GH3: patch "Electricians Bliss" v1.0

On behalf of the Gaffa Group, I am proud to announce that we beat the Personal-View.com team to the first proper, official GH3 hack. Our team has now been testing this hack extensively, with some really exciting results. We estimate that the chance of bricking the camera by applying this patch is less than a tenth of a percent, and therefore feel that it is finally safe to let it out to the general public.

Prerequisites:

First you have to make sure you have one of the compatible firmwares for your GH3. The list of compatible firmwares are:

• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 preproduction firmware v0.4
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 firmware v1.0

Check in the camera menus and make sure your firmware is one of those. We also believe there is a good chance the hack will continue to work, as is, with Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 firmware v1.1 when it is released. Beyond that it is hard to predict to what extent Panasonic will try to hinder this hack from working.

Problems this hack addresses

• sloppy SD-card bay door

Installation

We threw everything we had on this problem to find a way to install this hack with the regular PTool method and using SD-cards, but all work was to no avail. The breakthrough came when we saw we could go back a few generations of technology, all the way back to tape, and install this hack through the use of one of the GH3s many cleverly hidden tape decks.

See video:

First you have to go to the hardware store and get some black electricians tape for the installation. While you are there, also pick up taPTool v1.0 for your system if you don't have taPTool already. Now, since the electricians tape is for full-frame systems, you need to cut it down to the GH3 standard MFT crop-factor of two, like shown in the video. Now, the best suited tape deck on the GH3 is for some strange reason placed right on the outside of the SD-card slot, uncomfortably close to the opening. Just pin the cropped tape down over the crossing ridges, apply some light pressure, and then close the SD-card slot cover door. Wait about one second and check if the patch was installed correctly. You should notice if everything went well almost immediately.

Future plans

• Fix for floppy camera strap ends
• Continuous EVF mode
• Additional on-lens letterbox formats, (CinemaScope 2.35:1, ++)

Final note

We would love to hear back from you guys on your experiences with the "Electricians Bliss" patch, and if you want us to continue with hacks for the GH3, remember to donate! To keep things simple, the Gaffa Group has joined forces with Personal-View.com, so just donate using the regular channels.