I have shot numerous films both long and short, and these are paid gigs, some by govt agencies, on different settings, and I can attest the hacks DO make a difference. Like someone said, if you are making cat videos straight to Vimeo or Youtube, don't bother even using a GH2. Any $50 camcorder, or even your iphone will be grand enough. I have actually blown up footage acquired on both stock and hacked settings, and projected it on big screen. Trust me, Nick Driftwood and friends did not waste their precious time producing in your words, "a big hoax."

@jleo +1 esp that bit on Michael Gondry

I thought "Nonsense of the Settings" was the new Wachowski Brothers movie :(
No, sounds more like a Michel Gondry movie.

The tests, which are ingenious and artful, do not meet the bare minimum for scientific blind testing, and really it should be double blind. When ppl do post without identifying the camera, the results are shocking. Seasoned veterans will conflate a point and shoot with a high end cam. BUT, and this is important, it does seem that you can grade the vid differently with a nice hack.

Disclaimer: I picked the hacked GH1 over the hacked GH2 when Lee put them up without labels. But since I basically have to trust whatever eyes I have, I have to be honest with myself, and of course there are ppl who can see better than others. I picked that one. OK. BFD.

When PB put up a bunch of clips in one of his shootouts, it was pretty hilarious to see the "identifications", Andrew Reid did a similar thing which was even more extreme. I posted a lens comparison once and most people picked the $13 lens. Actually, most people didn't pick anything, such semi-blind tests never get a lot of takers. No one want's to pick the cheap cam.

But again, it isn't just the video. You could dig a hole with a plastic shovel and a steel one, and the plastic one might even look nicer, but the pro will go for the steel one. We all have to have a reality check now and then, but no one wants to look dumb and the cam companies have to sell cams, so it won't happen very often.

And maybe that's OK~after all, pixel peeping is just that.

A forum is not designed to show of the inherent weaknesses in the human eye--or ear--and I doubt that it ever will be. But you can learn a ton of great stuff from your colleagues, and you can test the gear easy enough for yourself. I once sold a very, very expensive mic because it consistently got beat by a much cheaper one. I put gaffer tape over the label when I use it in a big show. Don't want anyone to see it.

Another way to look at it is the ppl have the right to use whatever gear they want, and really the technical skill is what makes a compelling story. Citizen Kane makes use of "Deep Focus". Do ppl talk about that? Not very often on forums. But a nice hack (flowmotion) a cheap hyperfocal (panny 14mm), some grading and maybe a touch of Neat Video to compensate for stopping down, and wow, works for me.

@shian I agree. people talk about the color space of the GH2 and lack of DR. But if you know what you are doing, you can workaround these issues, especially the color.

but I definitely see a difference between the unhacked and hacked versions. When using the camera the way I use it. I think everyone will experience different results because everyone uses the camera differently for different things.

I try very hard to NOT stress the codec, and let my post workflow handle the heavy lifting. Not everyone does this.

back when I first came here, i tried to compile a list of settings, what they were, what uses they were good for, etc.

but I gave up.... too many, not enough time to test them all, and a LOT of subjectivity. It's a giant mess. I admit. I do not have an easy solution.

Huh...right there on the page for the Flowmotion patch are still frames showing the same scene with his patch and with a stock GH2.

Here's some grabs straight from 5DtoRGB. The first one is Sanity5.1 with the 20mm 1.7 wide open at 1250 ISO I believe. The second is IV2 with the Rokinon 85mm Cine at 2.8 with 1600 ISO so not really a good comparison but you can see the grain in the IV2 easily over Sanity. I'll try to look for some stuff shot on the same lens with the two hacks but I'm pretty sure all the Sanity stuff was shot with the 20mm 1.7. I'm also to push the IV stuff a little further in post than the Sanity before it starts to fall apart.

@vicharris Could you show comparison screen shots?

For what it's worth, IV2 is the first time I've noticed a difference without looking for something closely. I shot a bunch of footage in a bar for a client and couldn't use lights so it was all at 1250 and 1600 ISO and when I got home and looked at the footage, I couldn't believe how good the grain looked. I had to zoom in to make sure I wasn't seeing things. The blocking was almost gone and it looked like a fine film grain. Like I said, I wasn't even looking for this or expecting it but it jumped off the screen. I shot some other stuff with Sanity5.1 and compared them and the difference was huge. My Sanity footage was for timelapse so I didn't care but this was the first time where I really sat back and thought, yep, there it is. I'll dig up the footage and post as soon as RGB finishes.

@hay im guessing you are refering to the people involved with Upstream Color?

I think the best way to determine what settings are right for you is to test them yourself.I do look at other people videos here and even download the mp4's when available but I take all of this with a grain of salt.I rather do my own testing an not totally rely on other people efforts,which are greatly appreciated but only the user will know what works for and satisfies them.

Did this guy say it takes to much time for testing?lol your right it takes time but I would say time well invested.

Far as the newbies I think it should be mentioned or promoted that the most beneficial testing is that conducted by their own camera"I never believe the hype just because someones says something is so".I appreciate all the videos here but by no means can that be your ultimate frame of reference.I think your entire rant comes from a position of being dependent on others to make up your mind about settings.I can tell you the GH culture of hacks and such is something your into or not.You can't knock people on their take of testing which I would assume in some cases are private test that are shared to benefit the community,some not at all meant to be technical.