I recently purchased the GH2 and must say that despite all the great features and quality I am somewhat disappointed by not only battery performance but also the crippled Bulb mode.

At this point I am evaluating the camera and trying to throw it into my 'real world' tests as much as I can. One of thie things I set out to do this year will or should involve long time exposures. Now, I have the feeling that I might not need 6hr exposures, but even the missing more than 2min exposures setting is a bit troubling.

I have read through various forums, guide, etc. but have only found a few references to bulb mode exposures for STILL photography. While it seems that you cannot change the firmware to allow for longer exposures, I often see a mention of using external remotes, but it seems often a 'should work scenario' answer.

Has anyone used a specific remote (maybe the one available from Panasonic) to do a longer exposure maybe over 10min or even longer? A) what gear did you use and B) how did you work with the GH2, and C) would you mind sharing an example of such a shot?

I'd hate to return the DH2 just to get a bigger DSRL for a feature that should be included in a camera of this price range and performance level.

Thanks in advance.

I'm looking to put together a straight-through shoulder rig for my GH2 that has the same footprint as a traditional shoulder cam (think VariCam). I want to be able to build it with a mic pre-amp and a couple of radio receivers on the back and a matte box on the front to go straight from my shoulder to sticks. I'm using Canon FD lenses which are fairly heavy so I will probably need to counterweight at the back with either weights or eventually a power system. Oh yeah, and I want to keep the cost down which puts the Lanparte and other big names out of range for me. I was hoping to keep the cost below $300 (I already have the matte box and don't need follow focus). Any advice? ( I know - dangerous question on a forum, hah).

As I am resolving all my gear, i can't sell individual items, just the whole sets.

http://nanofunk.net/panasonic-gh2-lumix-dslr-video-shooter-kits-for-sale-professional-starter-novoflex-adapter-filming/

Price: €1000/each

is anyone else having this problem?

I'm very new to DSLR's and I'm looking at these two cameras to shoot video with. The subjects I record will be very close to the lens (a few inches away) so I will need something that can take jaw dropping footage.

The Sony is a bit less expensive than the GH2 but which would you guys recommend and why?

Thank you!

recently I realized that Canon and Nikon include some metadata on their video files. Something like EXIF data.

Is there anything similar on GH2 files?

Bye

Can I give some money to someone to ship their dead/damaged/non-functioning GH2 to him?

I'm looking for a good zoom for video work with the GH2:

-Any mount/brand which allows adjustment of iris is fine.

-Not bothered about auto focus, not bothered about zooming during a shot, unless there is a lenses which holds focus pretty well while zooming.

-Ideally 11-60mm ish but anything down to about 14-50mm would be ok.

-Max about f4, faster the better though.

-Minimal breathing while focusing

-Usable manual focus ring (Canon 24-70mm design would be fine)

-Good picture quality

Price isn't too much of an issue if all of the above are ticked (as long as it's not silly money) Olympus 14-35mm is too heavy by the sounds of it.

Thanks for any advice

Here is sample video: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46179875/00004.MTS

We still have some time, who knows, Panasonic might listen...

This is also a prototype, there are many ways this can be improved, but its fully functional in its present state. Sorry for the lousy photo, but my Canon Powershot is half dead. I still need to do a few adjustments such as replace my plastic and rubber mounts with metal plates, spray the matte box with a flat, non-glare paint, attach a black elastic bag between the matte box and lens so when I use smaller lenses there will be no light seeping through on the sides, etc.

If anyone is interested, I'll give you the full details. The whole thing was built using these two racks and scraps of items I found laying around in my garage/tool room. It holds my GH2, and Juicedlink nicely. I have my NTG-3 on a boom pole ($17), so there is no mic support arm. It would be easy enough to attach one.

The reason I'm posting: Since updating to the lastest 100 Mbps Flowmotion hack (which uses a bit too much space for my current project) , I can't seem to change my firmware anymore. Even with a full battery and the new file in the root folder on the SD card (named correctly of course), the cam simply doesn't show any update message. Going into play mode doesn't work either, nor did replacing the battery and restarting.

Is there a way to force the GH2 into update mode? What could I do?

All done with Sedna A Q20 Sandisk 16Gb 95mb/s Tokina 11-16 + Vari-ND filter Kessler PB pocket Dolly + electra drive

Converted to Prores 422HQ with 5DtoRGB Edit FCP + Magic Bullet Looks

Ungraded version -

Graded Version -

Does anyone have any small clips of cityscapes or busy business streets video clips they can let me use to project onto the faces of a band music video I am doing? I am looking to gather major cities of the world whther they are overview, low wide angle, timelapse or anything that includes skylines, tall buildings and bust CITY work areas - people going to work in rush hour etc...?

Anything considered. Of course theres no money in it but you will recieve a produiction credit if footgae is used. So please scour your back catalogue for ANYTHING remotely good looking.

Anyone with material should contact me on driftwood.brighton@gmail.com with a link to the footage that I can download. It doesnt have to be massively high resolution, compressed is good enough.

Any camera, any setting, its the images we need.

Many thanks if you can help.

Nick

I helped produce this Got Milk for the competition linked above. I've been busy finishing up my Masters and didn't have time to actually help shoot, but I did do the color work in post. We used my GH2 with the AQ1 Sedna A or B hack, I can't remember now, and I had them record at 24L settings to extend the card life while shooting interviews in public with strangers. Most everything was shot using the 25mm Voigt and a 50mm 1.4 Nikkor. We used a Tascam Dr-40 paired with an Azden SMG2x shotgun mic for audio pickup.

Unfortunately we can't post the video anywhere else until the contest is done. We'd appreciate the votes, but I'm more interested in sharing work done on the GH2! I'll be sure to upload it to Vimeo as soon as we can.

We shot this short film for the YouTube short film competition. We went from concept, to written script, auditions and casting, to shooting, and editing in a 6-week span starting in mid-February.

We used the Quantum Orion v9b patch, and couldn't have been happier with the results. We can't thank @Vitaliy_Kiselev and Nick @Driftwood and everyone else on this forum for their hard work. This is truly a unique community and I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store.

Also, the ending credits are truncated because of the 15:00 running time, the version of the film we plan on releasing to festivals is about a minute longer with some footage added in the support group video, and extended credits. Also, I uploaded the version we submitted to Vimeo to share with everyone here, because I despis YouTube's compression.

Would it be possible to get digital cinema 4k black and white out of the gh2?? or atleast 4096 × 1714 (2.39 aspect ratio 4k)??

I love my GH2 and the Driftwood quantum x v4b orion patch and its a bullet proof combo for my work. but i would love to experiment with black and white 4k.

April 14 is when NAB begins. Do they know something we don't? Has anyone heard any rumors about NAB announcements relating to the GH2?

I am shooting on the Voigtlander 25 mm f0.95. I've tried several shots, insight and outsight. I've noticed that in some parts the dark areas were absolutely clear, no noise at all, but in some where were. I've keep ISO between 320 - 640, f0.95.

How do I get, even if there is less light, the most best possible result - here a clean picture? Do I have to raise ISO in order ta achieve better results? (Sensor need more light sensitvity to bring out details, can you shoot on too low ISO?) I always thought: lower IS0 value= better picture quality.

How do you handle night shoots, any tricks? Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks, Alex

Can anyone out there point to very high quality, very stable hacks/patches (30min record times are minimum) that would function well in a variety of conditions, bright light, ocean, lots of vegetation, etc etc... I am aware that cards make a great difference as well and have purchased a couple of 32gb SanDisk Extreme pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-I Memory Cards so it wont be an issue.

Any help, is much appreciated

I tried to install Mysteron patch by Driftwood just awhile ago and shot a test the bit rate is claimed to be around 146mbs but mine is around 82mbs. I tested with Sedna and other patches and it's always around 40-60mbs some are 80mbs but never accurate as it's claimed to be ( most claimed to be around 100+mbs).

Is there a setting i should know about? I use 3.65d for mysteron and v1.1 for the hack. I have 64gb 95mbs card also. Please help me out and point me towards the light. I'm frustrated because of this. I'm starting to think it's either my card or my cam is a defect.

... a self-contained SD Quicktime file with no proprietary codecs on either: - data DVD - USB flash drive miniDV playable DVD

I'm editing and rendering on Vegas Home Studio HD 11.0. I'm wondering if I should be changing the settings on the camera BEFORE even filming, to easier convert to SD..There are also so many output options on Sony Vegas that I'm at a loss on what the best transfer would be to maintain the best quality in standard definition. Wondering if a USB flash drive would maintain better quality than a playable DVD?...it seems like rather than forcing filmmakers to downgrade their finished product, the contest staff should be upgrading their equipment to handle HD...these are only 4-7 minute videos after all. The finished videos will be screened in a full size theater..something tells me they are going to look not so good.

Thanks for the help.