I just send an email to 43rumors to ask him to speak about this initiative. Hopefully he will, and this will speedup the collect.

At $205 (minus fees)

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?

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.

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 :)

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 )))))

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?

At $265 (minus fees)

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.

14-42X looks great on GF2. 14mm pancake looks best on GF3.

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.

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.

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.