Its been hacked. Its called MJPEG.

I thinks its only 2k at 40fps

Hacking mjpeg should be easier than hacking burst mode though... Also, there is no reason to expect that burst mode would bring something different out of the sensor = work on avchc / mjpeg is therefore be more valuable.

You reckon it is worth exploring, Vitaliy?

well, @Vitaliy_Kiselev ask me to move this from another thread :(, wich is kind of a let down, but here it is

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The Personal View video mode!

i have an idea, that came up to me from @balazer comment on the "MJPEG FPS setting for Timelapse on GH2" thread:

"if you put the GH2 in burst mode with the burst rate set to SH, it shoots using the electronic shutter only - no mechanical shutter... ...Frames can be 4:3 or 3:2 with 4 megapixels, or 1920 x 1080. "

so according to the manual, from factory we have 40fps at 1920*1080, but limited only to 1 second, so if @Vitaliy_Kiselev can hack the limit of the fps and the limit of the recording, we can have a new video mode that uses the full sensor, and can be played back in camera as a video (but at a lower framerate, and with no audio, and you would have to keep the still button press down during the entire recording),
but it can be interesting, perhaps we can have more than 40fps :D, and at 4:3 it can be bigger than full HD, we can have an image up to 2336*1752 pixels, something like a 2.2k, and with an anamorphic adapter it will get wider :D

according to the manual the frames on S mode have this size
aspect ratio / size:
4:3 /2336*1752
3:2 /2400*1600
16:9 / 1920*1080
1:1 / 1744*1744

The Personal View video mode!
:D!

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_gl_gl 11:09AM

@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.

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lolololo 11:20AM

@_gl well, lets wait what the almighty has to say, but as you said using the electronic shooter for the M (7megapixels) and L (14 megapixels) would bring up other big oportunities, and let´s dream that it can be placed at 24 fps , that it is perhaps possible for a limited amount of time, we would have a pretty nice new video mode

The Personal View video mode!!!
:D!

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velociveloci 11:23AM

@_gl but then we are limited by the lowest electronic shutter speed of 1/40th of a second, even then we have the issue of the current electronic shutter being not very good at certain light sources (e.g. point it at a LCD screen).

However if it's hackable like you have described, I am all for it ;)

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lolololo 11:47AM

The Personal View video mode!

let´s dream that Vitaliy can unlock the raw for the electronic shutter :D and make it at 24fps for more than a second :DDDDDD

raw footage at full hd!

i´m praying that the buffer can take it

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_gl_gl 12:26PM

@veloci, true but maybe the shutter speeds can be hacked too. After all you can use much slower speeds in MF for video modes.

@lolo, the 40fps mode doesn't support RAWs (the buffer would fill up too fast as they are much larger than JPGs).

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lolololo 12:33PM

@_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

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lolololo 1:10PM

The Personal View video mode!

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

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johnnymjohnnym 1:22PM

@lolo

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.

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lolololo 1:37PM

@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?

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_gl_gl 1:45PM ReportAwesome
@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.

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lolololo 2:03PM

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

still think is worth hacking

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lolololo 2:25PM

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

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lolololo 4:18PM

ok, i run a test to determine wich iso is the fastest in writing in burst, these are the results
on a static test

the fastest are:
160-200-250-320 / first
400-500-800 / second
10000-12800 / third

jpeg quality set to 2 increases consistenly in 1 second the time of writing needed more than jpeg quality set to 1

The dial S (shutter priority) mode is in average 1 second slower in both jpeg´s qualities than the M (Manual) mode

In S mode
Iso / time in seconds for jpeg jpeg quality 2 / time in seconds for jpeg quality 1

160-200-250-320 / 10 / 9
400-500 / 10-11 / 9-10
640 / 11 / 10
800 / 10-11 / 9-10
1000-1250-1600 / 11 / 10
2000-2500 / 11-12 / 10-11
3200-4000 / 12 / 10
5000-6400-8000 / 12-11 / 11-10
10000-12800 / 11 / 10

I didn´t test the A mode.

the camera was looking at the paintings in my room. manual focus, focus priority off

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_gl_gl 4:27PM

@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).

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lolololo 4:29PM

ap it was shooted on vibrant and the noise reduction was set to -2

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lolololo 4:32PM

so, with no NR more buffer :D, so perhaps more real Personal View Video Mode (pvvm for the friends) :) if you are correct of course

i´m praying jajajajajaj

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lolololo 6:25PM

i was thinking that perhaps the lens distortion correction in-camera may increase the time of writing so i will perform another test with the panasonic 14-140 and a canon fd to see if there is any diference

the writing time should decrease if the camera uses the same buffer for this

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lolololo 8:42PM

ok, so here are the results, seems like the lens distortion correction or other process of the pana lens does slow the burst:

manual focus, focus priority off, Manual mode, burst

static scene, at night with artificial light

Iso / time in seconds for jpeg quality 2 / time in seconds for jpeg quality 1

Panasonic 14-140:
160 / 10 / 9
400 / 10-11 / 9-10
800 / 11 / 10
1250 / 11 / 10
3200 / 11-12 / 10
10.000 / 11 / 11

Canon FD (there is an average of 1 second less than the Panasonic)
160 / 9 / 8
400 / 10 / 8-9
800 / 10 / 9
1250 / 10-11 / 9
3200 / 10-12 / 9-11
10.000 / 10-11 / 9-10

Body cap (i take this one also to see how much the difference is between a no detailed scene and a detailed one, and there is an average difference of 1 second less than the Canon FD)
160 / 8 / 8
400 / 8-9 / 8
800 / 8-9 / 8
1250 / 9 / 8
3200 / 9-11 / 8-9
10.000 / 10-11 / 9

*interesting find
the first burst inmediatly after the on of the camera doubles the time, the second burst has 1 second more than the average time of the chart above, and the third burst gets the right timing (this is at any iso)

So the question raises, there is another process that can be shut down to have more available buffer space, therefore reducing the writing time needed?

as _gl says there is the real noise reduction,

but is there another setting already available than can reduce the time?

@rigs. Nope it's 4K at 40fps :-)

Hi All --- I posted this a while ago, but it was in a different topic and I never heard anyone expand upon it until I now, these tests could be of interest...

2fps E-SHUTTER LIMIT

I have been doing some tests using the electronic shutter in the still mode... which I know is not the main focus of the hack... however I have found some very interesting results that might spark the interest in terms of using it to shoot video.

The manual shutter is slow... we know that. However the electronic shutter will shoot 2.3K images at 40fps in SH burst mode, but only for one second before it needs to buffer that info.

I began to wonder... using a modified external controller instead of a shutter release, how many frames could fire through the camera consistently before the camera needs to buffer?

I have come up with some interesting results...

The still's manual shutter, when shooting a full 16 megapixel image will consistently do 1fps on a class 10 card with no buffer. At 2fps it will do 57 frames before skipping three frames to buffer and continue for another 57 frames, then buffer three etc... When you set the camera to burst mode using the H setting, the manual says it can do 4-7fps before "slowing down half way through".

When you lower the size to a 2.3k image (there about, full JPEG 3.8 megapixel) it can take photos at 4fps, no problem, fully buffering as it goes, no lag time (at 6fps it skips frames so we'll say 4fps is its max at 2.3K).

So if the manual shutter can perform at 4or 5fps consistently at 2.3K without slowing, this all makes one think that the electronic shutter could vastly outperform this.

Wrong-- !

The electronic shutter has a built in "cripple limit" at only 2fps!!! Half of what the manual shutter can do with ease!!

This cripple is really disconcerting.. as I feel there is the possibility for the GH2 to perform in the SH burst mode at 24fps (taking single still images) with no buffer on a class 10 or higher card. Seeing how the camera is capable of taking 40 still photos in one second with one second to buffer after... theoretically at 20fps it may have enough time to buffer electronically in between stills and perhaps that could be pushed to 24fps.

So....

I would love to find out, if at all possible, if the 2fps electronic shutter burst mode limit could be removed.

This limit's terminology pretty much states:

"when consecutive (not held down burst) shooting is firing the camera, limit those pulses to only 2 stills per second".

This is of course arbitrary, because the manual shutter will keep trying to take as many stills as it can physically keep up with no matter how many a second.

In an interesting note, at 1fps the e-shutter is fine. At 2fps the e-shutter is fine. At 4fps the e-shutter skips exactly half the pictures (mathematically) and when you send 100 shots to the camera the number taken is only 50. This continues at 6fps, 8fps etc... the total shots taken only ever amount to 2fps which is how I know it is an imposed limit.

With my present set up I would be able to test the camera's ability to take stills at 1/2/4/6/8/12/16 and 24fps and assemble the stills as a movie (standard procedure for animators). If I am correct and the camera can process 2.3K stills in 24 stills per second, we will have uncovered a new 2K imaging device... with the full range of JPEG settings available (not just video mode and bit rates... but still frames like a film camera!) Perhaps even the hack could rewrite the burst mode to take 24fps instead of 40fps and we'd have a built in mode for shooting those stills as frames.

At the very least, if the camera could only produce a max of 18fps (stills per second) or 16fps, before buffering, then there is the possibility that with a simple timing device, the camera could offer multiple frames per second shooting... an option for fast motion, animation, timelapse.

My request is to see if the 2 stills per second electronic shutter "cripple limit" in the SH still mode on the camera could be removed or modified via the firmware. I strongly feel this could be a breakthrough and would love the opportunity to explore and test this possibility.

Thanks,

Dbdaws