@frullaccia I saw the video, great image quality. It is nice to see you got the auto/electronic functions of the lens to work.

Only thing I would like to improve is the texture quality in shadows areas. It is possible to see that the trees under shadows only have almost one shade of green, some kind of posterization. this is not a datarate problem, increasing datarate or changing the gop tables to balance I/P/B frames size does not solve this. this can only be improved in the scalling tables matrix. the nebula matrix improves this, but nebula frames vary so much along the frames flux so it gets unstable, nebula does not have custom fallback tables. custom fallback tables is which keeps frames constant size along the frames flux to allow stability in high datarates. solution would be to find another scalling matrices which improves this and have good fallback tables to keep frames size constant. I do not know how to create scalling matrices, but probably there is another patch here in PV from which we could extract matrices with better shadows/dark areas textures and good fallback also. the big advantage of flowmotion matrix is that the fallback is perfect, frames are constant size along the fulx so it is pretty stable. to do this flowmotion uses similar matrix in I, P and B tables because fallback is the same for IPB. nebula uses different matrix for IPB so it seems to be impossible to build a custom fallback matrix for nebula which holds the frames size for IPB at same time. the perfect matrices would be similar in IPB tables to make the fallbak holds all frames size constant, but with a better texture in shadows, I think this feature is related to "matrix frequency". improves this would need some help from experts in matrices or to find a patch which already have this to extract.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterization

some people think that only 10bit or 12bit codec can handle the great textures in shadows, but the nebula shows that the 8bit codec can handle also. the nebula does not generate more color tones, because this is impossible in the 8bit codec, but it does a more fine dithering and this makes the transition from one shade to another more beautiful than a shade jump. using great matrices, gop3, high datarate and good size balance between IPB in the gop tables can make the 8bit codec to have great shadows textures. the challenge is to find the matrices which have great shadows quality from nebula and the great constant frames size from flowmotion at same time. this would turn GH2 into a low budget Alexa image quality definitely. Maybe this kind of patch already exists in PV but I don't know yet.

Edit post: I forgot to mention something very special in flowmotion that I perceived. the matrices reduces the cmos pattern noise, and also the chroma noise, and a plus: the flickering in high iso is gone. flowmotion matrices scores 9 out of 10. Sometimes I feel sad to be a pixel peeper to want this better dithering in shadows... but I would like to!!!

Work Horse (7 september version)+ Pixco Speed Booster + Helios 44-2

@NikolayM nice images. it is interesting you ike the versions 07/09, seems that the old versions have something special on them... I will compare with the new versions. @JayUKB liked the 05/09 versions, @frullaccia liked the nebula-workhorse from sometime ago and made me start to think about matrices.

@frullaccia I am looking into the the patches you said, I downloaded them. I did some research and found that people like the canis for fow light,

I am trying to understand the hexadecimal numbers in the tables, seems that the frist two digits are for the chroma table and last two digits are for luma table, but can be the opposite, I don't know. from 00 to FF these hexadecimal digitas vary from 0 to 255. it seems they determines how much each pixel will be compressed in the block. there are 48 numbers but I don't know the configuration of the matrix, if it is 3x16, 4x12 or 6x8... (see image) I did some reading in wiki about matrix and I understood the basic principle of DCT, first number is the average value for all, other numbers are how much they vary comparing to the first number.

I also found this old video with interesting comparisons about textures in dark areas:

vimeo.com/48488695

@frullaccia to my eyes the last uploaded versions here in this topic looks ok. including the new ones in the gspot topic with careful tweaking in gop tables. but people have different preferences.

to be honest, matrices are a deep sea full of mysteries... so I do not know if I can improve matrices, I am taking it easy, slowly now... there is no other tweaking to do anymore, just matrices coud be changed, so it seems there will be no new versions for a while.

@TrackZillas good report. allow me a question: idynamic, image stabilizer and auto focus work in 720p50 in the gspot 112Mbps pal version? the frames size you got was in low light high iso with less detail in image? thanks.

@frullaccia I am doing some study about matrix, I am starting to understand. but as I am a newbie on this, there is still a long way to go.

Recently used the Sept 9th Workhorse and The End Patches to make this little video. Thanks to Apefos for his hard work on all of his patches. Vimeo

@thpluto how do you compare 'workhorse' vs 'the end nr4' patches?

Thanks for comparison.

Did you try "The End NR4 Intra 120" ? It is all intraframe in 24p and 120Mbps datarate and avoids all macroblocking. The other version "The End NR4 Stable" has a stronger noise reduction for more smooth shadows and dark areas, a different approach.

It is important to use "The End NR4" versions, not just "The End", because "NR4" versions are much more improved.

@apefos can you PM me a link to the patch you are talking about. When I check out The End patch thread there are many iterations, and many updates, and tests. I am not certain which patch is the one you are referencing.

If you are considering shadows, noise and macroblocking in your tests, there are other patches which can be interesting to try and compare, the "Sharp_05", they are in the zip in the link below, in intra and stable versions:

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/205500#Comment_205500

@apefos: I decided to test for very 1st time one of the older GH2 patches 'Apocalypse Now' - 6 GOP Nebula '444 Soft'. What I notice is the very big noise at ISO640 or higher.

So, is it possible to combine the parameters of "Apocalypse Now' - 6 GOP Nebula '444 Soft" and The End Intra "April" (mentioned by @thpluto) in one new patch?

Also, since you created few "Sharp" patches, would you try your best to make a "Softest" patch?

@apefos: Would you explain in details, please? What exactly to copy/paste exactly? Once done, what do you think the result will be?