Sanity x 24h and 24l and flowmotion 2.02. Thanks @Ralph_B

Sorry. No 1080p60 on GH2.

Hacks don't change any of the resolutions or frame rates of the video in the GH2, just the bitrates and the way h.264 videos are encoded (and a few other misc things). So everything in the original manual still applies.

• HBR is 1080p30 (or 1080p25 in PAL) but is a bummer because they didn't change the h.264 encoder in camera - it still acts like its encoding interlaced video and therefore inserts subtle interlacing-like artifacts in your otherwise progressive video when the video is compressed.
• cinema is the only true 1080p mode on GH2, and its only 24p. You can get beautiful 1080p30 by going into 80% speed mode in 24p cinema, but then it does not record sound.

If you want more 1080p frame rates, I suggest finding a used G6. I actually find that my stock G6 does just as good, and better in some situations, as my Sanity 5.1 hacked GH2, and it has 1080p30, 1080p60 (though this has too much compression), etc. No worries about spanning or not either, and you can use cheaper SD cards. Has focus peaking, higher res LCD screen…

@gazweb

You can't. That article is describing a physical device that Red bought which emulates the look of a spinning film shutter. This has been a long standing issue with all digital motion picture cameras. Sony solved it in their F65 camera by placing an actual spinning shutter between the lens and the sensor.

I've seen demonstrations of both these technologies. I can see the difference, but it's sublte. Personally, I don't feel it's significant enough to be concerned.

Check this "Temporal Aliasing with Cinema" http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/cinema-temporal-aliasing

@arvidtp

My theory is that while the camera is indeed shooting in progressive in HBR, the panasonic coders were lazy and the h.264 encoder is still encoding as if the footage were interlaced, meaning it doesn't expect continuity between adjacent horizontal lines and compresses them as if they belonged to different interlaced frames, leading to a quasi-interlaced result.

Correct, on the GH2, both FHD and HBR video streams are encoded as interlaced fields, and the MTS files produced by the camera contain the same metadata tags. The only difference is that in FHD mode, the GH2 scans the sensor in interlaced fields at 50/60 fps. In HBR mode, the GH2 scans the sensor in progressive frames at 25/30 fps. Consequently, video editors cannot tell the difference between GH2 FHD and HBR files and must guess whether they contain interlaced 50/60i fields or progressive 25/30p frames. With some editors, it is necessary to manually identify each imported MTS file as interlaced or progressive.

@Lumiclar - "When panning, I feel like the edges of objects have some artifacting that almost looks like interlacing" - this can also be caused by shooting in HBR (hack or no hack). My theory is that while the camera is indeed shooting in progressive in HBR, the panasonic coders were lazy and the h.264 encoder is still encoding as if the footage were interlaced, meaning it doesn't expect continuity between adjacent horizontal lines and compresses them as if they belonged to different interlaced frames, leading to a quasi-interlaced result. Better than interlaced, but not as good as 24L or 24R modes which seem to be h.264 compressed as progressive.

@Ralph_B

When panning, I feel like the edges of objects have some artifacting that almost looks like interlacing. But if your firmware isn't causing this, then that's interesting to know.

Also, I forgot to mention in my last post that this really is a stable firmware. For some reason, I have a lot of issues with some of the other recent (non-Sanity) firmwares, in that they freeze my camera or stop recording after a few seconds. Maybe it's something with my camera, I'm not sure, but I even started thinking about going back to firmwares from a couple years ago :P

But with Sanity X, the only stability related observation is sometimes it takes the audio a split second to start recording. Also, sometimes the video glitches for a split second at the beginning as well, but that's really rare. However, neither of these are big issues, and I'm not sure if they're due to Sanity.

Thanks for your contributions to the community Ralph_B, I like having Sanity X as one of my go-to's in the toolbox.

Just one more video I recently filmed with Sanity X:

Here's a video I recently filmed using Sanity X:

Overall I find Sanity X pretty nice to work with. The motion blur during panning is a bit strange, but I'm still debating whether I like the blur better or worse than the harsh stuttering a lot of other hacks exhibit.

Also, the overall image quality is nice, and I actually like how it's a softer image (at least it seems that way to me). Additionally, I am really impressed with how well the footage holds up in post processing and color correction/grading.

I had the same issue Axier, and never cared until I wanted to film a really long shot, when I could not record more than a few minutes. I tried formatting my card with SDformatter, which everyone always goes on about here, and it worked! it let me record for as long as I left it, I even filled up a whole card with 1 hour of constant video while testing. Try it I hope it works!

also use overwrite format in SDformatter for it to work, takes quite a long time on a 64gb card

@ khanaa1

Sanity will work in all H264 modes including iA, portrait, 720, 1080, i and p, etc. The only mode it doesn't work in is MJPEG. MJPEG will run as stock.

Hi Ralph please help me with something. I am looking at using the Sanity X patch. Does the patch work in all the modes I intend to shoot? For example if I put the camera into iA mode or potrait mode, and I push the video button will the video record with the sanity x hack enabled or stock? ? or will it only work in manual video mode? I am a little confused. Please help. Maybe a better way of wording it, is there any setting on the camera whereby the sanity x video hack is not enabled? thank you

I stand corrected lol. "It just works" is a perfect tagline for the hack now that I think about it.