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GH3 fimware suggestions
  • This topic is intended to collect firmware only suggestions. Not hardware ones!

    We'll pass most popular suggestions to GH3 developers team, so, may be, you'll see them implemented.


    GH3 Preliminary specs (really rumors and speculations, nothing official :-0 ):

    • Wheather sealed, metal body
    • Shutter button located similarly to G5, same power zoom rocker
    • 920k or better capacitive touch screen
    • Improved EVF (like full 1080p)
    • 1080p50/1080p60 at 28mp
    • 1080p120/1080p100 special modes (limited time usage), 720p120/720p100 unlimited
    • WiFi direct with Android and iPhone applications with remote video capture
    • 1/3.5" mic input and headphone output
    • Supplied with new wheather sealed kit
    • And optional battery grip, of course.

    Mine suggestions:

    • Improve video encoder making it independent from bunch of fixed settings, improve it's performance
    • Make special dedicated expert screen for video settings, allowing to set any combination of encoder parameters, without any hacks
    • Make proper electronic follow focus with speed selection, ability to set predefined positions, etc, driven from mobile phone or using rocker
  • 180 Replies sorted by
  • I don't know if this is possible, but some sort of ranged auto focus lock.

    For instance: You can set the camera so it will only auto focus within a certain range (i.e. 1-2m) and prevent back focusing

  • Anamorphics aspects ratios please Panyx: 1,85:1, 2,35:1, etc :(

  • One of the most-wanted feature is the custom picture profile selection on GHx cameras... That would be good to see in GH3...

    Also an on-screen crop marks for different aspect ratios, would be good to see..

  • Proper focus peaking

  • Select-able audio bitrates.

    1 or 2fps 1080p video mode for pseudo timelapse.

    Built in Digital/Analog ND filter. (This could be software or hardware)

  • One of the most-wanted feature is the custom picture profile selection on GHx cameras... That would be good to see in GH3...

    I'll reformulate it as follows:

    • Application for PC and Mac allowing to define raw processing rules
    • Ability to upload custom created rules via WiFi direct
  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    "I'll reformulate it as follows:

    Application for PC and Mac allowing to define raw processing rules Ability to upload custom created rules via WiFi direct"

    Yes Please.

    The only other thing I desire is to remove the 2 minute and 8 second limitation on the Bulb mode for Astro Photography. M4/3s has turned out to be a lot better for AP than anyone could have ever imagined.

    I guess being able to set the Auto ISO upper limit above ISO 3200 would be cool as well. The GH3 might have that built in though.

  • File prefix naming for clips either on a per-card basis, or resettable on user demand. (e.g. a 4-6 character prefix that could indicate the scene name).

  • @DouglasHorn

    How about full metadata screen, like BMC? With special field for prefix?

  • defineable parameters for live-streaming via wifi signal from the camera - adjustable bitrate for streaming to live web-serving, or to tablets (Android or Apple) for ultra low latency client viewing or remote control.

  • @Vitaliy_Kislev

    Thanks. btw. is there a chance that we could have all the suggestions in one (the first) post? It could be hell lot of easier to see what was suggested..

  • All buttons should be programmable as Fn buttons, with all functions, not just a limited choice. I for instance don't really need the Q.MENUE button but would much rather have the opportunity to use it for the highlight function in order to check for overexposure when needed. But I don't want that function on permanently as it is quite disturbing.

    I also want focus peaking, via Fn or dedicated button. (I know this is not about hardware but it would be a good idea if Panasonic chose to give us more Fn buttons. Move the playback button to the left of the viewfinder, next to the LCD/VF button, move the AF/AE lock button to where the playback button was, put an additional Fn button where the Lock button was.)

    One firmware thing: When choosing EX Tele in video mode I want the video EX Tele mode to appear as default. Same goes for Photo EX Tele mode. The GH2's default is Photo EX Tele in video mode and Video EX Tele in photo mode which is pretty stupid.

    • Selectable external audio input level: mic level, and line level (by-passing the internal preamp)

    • Addition of “Auto ISO” in manual video mode – you choose the aperture and shutter speed, while the camera automatically chooses the correct exposure

    • Deletion of “Shoot without Lens” which is both confusing and incorrect (you do no shoot without a lens!) and use auto detect instead. Or at least change it to “Shoot with non4/3 lens”

  • Selectable external audio input level: mic level, and line level (by-passing the internal preamp)

    This is hardware stuff. Not for this list.

    Deletion of “Shoot without Lens” which is both confusing and incorrect (you do no shoot without a lens!) and use auto detect instead.

    Can be changed just to warning upon power up, if lens without chip is used, it must ask if everything ok. And if you answer yes - it never ask until next lens change.

  • Use of AVC-intra/Ultra 100 or better.. For both 24P and 60P.

    Able to use the zoom focus assist function while recording, but without zooming the actual recorded picture. Also, make it so that either an external monitor or the LCD can be toggled with this function.

  • +1 for anamorphic options, and not just guidelines. Many people shoot 2X anamorphic, so a 4:3 video mode would be extremely useful to get 2.35:1.

    Alternatively, 4:3 guidelines while shooting in 16:9 would also be a useful feature.

    The option to actually desqueeze the footage in-cam would be amazing, especially if it was done in a way that horizontal resolution is not halved. (I have no idea if this is even doable, perhaps VK could weigh in?)

  • Able to use the zoom focus assist function while recording, but without zooming the actual recorded picture. Also, make it so that either an external monitor or the LCD can be toggled with this function.

    This is hardware thing. As my understanding is that downconverting on is done on sensor chip.

  • Ability to save stills sequence of 3840x2160 "S-Raw" .rw2 or .tif sequence Until sd card is full, at 24-25 frames per second.

  • Also avchd encoder must allow for GOP1 setting. ;)

  • Ability to save stills sequence of 3840x2160 "S-Raw" .rw2 or .tif sequence Until sd card is full, at 24-25 frames per second

    Can you be more detailed?

    And make some calculations showing required SD controller spped and required SD card speed?

    I also hope that you understand that LSI won't have enough resources to do raw compression?

  • This is a tiny request, but I bugs me that the you have to dig down through several directories to get to the video files on the card. Why not just have a video directory in the top level and save the video files there??? And name the directory something meaningful like "video" not some weird acronym that stands for something no one knows.

  • @Tristan

    Answer is simple. Camera follows AVCHD standard. :-)

    So, to rephrase, you are for MP4 as main container. And make it not restricted by 4GB.

    • Something like: make support for exFAT with sizes larger than 4GB. Make MP4 the default shooting format.
  • 20MB/frame for full 16mp frame

    15,925,248 pixels for full 16mp 8,249,400 Pixels for quadhd

    So 1/1.93 quantity pixels

    20MB/1.93=10.526MB/frame 10.526x24=~252.6MB/se Heh heh, I guess that might be asking too much...;)

  • Let's get camera spec and make proper calculations

    4608x2592 = 11943936, as it is 12 bit raw * 12/8 = 17915904 bytes
    make frame rate into account, * 24 = 429981696, this is about 430 mb /sec It is in the realm of fastest SSD drives, but remember that data to them are delivered using very fast RAM with wide dual channel bus and very fast CPUs.

    Camera could't make proper resizing maintaining RAW.
    I have very strong suspicion that LSI is just unable to do it at all, at any resolution or framerate.

  • A time lapse mode, with more granular control of aperture and shutter. Even better if the aperture and shutter values could be ramped up and down slowly, over time