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GF2 Hack collecting
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  • I just send an email to 43rumors to ask him to speak about this initiative. Hopefully he will, and this will speedup the collect.
  • You've got +20 dollar!
  • At $205 (minus fees)
  • Just picked up a used one with the 14mm pancake for 360 $
  • Most of the reviews I've read have said the video was not very good. They said the resolution was disappointingly low. What kind improvement do you think is possible with a hack of the GF2?

    I wondered if the problem was merely the bitrate or if the sensor was the problem. The prices Ive seen are tempting but only if the image quality can be improved substantially. Otherwise why not just get a GH1 and call it a day?
  • See my 1st post. GF2 is not a true successor of GF1. GF3 is not a successor of GF2. GF2 is unique and cool. I heard it's hard to buy GF2 in Japan. Obviously they love it. Panasonic didn't sell a lot of GH units. GF is the mainstream model for Panasonic m43 lines. After this holiday season, I bet there will be a lot more GF2 users. A lot more people will benefit from PTool if it supports GF2. Most of all... my wife prefers GF over GH. Nuff Said.

    I'm hoping for
    - 1080p30 and 1080p25. Please... progressive.
    - higher bitrate with good stability. I will be happy with 2x default bitrate or higher. 34Mbps ~ 44Mbps.
    - some sort of manual control. Let me control the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
    - MJPEG FPS setting for Timelapse. This is so practical feature.
    - Mic Level Adjustment Parameters. This might mitigate AGC when it's dead quiet.

  • I entirely second Stonebats wishlist.. that would do me too, just picked up a used but mint /boxed GF2 body for £160, so theoretically Vitaliy should just about be able to afford the first of the 2???:] a lot of kits seemed to have been split up to sell the lenses here in uk so body ( especially silver if you can cope with that :] ) is damned cheap.
  • @stonebat I tried digging in the GF2 specs with a terrible headache :)
    What are the main differencies between GF2 and GH2?

    - sensor?
    - lack of manual video mode?
    - lacking of 25p for both?

    After many vicissitudes I've just bought my GH2 and I'm waiting for it on monday so I will put it in a Nauticam undewater housing.
    If a GF2 will be hacked I'll eat my housing ;)
  • I've just donated my 20$ ( @Vitaliy_Kiselev I specified GF2 in the special instruction field because the descritpion cannot be changed)

    Now I prepare the oil & garlic for my nauticam based dinner :)

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  • In for $20 for GF2.

    Glad to help.
  • i am choosing the model to buy and now i am at gf2
    so, when i got it i will participate in donation too!
    даешь хак Гф два )))))
  • @LongJohnSilver

    If you are from PAL region, that's great. GH2's upcoming firmware is rumored to support 25p wrapped in 50i. GF2 is same thing. Its sensor output is 25p for PAL and 30p for NTSC. GF3 and GX1 are pretty much same where GF3 has only mono mic-in. GF2 has the hot shoe to mount a LED light. No manual control for video on GF1/GF2/GF3/GX1. The manual video control on cheap camera is actually a big thing. Sony NEX-5 and 5N don't have it either.

    GF2 has mic level adjustment, too. I played with GH2 hack's mic level parameter, and it removed a lot of the annoying AGC.

    GF1 has become a cult camera... but they might change their mind when they upgrade to Lumix X zoom lenses. GF2 supports X fully. GF1 not.

    If GH2 hack and GF2 hack support 1080p25, there go your A cam and B cam :)

    So why was it so cheap? No idea. I guess good things don't have to cost a lot.

    Seriously... what can we do with $10 or $20? Let's contribute and enjoy good thing. It will be so cool to hold a hacked GF2 in hands.

  • I'm still not quite understanding what the proposed benefits of increased bitrate will be for the GF2. From everything i've read the video quality is quite poor for this camera. When hacking the GH1/GH2 there was already a high quality image to start with that had high resolution and detail. From what i've read the GF2 has very poor resolution. So my question again is what gives any confidence that a hack will raise the IQ level enough to make it worth buying?
  • Since GF13 >>> GF1, prolly GF2VK >>> GF2 where GF2 has more video features than GF1.

    Why not GH1? I like carrying GF for candid stuffs. GF body + Lumix pancake combo is awesome. Also GH1 body only is around $500 on ebay. GF2 body was less than $200.
  • At $265 (minus fees)
  • Newegg had GF2, 14-42, a bag, 4GB deal at $290.

    After selling all except the body, the net cost of body only would have been $170.

    Sad... I missed it by a few days.
  • GF2's JPEG engine smears detail to reduce noise. Take RAW photos instead.

    GF2 has the best video capability among GF models. But it definitely needs more polishing. Thus we need PTool. Let's see what this small camera is capable of.

    I'm hopeful. What if it never makes it? I wouldn't cry over. Life moves on.
  • At $295 (minus fees)
  • 14-42X looks great on GF2. 14mm pancake looks best on GF3.
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  • At $345 (minus fees)
  • There's flicker setting: Motion Picture -> Flicker RED -> 1/50, 1/60, 1/100, 1/120. It locked to the shutter speed for video. Then I used a vintage lens to lock aperture. But the camera controls ISO automatically. It steps through 160/320/640/1250. If PTool can lock the ISO, that would be a full manual control.

    There are only two film modes. Standard and B/W. REC -> Picture Adjust. Contrast, sharpness, saturation, NR can be set.

    MY COLOR mode has Cinema preset, and it's like GH2's Cinema film mode. But MY COLOR mode ignores all other user settings. The camera controls pretty much everything except the aperture from the vintage lens. It ignores the sharpness and NR settings, too. It has a total of 9 cool presets where GH2 has 8 and GF3 has only 6. But none can be customized except CUSTOM preset. The CUSTOM preset has color, brightness, saturation, and contrast settings, but no NR setting. It would be great to have manual controls on MY COLOR mode, but I know that would be too much to ask.

    I tested out GF2 vs GF3 resolution. At 1600 ISO and -1 EV, GF3 gave sharper JPEG. But GF2 was 2/3 stop brighter. GF2's 1000 ISO matched to GF3's 1600 ISO to get the same exposure reading. Then both cameras gave pretty much same resolution. GF2's WB needs color adjustment toward Amber (yellow) to match with GF3's color. You know GF3's lowest ISO is 160 where GF2's is 100. Basically I wouldn't worry about the resolution issue for "my" copy as there can be sample variations.

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  • I tried underexposed videos. It must have pushed the auto ISO to 1250 which is equivalent to GF3's 2000 which is only 2/3 stop lower than GX1's 3200.

    The 1st screen capture shot is on a plain white wall. Although it's not clean, there's no visible vertical or horizontal banding lines. Either noise reduction kicks in or noise reproduction uses up the bitrate so much that macro blocking or smearing occurs.

    The 2nd screen capture shows tonal gradation issue. This is typical to m43 system.

    I'm hoping the hack can improve both cases. But my gut feeling is that 1250 ISO is practical max for GF2. Of course it can't mimic the hacked GH2's high ISO performance as its stable bitrate prolly stays below 50Mbps. Having a fast lens would do it to stay under the ISO limit. 12mm 1.6 or 2.0, 14mm 2.5 or 2.8, 25mm 1.4 or 0.95, 45mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4, etc. You got the body at cheap price. More coins for lenses :)

    See mine with Konica Hexanon 40mm 1.8. Pretty cool looking. I like. When using the vintage lens, pressing the LCD magnified the view where it seems showing actual exposure with 1/30 shutter speed and 1250 ISO. When using 1/60 SS flicker setting, the magnified view would be a stop brighter to give some idea about actual exposure before recording anything.

    AEL can be easily accessed by setting Q MENU/Fn button to Fn.
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  • The bottom line is GF2 is a good camera even without hack. We can help Vitaliy help us. Let's donate and dream he unlocks its potential.

  • With the GH2 we discovered that "power is nothing without control" :-) I mean that the bitrate wasn't the only key factor and so they came AQ2 AQ3...
    So I guess that the GF2 could benefits of the same improvements.

    Last but not the least: practicalness and flexibility and not absolute quality is the most important thing for me. Think to the vimeo disposable device competition. When you have creativity you could put your idea also on a iphone :)

    A GF2 with a pancake with manual video capability would be a nice beast to have in my pocket!
  • I'm not so sure about the quantization optimization. GF2's 1080p avchd codec might be closer to GH1's. My expectation is between GF1 and GH1.

    I have GH1 and GH2, and they are my workhorses but already showing wears. They've been in my deep pockets and dirty bags, sat on a sticky dining table, swept dust on a messy desk, covered with melted candies by kids, etc. Whoever going to buy mine in the future, sorry.

    GF2 body so cheap that it was no brainer to get one for everyday "abuse". It's built like a tank. Metal body, no swivel LCD, tight seals with real screws. I bought a cheap set of iphone LCD covers from ebay and cut one piece to protect GF2's LCD from scratching. But GF2's metal body is slippery, and I hate putting the shoulder strap. So I ordered Gariz hand strap. Black & Red. Gariz is a Korean company famous for reputable craftsmanship and excellent customer service. I got this Gariz Lens Protection for wifey. Great match to 14mm or 20mm pancakes. Cheaper than getting another original lens cap.

    It's fun to take GF2 everywhere.
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