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GH2 Possible Improvements
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  • Thanks Vitaliy for the hard work. Joined the club and did first test:


    Also posted a blog for mac users who want to install. http://www.beeldlab.nl/installing-gh2-hack-with-a-mac/
  • I've been following these amazing steps on my GH2 and I couldn't be more happy! Thank you developers!

    I have 1 request and could something like this be even done?

    - Would there be a way to have the camera write a video count of the individual .mts files, and have that count be retained even after reformatting the card?

    The picture side gives each picture a unique name / picture count, and retains that count even after I format the card. This makes organizing RAW footage some much easier, saving my sanity. Is this possible to do on the video side?

    Thanks for all the amazing work!
  • HD format is 1920*1080, now it's possibly to change the format to 1080*1920 with a hack? The idea is to don't
    needed to set the GH2 vertical while recording. Would be handy.
  • Hi there - As has been said many times, thanks to Vitaly and everyone for the amazing work. I'm wondering -- is there any hope of having the GH2 send audio out either the USB/AV or HDMI ports while recording, so that we could somehow connect headphones and monitor the audio while shooting? Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere... Thanks,
  • @alexr
    I know, it had been asked many times.
    Most probably this is impossible.
  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev
    Thanks for the reply, and thanks again for the great work. I guess I'll look at the other audio solutions... Sure would be nice to be able to confidently shoot with sound. @Panasonic: Is a headphone jack too much to ask for?
  • I need to have the VGA out working also during shooting video, I have to send out the signal trough a video antenna and at the moment there are only vga transmitters on the market.

    At the moment gh2 only uses vga out for play recorded stuff..
  • @anaka
    I know.
    We had discussion about this. Try google search this site.
    Your best bet is to find small HDMI transmitters or install small video camera that shoots GH2 screen.
  • unfortunately hdmi video transmitters are extremely expensive and have a very short range..
    is there anybody who knows how to trasnform hdmi signal to vga?
  • In regard to the HDMI audio issues, I wouldn't be getting too sad about this, as the built in mic's aren't the best in the world. Simply plug in an external mic- (directional video mic) and pump it into the HDMI recorder... After film shoot- have a nice cool beer.. (otherwise we will have to start another don't cry for HDMI audio topic!)

    ;)
  • Yeah - if i was recording audio that was important enough to monitor through headphones whilst shooting, i wouldn't trust the audio codecs in the GH2 with it anyway - probably pretty noisy - most of these devices are because they are not optimized for audio. Also you'll want to record in 24bit ideally, which I don't know if GH2 analog to digital converters even do. If anyone is interested in shooting 2nd system sound on a budget, I recommend the Sony PCM-M10 - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/638090-REG/Sony_PCM_M10_BLACK_PCM_M10_Portable_Audio_Recorder.html . It is small and has a very clean and quiet mic preamp for self-powered mics. I use one to record all my shows and the guy I work with (who does the recordings for all Brown University's concerts) also uses it. Its internal mics are also have a very flat frequency response, though not a good stereo spread or any directionality because they are a pair of omnis. Headphone output is loud - good for monitoring live. I've done sound recording/boom operating for a few short films using it and the small size is great.
  • @ Arvidtp So basically with this Sony Recorder I could use this with my XLR adapter/ Seinheiser boom--then I would be able to A. monitor audio and B. get 24bit recording in wav ---

    Not concerned with the mics on it so much...
    I just have to sync the audio in post...since Ill slate everything its not a big deal.

    Hmm Ill have to consider adding this to my needs list.
  • + 1 on being able to adjust contrast, sharpness, etc more than +2 to -2 range. Would be very useful in helping match GH2 to a wider range of A cameras, which would help establish it as the ultimate B camera.

    Would 1/48th shutter improve 24p?
  • Great job Vitaliy, thanks.

    Would it be possible to enable Manual Focus Assist when hdmi is plug?
  • Would it be possible to add different EV ranges for Bracket photos?

    For example, I would like to shoot 3 photos in a set with a 4 EV range (+/-2 EV or -2/0/+2). This is not possible with the 3 photo bracket set as the max is 2 EV range (+/-1 EV or -1/0/+1).

    Currently, to get a minimum 4 EV range, I must shoot a set of 5 photos (or 7 photos with 6 EV range).

    Thank you.
  • could we have a:
    1920 x 817 (2.35:1) letterboxed crop inside a 16:9 AVCHD frame with 24P, please?
  • @Roberto
    It is on list already as I suggested it many months ago:) it's just low priority as it's sth easy to do in post.
  • @stefanos
    Sorry for the repetition. Each day it's getting harder for me to find previous posts amongst Personal-View's +/- 700 topics and 15 categories.
    I sometimes try search terms like:
    hack gh2 1920 x 817 site:personal-view.com:
    Can you point me to your post? Was it similar to mine?
    I am thinking of an ETC mode, hard crop so as to never compress the black bars in the first place. Re priority, waiting for post is a problem for those of us widescreen users who might want to view our shots in the field without using hard-mattes.
  • @Roberto
    in camera avchd aspect ratios is sth I'd like to see too for convenience reasons. look here at avchd encoder
    https://www.personal-view.com/faqs/gh2-hack/ptool-software
    I had also suggested the 2.0 aspect ratio (1920x960) since it's really a very cool and overlooked ratio.
    but we'll have to wait as it's not of huge significance at the moment, but it shouldn't be that hard to do I think, when VK gets some free time.
  • I don´t know if it was already said , but how about implementing that background defocus from stills in videomode? i think panasonic G3 has that function .. it would be really nice if the m4/3 bodies would use also a software defocusing so we could get little more shallower depth of field on our crop bodies .. could this happen?
  • @hedrox I guess the answer will be no it can't be added. There are better ways of acheiving a shallow DOF, such as a fast lens. The attached image is a still from a video I shot testing a patch, I don't think you would want anything more shallow than this. The lens is a Helios 44 which cost me 10 quid (UK pounds) and the adaptor cost me 20 quid. I've actuallly seen the lenses go for less money, they are very common as many were made between 1966 and the 80's. Real shallow DOF is always going to be more controllable, and better looking than a software solution. If you look on vimeo there are plenty of better examples than mine of a shallow DOF on the GH2.
    F2heliosISO160.png
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
  • @Stray I know this is better solution.. but this picture is a really close shot.. people buy the fastest lenses like the nokton f 0.95 for 700€ just to obtain that shallow depth of field but i thought when you really need a shallow depth of field and the bacground is not defocused enough with your lens as would you like.. this function would enhance the defocus.. i know the software solution is not as good as using fast lens..but i mean using software defocus on already little defocused background ..you know what i mean.. a little defocus enhancement :)
  • Right, gotcha. I'd never want to do that in camera though myself.
  • A little improvement to feha´s suggestion made on July 17:

    1. if possible variable movie mode add more options like:
    500%, 700% , 1000% or more, great for timelapse video :-)

    my suggestion to this is that next to the XX%, the frames per second that that percentage means is written. That will certainly mean a timelapse camera feature (:
    so:
    XXX%=XXFPS

    and also another little improvement to an already said suggestion:
    that the safe zones markings on video, would have built-in the safe zones markings for the anamorphic crop (for better composition).
    1)2.35:1 (1920×820)
    2)2.66:1 (1920×720)
    3)3.55:1 (1920×540)

    Thank you VK for your consideration and good will, (:
    Greetings from south america!
  • 2fps E-SHUTTER LIMIT

    I have been doing some tests using the electronic shutter in the still mode... which I know is not the main focus of the hack... however I have found some very interesting results that might spark the interest in terms of using it to shoot video.

    The manual shutter is slow... we know that. However the electronic shutter will shoot 2.3K images at 40fps in SH burst mode, but only for one second before it needs to buffer that info.

    I began to wonder... using a modified external controller instead of a shutter release, how many frames could fire through the camera consistently before the camera needs to buffer?

    I have come up with some interesting results...

    The still's manual shutter, when shooting a full 16 megapixel image will consistently do 1fps on a class 10 card with no buffer. At 2fps it will do 57 frames before skipping three frames to buffer and continue for another 57 frames, then buffer three etc... When you set the camera to burst mode using the H setting, the manual says it can do 4-7fps before "slowing down half way through".

    When you lower the size to a 2.3k image (there about, full JPEG 3.8 megapixel) it can take photos at 4fps, no problem, fully buffering as it goes, no lag time (at 6fps it skips frames so we'll say 4fps is its max at 2.3K).

    So if the manual shutter can perform at 4or 5fps consistently at 2.3K without slowing, this all makes one think that the electronic shutter could vastly outperform this.

    Wrong-- !

    The electronic shutter has a built in "cripple limit" at only 2fps!!! Half of what the manual shutter can do with ease!!

    This cripple is really disconcerting.. as I feel there is the possibility for the GH2 to perform in the SH burst mode at 24fps (taking single still images) with no buffer on a class 10 or higher card. Seeing how the camera is capable of taking 40 still photos in one second with one second to buffer after... theoretically at 20fps it may have enough time to buffer electronically in between stills and perhaps that could be pushed to 24fps.

    So....

    I would love to find out, if at all possible, if the 2fps electronic shutter burst mode limit could be removed.

    This limit's terminology pretty much states:

    "when consecutive (not held down burst) shooting is firing the camera, limit those pulses to only 2 stills
    per second".

    This is of course arbitrary, because the manual shutter will keep trying to take as many stills as it can physically keep up with no matter how many a second.

    In an interesting note, at 1fps the e-shutter is fine. At 2fps the e-shutter is fine. At 4fps the e-shutter skips exactly half the pictures (mathematically) and when you send 100 shots to the camera the number taken is only 50. This continues at 6fps, 8fps etc... the total shots taken only ever amount to 2fps which is how I know it is an imposed limit.

    With my present set up I would be able to test the camera's ability to take stills at 1/2/4/6/8/12/16 and 24fps and assemble the stills as a movie (standard procedure for animators). If I am correct and the camera can process 2.3K stills in 24 stills per second, we will have uncovered a new 2K imaging device... with the full range of JPEG settings available (not just video mode and bit rates... but still frames like a film camera!) Perhaps even the hack could rewrite the burst mode to take 24fps instead of 40fps and we'd have a built in mode for shooting those stills as frames.

    At the very least, if the camera could only produce a max of 18fps (stills per second) or 16fps, before buffering, then there is the possibility that with a simple timing device, the camera could offer multiple frames per second shooting... an option for fast motion, animation, timelapse.


    My request is to see if the 2 stills per second electronic shutter "cripple limit" in the SH still mode on the camera could be removed or modified via the firmware. I strongly feel this could be a breakthrough and would love the opportunity to explore and test this possibility.

    Thanks,

    Dbdaws