@fbernar - I'd recommend driftwood's quantum 2, the high setting is the best GOP1 I've seen that's relatively bug-free, and the low setting spans for longer takes.

What is with the naming conventions: GH13, GH17, GH21, GH23? I have seen all mentioned in various places. For a long time I just used GH13 to describe my hacked GH1, but clarification as to what the designations mean would be great. Thanks.

Well thank you for the information and suggestion, but the GH2 is completely out of the question for me. Besides price being Way out of my reach, it has a Bulb setting Time Limit of Half of what the G1 and GH1 are That's a deal breaker. But like i said earlier i Currently cant purchase even a use GH1 but maybe by this spring I can purchase a used GH1, if i have enough money left over after my tuition grants, or ill just wait to see what summer job i can get. In the mean time, I think i will try and make some kind of plastic with lines i can place over my view finder, see if that helps.

First off i would like to say Hello all, and sorta introduce myself. I am a Photographer and engineering student (so i am poor lol) I live in New York state and have only owned and been using my Panasonic G1 for 8 months now, but have been into photography and using a Manual SLR camera since i was 12.
I was directed to this site from a Photo forum site i frequent (www.mu-43.com/f66/gh1-gf1-g1-firmware-hackable-2931/index3.html) after asking about firmware things there.

So here is my question. I was wondering , is there a Hack for the DMC-G1 firmware? I know that there is one for the GH1 and other video capable DMC-G series cameras but do not know about the G1. A search on here for G1 turned up nothing.
What i am interested in is just the ability to shoot in 1:1 aspect in camera. So i was wondering if there is a hack or Patch that can add that to my camera or is there someone that can do that. Its a feature i would really really love to have. there are many reasons i wish this was possible but i don't want to drone on about them all here. I just can't justify spending money I don't really have to get a GH1 for that feature alone since there is really nothing more that i need (Besides a longer Bulb time, but none of the G series cameras has that) ether..lol.

If this is just a pipe dream and wishful thinking you can just let me know and i thank anyone who lets me know for there time.

Kind Regards,
Daniel

@KeithLommel Excellent answer. Ultimately this is why in the future 1080p60 will be the minimum way to go - it won't look classic 'filmic' but it will be smooth and wonderful. I'm all for it, others will probably hate it. Personal views....

Motion blur is a function of shutter speed. If you're shooting 24p with a standard shutter speed of 1/50 second, you're going to have a certain amount of motion blur. You can eliminate the motion blur by shooting at a faster shutter speed, but most people dislike the effect that produces... motion has a very staccato look, kind of like watching dancers at a disco when the strobe light comes on. In this case, motion blur is actually aesthetically pleasing and preferred by most viewers and filmmakers. In fact, in bright sunlight, many videographers use ND filters to darken things and allow them to keep the relatively slow 1/50 second shutter speed, and maintain this pleasing motion blur. Of course, sometimes the staccato effect can be put to good artistic use, such as the opening scene to Saving Private Ryan.

Since you mention panning shots in particular, I suspect what you're objecting to is not motion blur, but the jerkiness of the pan caused by a low frame rate. The fact is that 24p is quite slow and nothing highlights this more than a panning shot. Film shooters know this and generally do very slow pans. If you want your pans to look smoother, what you need is not a firmware hack, but a faster frame rate. Try the same panning movement in 720p60 mode. You will find it looks a lot smoother. That having been said, there are people out there who don't like things to look too smooth, because they want to recreate as much as possible the "feel" of traditional film cinematography. Although 60p looks a lot smoother and realistic, they object that these qualities make it look more like "video" as opposed to "filmic." This is more a matter of taste that you'll have to decide for yourself.

A low GOP won't help you with any of the above. Instead, what it prevent are more subtle motion artifacts that result from the codec using information across multiple frames to achieve higher levels of compression. One particularly useful thing that a low GOP does is ensure that random sensor noise at higher ISOs is truly random from frame to frame, giving it more of a "film grain" feel, rather than blurring across frames in a way that looks much less natural.

Hope this is useful.

Hi,
I've been "camping out" on this forum for a while now, but still my head is spinning :) so please bear with me. I've been trying to figure out if there is a good quality patch (nothing extreme) that will help me cope with motion blur in my panning shots (yes I know they must be done veeery slowly). From what I was able to understand (and the above posts confirm this) a low GOP "should" help me cope with this issue. But there are so many patches out there. Any recommendation would be most helpful.
I'm using a SanDisk Extreme class 10 30MB/s card.
(back to reading-studying-learning)

Thank you
Mike

@jroppi

Yes :-) All will work.
In fact, most of the bodies I have are Japanese :-)

Do any of the GH2 patches work with the GH1? Or as a GH1 owner, do I need to focus solely on the GH1 patches? Don't slam me for being noob! Thanks.

With the GH2, is there a general rule whether it's better to under or overexpose and then fix later? I've read in a few different places that it's better to underexpose around two stops, because of the detail it's possible to pull out of the shadows, whereas with the highlights they blow a bit more easily. This is shooting on Smooth, -2, -2, -0, -2 with driftwood's Quantum settings.

@mozes, I would highly recommend getting a sandisk 30MB/s class 10 card instead, they run around $50 for 32GB. the 95MB/s cards are better (but much more expensive)

Finally i have a gh2..........
I had to do a long search, because they where sold out almost everywhere.
And the ones who have them on stock, where to expensive. (complete kits)

I did find a shop who had just a body, and for lens i have now a 14-150mm olympus ED M.zuiko 1:4-5.6
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/olympus_m_14-150_4-5p6_o20
The shop didn't have the panasonic lens on stock.
But i did make the deal so, that if i don't like the lens, i can return it in two weeks.
and get a panasonic lens .. the 14-140mm or 14-42 mm-lens.

Icluded with the deal where a UV filter for lens protection, and a tripod (cheap one)
All for 1050 euro, not a bad deal.

Sadly, the olympus doesn't have any stabilization :(
I was thinking that it wasn't a big problem........but..
i film almost always from hand, or use objects around me for support..
So i am thinking to return the lens and get the pana 14-140mm lens.
Good idea or a bad one?

and what is a good patch to start with.
ad the moment i only have a transcend sdhc 16gb class 6 card...
In tine i will buy the Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb card :-) but not yet....
i will film mostly fast moving object in 50p

in advance thanks for tips... :-)

@niGGo

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/9425#Comment_9425