@lolo very interesting. Speaking as a programmer, I'm surprised that higher ISO values are slower. I'm trying to figure out why that should be... [penny drops] actually it's probably due to the NR processing (higher ISO needs stronger NR).
i´m mean even having raw, or a size bigger than HD with the electronic shutter is a huge improvement for the timelapse
but if we can have raw footage in hd, or resolution bigger than HD for at least 15-20 seconds, i crap my pants, as that would be absolutely useful for narrative work
well i have just counted the seconds, with manual focus it takes 8 seconds, with autofocus on it takes 16 seconds both with focus priority off
quality doesnt seems to make any difference in writing time
still, we have to see if lowering the fps from 40 to 24, has any big consecuence in the 1 second limitation
because, this means that it is writing in the card as the buffer in the camera records the picture, so perhaps, if we are lucky, if we lower the fps the internal buffer will record at the same time that it writes in the sd
but i don´t know, it is possible that panasonic aint squezzing all the buffer that this mode can take, i´m mean from the other options hacked we know that much at least, so
@lolo no what he's saying is that after 1sec recording has stopped, his card still takes 20 seconds to write out the data. In other words, the 1sec recording writes directly to an internal buffer, which then has to be flushed out to the card. So the limit is the size of the internal buffer and can't be changed.
@johnnym i have only a sd card slower than yours, the kingston 100x, are you saying that the 1 second limitation was caused by my slower card, are you sure you have 20 seconds at 40fps?
if you shoot sh burst, it's writing for 20 seconds to my Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s card, so i doubt if the length of shooting could be extended past 1 second.
btw, according to the manual (page 76) "the burst mode speed may become slower depending on the following settings. sensitivity- page90 picture size-page119 quality-p120 focus priority-page130 focus mode"
so this means that there has to be a sweet spot on the buffer in order for us to squeeze the maximum of it,
but of course all of this proposal depends if this is actually a software limitation and not a hardware one
@_gl i know, that´s why i said let´s dream, but also because 24fps is lower than the 40fps so maybe there is a chance as the buffer almost doubles the capacity available for each frame
@Iolo, +100, but I would want it for timelapses. That would give us 4k shots + lots of aspect options, without burning out the mechanical shutter (apparently the GH2's are only specced for 50,000 to 70,000 activations). And audio isn't needed for 'lapses anyway.
I think removing the 1 second limit for high fps shooting won't work - the issue (especially with 4K) is how fast the frames can be written to the internal buffer & the memory card. But it would work perfectly for timelapses.
I'm frustrated that the GH2 can only output 1080i 60 via HDMI. No web videoconferencing systems can pick up the signal. Can this hack or any other hack adjust the output via HDMI to something more standard like 23.976, 29.97, 59.94, etc.? Anything else? Thank you.
Included in all patches. Personally, I find it annoying when I check it within Ptool, only to find later that the GH2's reverted to Japanese - because while still using Ptool the language setting had become unchecked!
Is there any problem with some common settings like Languages being included by default? eg Prevent version compare=Checked Third-party battery=Checked All Interface Languages=Checked 30min limit removal=Checked PAL<->NTSC Menu=Checked
Yes, thank you both, I understand now. I thought there was some technical limitation preventing updating apart from using the internal battery. I can see now your point for safety reasons. Thanks!
@drogo To add to what bdegazio said. With the DC coupler, if there were to be a power outage, you would end up with the same result. A "bricked" GH2. You can update the firmware with the DC couple, but it is highly NOT recommended. Its a risk that IMO shouldn't be taken, no matter how small the chance of there being a power outage or the connector coming loose. I usually keep a spare battery on me dedicated to firmware updates in case I want to update while on site. With the original battery you can update as long as you have two or more bars of battery left, although A full battery is best. Hope that helped.
Apparently the DC coupler has an unreliable connector which can come loose while updating. If that happens, the camera will be "bricked" - i.e. rendered totally inoperable, since it will have no operating system installed.
The battery has no such problem, it seems, as there have been literally thousands of updates installed by users without incident.
Can someone please explain to me why it is dangerous to use the DC coupler when updating firmware? Everyone always says to just use an original fully charged battery, but what will happen if I use the DC coupler with an external battery while updating?
@Vitaly Would it be possible in PTool to customize the firmware version number that appears on the corresponding GH2 menu in order to include some indication of the patch that has been uploaded? Also, would it be possible in video mode, instead of having the remaining recording time showing on the LCD, to have the remaining space available on the card ? This would be useful to monitor the spanning. Finally, is there any way that the video files could carry the ISO info at which they were shot ? Thanks.