GH2 Flow Motion v2.01 Update

This update addresses reliability issues with HBR, FSH, and SH video modes in both NTSC and PAL. It has been successfully tested for failsafe operation under all shooting conditions and options, including 80% Slow Motion and ETC zoom modes. The stability adjustments in Flow Motion v2.01 should produce little or no visible reduction in motion picture quality in any of the updated video modes.

In response to numerous requests, I've enabled and verified reliable operation of Flow Motion v2.01 with extended ISO levels. By default, all levels up through ISO 12500 may now be selected for use with any NTSC or PAL video mode. In practice, however, levels above ISO 3200 produce considerable noise, which may require excessive bitrate and perceptibly reduce motion picture quality compared to lower ISO levels.

Download the Flow Motion v2.01 Update at the following link:

http://www.personal-view.com./talks/discussion/3337/gh2-flow-motion-v2.01-update-failsafe-hbr-720p-modes/p1

@Gerald I'm curious as to how the camera would have trouble in H mode, since its bitrate is limited to less than 60Mbps. It would help if you could post more details about your testing conditions and in what manner it fails. I would also be interested to examine a short SH or H mode video that did record successfully.

@LPowell will do more tests tomorrow.

@towi - "Good HBR settings should be indiscernible from 24p in usual shooting scenarios."

Thanks again for your interest in Flow Motion v2. Have you had a chance to check out the 24H vs HBR comparison footage I uploaded in the third post of this thread? To my eyes, the still image details look virtually indistinguishable.

Great setting Lee - thank you!

@LPowell The first test I did when you posted V2 was to run a clip through GHears Lee. The depth was amazing. I'm still fighting a blue tint in underexposed video but the solution to that is....don't underexpose. It is a great patch!

@adventsam Flickering of videos on flat panel monitors is commonly due to mismatches between video frame rate and monitor refresh rate. It may also be caused by inconsistent AVCHD player performance. This type of problem is not affected by high bitrate patches, but it may be more noticeable with high-contrast subjects.

With the supreme sharpness and contrast of the GH footage, If your shooting 24/25p for playback on a large Tv panel you virtually have to abide by film shooting rules with regard to pans, smooth motion etc or the image will strobe/flicker like crazy. 50/60p or interlaced is more forgiving, but really, if you want good results you have to shoot with all this in mind.

I'm starting to add a slight blur in post to some of my videos just to take the edge of the sharpness and in some cases dropping the shutter to 1/40 to induce a little more motion blur, but I'm wondering if adding grain might be better. ( this is for outdoor high contrast scenes).

I find it's getting more difficult to shoot GH handheld, a tripod or support is very much a neccessity now to have a bit more control over camera motion.

I really like the 720p this patch delivers, and 24H is great, but when I hit low light, I don't like it one bit... The lit zones look great but wherever there are shadows it's all muddy. I noticed this right away, I have tested EOSHD Unifed, Mysteron, Sedna, and the noise in the low lights was always great, specially for denoising afterwards. Fine grain. Even looked good as it was. But with this patch it's very muddy. That's the only objection I have. Here is a comparison blown up 200% and then the two framegrabs below. The first one is Flow Motion v2.01 at 24H, settings f9-1/100-160iso, with the Panny 20mm pancake. The second one is Sedna Q20 version A also at 24H, same settings. Both framegrabs were taken with levels applied with gamma at 1.5 to lift the mids and lows. It clearly shows the difference in the low light areas.

I couldn't test EOSHD Unified head to head, but I can say I shot a lot in low light with 2500iso and the grain was great, so I don't think the Mbps have anything to do with the quality issues. EOSHD Unified is 88Mbps intra. It seems this FMv2 patch exceeds in well lit situations, but I don't like it so much when doing low light. Is there a way to fix that?

Tried this for an hour or so indoors and out, with dim light, room light, sunlight and shade with my trusty Olly 45mm. Quality great, microtextures great even in dim light, very smooth. Epic!

@charlie_orozco - "Both framegrabs were taken with levels applied with gamma at 1.5 to lift the mids and lows."

Thanks for posting your comparison shots. I'd be very interested to evaluate the original MTS footage of the Flow Motion v2 shot, since the frame grab you uploaded has been altered to exaggerate the contrast in dark shadow areas. The AVCHD encoder's 8-bit compression uses very coarse quantization at the dark end of its dynamic range, though as you demonstrated, sensor chroma noise can be boosted to make up for its inherent limitations.

At extremely low illumination levels, the eye's low sensitivity to blue and purple hues makes them appear much darker than other colors, which can overemphasize the perceived blotchiness of shadowed areas. When boosting gamma in dark regions, saturation should be lowered to maintain a more natural-appearing monochrome look to shadowed areas.

In my experience, the lack of an in-camera pedestal adjustment to lift the image above the sensor's coarse shadow noise region has been the most difficult drawback to using DSLR's to shoot video. Rather than struggling to extract presentable results from the camera's weakest area of performance, I much prefer to shoot with the kind of flat contrast shown in the footage I uploaded in my previous comment above. In post production grading, pushing the grays toward black almost always turns out looking better than lifting the shadow details up into gray.

Oh, sorry, forgot to tell, this is a cut done with Smart Cutter demo. This is why there is a word 'demo' :)