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Official GH2 "Stalin" hack development topic
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  • @fatpig

    This is not planned.
  • @Iolo, +100, but I would want it for timelapses. That would give us 4k shots + lots of aspect options, without burning out the mechanical shutter (apparently the GH2's are only specced for 50,000 to 70,000 activations). And audio isn't needed for 'lapses anyway.

    I think removing the 1 second limit for high fps shooting won't work - the issue (especially with 4K) is how fast the frames can be written to the internal buffer & the memory card. But it would work perfectly for timelapses.
  • The Personal View video mode!

    let´s dream that Vitaliy can unlock the raw for the electronic shutter :D and make it at 24fps for more than a second :DDDDDD

    raw footage at full hd!

    i´m praying that the buffer can take it
  • @veloci, true but maybe the shutter speeds can be hacked too. After all you can use much slower speeds in MF for video modes.

    @lolo, the 40fps mode doesn't support RAWs (the buffer would fill up too fast as they are much larger than JPGs).
  • @_gl i know, that´s why i said let´s dream, but also because 24fps is lower than the 40fps so maybe there is a chance as the buffer almost doubles the capacity available for each frame
  • The Personal View video mode!

    btw, according to the manual (page 76)
    "the burst mode speed may become slower depending on the following settings.
    sensitivity- page90
    picture size-page119
    quality-p120
    focus priority-page130
    focus mode"

    so this means that there has to be a sweet spot on the buffer in order for us to squeeze the maximum of it,

    but of course all of this proposal depends if this is actually a software limitation and not a hardware one
  • @lolo

    if you shoot sh burst, it's writing for 20 seconds to my Sandisk Extreme 30MB/s card, so i doubt if the length of shooting could be extended past 1 second.
  • @johnnym i have only a sd card slower than yours, the kingston 100x, are you saying that the 1 second limitation was caused by my slower card, are you sure you have 20 seconds at 40fps?
  • @lolo no what he's saying is that after 1sec recording has stopped, his card still takes 20 seconds to write out the data. In other words, the 1sec recording writes directly to an internal buffer, which then has to be flushed out to the card. So the limit is the size of the internal buffer and can't be changed.
  • well i have just counted the seconds,
    with manual focus it takes 8 seconds,
    with autofocus on it takes 16 seconds
    both with focus priority off

    quality doesnt seems to make any difference in writing time

    still, we have to see if lowering the fps from 40 to 24, has any big consecuence in the 1 second limitation

    because, this means that it is writing in the card as the buffer in the camera records the picture, so perhaps, if we are lucky, if we lower the fps the internal buffer will record at the same time that it writes in the sd

    but i don´t know, it is possible that panasonic aint squezzing all the buffer that this mode can take, i´m mean from the other options hacked we know that much at least, so

    still think is worth hacking
  • i´m mean even having raw, or a size bigger than HD with the electronic shutter is a huge improvement for the timelapse


    but if we can have raw footage in hd, or resolution bigger than HD for at least 15-20 seconds, i crap my pants, as that would be absolutely useful for narrative work
  • @lolo very interesting. Speaking as a programmer, I'm surprised that higher ISO values are slower. I'm trying to figure out why that should be... [penny drops] actually it's probably due to the NR processing (higher ISO needs stronger NR).
  • ap it was shooted on vibrant and the noise reduction was set to -2
  • Since the iso unlock has been revealed in movie mode, it could be nice to hack the "iso limit" setting too. :-)
  • Is there a possibility to influence i-dynamic tool to bring contrast curve closer to linear RAW? I believe, that i-dynamic works as a step between RAW data from sensor and final frame image, as a part of image processing, not "postproduction". If those 8-bits of colors stays flat around midtones, it might work as light RAW for postproduction with wide flexibility of dynamic range... According to my quick tests, i-dynamic works, the contrast in shadows is flatter, substituting higher ISO with highlights loss. Test frame grabs settings: auto ISO, auto WB, 1080 24p mpgxsvcd_42M_GOP12_AQ4 patch, limited video ISO
    idynamic.jpg
    1476 x 1612 - 693K
  • @beavis

    We have topic about this :-) This is in plans, but not easy.

    I am working on v1.1 firmware, looking at encoder changes and preparing stuff for porting.
    It seems that changes are present, but not drastic, just small ones.
  • I'd like to see a way to map the highlight clip function to a button so it can be toggled on and off quickly.

    Also it would be nice to have a look vs raw function similar to the RED cams where you record everything with one setting but can preview what it would look like with certain settings applied without having to scroll through the looks menu.

    And a false color mode would be awesome

    I realize none of these may be possible, but if they are I'd love to see them on this camera.
  • If this is where we suggest features for the Stalin hack, here's one. It's an interesting feature on the Magic Lantern hack for Canons, a method for doing high-dynamic range video. It relies a lot on post-processing, but it requires that the camera capture alternate frames at a different ISO setting.

    A video illustrating the process can be found at
  • @Vitaly_Kiselev

    Can you actually write entirely new code/functions in the firmware? Or do you need to keep that consistent size?
  • @Athiril Mr.V. creates PTools, which his a computer program which enables us to change paramaters/values in the original firmware and load this into the camera. He does not write "new code". @Brian_Siano Mr.V. had suggested this same method for achieving HDR before MagicLantern announced its availability. If there's a way he can do it, I'm sure he'll figure it out. Right now, he has made no guarantee that he will be able to do this on the GH2.
  • @B3Guy

    In fact, for quite long PTool not onyl change simple parameters.
    Some patches look simple but have bunch of code and related changed inside.
    And yes, we have parts of code written from scratch. They are small, but anyway.
  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    Of course, I realize that some new code is necessary for hack to work.

    I was assuming that essentially, you keep this to a minimum, so doing things like @shian is suggesting is VERY unlikely, as it requires truly some extensive new code. Like you say, certainly lots of changed code, but anyway.
  • @vitaliy
    By the way, any date for new ptool release?

  • Hi, first of all, great work what you've done with the hack development. Are there any plans to add a focus peaking feature for the gh2 in future? for me, it is the most desired feature i miss at the gh2 because i often use old manual lenses.

    cheers, sporki