OK, if it is a joke, I think this thread should be sent to Pany! Because this ain't no joke, Pany, EMBRACE the hacks!

@vitaliy_kiselev as long as the picture quality/bitrate remains high ENOUGH, Im sure I will welcome the changes possible that you guys are planning. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, as im sure all of us are. Congrats again, we look forward to hearing more.

Now I'm starting to get that recent post about chebols and big corporations

Yep.
I am looking at the beast's mouth :-)
It is smart beast. But it is stiil a beast.

@brianluce +1 (for the most part)... I think the GH2 has hit that point at which the amount of work that has to go into changing the perceived quality is too great for the small changes that in practical situations are becoming negligible or imperceptible. You can download all of the hacks and store them on your computer if you wish to change from hack to hack.. but I think we have gotten to a point where the changes are all very small.

From Seaquake to Sedna I see little change in most practical settings...

NOW if we could get custom picture profiles / profile editor that would be a big change, however with the GH3 around the corner and new 'Venus LSI' i feel more attention is going to be placed in future gear. The GH2 is still a great camera for its buck, and will still be when the next model comes out... lets not forget that.

Vitaliy is hinting at a major change with firmware 2.0.... lets hope that this picture profile change is awesome but that using the 1.1 hacks (sedna, gopzilla) is still possible with the apparent 'awesome' changes to come.... we can only hope...

but if they make us choose between using 1.1 hacks and custom high bitrates/matrices or 2.0 firmware that is unhackable with custom picture profiles and other advanced features (framerates, etc) then some may have issues. Hopefully the 2.0 firmware is hackable and someone is willing to pull the weight of hacking it or at least updating ptools to accomodate if Vitaliy can not contractually hack.

April's fool or not it's good news in any case! Worst case, we lose Vitaly for 2 years, best case an amazing GH3 in fall 2012 or whatever the next "big thing" is (pun intended). If you have your FF glass, it doesn't really matter what camera comes out, when and by whom.

I don't really understand what this news means other than V got a job. What should we expect to change? Does it mean V will have resources to further enable and optimize the GH2? Like uncrippled HDMI?

Congrats VK!

Hook, line and sinker.

@Vitaly, thanks a lot for your reply! Again, congratulations to your success!

Now I am sure that I'm going to purchase the GF2 (as it's the most affordable model right now over here) in hopes to get a Firmware directly from Panasonic (due to warranty reasons) which support better video features. (Only decission left to make is if going for the 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 or the 14mm 2.5 bundle... Now that's a tough one. If someone has both of those objectives, feel free to contact me for your advice - I'd appreciate it!)

I hope its no joke I hate being made a fool of, even though I am one :)

@Vitaliy_Kiselev first of all congratulations and good luck. Could you just clarify one thing please; will YOU be working on "hacks" beyond your agreed involvment with Panasonic, or will that be prohibited by the agreement/contract? I think what most people really want to know is how "open" or "Tweakable" will the new firmwares be? The simple truth is, if Panasonic gave us everything in GH2 tomorrow but without the ability to tweak and push the limits, there is nobody but you I know of to open that up for us. And for the pessimists among us who always assume the worst - what is the duration of your agreement with Panasonic :) April 2nd ? Thank you again for all you have done and creating this community.

Come on guys You believe anything Big Thing is APRIL'S FOOLS