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20 Megabyte a second setting
  • AusboyAusboy
    I think you guys are gonna love this.

    http://www.henryolonga.net/Blog/?p=1893

    Sorry but on the road for a few days so may be slow to respond. All the detail is on my blog. Dunno how to upload file here so if someone wants to download it and add it that would be great. In summary.................


    Folks,

    Once in a while a revolution occurs that sets up the little guys for success. For sooooo long it has impossible to get a combination of an affordable large sensor camera that is; good in low light, that has minimal aliasing, that has a great codec, that has interchangeable lenses, that is convenient enough to put in your pocket, that is small enough to shoot without attracting attention etc. That is until the GH2 came along. But oh the codec – what a disappointment. Although it was 24 Mb/sec AVCHD those of us who were used to HDMI capture were never satisfied. Mud, compression artifacts and poor colour grading potential. UNTIL NOW!!!!!

    A well known hacker in the GH2 community called Vitaliy permitted me to be part of the HDMI beta testing team but it became clear that in camera recording was so much more convenient and recquired fewer tricks. So……….. I tweaked and tweaked until I came up with a patch that gives all wanna be indie movie makers quality that they only dreamed of months ago IMHO. This patch will in most cases give you sustained 20 megabytes a second data. That is close to Cineform data rates. In fact conversion to Cineform has a similiar data rate. Stock up on SD cards and batteries – your gonna love it!!!!! I have 6 now as the average data rate will be about 1,2 Gigabytes a minute. If the files do not span that means an average take of 3 and a bit minutes. You need the Class 10 Sandisk extreme 30 MB/sec cards HD Video. Avoid UHS1 cards for now. No real issues as far as stability goes as long as you follow the simple rules. Use manual lenses or use your Panansonic micro four thirds lenses in Manual mode and focus prior to shooting.

    If you are interested in colour grading with Cineform looks check out my post here and I have included some free looks.

    Thank you Vitaliy. YOU ROCK!!!!!

    Ladies and Gentlemen. I Present to you the Holy Grail of independent movie making…………….. the Henry Olonga Holy Grail patch for the GH2

    ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 63 Replies sorted by
  • sohussohus
    @Driftwood
    I completely agree. See my earlier comment. This is a fail patch. I don't care if it excels a few seconds. This patch is 99% unreliable, even in controlled settings. You can go out and shoot, and might be lucky, but that one day that there is more detail in the background... you get a clip like this. Not for me. I wouldn't mind if this was posted in extreme settings though, but to announce this as the next big thing in GH2 hacking land... not smart.
  • driftwooddriftwood
    @HenryO Cadence bigtime if you manage to get it recording for more than 5 or 6 seconds. Mate, you seriously cant reccommend this to people - theyre gonna have problems on the edit when they get their rushes back off this setting. You may get 2 to 5 seconds of good takes only and the file sizes are no bigger than whats already out there. The chart below was a 20 sec max shoot I managed to get out of it shooting interior.
    PS it takes 2 seconds for this to die on pappas death chart.
    henryO Holy Fail - cadence galore.png
    1286 x 675 - 74K
  • cosimo_bullocosimo_bullo
    @HenryO - What are you doing to transcode these files into an etitable format? We're finding clipwrap and FCP log and transfer can't seem to deal with these files and sputter out. Any ideas?
  • cosimo_bullocosimo_bullo
    @Ralph_B - if you're ever going to do anymore a/b HDMI vs AVCHD tests, please consider trying Henry's patch. You'll need to shoot at a lower ISO (we've been good under 400), but I think the grain will be closer to the HDMI than any comers to this point.

    Edit - try at AQ4 as he has it. Not much benefit at AC3 that I can tell.
  • cosimo_bullocosimo_bullo
    We just tried at AQ3, and while the setting still looks really good, now it's about level with the amazing 176 driftwood, and still creating much larger files, so I'm not sure it's worth it at AQ3. I think this is a have it in your back pocket but don't use for everyday specialty setting (at AQ4).
  • proaudio4proaudio4
    Man, I just wish there was a way to have these high bitrate high IQ settings and set limits that could maintain buffers and hold cadence.
    This is a 180M GOP3 AQ4 setting. Has someone tried this set to AQ3 and checked if it's more stable?
  • cosimo_bullocosimo_bullo
    Great analogy.

    Also wanted to add that Clipwrap is choking on the footage from Henry's patch too. Not rewraping correctly. Any others with this problem so far?
  • brianlucebrianluce
    Hey Henry, a valiant effort and that patch that will have its uses. Hopefully we can set some clear parameters with this patch, situations it's suited for and NOT suited for.

    Analogy: a 800mm f5.6 lens can be awesome, provided one knows where and when to use it.
  • cosimo_bullocosimo_bullo
    We just did a few low light tests between this and driftwoods 175. Those saying it's a crash maker are right, but it's also at another level in the shadows when kept under 400 iso (we were getting crashes above that). My impression was that the shadows looked like they'd been shot with a faster stock, just a tighter, cleaner grain.

    We watched "Il Pranzo di Ferragosto" last night, and I kept thinking, while watching all the shadow play in that dreary apartment that these are the shots we never show when showing off the GH2, drab underlit shots rolling from room to room. But in this film the DP created the mood with these elegant shadows. Henry's patch is getting close to letting us really embrace that kind of methodology with the GH2.

    That all said, if we could find a happy medium between this and driftwoods reliability, that would be the ideal for me. In the meantime, when there's some light and darkness to be played with (and enough of a baseline that we can keep below iso400) I'll be experimenting with this new patch. Thank you for pushing things, Henry.
  • proaudio4proaudio4
    Well put Issac_B and PixCanFly.

    If it were not for the guys here looking for the best and and determing our limitations, this would all be moot.
    IMO, this is the info Vitaliy and Chris want to hear.

    sohurs, is of course right when importance and $$ is the main factor. If taking chances, you have no choice but to check it in the field.
  • sohussohus
    Make your own decisions.

    There is a big difference between 90% reliable and 30% reliable. This patch falls in the latter category. @Driftwood 176M is very safe. Shot many hours of footage with it under all circumstances, and also survives my motion deathchart test.
  • PixCanFlyPixCanFly
    To push boundaries, risk is inevitable. No risk equals no gain.
    A hack that works 99.9 % of the time will still be consider as not production ready for some professional.
    Today I use Driftwoods 176M GOP1 for a paying job. Was I worried about the stability of the patch on the shoot?
    Of course I did. I just kept reminding myself to review the important shots on location with a laptop to calm my nerves. For safety, I have another unhack GH2 as a standby cam.
    At the end of the day, the hacked GH2 won big time with the Driftwood 176M GOP1. The unhack GH2 lost.
    I took the risk and I was rewarded with beautiful images and praises from the client. So I told my client, "See I told you my Lumix GH2 is a special edition, it's not the same GH2 your wife uses."
  • Isaac_BIsaac_B
    Agree with Ian_T. Nothing wrong with patches that push the boundaries, if anything this might be a good starting point to work backwards from. Even though it didn't work for me it is pretty stunning and hopefully someone can reverse it to find a more stable setting that still maintains that picture quality.
  • Ian_TIan_T
    @sohus Let's just live with the fact that this patch as is comes with some caveats.
  • sohussohus
    @HenryO
    What is quality worth when your shot fails in an import scene or once in a lifetime shot? You won't see it until you get home. If you are just testing fine, but this is not production-safe. Period.

    I do agree that death charts aren't everything either. But there is a balance here.
  • driftwooddriftwood
    @HenryO LOL! I love your responses.
  • AusboyAusboy
    @Isaac_B shucks that sucks.


    @sohus - Sorry mate but I never focused on the 24L. Don't even know what it is set at. I hope that it is clear that am going for maximum performance here so the 24L didn't really figure. Folks can put their own settings there for what it's worth.

    This patch was conceived for those going for grading wiggle room and sharpness. If you are not in that camp and are going to be shooting fast moving stuff like lots of waves or crazy traffic, it probably will fail. No brainer there and no need to test. There is something to be said for death charts but I am pragmatic about it. There are many shooting situations where the codec will not be stressed. If you are going to be shooting stuff that may cause issues, there are tonnes of other patches that are RELIABLE. This is not about reliability but quality. You can throw the baby out with the bath water here and say well because it doesn't do this or that then the patch is useless and some seem to be concluding that. Well so be it but I was not going for an all-rounder but a patch that enabled me to get near the quality I am used to with HDMI capture.

    Have a good one
  • fehafeha
    @HenryO
    That was amazing, hell good :-)
  • Isaac_BIsaac_B
    @Henry0

    I'm using those exact Sandisk cards. Tried the patch with manual Contax Zeiss lenses and with the 14mm Panasonic on manual, still stopped motion recording a couple seconds in.
  • sohussohus
    @HenryO
    That second clip looks amazing.

    I do agree that should test your patches better. Your 24L setting is utter crap. I shot a death chart with it and it is all over the place. Bad cadence, buffer issues.... not good. I can't even test the 24H setting as I don't have the Sandisk card that's needed to sustain the writing speed.

    I hope someone can do some proper Death Chart testing as it is essential to know beforehand what your patch can or can't do. Circumstances aren't always what you want and you have to know how reliable your patch is when things don't go according to plan. I hope someone can test this thoroughly.
  • AusboyAusboy
    Hey guys - yeah I was surprised when I got home how good it looked.

    @Isaac_B sorry it crashed on you. Have you got one of the original sandisk 30mb/s cards. That has made a big difference for me. With my old 110 mbps patch it choked until I used the faster card and then no issues save for the odd stressful ones mentioned already ( ex tele, high isos , auto focus.)
    Haven't tried AQ3 because I haven't really had issues.
  • proaudio4proaudio4
    Henry, I must admit your second video looks jaw dropping good!
    Simply amazing.

    If you or someone else can find a way to maintain what your setting is doing now and clamp it down
    on the highest demands that currently crash it, this will be unreal.

    This little camera has made dust gather on my other cameras. Even ones that are considerably more expensive.

    And BTW, yes this hack does rock! lol

    Very smart panning to the side of her face in the shadows. We ALL know how bad this can look under those hard light (bright sun) conditions. The stock footge would of been blocky in the shadows of her face.
    fucking nice! thanks

  • Isaac_BIsaac_B
    Looks awesome Henry. Wish I were getting that stability with it, the clarity definitely looks the best out of everything posted. Have you tried it on AQ3?
  • AusboyAusboy
    @cosimo_bullo

    I agree with you. I have a number of cameras and to have one that can do a specific function I think is another quiver to the bow. I am a musician and I will not really need to shoot hi-movement videos when I get to shooting soon. I will continue to tweak however till it improves in that area.

    I haven't shot death charts yet but I am shooting a bit of random stuff. I shot the whole of yesterday and NO crashes in daylight. High isos yes at night but it was 3200. Again - maybe I am lucky but I am not having as many issues as others. If it doesn't work for you guys then so be it, I just couldn't contain my excitement at this break through. I am enjoying it and apologies to those with issues

    Download the originals on Vimeo



  • LPowellLPowell
    In my experience with the GH1, the reliability testing effort quadrupled after I pushed performance into the 75-100Mbps range. I suspect that for the GH2, bitrates above 100Mbps provoke similar stability issues. What happens at high bitrates is that the safety margins of various internal modules become thin enough to interact with each other in unexpected ways. Buffer overflows are particularly challenging to diagnose as they can sneak up on you abruptly without warning.
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