Minor hack -avg bitrate 45mbps -GOP3 (can last for 36mins sharp - tested-)

Here's the video captured this morning. Turn on HD for greater details (vimeo seems downgrade the quality in normal mode)

Quantum X v5b 'Pictoris' VBR - Hybrid matrix is Good

What happened, people lost hope?

@lukasz_mobi thx a lot! That is impressive. Just about to sell my GF1 and ordered a GF2 (for very cheap 265€ including 14-42) Will test the new settings as soon as cam arrives

@driftwood did your GF2 arrive yet???

Simple comparison - GF1 (hacked: MPEG upscaled from 720p - 50mbits ) vs GF2 (not hacked, AVCHD FHD). Hope this help.

the gh2 sensor is the same size like the GF2:

Nope, because text is - 17.3 x 13.0 mm (in 4:3 aspect ratio)
In 16:9 aspect size is different.

@Tungee78: The sensor is definitively not the same size on GF2 and GH2. The GH2 is somewhat larger to accommodate multiple aspect ratios, and in 16:9, it's significantly wider than the GF2.

But more crucially, the sensor on the GH2 is a couple of generations newer than on the GF2 (which, like the GF1, G2, and G10, as well as all Olympus PENs, uses the same sensor as on the original G1). The image processing hardware is also likely different.

I'm not privy to the actual hardware implementation, but there are likely significant differences in the way the two cameras handle downsampling from full sensor resolution to 1920x1080 and/or 1280x720. If the GF2's sensor and processor combination are not able to handle the much more sophisticated downsample that the GH2 uses (which is the main reason for it having superior resolution and less moire than better spec'd and more expensive cameras like 5D2), then this goes a long way to explaining why its video is inferior, even after hacking and using the same bitrates as GH2.

That said, let's get this discussion back on topic. I'm still happy with and hopeful for using my GF2 as a b-cam (the quality is not GH2 level, but it's not garbage either!), and would like to see more testing and experimentation on good, stable settings for the camera. In my experience, just slapping the latest Driftwood GH2 settings in the GF2 and shooting does NOT work well. When I tried this with Rocket v2 in 1080/30p (in 60i wrapper), I got frequent nasty skipped frames. I plan on doing more testing and will report back here if I can find something more stable.

What i dont understand is:
-the gh2 and the gf2 has the same color depth at 21,2 bit.
-the gh2 and the gf2 has the same pic engine (Venus-Engine FHD)
-the gh2 and the gf2 has the same sensor size (17,3*13.0)

The "only" differrence is the sensor density 16 mio.pxl. vs 12 mio.pxl.
Does this factor gives such a quality difference?

…hardly started the topic and there're people already dropping the towel on the Gf2, hope this is not the general feeling… How long has it been since you guys began developing the hack for the GH2, give at least a try…

@Vitaliy yes, every time I go out and shoot and then I review the movies, I feel bad that I got the gf2 instead of the gh2. Maybe more people should know not to make the mistake that I did. I though the gf2 with the hack will have almost the same details as gh2 but in a smaller package. But they are years apart, it appears the GH2 will remain the absolute king especially with the hack. I wish I could afford now also the gh2, but I already have a pentax + lots of lenses, is hard owning 2 systems :)

@videohq

Try to look at topic title.
All this "video-ish" discussion really has absolutely zero value.

@raz - i tested quite some different hacks with the gf2 and from what i´ve seen the results are not compareable with the gh2 - but more in the way that hq settings for the gh2 don´t lead to the same results on the gf2. In a nutshell: To my opinion we have to do more testing and not assume that the settings that work for gh2 work for gf2. If vitaly is reading this: Is the forum software homegrown? Very cool.