I have a theory about what's going on here and I'd like to propose we test it.

Given Comrade Vitaliy's well-documented impatience with lesser minds than his, I believe his obviously April Fool's inspired announcement about working with Panasonic along with a Justice League style group of super hackers like Driftwood is Vitaliy's subversive way of separating the forum's wheat from its chaff.

In other words, those GROWN MEN here who are actually capable of believing a company like Panasonic would hire on a Russian conspiracy theorist and anti-capitalist firmware hacker to work alongside its engineering team in Japan, in effect admitting that its in-house brains aren't as smart at this guy with a hobbyist tweaker blog? These true believers line up single-file and report to Rocket #1.

The rest of us who call BS and applaud Vitality for a well-played April Fool's gag? We report to Rocket #2.

Tomorrow at noon sharp, both rockets launch. What happens next depends on which rocket got it right.

If Vitaliy's telling the truth and he and Nick are really going to work in an official capacity with Panasonic on future camera designs, Rocket #1 blasts off, orbits the moon, and returns home to a heroes' parade and free lifetime GH-series cameras from Panasonic with full official beta tester privileges.

Rocket #2 will explode on liftoff, killing all aboard.

But if this is all just a well-played April Fool's gag, the following will take place: Rocket #2 makes several spectacular passes around the Earth, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere for a perfect splashdown and we get to rejoin the forum and continue to play with amazing unauthorized 3rd party firmware hacks.

Rocket #1, on the other hand, never returns to Earth. Instead, it keeps hurtling through space, its onboard URL blacklist blocking personal-view.com from its browsers indefinitely. The only URLs the ship's firewall lets through are dvxuser, eoshd, and chixwithdix.com. A week's supply of Red Bull and churros will require severe rationing if it is to support all of the guys who signed onto the "Panasonic Welcomes Employee # 4,000,000,001 Vitaliy "Steve" Kiselev" gag.

Am I saying I endorse this plan? No, I most certainly do not. It is a cruel and heartless solution to improving the S/N ratio, and only a man with ice water in his veins and balls of solid magnesium would ever consider such a thing. No, I am too much of a people person to support this sort of mass moronicide. At the end of the day, the simple truth of the matter is I feel too much.

But que sera. The decision has been made. Report to your self-assigned rocket at 0-eleven-hundred hours tomorrow and may God forgive Vitaliy and perhaps Panasonic for what they have done here.

@futur2 Glad you remembered that one. Anyone/anything else?

I think this is as good a time as any to address the current issues that sometimes come up on the camera (as opposed to focusing only on new features).

-Someone already mentioned the gamma shift.

-Issues with narrow angle shutter under artificial lights due to lack of sync with shutter speeds to lighting frequencies (at least in NTSC regions).

-Intermittent issues with flashes in underexposed regions, even at low ISOs.

-Menus not always registering mode change selections (like when you switch from shooting SH mode to Cinema Mode and then have to open the menu again and close it again to get it to switch).

-The noise issue bug on the top ISO row (320, 640, 1250, etc.)

Those were off the top my head. Anyone have other similar types of issues (as in, not adding functionality just fixing what is there)?

This thing is turning nicer and nicer by the minute. Good news Vitaliy.

@duartix

+1!!!!! Panny open your ears, (or eyes on the forum...) EDIT: I also will higher fps for slow motion.....

Nice to know they are monitoring.

First request: Since we aren't giving a shit about the standard Blue Ray profiles, I'd like to ask for Variable Frame Rate in AVCHD encoder. I don't want it to encode 30fps when I'm doing 2fps timelapses, thank you very much. The option of recording without sound should also be seriously considered.

I went to check the PTool's site https://www.personal-view.com/faqs/gh2-hack/ptool-software It's UP

I went to check the PTool's download that allows users to modify the firmware of a number of Panasonic cameras hhttps://www.personal-view.com/faqs/gh2-hack/ptool-software

It's available

I read that the creator of such a tool and owner of that site was hired by Panasonic. If this were true in the real world, do you know what would happen right away to the download link and site itself?

Vitaliy, can you post a copy of the NDA you signed?
Or is there an NDA of the NDA?

...from a recent(Feb 2012) Ichiro Kitao Interview:

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/panasonic_plans_highend_csc_to_fend_off_canon_threat_news_311439.html

" Panasonic is not interested in expanding its range of camera products at the moment, but wants to concentrate on improving quality within the areas it operates. 'We want to become known as a high-quality camera brand, and this will be our concentration this year. We will aim for a high-end camera to demonstrate that mirrorless cameras can be alternatives to DSLR cameras, not just a step-up from compact cameras. "

Other thoughts:

After a $10 Billion loss last year (asian floods and japanese earthquake,) one would think Panasonic would be more forward looking and push for new products to drive profits.

Perhaps the supply chain has not recovered sufficiently. Maximizing the current stable of products for another cycle may help with the recovery.

In any event, Ichiro Kitao seems young and contemporary(at least as far as jp management is concerned) and may be able to bring a welcome openness to the Panasonic brand.

Wow is the only word that comes to me!

Can't wait for NAB... sounds too good to be true, kudos to Panasonic and congrats to V if true!

Funny how people fall for April fools....

@TheNewDeal Not being confrontational but I think you are mistaking camera and use. In fact I feel most here want the best picture quality first and foremost even if it entrails some workaround in the workflow. DSLR will never be the good tool if you want to shoot and edit very fast because they are not meant to be... video camera primarily. You will always have to find workaround for form factor and functionality because it is also a camera to take photos. For doing fast videography better think about a proper video camera with things like ND and SDI even power zoom, etc. I dough that you will find those things in a photo camera even a hybrid one like the gh line anytime soon.

April fools?

Happy 1st April. I see that the announcement was made at 31st March on my computer. But where the hack stays Vitaly.....