Hi all,

I'm going to shoot a documentary with a GH1 in a wild animal care park (wild animals that are wounded, abandoned or from smuggling). Most animals are in cage and there are lots of trees covering the sun rays so it can be dark. I did some tests already to see what kind of problems may occur (dark areas, animals running around or hiding, etc). I'll shoot whenever there's sun so there'll be some very contrasting lighting (between sun rays and shadows), I need some details on fur and feathers (there are birds as well).

So what would be the best suited hack for the GH1 to get the most details? I am a motion designer and occasionally shoot stuff for my own projects so I'm no camera specialist (but i love it!). I'm looking for a "film" look (hopefully i'm not bad in postproduction) and fullHD in 24p.

Thank you for your help!

@Mirrorkisser :o) There are quite a few things to consider.. the memory card is probably the first consideration, as long as you have the 64/95mbs card then you are right smack bang in the candy shop.. you can expect all settings to be as stable as can be... Then comes lens choice, panasonic/ olympus auto lenses affect stability more than manual lenses... next comes the frame rate that you prefer to shoot at.. 24H seems to be the optimum frame rate for both performance and stability... Then things start getting tricky, when you add in the personal preferences of iDynamic et al..

Really recommend reading for a few months and testing out what sounds and looks good for you.. :) although I understand why a lot of people might want a faster route ;)

Do try the 24L option though.. I really like the Sedna settings but recently away for three weeks in California didn't want to fill too many hard drives, the 24L setting was great and I didn't find any noticable drop in IQ. Good luck finding your favourite!

@Mirrorkisser best is a subjective term, you are the right person to judge the different settings for yourself, harsh I know, but true. If you are looking for an intra setting at lower bit rates, I would suggest trying the 24L settings rather than 24H, to find one that fits with your workflow, good luck :)

@Mirrorkisser

They are space consuming because they need to be. Recording with all I-frames but not enough bit rate is much worse than recording with B-frames and more than enough bit rate.

@vtablix

I sent you a message with the information you need.

Hello people with knowledge, I just got the panasonic GH2 with a Sandisk 64GB 95MB/s SDXC. I don't know much about the technical part of this camera's. I am a documentary filmmaker. I was thinking about hacking the camera, but i don't know if i should do it after reading about errors and short recording times.. I also can't see the difference any more between all those vimeo/youtube film tests with hacks. Does the hack really make the image look that much better?? I thought the flow motion did some great work with the movement.. did i see that correct? I just don't know which hack to download anymore......

What i want from the hack: - that it is save and stable - long recording time. - pretty image / good flowing movement - good image in the dark (higher iso maybe?) - i have an adaptor for photo lenses on the gh2, the hack needs to work with that. - Nice footage for editing (not TO big sized maybe...)

Who knows the right hack for me? Hope some one can help me out in making the right decision for the hack. So i can start making films with the camera!

Thanks already.

Greets, Daan The Netherlands (PAL, if thats importent to mention)

Need a hack patch that works well in high contrast. I'm shooting something lit in an area n almost black in another. Is the night patch you guys mention good for this?

Hi everyone, So, I come from a film background and am now shooting a film on the gh2. I'm looking for a patch that gets close to 35mil; things like latitude, ratio, etc.. Can anyone recommend a patch that gets as close to 35mil a patch can get while still maintaining some good reliability? Ambiguous question maybe. Thanks!

Try Cluster v6 Drewnet.

Hi everyone. I've had a GH1 and just got a GH2. I have some questions as far as all of these settings go.

I'm really liking what I've seen from people using the Orion v4b patch. I think that a lot of it looks like big screen / feature film quality with is amazing!

Does anyone know if this patch retains all normal camera functionality.. e.g. playback in all modes, spanning, ect...? If not, does anyone know what is the highest quality patch that does? What patch would also give you the best quality at reasonable bit rates, would it be Sanity 5?

Basically, I would like to know what patch is going to retain all normal camera features while enhancing them as much as possible. If the Orion patch does this, that's perfect. What is the difference between the Orion v4b and v4d patches?

I'm currently running a SanDisk 16gb 95 MB/s card which I just purchased with the GH2. I have the 14-140 and 20mm lenses. I will mainly be doing music videos, with some possible low light shots for nightclubs.

Also, when hacking my GH1 I would just make sure "prevent version compare" was checked when loading a new patch, and I wouldn't rename the firmware filename, I would just save it as the original firmware filename. When loading a new patch / firmware in the GH2 do we still need to rename the file each time as a higher number for it to take effect, or can we just overwrite the original?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am looking for a stable patch that provides a high bit rate and the ability to directly playback in cam without the need to switch it off first. I am also wanting to implement the Pasadena sound settings.

I am more interested in stability and direct playback than push the camera to its limits. As far as the sound hack goes I am just trying to limit or eliminate the Automatic Gain Control (AGC).

Just decided to hack the GH2. I've been reading the humongous amount of information and wisdom you have here but I'm completely lost. I'd like to find a patch that suits what I do but dont know where to begin. What I'm interested in is:

• Shooting PAL, 25fps 1080P.

• Using ETC mode primarily.

• Lots of pans and movement.

• 10-15 min of continuous recording.

• Looking for a good balance of quality and reliability, with the focus on reliability.

• Would use 95mb Sandisk card.

If someone has a recommendation on what to try, I would greatly apreciate it.

Thanks!

@m_c There are many settings out there for moderate bitrate /hi quality. Try GOLGOP, Cluster, Flowmotion, Cake, cbrandin or Sanity (in no particular order) and see which you prefer - then there's also the wide variety of Intra settings available but will use much more bitrate...