If you take 720, (SH) you have also a absolute smooth movement and 50 progressive (full) frames per second instead of 25 frames separated it 50 half (interlaced) frames in 1080i.

I also use 1/50th in 720/50p works fine. I have tested 1/100th to follow th 180° rule, it works fine too, but I prefer 1/50th.

I would not recuce the shutter to a time, that does not fit to the frame rate. PAL: 50 frames = 1/50th or 1/100th NTSC: 60 frames = 1/60th or 1/120th (1/125 if 1/120 is not available)

SANITY 4.1

Here is an update for SANITY with vastly improved stability for the PAL version. This sucker is STABLE. In fact, so stable that I was able to raise the data rate in FSH/SH mode to 36M. So, there's better picture quality, too.

I've also updated the NTSC version, although there was nothing wrong with version 4.0. I simply applied some of the things I learned from the PAL version, to make it even more stable. Call it preventative maintenance.

Again, what SANITY is about is top picture quality is ALL shooting modes with reasonable data rates and 100% reliability.

@towi . I know you are testing also bkmcwd's patch. How you would compare sanity vs bkmcwd's patch in 24p or HBR 25p? I'm not talking about stability, only image quality

I accidently recorded some SH material with the sanity 4.1 patch on a class 4 card with an average bitrate of 30 Mbit/sec with no problems. Usually I use class 10 but I was amazed, that recording and playback worked well with the SanDisc Ultra, 15MB/s Class 4. Great and very good picture.

I also have a GH1 that I sometimes use to mixs scenes with the GH2. What hack would make sense on the GH1, to mix with the Sanity 4.1 of the GH2? I film martial arts instructional DVDs in a controlled enviroment with good light and use 720p only.

I would not advise to do this when there are important takes to do, but at least with my SanDisc Class 4 it works in all modes, 720p (SH), 1080i (FSH) 24p (cinema) and 25p (HBR). Good.

It went over 60 Mbit in cinema 24p. On a 15/Mbit class 4 card! Wow.

Just to see, I put a 4 gig class 4 Sandisk card in and it gave a Card Speed error within a few seconds. I'm testing a long run with a 95MB Sandisk now on the log of death with TE on.

@spike08

"@towi . I know you are testing also bkmcwd's patch. How you would compare sanity vs bkmcwd's patch in 24p or HBR 25p? I'm not talking about stability, only image quality"

It depends on what you call "IQ". I also use the term "image quality" as if it would refer to a clearly identified criteria. But in fact we all have a different take on what "IQ" actually means for us personally. As far as "imaging" goes I am actually a photographer. And I only shoot cameras without anti aliasing filters. Consequently for me personally "sharpness" is important (to me "sharpness" means the reproduction of fine details but without a harsh/oversharpened look). With video I also pay attention on flicker-free, artefact-free motion and "grain-like" noise. As far as "tonality" goes the GH2 sucks anyway... (the same goes for other DSLR videos - the GH2 suffers from banding, Canons always look extremely "digital" (candy shop colors + mushy)... I have no experience with Nikons, though).

First: I have not tested the latest Sanity patch yet (I will, of course). I was a big fan of the former Sanity patch and used it very often as it was clearly by far the best setting for 50i (and at the same time also great at 24H). Since the advent of firmware 1.1 and HBR things may have changed. There are some really great settings here on the forums. For me it's important that 24H AND HBR/25p AND FSH/50i work well. This is why I now rarely compare patches against each other. I mostly compare HBR (25p) against 24H of the same patch. I fully expect Sanity will do great in all 3 modes.

So here's my (very personal) take on some of the patches I've tested:

• Driftwood's Sedna A AQ1: phantastic at 24H / weak at HBR when the codec is stressed much (footage looks highly compressed and shows a lot of mosquito noise). Then again great at HBR when the codec is not stressed much. FSH/50i is almost unusable for me personally.

• LPowell's Flowmotion: I really like the look of the 24H footage. HBR/FSH sucks IMO (it depends on the actual scene... but mostly HBR/25p looks somewhat mushy... the same goes for FSH/50i)

• 24p25p-NINE (my modfied "Sanity MK II" patch): super sharp at 24H, HBR/25p and FSH. HBR/25p is almost indiscernible from 24H (and 24H of 24p25p-NINE is indecernible from Driftwood's high bitrate Intra settings on static scenes). Also quite good with motion (little flickering/motion artefacts). I doubt the new Sanity will be "better". But again, I have yet to try it.

• bkmcwd GOP3 settings: now, in all three settings you will be hard pressed to tell 24H from HBR under most shooting scenarios (and 24H is absolutely great!). Here's a comparision of 24H and HBR/25p from the "natural" setting in ETC mode / static scene / ISO400, 1/50''/Zeiss 2.0/50 / smooth -2|-2|-1|-2: http://www.file-upload.net/download-4177568/natural_modified_FOTOJPEG.zip.html I do like the look of short GOP motion, so I assume one of these bkmcwd settings will be my standard setting for the time being.

• Matrices: Driftwood rocks the house! Different matrices have only little impact on "IQ" at first glance but in fact they can make a big difference. 24p25p-NINE contains the "HQ Matrix". I've just made some preliminary bkmcwd GOP3 settings with the "HQ Matrix" applied ("GOPZILLA3_HQ" is great at 24H, HBR/25p. I have yet to check FSH/50i). Most likely I will also try to apply the HQ Matrix to Ralph's latest Sainty patch.

I'm not quite sure which of the patches will be my favorite. But I'm almost sure it will be a patch containing the HQ Matrix (very sharp, flicker-free with motion, especially in conjunction with short GOP when the setting is "right"). I owe @Ralph_B a BIG THANK-YOU for his first Sanity patch. So of course I'll also carefully test the latest Sanity patch. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with Sanity again ... (but, again, only if it works with the "HQ Matrix" ... right now I lean towards GOP3ZILLA & HQ and GOLGOP3 & HQ).

@Ralph_B. I loaded Sanity 4 and tested. Nice job. Seems like a good all around setting for those who like good quality combined with compatibility with majority of the class 10 cards and low storage usage. I noticed you changed the GOP for 720p60 from 39 in Sanity 3.1 to 18 in Sanity 4. Any particular reason?

@Zaven13 "I noticed you changed the GOP for 720p60 from 39 in Sanity 3.1 to 18 in Sanity 4. Any particular reason?"

Yes, for a very good reason - In Sanity 4, I turned on B-frames for 720p, and this required a different GOP to work efficiently. It's funny, when you look at these numbers in the ini file, they all look kind of innocent, but they're like the tip of an iceberg for huge underlying processes that are going on, and they're all interconnected.

@peternap Glad it's working for you. You can deposit the moonshine into my Paypal account.