand G2, it would be great if I could ask the seller for the serial number (or some other property of the camera: firmware revision? What would be most useful?), and use that to look up whether the camera is likely to be hackable or not. Otherwise, the money spent on postage/etc for buying used G2s and having to return them or re-sell them if they turn out to be unhackable would make my goal uneconomical.

Thank you for all the work you've put into these hacks and this community, by the way :)

Has anybody compiled a (partial) list of G2 serial numbers corresponding to hackable and unhackable cameras?