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The Big Thing
  • 437 Replies sorted by
  • @JackBayer

    Just check page 6,7 videos

  • For me, the best aspect of this ruse is the title: The Big Thing. Fucking love it! And to hear Hitler say he wants "The Big Thing". LOL.

  • jajajajaj, you got me, jajajjjaajja, very well played.

  • @Dusty42 The TZ5 does not have a silent electronic shutter. It is very quiet, but discernible, while the SH mode shutter on the GH2 is truly silent. What was unique about it (for a compact) was that you could keep the burst mode going indefinitely until the battery ran out. The longest I ever ran it was around 90 minutes without stopping, and while I can do something similar on other larger and more expensive cameras, it is unusual for a compact (believe me, I had a heck of a time replacing it).

    On the GH2 I am familiar with the 80% mode (and more recently HBR) - the difference between it and SH mode is 10 fps and a couple other minor things. The hacks have brought the two much closer than they were in the other areas, but as of the middle of last year, you could still tell the difference a lot more easily than now in stills.

    But 40 fps 1080P vs 30 fps 1080P is a noticeable difference. And the resolution difference vs 60 FPS 720P is also noticeable.

    In other words, 40 fps SH mode remains the highest speed available at maxmimum video resolution by a difference of 33%. And I cannot vouch for the newest hacks, but back in early December it was noticeably better in lowlight slowmotion with a 1/100 or 1/125 shutter than the 720P modes I tried at the time (and I seem to remember than the 24H ones too).

    So specialized, but useful.

  • the brilliance of this joke is the subject - one that we wanted to believe, even though we knew, we still hoped - that's not being gullible or duped that's just wishing that something could be true, might be real ... even without any real evidence we had faith - the true believers took up the call and a wave of enthusiasm and energy poured forth.

    Those few that called 'bullshit' were, in the end right but I think they gained less than the true believers - it's been a really interesting social experiment.

    Even though I called it from the start and ended up participating myself - that's only because I'm a cynical old prick - the truth is a little part of me wanted it to be true - maybe there's hope for me yet

  • Well at least you had a chance to be cynical tired. I think i would have been a believer had i not participated, for many reasons stated by others. Anyway, a little bit of bullshit never hurt anyone and if anything, it lightened up the atmosphere of PV somewhat. Vitaliy, you're a complex character, but most here would not own a GH camera if not for your talents :-)

  • All I got from this was how quickly certain members kinda turned on VK

    How some are stunningly never happy with what they're given

    And how some are wasting breath begging corporates to give them personal preference things they're not going to get.

    Thankfully some do have a sense of humour ;-)

    I wonder what the reaction would be if VK suddenly stated he is doing no more hacks (or take a few years off from it) ...maybe next years Big thing? ;-D

    I'm with Stonebat...I would like the forum to be more about film making.

  • @mimirsan If VK decided that he was no longer doing this, I think a lot of people would understand and move on. We are lucky to have this community, but most good things in life come to an end. In the mean time, we can be happy that we have such a special and unique situation. In the end, VK most likely won't be the cause of the end of these hacks. Most probably world depression or some kind of corporate intervention will stop this.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    Anything you can do to increase the "B" mode shutter duration past 2 minutes and 8 seconds and allow RAW files in the 40 FPS burst mode would definitely be appreciated by the Astro Photography folks who want to use the GH2. Those two limitations are huge hurdles I have not overcome yet.

  • @thepalalias, "The TZ5 does not have a silent electronic shutter" But it's all electronic. The sound you hear might be coming from the speaker? In GH2, you can set how loud this sound is in the setup menu; the sound does a pretty good job of mimicking a mechanical shutter. On the GH2, when the sound is set to low, you might think that it's a mechanical shutter. That might be the case on your TZ5. You can run the TZ5 shutter for many more times than 200,000 to 300,000 clicks. Try that with a mechanical shutter. A semi pro Nikon is only rated at 100,00 - 200,000 clicks. Do you think the GH1/GH2 are rated any higher? I have not seen an officially rated spec on these cams.

    I shoot photos on my GH2 (RAW). But I am forced to use the "loud" mechanical shutter. Jpegs out of GH2 is worse than jpegs from my 10-year old Nikon D100. I kid you not. So I truly wish that Vitaliy removes the restriction on the High Speed Burst (SH) mode to shoot RAW. This will make GH2 a well rounded cam. Shooting nice video, RAW silently, timelapse without wearing the shutter, extending the life of the cam, etc.. Please, please Vitaliy, do you see any possibility that a hack to optionally remove the restriction will be in a future ptool?

    "the difference between it and SH mode is 10 fps" From the above quote, you're saying that the Variable Move Mode is always based on 24p mode. I believe the it's dependent on what mode you're in (need to check tonight). So if you're shooting in HBR (30p or 60i?), 80% mode will give you 37.5fps; that 2.5fps difference between SH mode. In 720p mode, 80% mode will give you 75fps. And of course, if you're shooting 24p, 80% mode will give you 30fps. And yes, if you're always shooting in 24p, the difference is 10 frames. I agree with you in term of quality difference in jpeg from SH mode and AVCHD.

    The point that I was trying to make, in the last post, was that if Vitaliy puts in a hack to remove the restriction on photo size (frame rate might be reduced per hardware limitation) in High Speed Burst mode, you can choose to use it or not to use it. It's a matter of simply checking a box like to ISO limit restriction. You can still use ptool and stay with the 40fps that you dearly love. It's nice, though, to hear from you using the SH mode for another purpose.

    I am interested in knowing how many GHx owners shoot photos using the cam. How do you use the High Speed Burst (SH) mode? Do you use that mode at all? I am hoping to hear from others.

    Thanks.

  • @mpgxsvcd,

    Totally with you. Even at reduced frame rate of 2-3fps, it's still "The Big Thing". I do night landscape photography some times. If the SH mode's restriction is removed, there will be ZERO shutter induced vibration on the cam. This is good for general day time landscape too.

    How do you take care of noise with your astro photos, mpgxsvcd? I find it very hard to deal with noise in night photography. Any tips?

    Thanks.

  • @Dusty42 I use high speed burst to shoot Astro Photographs because it eliminates the shutter vibration. I wish I could shoot RAW images that way.

    http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&message=41113079

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  • @Dusty42

    I take care of noise by shooting with an extremely fast focal ratio scope. I am shooting with a telescope that is capable of being a reliable 600-4000mm F3.0-F20.0(1200-8000mm in 35mm terms) lens. That is quite a zoom range! It won’t fit in your pocket though.

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  • To those who like to misread what i wrote : i stress that i like the Hitler videos. They're hilarious. But i don't understand why they are considered funnier with a buildup leading to april 1 (i like them anyway, not in an april 1 context). Maybe it's because i'm no fanboy, that i don't understand the excitement. I only see how pranks like these mess up google for years to come. Anytime you'd need to do a specific search on the topics discussed here, and you wouldn't find the source of this joke, you'd still think something like this was real. I regularly encounter this for instance with trying to find info on 4K dslrs (which right now may be far-off but maybe next week they might not be) and i kept finding last year's YouTube loser who wrote you could turn a 550d into a 4k cam. I know this is not true, but then it does keep showing up in Google when trying to find anything on a 4k dslr. Why would you need to make fun of the fanboys? (Which i feel are being taught a lesson only cause you have a saviour's complex. Just ignore them.) April fools is a lame kind of humour imo. In this case because it exploits the stupidity of the fanboys. The Hitler videos however are brilliant.

  • @Dusty42 I will address the rest of your post later, but believe me I do know how to configure a camera. :) Every sound was set to silent in every menu - this was a faint but clearly audible sound once you picked up on it. I know what a speaker sounds like - I was a consultant for a custom speaker company in the past. :)

  • @Dusty42 Next up, SH burst mode framrate vs 80% framerate. Both are completely fixed - the 80% mode does not remember what mode you were in and if it did, a lot of people would already be shooting slow-motion with it. I routinely switch from SH mode to 80% mode and from 24H to 80% mode and it is always the same number of FPS, believe me.

    From an ergonomic standpoint, if it were related to the current shooting mode you were in, it would likely be modified from another button or menu screen or be a drop down menu under you current mode (like 80%, 200% and 300% currently are under VFR but under the Cinema and other modes instead).

    Anyway, none of the rest really matter. The fact is that the factory max for video modes is 30 fps at 1080P and 60FPS at 720P, unless you use 40FPS SH burst mode.

  • @Dusty42 Most compacts do not have an electronic shutter, though they don't have the same shutter as DSLRs/mirrorless cameras. What they have is called an iris shutter, which doubles as the aperture control, and it is located in the lens' it's self. The difference is that it can be much much smaller, and thus much much quiter.

    DSLRs, have what they call focal plane shutters, or curtain shutters, but they also have a mirror that needs to flip up and down. This whole shutter/mirror is why they are not as durable as compacts, and have limited life.

    Mirrorless cameras such as the microfourthirds cameras have the same shutter as the DSLRs but no mirror. In terms of durability, they should be more durable than consumer dslrs, but they are unrated, and I don't believe anyone has done extended tests from them.

    The problem with fully electronic shutters (global shutters) is that there is image quality compromises with existing technology and is much more challenging with CMOS technologies, typically manifested as blooming, where over exposed photosites will contaminate surrounding photosites. The fuji x10 exhibits this to great effect and is currently being hammered by press and users.

  • @Dusty42 Even if we work under the assumption that the TZ5 has an electronic shutter (and I am neither saying that it does or does not) it does not have a silent shutter, just a very quiet one. Because each time there is an exposure, regardless of whether you shoot with every sound disabled, there will be a click that is rather quiet.

    I would not try to analyze it by the rated shutter life. I would go out and shoot 3,000 to 8,000 exposures a day with my 50D for timelapse HDR or straight timelapse for months and be fine - one week in Decmber I had 21,000 exposures or more on each of the following 3 cameras: 50D, GH1 and GH2. Each of the two times I had my shutter drive assembly replaced they commented on how far past the specified life it was on that 50D. These are conservative ratings (as they should be) much like the MHz or GHz ratings CPUs are given when bin sorting: the problems are much bigger if over-rate than under-rate.

  • @joesiv Thank you, I could not remember "iris shutter" I kept hearing "elliptical shutter" in my head and knew that was not right. :)

    Anyway, as I said: the TZ5 shutter lasts a really long time recording 7.5 MP photos in its normal burst mode.

  • @mpgxsvcd @dusty42 That type of moon shot is exactly why I wished the SH burst mode included EX tele-converter capability. I always had to switch to video mode when I wanted to zoom in more. Anyway, I shot mine with a 600mm f/4 Canon L series with EF III 2x converter and then in EX24 and EX SH mode (so with an effective aperture of f/8.0) last December. It was heavy to carry it along with my other gear to Mt. Hollywood but I really enjoyed the pictures and videos of things 5 to 8 miles away, as well as the moon and clouds.

  • @joesiv, Yes it's the sound of the aperture that you hear on "compacts". However, the aperture does not act as a shutter; this is similar to DSLR in a way. On a DSLR, when you set the shutter speed and aperture, the lighting you see through the VF does not change. The change happens at the instance the shutter button is pushed fully. The aperture sound is masked out by the shutter. This is the same for compacts except there is no mechacal shutter. The aperture stops down to the specified value and the info is read off the sensor. Aperture never shuts off the light completely like mechanical shutter. The shutting off of light is done electronically in compacts. If you were to push the stop-down button (not shooting) on DSLR, you would hear the aperture sound. This is the sound that @thepalalias hears, I believe. It's a low crunching sound is the best I can describe it.

    Any way this exchange of ideas and thoughts is leading us away from the main point. Requesting Vitaliy to put in a hack to remove the restriction on the file size in High Speed Burst mode (SH) to shoot RAW. I am sure that Vitaliy's approach is consistent in implementation, from what I have seen so far. You can choose to use the hack or not to use the hack. Same as the ISO and the 30" restrictions.

    Thanks.

  • Late to the party but those were hilarious vids, and totally fixed an otherwise lame April Fools day. Thanks VK!!!!

  • @Dusty42 Nope - click at higher frequencies, not at all like focusing noise and not low rumble or low crunching sound. Just put it to my ear and checked. 4 clicks for 2 exposures. I verified that both beep and shutter sound were muted right before.

    Anyway, as far RAW for SH mode, I have nothing against adding that feature, I just was not planning on using it. :) Best of luck with it.

  • I'm thinking this thread needs the two vidos posted in a last post and then the thread closed, i don't see anything more to gain here.

  • @thepalalias actually, it's more commonly called a "leaf shutter" and no problem, I think it's a common thing to think that compact cameras don't have shutters, but they do!

    @Dusty42 I think this thread has run it's course, as it's no longer april 1st, maybe I'm wrong. Regarding leaf shutters, if you look into any compact camera's lens (besides that ones that DO use electronic shutters which are rare), you will see the aperture shut to the chosen aperture during capture, and then fully close after the exposure. This is also why compact cameras with leaf shutters have different maximum shutter speeds depending on the aperture selected. Wider apertures do not have as quick a shutter speed as smaller apertures since the aperture blades have to close a greater distance.